On his CNN show Thursday night, Jake Tapper had a stark question about Trump cabinet official Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Are the actions of the Secretary of Health and Human services actually actively making you and your family less health?”
Tapper was responding to the reported chaos at the Centers for Disease control on Thursday after Kennedy, with Donald Trump’s backing, ordered CDC director Susan Monarez to be fired. No reason has been given for this publicly — Trump officials have said only that she “was not aligned” with Trump on matters connected to public health.
Monarez, who was nominated for the job by Trump himself back in March and has only been on the job since July, is suing. Her attorneys say she is being punished because she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” which appear to refer to policies reflecting Kennedy’s well-documented opposition to life-saving vaccines, which includes spreading falsehoods about them.
Monarez is a doctor and a scientist; the Trump administration is trying to replace her with Jim O’Neill, a former investment banker with zero medical expertise. Several high ranking CDC officials resigned in protest over these actions. Read more about it here.
“Robert F Kennedy Jr., who has no scientific degree and has no medical degree and who for decades, has been pushing medical and scientific falsehoods, is today wreaking havoc at the CDC,” Tapper explained. “The former CDC director… was fired after less than one month on the job. A person familiar with the situation told CNN that Monarez and Secretary Kennedy quickly ended up at odds after her Senate confirmation, over vaccine policies and other matters, given her belief in science and medical evidence and RFK Junior’s long established dedication to fringe, false conspiracy theories about vaccines.”
“Monarez’s lawyers say Kennedy and HHS are, quote, weaponizing public health for political gain,” Tapper added, at which point he shared video of the Trump administration’s explanation. He then discussed the CDC protest resignations, and the celebratory exit their colleagues gave them as they left the building, as well as these statements they made after.
One of these staffers also warned that the panel which approves vaccines has been hugely politicized. Tapper continued, “the panel’s upcoming meeting is worrying, if not terrifying, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who worked as a physician before entering politics.”
“Cassidy… passed the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy as health secretary, after receiving assurances directly from Kennedy that he would not dismantle the nation’s vaccine safety systems and would not take down government vaccine guidance and that he would consult with Dr. and Senator Cassidy before any major decision,” Tapper continued. “But today, Senator Cassidy warned that a September meeting of Kennedy’s vaccine panel should not even take place.
The CNN anchor then quoted Cassidy directly: “Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership and lack of scientific process. These decisions directly impact children’s health, and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy, given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”
“The fact is that RFK Jr, for decades now, says things that are not true to justify extreme positions and actions when it comes to public health,” Tapper went on. “One such example just from today, when RK Jr tried to justify getting rid of all these health officials who have actual degrees in their fields of expertise, unlike RFK Jr.”
Tapper then quoted Kennedy directly: “The CDC is an agency that is very troubled for a very long time. The CDC has on its website today among the top 10 medical innovations, greatest medical accomplishments in history. Abortion is the one of the greatest medical accomplishments, because it keeps small families. Go to the website, look at it.”
Tapper then explained at length that Kennedy’s claims were absolutely not true.
“We went to the website, we looked at it, and the word abortion does not appear in either of the two places where the CDC lists the top 10 health accomplishments in history. HHS, when we asked what gives the word abortion doesn’t appear there, despite what RFK Jr. said, they pointed us to the mention of family planning and contraception as one of the top 10 achievements,” he explained. “And then they referred to us to a document going into more detail about that, but that document talked about the need to reduce unwanted pregnancies, family planning, to avoid unwanted pregnancies, to avoid abortions. It did not cite abortions as one of the top 10 health achievements, and it was not saying abortion is part of family planning. Read the document, Secretary Kennedy.”
“Again, a Kennedy construction built upon a foundation of mendacity, and this is just the latest example of Secretary Kennedy making rash decisions that could impact your health, basing these decisions on complete and utter falsehoods,” he concluded.
Watch part of this below now: