UPDATE (December 13, 2024, 4:56 p.m. ET): This piece was updated to include a statement from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
When Time magazine sat down with Donald Trump for its newly published cover story, the discussion turned to the president-elect’s controversial personnel choices, including his intention to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Time began by asking whether he’d sign off on a Kennedy effort to end childhood vaccination programs.
“We’re going to have a big discussion,” Trump replied. “The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible.”
Note, the question was about childhood vaccination programs, and the Republican, unprompted, quickly volunteered concerns about autism.
The back and forth continued for a while, culminating in a simple question: Does Trump agree with the conspiratorial environmental lawyer about the connection between vaccines and autism?
“I want to see the numbers. It’s going to be the numbers,” the president-elect replied. As part of the same answer, the Republican suggested he and his team — which presumably would include Kennedy — are going to conduct “studies,” adding, “We’re going to know what’s good and what’s not good. We will know for sure what’s good and what’s not good.”
The next week, Trump sat down with NBC News’ Kristen Welker for a “Meet the Press” interview and said largely the same thing. NBC News reported:
President-elect Donald Trump suggested that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his pick to run Health and Human Services, will investigate supposed links between autism and childhood vaccines, a discredited connection that has eroded trust in the lifesaving inoculations.
“I think somebody has to find out,” Trump said, while continuing to suggest there might be some connection between vaccines and autism. “Something is going on,” the Republican added. “I don’t know if it’s vaccines. Maybe it’s chlorine in the water, right?”
No. Not right.
At first blush, a regular person might not see Trump’s comments as especially problematic. He said he supports research and getting a definitive answer to the underlying question. What’s wrong with that?
What’s wrong with that is we already have a definitive answer to the question. Trump is talking about tasking an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist with pursuing a line of inquiry as if the matter is unresolved, but qualified public health officials have known better for many years. Indeed, as NBC News’ report noted, “Welker noted in a back-and-forth that studies have shown childhood vaccines prevent about 4 million deaths worldwide every year, have found no connection between vaccines and autism, and that rises in autism diagnoses are attributable to increased screening and awareness.” A report in The New York Times added, “Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that there is no link, including a 2012 vaccine safety review by the Institute of Medicine, now known as the National Academy of Medicine, that stated, ‘the M.M.R. vaccine is not associated with autism.’ A national study in Denmark in 2019 came to the same conclusion. Yet as recently as August, in an interview with the libertarian commentator John Stossel, Mr. Kennedy asserted, ‘autism is caused by vaccines.’” Wait, it gets worse. The Times reported Friday on Aaron Siri and his anti-vaccine work. The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death. … Mr. Siri has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines; challenged, and in some cases quashed, Covid vaccine mandates around the country; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions. … Mr. Siri declined to be interviewed, but said all of his petitions were filed on behalf of clients. Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy, said Mr. Siri has been advising Mr. Kennedy but has not discussed his petitions with any of the health nominees. She added, “Mr. Kennedy has long said that he wants transparency in vaccines and to give people choice.”
Let’s not forget that Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, his party’s outgoing leader in the chamber, is a polio survivor. It’s hard not to wonder whether the senator’s life experiences will shape his opinion of Kennedy’s prospective cabinet nomination, especially in light of the latest reporting on the man Kennedy has partnered with on scrutinizing possible HHS personnel. UPDATE (December 13, 2024, 4:56 p.m. ET): After the Times’ report on Siri was published, McConnell said in a statement Friday, “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous. Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”
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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