'Not where I thought this was going': CNN anchor taken aback by Trump ally's conspiracy

A stunned CNN anchor tried to push back on an ally of former President Donald Trump who tried to falsely insist that vaccines are unsafe and contribute to autism.

Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the Trump-Vance Transition team, joined anchor Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday night to discuss what a second term would look like should Trump win re-election.

Lutnick boasted he's a "recruiter at a different level than most people you will ever meet." When Collins asked if Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, has secured a position in the Trump administration, Lutnick said he spoke with Kennedy this week.

Lutnick said Kennedy espoused anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, including that rates of autism have increased from 1 in 10,000 due to vaccines at birth increasing from 3 to over 75.

"Now a baby is born with 76 vaccines because in 1986 they waived product liability for vaccines," he said, adding "they started paying the people at the NIH — right? — they pay them a piece of the money for the vaccine companies."

As Collins tried to interject, saying, "Wait, wait — hold on," Lutnick continued his rant.

"Wait a minute, let me finish," he returned. "And so all of these vaccines came out without product liability so what happened now? Autism was 1 in 34!"

"But, but but," Collins tried to cut him off again. "Hang on!"

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After Collins insisted, "Vaccines are safe," Lutnick was not convinced.

"Why do you think vaccines are safe? There's no product liability anymore!" he replied.

Trying not to crack a smile at the remark, Collins responded kids get them all the time, "and they're fine."

"Why do you think they're fine?" Lutnick inquired.

"Because they're proven scientifically to be so. They go through rigorous amounts of testing," she tried to explain.

But Lutnick kept ranting about the theory, even as Collins asserted "But vaccines don't cause autism; which is what RFK pushes which is why people are concerned he could get a job like [Department of Health and Human Services.]"

Lutnick cut in again and insisted Kennedy would not get a job at HHS. Instead, he said, Kennedy wants data.

"But the data's out there," Collins gently shot back.

"It's not," replied Lutnick, who said the government blocks such information.

"They don't block it! It's out there!" Collins tried again.

She later said with a laugh, "This is not where I thought this conversation was going."

Watch the clip below or at this link.