As recently as last week, Dr. Jerome Adams, who served nearly four years as Donald Trump’s surgeon general, expressed public concerns about the former president’s embrace of conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Evidently, the former president is choosing to ignore those concerns. At an event in Arizona last week, for example, the Republican said, in reference to RFK Jr., “He can do anything he wants” in a possible second term.
A few days later, the GOP candidate went further. NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have a “big role in the administration” if he wins Tuesday, telling NBC News in a phone interview that he is open to some of his more controversial ideas. … Asked Sunday whether banning certain vaccines would be an option during a second term, Trump didn’t rule it out.
The Republican said he’d “make a decision” after talking to RFK Jr. and others about this, but in the process, he appeared to leave possible vaccine bans on the table.
On Friday, Kennedy said the Trump administration would, at the outset, pursue a ban on fluoride in drinking water. Two days later, the former president told NBC News that such a move “sounds OK to me.”
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Tim Scott chuckled to himself in response to a question from host Dana Bash about eliminating fluoride from water. “I’m laughing because I can’t believe that we’re having a conversation about fluoride,” the South Carolina Republican replied.
I can’t believe it, either, but therein lies the point: We’re “having a conversation about fluoride” because Scott’s party has nominated an unqualified conspiracy theorist for the nation’s highest office, and he’s turning to a different unqualified conspiracy theorist for guidance on matters related to public health.
It’s not journalists’ fault that the presidential candidate whom Scott enthusiastically supports recently declared that Kennedy should be allowed to “go wild on health” and “take care of women’s health and your children’s health.”
As my MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem recently explained, RFK Jr. “is best known for fringe conspiracy theories tied to vaccines and other medical interventions, such as the belief that antidepressants cause school shootings.”
NPR had a related report last year, noting, “Wi-Fi causes cancer and ‘leaky brain,’ Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan. … Antidepressants are to blame for school shootings, he mused during an appearance with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Chemicals in the water supply could turn children transgender, he told right-wing Canadian psychologist and podcaster Jordan Peterson, echoing a false assertion made by serial fabulist Alex Jones. AIDS may not be caused by HIV, he has suggested multiple times.” Kennedy’s views on Covid are every bit as bizarre and unserious. But as a political and electoral matter, Kennedy’s beliefs and the degree to which they’ve been discredited by reality are little more than a curiosity — or at least, they would be if he weren’t poised to receive a powerful position in the federal government in the event of a Republican victory. It’s hard not to wonder how many Americans have grappled with the public health consequences of a possible second Trump administration. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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