Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks throughout a marketing campaign rally for Donald Trump at Macomb Group Faculty in Warren, Mich., on Nov. 1. Trump has now tapped Kennedy for his administration.
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President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a former unbiased presidential candidate who has a historical past of spreading conspiracy theories, together with about vaccines — to supervise the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
“For too lengthy, Individuals have been crushed by the economic meals complicated and drug corporations who’ve engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation relating to Public Well being,” Trump stated in an announcement on Fact Social. “The Security and Well being of all Individuals is a very powerful function of any Administration, and HHS will play a giant function in serving to make sure that everyone might be protected against dangerous chemical compounds, pollution, pesticides, pharmaceutical merchandise, and meals components which have contributed to the overwhelming Well being Disaster on this Nation. Mr. Kennedy will restore these Businesses to the traditions of Gold Normal Scientific Analysis, and beacons of Transparency, to finish the Persistent Illness epidemic, and to Make America Nice and Wholesome Once more!”
The announcement on Thursday got here as no shock. For weeks, Trump had made clear that Kennedy would have a task in his administration.
“He will assist make America wholesome once more,” Trump stated of Kennedy throughout celebratory election night time remarks. “He is an excellent man and he actually means it. He needs to do some issues and we’ll let him go do it.”
In an interview with NPR earlier than the selection was introduced, Kennedy stated, “President Trump has given me three directions: He needs the corruption and the conflicts out of the regulatory companies. He needs to return the companies to the gold customary empirically based mostly, evidence-based science and medication that they had been as soon as well-known for. And he needs to finish the power illness epidemic with measurable impacts on a diminishment of power illness inside two years.”
If confirmed by the Senate, the function would give Kennedy the prospect to actualize a imaginative and prescient of public well being that’s usually at odds with mainstream well being and science.
Kennedy’s baseless claims have included that Wi-Fi causes most cancers and “leaky mind”; that faculty shootings are attributable to antidepressants; that chemical compounds in water can result in youngsters changing into transgender; and that AIDS is probably not brought on by HIV. He is additionally lengthy stated that vaccines trigger autism and fail to guard folks from illnesses.
Within the NPR interview, Kennedy stated, “[O]f course, we’re not going to take vaccines away from anyone. We’re going to make it possible for Individuals have good data proper now. The science on vaccine security significantly has big deficits, and we’re going to ensure these scientific research are completed and that individuals could make knowledgeable decisions about their vaccinations and their youngsters’s vaccinations.”
Even earlier than Trump’s announcement, Kennedy stated he would advise the incoming administration to take away fluoride from all public water — although placing small quantities of fluoride within the water provide has confirmed to have prevented cavities and improved dental well being. He additionally proposed changing 600 staff on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
Kennedy first challenged President Biden within the 2024 Democratic main earlier than mounting a long-shot unbiased presidential bid. He suspended that marketing campaign in August and backed Trump.
Kennedy is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the late U.S. legal professional normal, New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate, and is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy. He had spent the sooner a part of his profession as an environmental lawyer greatest identified for cleansing up the Hudson River and spearheading a world effort to guard waterways.
Kennedy joins a rising crop of nominees named by the president-elect whose {qualifications} have been questioned and who may face troublesome paths to affirmation, even in a 53-seat Republican-controlled Senate. It is a record that features former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz for legal professional normal and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of nationwide intelligence.
In contrast to Gaetz and Gabbard, nevertheless, Kennedy enjoys enthusiastic ranges of assist from a few of Trump’s most loyal senators, together with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. Johnson instructed reporters Wednesday that Kennedy had been in talks with Trump to steer the well being company since across the time he dropped his personal unbiased presidential bid and endorsed Trump.
“When he referred to as me up asking, for instance, his probabilities of affirmation, first phrases out of my mouth: ‘Bobby, that is the reply to my prayers,’ and I sincerely imagine that,” Johnson stated. “I feel Bobby Kennedy can do extra working with President Trump to advance America’s well being than anyone, actually, in historical past. This may very well be utterly game-changing.”
Senate Democrats had been fast to criticize the Kennedy choice — whilst they lack the votes to dam his affirmation with out GOP defections.
“Mr. Kennedy’s outlandish views on fundamental scientific information are disturbing and will fear all mother and father who count on faculties and different public areas to be secure for his or her youngsters,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., stated in an announcement. “When Mr. Kennedy comes earlier than the Finance Committee, it is going to be very clear what Individuals stand to lose beneath Trump and Republicans in Congress.”
