RFK Jr Gives Very Serious Speech on Autism. Then the Crowd Giggles as an Unexpected Sound Comes From His Pocket
Embarrassing for an innocent duck to be associated with RFK.
Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of the most controversial figures in the Trump administration. For years he’s generated anger and criticism for his years of vaccine skepticism, not to mention his radical views about autism, which he’s linked to pregnant women taking Tylenol.
On Friday, RFK Jr. held a press conference in Rochester, Minnesota, where he announced a new federal partnership dedicated to enhancing safety for autistic individuals who go missing. During the event, he praised local law enforcement for having one of the best response systems for finding missing people with autism, but nature itself interrupted him. Well, not quite, but almost.
In a clip which went viral on social media, RFK Jr. said, “Drowning is the leading cause of death associated with wandering…children with autism are 100 times more likely to drown than neurotypical children. We have a responsibility to do better. When an autistic…” His speech then got cut short by a phone alert, and the ringtone was ducks quacking. As he took out his phone, he apologized to the audience, eliciting laughter.
The reactions to this? One user in the comments of a post sharing the clip wrote, “The universe is watching… And laughing.” Another user took it a notch further by taking a dig at his beliefs regarding vaccines, saying, “You gotta give credit where credits due… he brought back the Measles.”
This isn’t the first time this has happened
Back in January 2026, the same thing happened when RFK Jr. was speaking about MAHA-approved food items. He was talking about the benefits of a protein-heavy diet when his phone rang with quacking duck sounds. Then as now, RFK Jr. apologized to the audience before Mehmet Oz, took matters into his own hands, in this case, RFK Jr.’s phone.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, on the other hand, made light of the incident by cracking a joke. She said, “Duck is also high in protein. Duck is a good thing to eat, everybody.”
RFK Jr. comments about Tylenol and autism
Last September, according to Chemical and Engineering News, RFK Jr. made debatable comments linking Tylenol consumption to autism during a press conference. He stated that the US Food and Drug Administration plans to update the safety label on acetaminophen to indicate that taking the medication during pregnancy may raise the risk of neurological conditions like ADHD and autism in children.
His exact words were, “The FDA is responding to clinical and laboratory studies that suggest a potential association between acetaminophen used during pregnancy and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, including later diagnosis for ADHD and autism.” Trump, who was also present during the event, seemed to agree with him and advised against taking acetaminophen during pregnancy.
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