“I hope you like measles,” an incredulous Jake Tapper said Thursday about Donald Trump tapping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, who ended his own bid for president to support Trump, has been vocal in his opposition to vaccines of any kind.
Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger told the CNN anchor he wasn’t sure if the GOP would support this particular pick.
“A lot of the sane Senate Republicans – particularly those who voted to remove Donald Trump? They’re up for reelection, so now it becomes a whole different ballgame. Will they resist RFK on vaccines? I don’t know,” he said.
Kinzinger was more skeptical that Trump’s pick for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, would sail through the nomination process with an ethics charge and sexual trafficking allegations still hanging over his head, despite his resignation from Congress.
“I’d actually be surprised if Gaetz gets confirmed, and that’s why I was surprised he resigned the House, because he’s not going to have anything to fall back on. But he’ll be a Fox News commentator or something. So I do expect that there will be resistance to him,” Kinzinger said.
In a separate segment, Tapper asked Senator-elect Jim Banks of Indiana whether Kennedy’s claims about the danger of vaccines “bother” him.
“The scientific and medical community has been clear for years that what he says about vaccines, childhood vaccines, is false. They don’t cause autism. There’s no direct link. Does that bother you at all?” Tapper asked.
Banks replied, “Look, Donald Trump won the popular vote, and one of the things that he promised on the campaign trails (is) to have a serious and thoughtful conversation about vaccines. Especially after the pandemic, mandatory vaccines is a topic that a lot of American voters want to, want us to tackle on Capitol Hill.”
He added, “I feel very comfortable with RFK Jr. having a significant seat at the table to lead big debates” about obesity and other health issues.
CNN commentator Kate Bedingfield told Tapper there really isn’t anything Democrats can do about Trump’s picks “in the short run,” since they lost both the House and the Senate. She suggested that all they can do in the meantime is “sound the alarm where appropriate.”
Bedingfield explained, “Democrats can start to lay out their own alternative, positive vision. It’s never too soon to start doing that. So, practically, can they do anything in the short term? No, but can they impact the narrative moving forward? I hope so.”
That’s the moment when Tapper said, “Well, America, I hope you like measles.”
The CNN host isn’t the only one reacting to the appointment with dread: Shares of vaccine makers Moderna, Novavax, Pfizer, BioNTech and GSK fell on Thursday after RFK was announced, according to CNBC.
