‘Daily Show’ Host Jeered for Imitating RFK Jr.’s ‘Velvet’ Voice

Michael Kosta joked that the only thing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. needed to do in his confirmation hearing Wednesday was “just try and sound slightly normal for, like, two hours.”

The recurring Daily Show host played a clip from Kennedy‘s hearing, where the nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services spoke in his famously raspy voice.

Kosta sarcastically responded, “Man, that velvet voice is good enough for me.” The line got some laughs—and a fair share of jeers from the audience.

Kennedy suffers from spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that causes his vocal cords “to spasm involuntarily.” Kennedy was diagnosed with the condition at 42 years old, and has since acknowledged it often at public events.

“It makes it problematic for people to listen to me,” Kennedy said at a June 2024 campaign event. “I cannot listen to myself on TV.”

Despite Kosta’s dig at Kennedy’s voice, he was mostly focused on the nominee’s insistence that he isn’t anti-vaccine, despite his many past statements and actions to the contrary.

Kosta quipped, “What are you gonna believe: his well-documented, decades-long record, or the thing he said today when he was trying to get a job?”

“Besides, all his kids are vaccinated,” Kosta added. “He definitely doesn’t regret that, right? Right?”

Kosta showed a 2020 clip of Kennedy saying he regrets vaccinating his children.

“What would I do if I could go back in time and I could avoid giving my children the vaccines that I gave them? I would do anything for that,” Kennedy said.

“That is the worst answer to ‘What you would do with a time machine?’ that I have ever heard,” Kosta joked. He asked Kennedy, “You can’t think of anyone else in your family that you would go back in time and try to prevent a shot from happening?"