The Trump administration fired CDC director Susan Monarez, who vocally opposed RFK Jr. and his anti-vaccination sentiments, Wednesday and the “Morning Joe” panel couldn’t help but question the president’s continued loyalty to the Health and Human Services Secretary.
“Morning Joe” anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski asked their guests on the MSNBC show Thursday morning why they think the president expresses loyalty to RFK Jr. despite the fact that he opposes one of the president’s biggest accomplishments.
Operation Warp Speed was an accelerated COVID-19 vaccine development effort that President Trump spearheaded in the final year in his first term. The federal program has since been noted as one of Trump’s crowning accomplishments but because of his base he sometimes holds back on bragging about it.
A portion of his MAGA base, including RFK Jr. are anti-vaccines, which leaves the president in a sticky situation.
“Simone used the phrase rock and a hard place earlier,” MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heilemann said. “And I think that’s where Donald Trump has always been on the question of vaccines.”
“He has never been comfortable with fully embracing the achievement there as a political asset or as a scientific accomplishment because a decent-sized chunk of his base are anti-vax skeptics,” he added.
Heilemann noted that it should not be this way, though. He should proudly brag about it, he said noting that he or likely anyone else on the panel would use it as a primary campaign point.
He added that the appointment of RFK Jr. to the Secretary of Health and Human Services post is “purely political.” Quoting MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, Heilemann said Americans need to watch what the president does not what he says.
“The appointment of RFK Jr. says a lot more than any of the words that Donald Trump utters about the questions of the vaccine,” he said. “RFK Jr. is turning out to be the worst nightmare of people who feared what would happen if he took over HHS.”
“Whatever Donald Trump thinks he may be getting from RFK it’s not worth it,” Scarborough chimed in with Brzezinski echoing “not worth it.”
The “Morning Joe” host added that with RFK Jr. in charge of the health department, clearing house of anyone that supported Operation Warp Speed and one of Trump’s crowning accomplishments, seems counterintuitive .
“And here’s RFK trying to undermine that very thing,” Scarborough said. “Destroying a legacy where 10s of millions of lives were saved, billions of dollars were saved. The reupping of governments across the globe. The reupping of economies across the world.”
Watch the exchange here:
