Trump campaign quietly distances itself from RFK Jr after new vaccine safety comments
Benedict Smith
November 7, 2024 at 9:43 AM
Donald Trump with RFK Jr who has previously claimed the president-elect had promised him a top job in health - Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s team appeared to be quietly distancing itself from Robert F Kennedy Jr in the immediate aftermath of the election amid speculation that the former presidential candidate could be handed control of US public health agencies.
Advisers to the president-elect questioned whether Mr Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic who has also been the subject of a series of bizarre stories involving animals, would make it through a security check for a cabinet position.
It raises questions about what role, if any, Mr Kennedy would be given in the Trump administration, as the Republican’s transition team sets about filling thousands of federal posts for his return to the White House.
Mr Kennedy had previously said that Mr Trump had “promised” him control of the Department of Health and Human Services and public health agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
However, there is disquiet in the Trump team about media attention on the former independent candidate after he was pressed in a post-election interview with NBC about his vaccine scepticism.
Mr Kennedy with an animal carcass. He denied it was a dog
Mr Kennedy said that he would seek to fix the “huge deficits” in vaccine safety but clarified: “We’re not going to take vaccines away from anybody.”
According to CNN, a source close to Mr Trump said: “That is not what we want people focused on today.”
Mr Kennedy, son of the late attorney general Bobby Kennedy and nephew of president John F Kennedy, has also said he plans to remove fluoride from drinking water.
The claim prompted criticism from public health experts, who argued it would undo one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century.
Mr Trump’s camp is now questioning whether Mr Kennedy could get confirmed for a cabinet-level position by the Senate, obtain security clearance, or even want to go through those processes.
“If you dump a bear in Central Park and think you’re above the law, you don’t want to have to go through that gauntlet of political correctness,” a former Trump official told CNN.
Mr Kennedy admitted dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park. He has been linked to a series of bizarre animal stories
In August, Mr Kennedy admitted that he had found a dead bear cub and dumped it in Central Park in New York in 2014, leaving a bicycle at the scene to make it look like an accident.
He thought locals, who have been baffled by the mystery for a decade, would find it “amusing”.
Mr Kennedy has also been accused of eating the barbecued remains of a dog in Korea – a claim he denied – and sawing the head off a dead whale to strap it to the roof of his car.
If handed control of the public health agencies by Mr Trump, Mr Kennedy said on Wednesday he planned to clear out “entire departments”.
“In some categories, their entire departments, like the nutrition department in the FDA, they have to go. They’re not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids,” he told MSNBC.
“Why do we have Froot Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients, and you go to Canada, and it’s got two or three?”
He added that he could not eliminate public health agencies altogether without congressional approval, but would seek to root out “corruption” in those bodies.