Trump taps RFK Jr., whose anti-vaccine activism has included antisemitic comments, to lead Dept. of Health and Human Services
Kennedy has claimed that COVID was “ethnically targeted” to avoid Ashkenazi Jews, and has compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a Turning Point Action Rally in Duluth, Georgia, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and onetime presidential candidate who has compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust and mused that the COVID-19 pandemic was engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews, is president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump announced his pick for the Cabinet position on Truth Social, his social network, on Thursday afternoon, saying he was “thrilled” to nominate Kennedy to lead the department.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote. “Mr. Kennedy will 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!”
The nomination cemented the unlikely alliance between Trump and the scion of Democratic Party royalty, who suspended his third-party campaign to endorse the Republican this summer. Shortly before the election, Trump had assured him that, if elected, he would let the longtime vaccine skeptic “go wild on health.” In addition to his anti-vaccine views, Kennedy has also floated removing fluoride, which has dental health benefits, from drinking water.
Among the areas that would be under Kennedy’s purview at the department: the Food and Drug Administration; Medicare and Medicaid; the National Institutes of Health; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; agencies dealing with substance abuse, mental health and toxic substances; and the office of U.S. Surgeon General.
Kennedy’s views on health, in addition to lying far outside the mainstream scientific consensus, have also overlapped with antisemitic rhetoric in the past. Last year he baselessly claimed that COVID had been “ethnically targeted” to avoid “Ashkenazic Jews and Chinese.” During a 2022 anti-vaccine rally, he declared, “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in the attic like Anne Frank did” — a remark he later apologized for. He also has a history of using the word “holocaust” to refer to vaccine policies.
Through it all, Kennedy has steadfastly denied all charges of antisemitism, including in an appearance before Congress. In July, he spoke at an event hosted by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the author and conservative activist. He is ardently pro-Israel and recently defended Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late leader of the Chabad Hasidic movement, from attacks leveled by far-right commentator Candace Owens.
Some prominent Jews have declared themselves in Kennedy’s corner. After Thursday’s nomination announcement, he gained another one: Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado.
“I’m excited by the news that the President-Elect will appoint Robert Kennedy Jr.,” Polis wrote on social media, saying Kennedy had “helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019.” Polis outlined several health-related policy positions he said he agreed with Kennedy on, including reforming federal nutrition standards, curbing pesticide usage and capping international drug prices.
Polis concluded, “He will face strong special interest opposition on these, but I look forward to partnering with him to truly make American healthy again and I hope that we can finally make progress on these important issues.”
(In August, Polis had criticized Kennedy, suggesting that he would be “bringing back Measles and bringing back Polio.”)
Kennedy joins other fringe figures whom Trump has announced for top-level posts, including far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz — who has his own history of antisemitic remarks — for attorney general and Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense.
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