Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now on a shortlist floated by some Trump allies to become the next head of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to several people close to the president-elect’s campaign.
Among Kennedy’s supporters, hope that he could be nominated to head the department has grown in recent days after Republicans consolidated their position. majority in the Senate.
Kennedy’s chances of winning a Democratic-led Senate would have been low, given his long record of what the party called “anti-science and fringe public health positions” that outraged Trump’s opponents and a wide range of health experts during the campaign.
This includes a comment that “there is no safe and effective vaccine” and his chairmanship of the group Children’s Health Defense, which asserted that “the parallel between increasing disease rates and the growing number of children’s vaccines is hard to ignore.” Doctors say such statements are misleading about the safety of vaccinations and threaten to erode hard-won progress in the United States. vaccination rate against preventable diseases.
Kennedy himself was evasive when asked publicly about the possibility of him being chosen to lead HHS’s vast network of agencies, which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Food and Drug. Administration.
Before the election, Kennedy told Fox News that he was “confident that if I wanted to become secretary of HHS, the president would fight like hell to make that happen”, but also said he was not sure that it would be “the most effective”. role for him.
In an interview with CNN last month, Howard Lutnick, Trump’s transition co-chair, was asked whether Kennedy would be in charge of HHS.
“Of course not,” he replied.
But two people close to the campaign say the election results played an important role in changing thinking about Kennedy’s ability to navigate a difficult and often painful Senate confirmation process that can bog down nominees.
Kennedy supporters argue that the election provides a mandate not only for Trump’s overall platform, but also for Kennedy and his “Make America Healthy” proposals to combat chronic disease, citing votes that Kennedy could have obtained in favor of Trump.
As an example, podcast host Joe Rogan initially support expressed for Kennedy and his ideas before later supporting Trump.
“We haven’t decided exactly what that strategy will be, but it’s a possibility,” Kennedy told NPR in an interview after the election, asking whether he would be nominated to a Senate-confirmed position.
As for whether Kennedy is now seriously in the running for HHS secretary, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Americans re-elected Trump “by resounding margins because “They trust his judgment and support his policies, including his promise.” to make America healthy alongside well-respected leaders like RFK Jr.”
Other Potential HHS Secretary Picks
However, Kennedy is not the only name proposed by Republicans for the top HHS job.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested his top health official, the state surgeon general, on Wednesday. Dr Joseph Ladapocould be a candidate. Below Ladapthe state health department has warned some against COVID-19 booster shots, citing claims criticized by federal health officials and outside experts as unproven or misleading.
Other names floated by Trump’s allies in Washington include former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan, who supporters say could be effective because he knows how to navigate the bureaucracy of the department.
But people close to the campaign say few Trump surrogates and supporters have spent as much time with the president-elect as Kennedy or developed as ambitious an agenda.
The two men spent hours flying together in the latter part of the campaign. Kennedy was also in Florida after the election, huddling with the president-elect’s top brass to evaluate potential candidates to fill the administration.
“He’s going to help make America healthy again. And he’s a great guy and he means it. He wants to do certain things, and we’re going to let him get there,” Trump said Wednesday morning after the elections.
Trump has previously said he has been friends with Kennedy “for a long time” and would let him “run wild” on many of his policy priorities, with the exception of cutting fossil fuels.
“I’m going to let him run wild on health. I’m going to let him run wild on food. I’m going to let him run wild on drugs. The only thing I don’t think I’m going to let him near is is the liquid gold we have under our feet,” Trump said in New York on October 27.
Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform
Kennedy’s nomination would come at a key time for many of the issues he campaigned on, which he said underpin “the chronic disease crisis.”
Kennedy accused the FDA of ‘aggressive suppression’ of a range of products, including psychedelics – after MDMA failed to gain agency approval earlier this year – and raw milkthat the officials have discouraged amid the ongoing bird flu outbreak on dairy farms.
Other proposals include restricting pharmaceutical advertising and rewriting laws that currently rely on payment of fees by drugmakers to fund most FDA approvals. Before the election, he warned FDA officials who are “part of this corrupt system” to “pack their bags.”
In the days leading up to the election, Kennedy said Trump had asked him to “eliminate corruption and conflicts of interest” in agencies that oversee drugs and vaccines, pledging to “restore transparency” and to stop “hiding the science”.
“He doesn’t want me to take vaccines away from people. If you want to take a vaccine, you should be able to take it. We believe in free choice in this country,” Kennedy said in a statement. Remarks published on November 2.
His call to stop water fluoridation comes as the Environmental Protection Agency now faces a court order take action against this practice.
The move is driven in part by a study released by the NIH earlier this year examining the risk that it could lower children’s IQs, and comes as critics have called on the CDC to revise its statement supporting fluoridation. The NIH review found that fluoride concentrations in drinking water above recommended levels were associated with lower IQ in children, but additional studies were needed on the effect of lower fluoride concentrations.
But if he became HHS secretary, some of Kennedy’s goals would fall outside his purview, such as US Department of Agriculture. Other responsibilities under the HHS umbrella could take up much of Kennedy’s time, some allies worry, distracting him from his priorities.
“Bobby is very action oriented, bright, excellent communicator, has a great understanding of details and is a transformational leader. He is not, nor is his skill set, as a bureaucratic administrator” , said Dr. Robert Malone, a longtime administrator. Kennedy ally who was with him and Trump on election night.
Malone said he has spoken with numerous aides from some of the “at least four different HHS transition teams” under Trump, but not personally with Kennedy, in recent weeks about the department’s future.
He said he thought Kennedy would probably do better in a White House role, as a czar who could target specific issues in different departments.
“Make no mistake, what is being discussed is a major reimagining of the entire federal health research, promotion and protection infrastructure. This includes very significant reforms and changes to business practices,” Malone said.
