Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a startling admission uncovered by the New York Times that can't be good for his presidential campaign.
The paper found that the independent, liberal candidate for the White House had brought up a medical problem he had back in 2010 when he experienced a "brain fog" that sent him to a doctor.
The Los Angeles-based Democrat reportedly admitted in a 2012 deposition that in 2010 he was suffering from memory loss and mental fogginess and consulted a doctor to figure out what was going on, according to the New York Times.
The 70-year-old environmental attorney said he feared he might have a tumor. But what the doctors actually found was perhaps just as alarming. Indeed, maybe it is even more alarming than a mere brain tumor.
Kennedy said that his doctors found a the remains of a dead worm nestled inside his brain.
Worse, there was evidence that the worm had eaten some of Kennedy's brain matter before expiring.
According to the paper, the whole worm incident was included in a 2012 deposition for the divorce proceedings from his second wife, Mary Richardson. Kennedy wanted the information on record as an argument that his brain condition had diminished his earning power, according to The Hill.
The deposition shows that the doctors did, at first, think that he might have had a brain tumor due to the dark spot on his brain scans.
But just ahead of surgery plans, another doctor realized that Kennedy actually had a dead parasite in his brain.
In the records, Kennedy reportedly claimed the doctor said the dark spot on the brain scan "was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died."
The same deposition also contained a portion in which Kennedy revealed he had also been diagnosed with mercury poisoning from eating too much fish.
Mercury poisoning can also lead to memory loss and neurological disturbance, The Hill added.
"I have cognitive problems, clearly," Kennedy said in the deposition from 2012, according to the Times. "I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me."
After the Times reported the story, Kennedy's campaign said that the candidate had contracted the parasite while traveling abroad.
"Several infectious disease experts and neurosurgeons said in separate interviews with The Times that, based on what Mr. Kennedy described, they believed it was likely a pork tapeworm larva," the news outlet reported. "The doctors have not treated Mr. Kennedy and were speaking generally."
The Times added that Kennedy also discussed the reasons for his vocal problems and the causes of his often strained and halting speaking style.
Kennedy said he has "spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that causes his vocal cords to squeeze too close together," the Times wrote. He mentioned this issue in the deposition and said he began having the symptoms around 1996 or so.
One has to assume that this news will not help Kennedy's quixotic campaign much at all. He has already been mocked and labeled a conspiracy theorist by the media for his stance on vaccines and other issues. Now, with a dead worm in his head and admissions of "cognitive problems," it would be a good bet that the attacks will intensify.
