Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the Health & Human Service Secretary, causing observers and those on social media to be outraged at the potential danger he poses.
President-Elect Donald Trump is filling out his cabinet, and his latest pick has ratcheted up worry among the public, as he nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his Health & Human Services Secretary. “I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social website on Thursday (November 14). “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump added. Kennedy accepted the nomination in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Thank you @realDonaldTrump for your leadership and courage. I’m committed to advancing your vision to Make America Healthy Again.
We have a generational opportunity to bring together the greatest minds in science, medicine, industry, and government to put an end to the chronic…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 14, 2024
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The pick of Kennedy is another controversial choice for Trump, inspired by the former Democratic and independent presidential candidate’s support of him after dropping out of the race in August. Trump even touted Kennedy’s potential in his Election Night speech, saying: “I’m gonna let him go wild on health. I’m gonna let him go wild on the food. I’m gonna let him go wild on medicines.” In a recent NBC News interview, Kennedy said that Trump wanted him to “clean up corruption” within federal health agencies and stated that “there are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA, that have to go.” He recently suggested that he’d fire 600 employees at the National Institute of Health.
Kennedy has been a staunch vaccine denier for decades, claiming that vaccines were the source of childhood autism. The environmentalist even falsely claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was designed to “attack Caucasians and Black people,” but cause less harm to “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese”. The controversial eldest son of the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy has also cozied up to noted Hip-Hop icons in the past and was the center of a scandal that saw him accused of having an affair with former New York Magazine journalist Olivia Nuzzi.
The pick was met with sharp rebuke online. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that RFK Jr. “wants to stop parents from protecting their babies from measles and his ideas would welcome the return of polio.” Dr. Uche’ Blackstock, a prominent author and healthcare advocate, wrote that “this decision pushes us backward.”
We need leadership that strengthens public trust and stands firmly on the side of science. RFK Jr.’s views are incompatible with the mission of safeguarding health equity for all. This decision risks pushing us backward.
— uché blackstock, md (@uche_blackstock) November 15, 2024
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