Trump has promised Kennedy and his fringe views a prominent role in health policy if he winsQuote:
In the closing days of the presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump and some of his top allies have increasingly embraced and spread anti-vaccine rhetoric typically linked to former independent presidential candidate and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"He’s a great guy. I’ve known him a long time. And all he wants to do — it’s very simple — he wants to make people healthy," Trump told NBC News on Friday.
Misinformation about vaccines has not been a focal point of Trump's 2024 campaign, but recently, Kennedy's influence — and the large role he could play in a Trump administration — have come to the forefront.
During an event with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Kennedy in Arizona Thursday night, Trump said that Kennedy wants to "look" at pesticides and vaccines in a potential Trump administration — and he was more than happy to give him carte blanche.
"He can do anything he wants," Trump said.
“He really wants to with the pesticides and the, you know, all the different things. I said, he can do it," Trump told Carlson. "He can do anything he wants. He wants to look at the vaccines. He wants —everything. I think it’s great. I think it’s great."
He also said Kennedy was “going to work on health and women’s health.”
Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at Trump's embrace of Kennedy and indications that Kennedy's views on health policy could be empowered in a second Trump term, telling reporters on Friday that he is “the exact last person in America who should be setting healthcare policy for America’s families and children.”
Harris referred to Kennedy as “someone who has routinely promoted junk science and crazy conspiracy theories" and highlighted his past support for a national abortion ban.
During an interview with popular podcast host Joe Rogan that was released Thursday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance expressed skepticism about the Covid vaccine, saying, he'd been "red-pilled," a term nabbed from "The Matrix" and used by some to explain that they've become aware of conspiracies throughout society.
“I took the vax, and you know, I haven’t been boosted or anything, but the moment where I really started to get red-pilled on the whole vax thing was the sickest that I have been in the last 15 years by far was when I took the vaccine," Vance said.
"I’ve had Covid at this point five times. I was in bed for two days, my heart was racing, I was like, the fact that we’re not even allowed to talk about that. Even, you know — no like, serious injury, but even the fact that we’re not even allowed to talk about the fact that I was as sick as I’ve ever been for two days and the worst Covid experience I had was like a sinus infection, I’m not really willing to trade that," the senator added.
It’s unclear when Vance was vaccinated and whether it was before he had a Covid infection. His spokesperson did not return a request for clarification.
And earlier this week, Kennedy told attendees at an event that Trump had promised him "control" of public health agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture if the former president is elected.
It was a claim that Howard Lutnick, the co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team, did not deny when asked by CNN Wednesday whether Kennedy was right to say he would lead public health agencies in a potential Trump administration. Lutnick also embraced Kennedy's vaccine skepticism.
"I spent two-and-a-half hours this week with Bobby Kennedy Jr. and it was the most extraordinary thing," Lutnick told CNN. "I said, 'So, tell me. How's it going to go?' And he said, 'Why don't you just listen to me explain things.'"
Lutnick went on to discuss debunked conspiracy theories linking vaccines to autism and blaming the National Institutes of Health for taking money from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for pushing vaccines on babies.
Kennedy has linked autism to vaccines for years, though multiple reputable studies over the last few decades have shown that vaccines are not linked with autism and that not vaccinating children can cause harm.
In a statement to NBC News on Thursday, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt emphasized that there still are “no formal decisions” about positions in a potential administration, but that Trump “has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to make America healthy again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children,” referring to Type 2 diabetes.
“President Trump will also establish a special presidential commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses,” she added.
“The only thing President Trump and his campaign team are focused on is winning on November 5th," Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said in a statement Friday. "Everything after that is after that, and President Trump has made clear that Bobby Kennedy will play an important role.”
That's why I sold GSK. It gets most of its revenue from vaccines. That co. just can't catch a break.
Yesterday, 5:52 pm
