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What happened

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that a bout of memory loss and mental fogginess in 2010 was the result of mercury poisoning and a parasitic “worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” Kennedy revealed these previously unreported health problems in a 2012 deposition, The New York Times said Wednesday.

Who said what

Kennedy, 70, has “portrayed his athleticism and relative youth as an advantage” over both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the Times said. But in the 2012 deposition during divorce proceedings from his second wife, Kennedy admitted, “I have cognitive problems, clearly,” including “short-term” and “longer-term memory loss,” and claimed his reduced mental capacity limited his earning ability.

Kennedy’s cognitive issues were “resolved more than 10 years ago” and he is in “robust physical and mental health,” campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear said in a statement.

What next?

A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken before the Times’ report showed Kennedy’s independent campaign could “pick up 8% of voters nationwide.”