President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has received mixed reactions from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle, Politico reports.
After Trump made the selection on Nov. 14, lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, opened up about their willingness to hear him out. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) mentioned a number of issues that he agrees with Kennedy about, including those surrounding “tobacco and organic agriculture.” Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis celebrated the selection on X, saying he hopes Kennedy “leans into personal choice on vaccines rather than bans” and takes “on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) took the praise up a notch with claims that Kennedy could probably do more to “advance America’s health than anybody really in history.” “If President Trump wants him, I think he could [be confirmed to the Cabinet]. Why not?”
Fellow GOP lawmakers Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Rand Paul of Kentucky reiterated similar feelings. Tuberville thinks it’s “great” that Kennedy is involved and would be open to moving forward with a confirmation of Kennedy’s appointment. Paul labeled the offspring of one of America’s most famous Democratic families “an important voice … for reassessing the crony capitalism that has big corporations, particularly Big Pharma, having an undue influence in regulation and approval of their drugs.”
According to Newsweek, loyal Trump ally and Georgia’s conservative congresswoman, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, warned GOP lawmakers of what would happen if they don’t confirm Trump’s cabinet picks. “Well, then they have to deal with Donald Trump, and they’ll have to deal with Elon Musk and his great new PAC and the American people,” she said.
“This is a mandate.”
Trump’s selection of Kennedy did not come as a shock to a number of Americans as he endorsed the Republican President-elect after dropping out as an independent presidential nominee. In a statement, Trump said he thinks Kennedy would “restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
However, everyone isn’t too keen on the selection, given Kennedy’s extreme past comments on the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming the disease was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people.” “The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he once said.
Public health and medical experts issued warnings on Kennedy’s ideas as dangerous, highlighting specific concerns about his claim that vaccines cause autism. Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) loyalists have been quiet on celebrating Kennedy’s selection as they predict a war between pharma, food companies, and their allies on Capitol Hill.
A spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again PAC and former national field director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign, Jeff Hutt, said in order for policies to be successfully passed under this new potential leadership, “established Republicans are going to have to be the most brave.”
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