Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now on a short list being floated by some Trump allies to serve as the next head of the Department of Health and Human Services, multiple people close to the president-elect’s campaign say.
In a CNN interview last month, Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick, was asked whether Kennedy would be in charge of HHS.
Under Ladapo, the state’s health department has warned some against getting COVID-19 booster shots, citing claims that federal health authorities and outside experts criticized as unproven or misleading.
Bobby Jindal and former deputy HHS secretary Eric Hargan, who supporters think could be effective because he knows how to navigate the department’s bureaucracy.
But were he to end up HHS secretary, some of Kennedy’s aims would fall outside of his jurisdiction, like the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. according to several people close to the president-elect’s campaign, is currently on a short list being considered by some Trump supporters to be the next head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Republicans solidified their Senate majority in recent days, raising hopes among Kennedy’s supporters that he might be nominated to head the department.
Kennedy’s lengthy history of what the party referred to as “anti-science, fringe public health stances” that infuriated Trump’s rivals and a wide range of medical professionals during the campaign would have made it unlikely that he would have passed a Senate controlled by Democrats.
This includes his saying that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and his role as chairman of Children’s Health Defense, a group that has asserted that it is difficult to overlook the “parallel between rising disease rates and the increasing number of childhood vaccines.”. Physicians contend that such claims undermine the hard-won gains in U.S. health care and mislead about the safety of vaccines. S. . vaccination rates for diseases that can be avoided.
When asked publicly if he would be chosen to lead the vast HHS umbrella of agencies, which includes the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Kennedy has remained evasive.
Kennedy told Fox News ahead of the election that he was “confident that if I wanted to do HHS secretary, the president would fight like hell to make that happen,” but he also expressed uncertainty about whether that would be “the most effective” role for him.
Whether Kennedy would lead HHS was a question posed to Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the Trump transition, in a CNN interview last month.
He said, “Of course not.”.
But according to two campaign officials, the election results have significantly altered the perception of Kennedy’s ability to pass the Senate confirmation process, which can be difficult and painful for nominees.
Kennedy supporters point to the votes Kennedy might have helped Trump win, arguing that the election provides a mandate for both Kennedy and his “Make America Healthy Again” proposals to fight chronic disease as well as for Trump’s platform as a whole.
For instance, podcast host Joe Rogan first expressed support for Kennedy and his beliefs before subsequently expressing support for Trump.
In an interview with NPR following the election, Kennedy responded, “We have not yet decided exactly what that strategy is going to be, but that is a possibility,” when asked if he would be appointed to a Senate-confirmed position.
Regarding whether Kennedy is now a serious contender for the position of HHS secretary, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump was reelected “by resounding margins because Americans trust his judgment and support his policies, including his promise to Make America Healthy Again alongside well-respected leaders like RFK Jr.”. “..”.
Other candidates for HHS secretary.
Kennedy is not the only Republican to have been proposed for the top position at HHS, though.
On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hinted that Dr. Dot Joseph Ladapo, the state surgeon general and his top health official, might be a contender. The state health department has cautioned some people against receiving COVID-19 booster shots under Ladapo, citing assertions that outside experts and federal health authorities deemed to be false or unsubstantiated.
Other names put forth by Trump supporters in Washington include the former governor of Louisiana. Supporters believe that Eric Hargan, a former deputy HHS secretary, and Bobby Jindal could be successful because they are familiar with the department’s bureaucracy.
Few Trump surrogates and supporters, however, have reportedly spent as much time with the president-elect as Kennedy or devised as ambitious an agenda, according to campaign officials.
In the last hours of the campaign, the two flew together for hours. Following the election, Kennedy was also in Florida, gathering with the president-elect’s top officials to discuss possible candidates for the administration.
“He will contribute to the recovery of America’s health. Additionally, he truly means it and is a wonderful man. We’re going to let him do whatever he wants to do,” Trump declared on Wednesday morning following the election.
With the exception of limiting fossil fuels, Trump has previously stated that he has been friends with Kennedy “for a long time” and would allow him to “go wild” on many of his policy goals.
“I’m going to give him a lot of health. I’ll let him eat as much as he wants. I’ll let him take as many medications as he wants. In New York in October, Trump declared, “The liquid gold we have under our feet is the only thing I don’t think I’m going to let him even get near.”. 27. .
The “Make America Healthy Again” platform of President Kennedy.
Kennedy claims that many of the issues he ran on during his campaign serve as the foundation for “the chronic-disease crisis,” and his nomination would come at a crucial moment for these issues. “.”.
Following MDMA’s failure to receive FDA approval earlier this year, Kennedy accused the FDA of “aggressively suppressing” a number of products, including raw milk, which officials have discouraged due to the ongoing bird flu outbreak on dairy farms, and psychedelics.
Kennedy said Trump had asked him to “root out the corruption and the conflicts of interest” in drug and vaccine oversight agencies in the days leading up to the election, promising to “restore transparency” and cease “hiding science.”. “,”.
“He doesn’t want me to deny people access to vaccines.”. It should be possible for you to receive a vaccination if you wish to. Kennedy stated, “We believe in free choice in this country,” in comments published on Nov. 2.
Since the Environmental Protection Agency is currently facing a court order to take action against the practice, he has called for an end to water fluoridation.
Critics have urged the CDC to amend its statement supporting fluoridation, and the decision was influenced in part by an NIH review published earlier this year that looked at the risk it might lower children’s IQ. More research was required to determine the impact of lower fluoride concentrations, but the NIH review found that children with higher than recommended fluoride concentrations in their drinking water had lower IQs.
However, if he were to become secretary of HHS, some of Kennedy’s goals—such as the U.S. S. Department of Agriculture. Some allies fear that Kennedy’s priorities may be neglected as he spends a lot of time on other duties under the large HHS umbrella.
“Bobby is a transformational leader who is highly action-oriented, intelligent, a great communicator, and has an exceptional attention to detail. Longtime Kennedy ally Dr. Robert Malone, who accompanied him and Trump on election night, stated, “He is not, his skill set is not, as a bureaucrat administrator.”.
Malone said he had discussed the department’s future in recent weeks with numerous aides from some of the “at least four different HHS transition teams” under Trump, but not directly with Kennedy.
As a czar who could focus on particular issues across various departments, he stated that he believed Kennedy would probably perform better in a position at the White House.
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