It’s hardly a secret that Republican politics in recent years has been consumed by conspiracy theories. They have become the currency that inspires, animates and drives the party and its vision in the Trump era.
It might be tempting to think these developments are unfortunate but inconsequential. While the embrace of outlandish conspiracy theories certainly don’t do any favors to those who believe them, perhaps, some will argue, there are few practical consequences in the real world.
If only that were true. The Associated Press reported:
A Georgia man who opened fire on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters, shooting dozens of rounds into the sprawling complex and killing a police officer, had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The 30-year-old shooter also tried to get into the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta but was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire late Friday afternoon, the official said.
The suspect, who did not survive the assault, was reportedly fixated on the Covid vaccine, which he blamed for his health problems.
There is, of course, a larger context to all of this. As the AP report noted, for example, some former CDC officials argued that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading anti-science voice and longtime opponent of vaccines, “shares responsibility for the violence and should resign.”
Similarly, MSNBC reported that the violence has left officials and scientists at the nation’s premier public health agency understandably shaken, and “many are now demanding answers” from Kennedy, who “has long vilified the CDC and contributed to a culture of misinformation that they say makes them targets.” (The Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to MSNBC’s request for comment.)
Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at New York University, summarized the deadly violence this way in an opinion piece for The New York Times: “The attack left both himself and a law enforcement officer dead, and C.D.C. buildings riddled with bullet holes. The symbolism could not be clearer: Scientists, doctors, public health officials, and law enforcement officials — people whose life’s work is to protect the nation — have targets on their backs. The C.D.C. union has asked federal officials to condemn vaccine misinformation, since it is putting lives at risk.”
It’s against this backdrop that Donald Trump, as of this writing, has not commented on the CDC shooting at all, despite the president maintaining an active publishing schedule on his social media platform in recent days.
RFK Jr. did publish a relatively brief, 109-word statement, though Trump’s former surgeon general — who has positioned himself as a notable Kennedy critic — was unimpressed. Politico reported: A former U.S. surgeon general on Sunday said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘failed’ in his response to the shootings that took place on Friday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta. ‘How you respond to a crisis defines a leader, and quite frankly Secretary Kennedy has failed in his first major test in this regard,’ Dr. Jerome Adams told CBS’ Margaret Brennan on ‘Face the Nation.’ During his on-air appearance, Adams, who served with Trump during the president’s first term, characterized Kennedy’s response to the deadly shooting as “tepid,” and emphasized how long it took for RFK Jr. to react. “It took him over 18 hours to issue a tepid response to these horrific shootings, and that’s not even considering how his inflammatory rhetoric in the past have actually contributed to a lot of what’s been going on,” Adams added. Indeed, a Times report noted that Kennedy, who oversees the CDC, could’ve made a statement the day of the shooting but didn’t. Instead, the beleaguered HHS secretary posted condolences “more than 30 minutes after posting photos of himself fishing on social media.” Time will tell whether the deadly shooting causes RFK Jr. to change his rhetorical direction. But given his record, it’s difficult to get one’s hopes up.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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