At a campaign rally in Michigan this week, RFK Jr made his closing argument for why Republicans need more power, and his argument goes like this: Arab people around the world have contributed nothing to society, ever.
The off-the-charts racism and ignorance that would make David Duke blush drew ‘widespread rebuke’, with Protect Our Care among the first. Perhaps no one was more incensed over the hate-soaked lies than former HHS Secretary and Arab American Donna Shalala who called Kennedy a “bigot and a racist.”
Joe Scarborough sees it as a disgrace to his father’s memory: “Bobby Kennedy was the reason I got involved in politics. It’s hard to even imagine how ashamed he would be of his son for denigrating over a billion people because of their faith.”
Abdul El-Sayed may be on to something that RFK Jr is desperate to overcompensate for his non-existent qualifications for health secretary and his incompetence in letting food-borne illness run wild in Michigan.
Or it could just be RFK Jr. feeling freer under Donald Trump’s example to more openly express his long-harbored racism, like when said all black children on ADHD medication should be “re-parented”.
Yet despite the backlash and condemnation from all directions, RFK Jr is pretending nothing happened, gleefully camping out in Iowa with fevered delusions of becoming president. An HHS spokeswoman says Kennedy “had no comment when asked whether he stood by the remarks.”
In other words: Kennedy makes no apology for it.
There’s no point in asking Mike Rogers or Trump whether they endorse Kennedy’s vile comments, because anti-Muslim hate and fearing mongering is their entire campaign in Michigan. Since they can’t talk about how they hiked everyone’s premiums by making the largest cuts to health care in U.S. history, hate is all they have.
Top Pro-Vax CDC Official Jumps Ship: This week, CDC deputy director and chief medical officer Jennifer Shuford called it quits just 6 months into the job over disagreements “with the administration’s approach to vaccine policy.”Now there’s one less voice of reason in the room to tell RFK Jr to stop stoking baseless fear against the MMR vaccine when measles cases are double what they were during last year’s historic outbreak. Jill Lawrence sees cause for impeachment.
Meanwhile, Governor Andy Beshear is imploring Kentuckians to avoid any advice from RFK Jr as measles cases surpass 200 in his state: “This is a guy who said he snorted cocaine off of dirty toilet seats. That is not hygienic. Don’t follow his advice. We’ve had more cases of measles this year than the last 32 years of our commonwealth put together. This is an atrocity for the first time in my lifetime.”
It’s Not Just Measles: No matter how many public health threats get thrown at health secretary Kennedy, he’s consistent in his apathy towards them all. This week we learned rabies is “making a comeback;” since September, “Florida’s reported dengue cases have almost doubled from 392 to 721”; and drug-resistant superbugs are now killing 50,000 Americans a year.
Yet Another Entry in the RFK Jr Corruption Files: The NYT details how RFK Jr’s HHS reined in its crackdown on a dangerous synthetic opioid after the Kratom industry funneled millions of dollars to the GOP.
In The News
Infectious Disease Outbreaks and Public Health Threats
Measles
- Financial Times: Measles surge exposes Republicans’ vulnerability on vaccines
- NPR: U.S. measles cases more than double what they were last year as outbreak spreads
- Reuters: Pennsylvania measles cases rise to 1,360, state health department says
- CNBC: A ‘canary in the coal mine’: Measles resurgence exposes weaknesses in U.S. public health, experts say
- WKMS: ‘An atrocity.’ Beshear criticizes RFK Jr. as KY measles outbreak surpasses 200 cases
Foodborne Illness
- Washington Post: The FDA rarely inspects much of the produce Americans eat
Other Public Health Threats
- New York Times: Is Rabies Making a Comeback?
- Washington Post: Dengue cases in Florida continued to climb after emergency declared
- Associated Press: Congo’s Ebola outbreak tops 10,000 cases as authorities race to slow the spread in African countries
- Associated Press: Experts warn of wider spread as Ebola outbreak reaches plateau
The GOP War on Vaccines Will Have Deadly Consequences
- Politico: HHS seeks new members for federal vaccine advisory panel RFK Jr. remade
- The Guardian: ‘It’s a mess right now’: RFK’s sweeping changes place new vaccines in limbo
- Stat: NIH’s new vaccine injury center has broad goals beyond RFK Jr.’s focus on shots
- Defector: The U.S.-Funded Plan To Kill Infants In Africa By Withholding Vaccines Has Been Thwarted
Chaos and Cuts At HHS
- Washington Post: CDC’s deputy director to leave Trump administration after six months
- Washington Post: He resigned from CDC leadership. Now he’s fighting RFK Jr. from the outside.
- Washington Sun: Inside the Trump Administration’s Dismantling of a Health Care Research Office
RFK’s Agenda
Peptides
- New York Times: Kennedy to Allow Broad Use of Unapproved Peptide Injections
- CNN: RFK Jr. acts to ease access to unproven peptides despite opposition from FDA scientists
Food Rhetoric
- Semafor: Trump administration weighs ultra-processed food definition
- PBS: What exactly are ultraprocessed foods? Experts weigh in as RFK Jr.’s effort to define them stalls
- USA Today: The first global food pyramid vs. RFK Jr.’s. They look nothing alike
MAHA Betrayed
- Politico: RFK Jr.’s top adviser quits, MAHA reels
- MS Now: As Election Day nears, a growing number of constituencies feel betrayed by Trump
Corruption and Grift
- New York Times: Trump Administration Backs Down on an Opioid Ban After Kratom Industry Lobbying
- ProPublica: Top U.S. Health Official Backed a Medication Policy Shift That Benefited a Company She Has Stock In
RFK, MAHA and the 2026 Elections
- Politico: RFK Jr.’s making a lot of friends in Iowa
- Wall Street Journal: The MAHA-MAGA Alliance Is Fracturing Before the Midterms
- Axios: “Zero” signs that Kennedy is leaving post-midterms
- Stat: Kennedy’s closing arguments for the 2026 midterms: Fraud, vaccines, and MAHA
- Newsweek: RFK Jr. Says 500M Arabs ‘Don’t Produce Science’ at Michigan Rally
- Associated Press: FACT FOCUS: Kennedy’s claim that Arabs ‘don’t produce science’ meets a Nobel Prize reality check
- Reuters: US health chief RFK Jr faces widespread rebuke over his anti-Arab remarks
- Washington Post: RFK Jr. falsely says Arab Muslims don’t produce prizeworthy science, literature
- New York Times: Kennedy Makes Bigoted Remarks About Arabs at Michigan Campaign Event
- NBC: RFK Jr. faces widespread rebuke over his anti-Arab remarks
- The Hill: RFK Jr. rebuked for derogatory claim about ‘Arabs in the world’
- Axios: Democrats eye appeals to MAHA voters
- Stat: Senate candidate El-Sayed wants to ‘grill’ RFK Jr., calls him the ‘most incompetent HHS secretary ever’
###