Washington (AFP) – Donald Trump announced Friday that Kennedy family scion and notorious vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would play a “big role” in his administration if the Republican former president were to win next week’s election. Speaking to reporters outside an upscale halal restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan, Trump exuded confidence in Kennedy, who has spent two decades fueling vaccine disinformation, claiming he had the perfect credentials for a high-level job. “He’s going to have a big role in health care,” Trump declared, adding with a trademark flourish: “He knows about it better than anybody.”
Trump noted that Kennedy has “got some views that I happen to agree with very strongly and I have for a long time,” but he dodged questions on whether he specifically endorsed Kennedy’s vaccine rhetoric. Kennedy, a 70-year-old former Democrat, ran as an independent earlier in this election cycle before dropping his campaign in August to support the 78-year-old Republican tycoon. He is widely rumored to be a contender for a cabinet position, with speculation centering on the role of secretary of health and human services.
“For 19 years, I pray every morning, without a single exception, that God would put me in a position to end this chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said Friday at a rally alongside Trump in Michigan. During a raucous rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Trump teased he would allow Kennedy to “go wild on health,” without elaborating. And on Thursday night, he suggested to a Nevada crowd that Kennedy’s portfolio would extend to “women’s health,” further angering Democrats already incensed over Republican-led abortion rights rollbacks in more than 20 states.
Trump doubled down on that idea on Friday. “He’s so into health and all, he’s going to take care of women’s health and men’s health and your children’s health,” the candidate said. Kennedy added: “We are the sickest country in the world, and this is the sickest generation of kids. And if you elect Kamala Harris, you’re going to get more of the same.” Cabinet appointments require Senate confirmation by a simple majority of 51 votes, with the vice president breaking ties if needed.
Since the mid-2000s, Kennedy — whose father was assassinated in 1968 while vying for the Democratic presidential nomination — has risen to become a leading figure in the global anti-vaccine movement. His claims include calling Covid-19 vaccines the “deadliest ever made” and suggesting the virus was “ethnically targeted” to harm Black and white people while sparing “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” He was once a well-respected climate lawyer and was widely reported as a leading candidate for chief of the Environmental Protection Agency under former Democratic president Barack Obama, before ultimately being passed over.
Five of his siblings denounced his decision to endorse Trump, calling it a “betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.” Kennedy’s presidential run this year featured some bizarre moments — including his claim to have recovered from a parasitic brain worm and an admission that he dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park after initially picking it up to “skin” it.
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