Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now on a short list floated by some Trump allies to be the next head of the Department of Health and Human Services, multiple people close to the president-elect’s campaign said.
Hopes among Kennedy supporters that he could be nominated to lead the department have risen in recent days, after the Republican Party strengthened his support. majority in the Senate.
Kennedy’s chances of clearing a Democratic-led Senate are slim, given his party’s long record of “anti-science, fringe public health attitudes” that angered Trump’s opponents and many health experts during the campaign.
This included comments that “no vaccine is safe and effective” and the chairman of the Children’s Health Defense group, who said that “the parallels between rising disease rates and the increase in childhood vaccines are hard to ignore.” Doctors argue that such claims are misleading about the safety of immunizations and threaten to undermine the improvements that have been made in the US. vaccination rates against preventable diseases.
Kennedy himself was noncommittal when asked publicly about the possibility of his being chosen to lead the umbrella of HHS agencies, which include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration. Administration.
Before the election, Kennedy told Fox News that he was “sure if I wanted to do HHS secretary, the president would fight like hell to make it happen,” but also said he wasn’t sure it would be the “most effective” role for him.
In a CNN interview last month, Trump transition chairman Howard Lutnick was asked if Kennedy would be in charge of HHS.
“Of course not,” he replied.
But two people close to the campaign said the election results have played a big role in changing the mind of whether Kennedy can remove the steep and often painful Senate confirmation process that can bog down the nomination.
Kennedy’s supporters argued that the election provided a mandate not only for Trump’s overall platform but for Kennedy and his “Make America Healthy Again” proposal to fight chronic disease, citing the votes Kennedy could have won for Trump.
As an example, podcast host Joe Rogan originally voice support for Kennedy and his ideas before endorsing Trump.
“We haven’t decided what that strategy is, but that’s a possibility,” Kennedy told NPR in an interview after the election, asked if he would be named to the Senate-confirmed position.
To the question of whether Kennedy is now in serious contention for the role of HHS secretary, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Americans re-elected Trump “by a strong margin because they trust his decisions and support his policies, including his promise to Make America Healthy.” again alongside respected leaders like RFK Jr.
Another potential HHS secretary’s choice
However, Kennedy is not the only name that has been floated by Republicans for the top job at HHS.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday appointed his top health official, the state’s surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapocan be a candidate. At Ladapothe state health department has warned some against taking the COVID-19 booster shot, citing that federal health authorities and outside experts have criticized it as unproven or misleading.
Other names floated by Trump allies in Washington include former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former HHS deputy secretary Eric Hargan, who supporters think could be effective because they know how to navigate the department’s bureaucracy.
But people close to the campaign say some of Trump’s surrogates and supporters have spent too much time with the president-elect like Kennedy or plotting an ambitious agenda.
The two spent hours flying together at the end of the campaign. Kennedy was also in Florida after the election, meeting with the president-elect’s top brass to consider potential candidates to fill the administration.
“He’s going to help make America whole again. And he’s a great guy and he really means it. He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him,” Trump said on Wednesday morning after the election.
Trump previously said he had been friends with Kennedy “for a long time” and would allow him to “keep his mind” on many of his policy priorities, with the exception of curbing fossil fuels.
“I’m going to let them go wild on health. I’m going to let them go wild on food. I’m going to let them go wild on medicine. Let them even get closer to the liquid gold that’s under our feet,” Trump said in New York. on the 27th of October.
Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform
Kennedy’s nomination comes at a crucial time for many of the issues he campaigned on, which he says supports the “chronic disease crisis.”
Kennedy accused the FDA of “aggressive suppression” of some products, including psychedelics – after MDMA failed to get agency approval earlier this year — and raw milkwhich the official has discouraged in the midst of an outbreak of bird flu on a dairy farm.
Other proposals include limiting pharmaceutical advertising and rewriting laws that currently rely on drug manufacturers paying fees to finance FDA approval. Before the election, he warned FDA officials who “are part of this corrupt system” to “pack your bags.”
In the days before the election, Kennedy said Trump asked him to “remove corruption and conflicts of interest” in the agency that oversees drugs and vaccines, promising to “restore transparency” and stop “hiding science.”
“They don’t want me to take the vaccine away from people. If you want to take the vaccine, you should be able to take it. We believe in free choice in this country,” said Kennedy in said posted on November 2.
Call him to stop water fluoridation come as the Environmental Protection Agency is now facing a court order to take action against the practice.
The decision was prompted in part by a review released by the NIH earlier this year, examining the risk of lowering children’s IQ, and comes as critics have called on the CDC to revise statements supporting fluoridation. An NIH review found that fluoride concentrations in drinking water higher than recommended levels were associated with lower IQ in children, but more studies are needed on the effects of lower fluoride concentrations.
But if he were to become HHS secretary, some of Kennedy’s goals would be outside his jurisdiction, such as US Department of Agriculture. Other responsibilities under the broad HHS umbrella could consume much of Kennedy’s time, some allies worry, interfering with his priorities.
“Bobby is very action-oriented, brilliant, an excellent communicator, has a great grasp of details, and a leader of transformation. He is not, skillset is not, as a bureaucratic administrator,” said Dr. Robert Malone, a long time. A Kennedy ally who was with him and Trump on election night.
Malone said he has spoken with numerous aides from several “at least four different HHS transition teams” under Trump, but not personally with Kennedy, in recent weeks about the department’s future.
He said Kennedy would have played a better role in the White House, being a czar who could direct specific issues across various departments.
“Make no mistake, what is being discussed is a major reimagining of all federal health research and infrastructure promotion and protection. That includes reforms and very significant changes in business practices,” said Malone.
