A representative of Robert F Kennedy Jr has denied any connection between US President-elect Donald Trump's health secretary nominee and the far-right Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu. The response followed days of intense speculation that RFK Jr would travel to Romania to support Georgescu in Sunday's decisive presidential election runoff. Meanwhile, the alleged RFK Jr endorsement sparked a furor as it matches the same sophisticated social media campaign tactics that propelled the ultra-nationalist candidate from obscurity to the top of the race, earning him the label of TikTok Messiah. On Wednesday evening, the Romanian presidency unsealed the intelligence services reports about Georgescu, showing that some 25,000 accounts on the Chinese-owned social media network with little to no activity suddenly went alive on 11 November — less than two weeks before the first round of elections, suggesting a large-scale influence operation. The campaign, which the documents describe as involvement by a "state actor," was orchestrated on Telegram, in channels created as early as 2022. While the future US health secretary's alleged endorsement wasn't a part of the same scheme, the fact that RFK Jr knew nothing about it points to another hoax. Blake Fleetwood, a long-time friend of RFK Jr, told Euronews Romania in an exclusive on Wednesday that "Mr Kennedy does not support Mr Georgescu, it would be against American law for him to support a candidate before an election campaign. It is a serious violation, and he would not do such a thing." "He appreciates publishing his books anywhere in the world, but he does not support any political party or candidate," Fleetwood said. "Any rumors to that effect are false," he added. Asked by Euronews to clarify the speculations about RFK Jr's arrival in Romania to support Georgescu, Kennedy's representative drew the line by saying: "No. He was never going to come to Romania, that would be showing his support for Mr Georgescu. He is very busy with President Trump, working in Florida and was never going to go to Romania." "He does not support Mr Georgescu in any way in the presidential race," Fleetwood insisted. These allegations were based on the fact that Georgescu wrote the preface to the Romanian version of RFK Jr's book on the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that the future US health secretary would travel to Bucharest to launch his book together with Georgescu. This was further obfuscated by the fact that Georgescu's preface was presented as the one included in the international edition, thus implying a direct and much stronger link between the two politicians. The choice was made by the domestic publisher of the Romanian translation only, a fact that was left out by the pro-Georgescu communications. An endorsement from RFK Jr would have seemingly elevated the obscure Georgescu to a legitimate, global political player status in order to boost his chances for the election run-off. The social media campaign was amplified by the pro-Georgescu media in Romania, with one news channel even announcing a media partnership with an alleged Kennedy Jr-Georgescu event on Thursday, moderated by US journalist Tucker Carlson. Carlson — one of US journalism's most divisive figures who left the conservative Fox News TV channel to publish his own content online — has been accused of promoting conspiracy theories and the Kremlin's talking points. On Tuesday, Carlson published videos of his most recent visit to Moscow, in which he accused the US of being responsible for the deaths of Russian troops in Ukraine, as Moscow's all-out war against its western neighbour continues well into its second year. In his online appearances over the last few days, Georgescu and his team neither openly denied nor confirmed JFK Jr's visit and subsequent endorsement. Last Thursday, Georgescu told a domestic news channel that "the famous book by Robert (F) Kennedy (Jr), who will most likely be the future secretary of health under President Donald Trump, was prefaced by me, and he has long wanted to come to Romania to launch this book. It is possible that he will do so in the near future." However, on Tuesday, he back-pedalled on another talk show. "I never said this. But I can say this: I relayed that it's not ok for him to come now. I want an honest vote without any help from abroad," Georgescu said. In the preface to Kennedy Jr's book, the ultra-religious presidential candidate said that "COVID is an immense fraud, perpetrated by the subjugated media to install fear". The hoax also comes on the back of suspected malign interference from abroad, with the Romanian National Security Council confirming the involvement of what it labelled as "foreign state actors" in Georgescu's online campaign. — Euronews
