A newly obtained audio recording shows that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally pressured a Libertarian congressional candidate in Iowa to abandon a competitive House race, urging him to step aside to protect Republican control of Congress.

The Washington Post obtained a recording of the 12-minute call in which Kennedy told Rick Stewart, the Libertarian candidate in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, that he was acting as a "liaison" with the White House, and he warned that a Democratic takeover of the House would derail President Donald Trump's agenda and suggested he could help Stewart if he exited the race.

“I can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that,” Kennedy told Stewart in the June 11 call. “If it’s something that you want to talk about, you know, you and I can talk about specifics.”