Swamp Creature RFK Jr. Gets His Hands Dirtier: Public Health Project Newsletter

You don’t hear much about ‘draining the swamp’ from Republican leaders these days. And that’s probably the way Donald Trump likes it given his administration’s unprecedented conflicts of interests, self-enrichment, and blatant influence peddling at the public’s expense.

Health Secretary RFK Jr. continues to prove to be among the most shameless swamp creatures in the Trump cabinet, and it’s not because he thinks it’s a good idea to throw live snakes into a pool full of children.

This week, the NYT blew the lid off Kennedy’s latest brush with corruption. Specifically, RFK Jr. abused his power as health secretary to personally pressure Ohio’s governor out of a state ban on the potentially addictive mind-alternating drug Kratom, often found in gas stations and linked to “thousands of deaths”. Kennedy apparently did so on behalf of an ex-con Kratommaker who coincidently poured money into his presidential campaign coffers after it was suspended. Shortly after RFK Jr’s shady intervention, a million dollar-check from the ex-con’s company discreetly floated into a RFK Jr.-tied PAC.

The revelations followed Reuters’ reporting just last week that Kennedy “put in a good word” for the convicted fraudster who happened to be a big GOP donor, which helped convince Donald Trump to grant a full pardon. None of which was surprising as Kennedy hasn’t voiced a word of concern over the 15 times Trump pardoned health care fraudsters who collectively defrauded the federal government of over $2 billion in taxpayer money. (Remember that the next time RFK Jr. hosts a sanctimonious press event pretending to care about fraud.)

And it seems like only yesterday RFK Jr. reversed course on his long-held glyphosate opposition to fully endorse Trump’s executive order that plowed the field for increased production as a gift to GOP chemical industry megadonors. Why drain the swamp when there’s so much money in maintaining it for Trump’s orbit?

As We’ve Been Saying All Along: The Washington Post talked with numerous HHS insiders and confirmed that not only is the Trump-RFK Jr. anti-vax agenda alive and well, it’s creeping into every corner of the department. While revealing some alarming new details, the reporting confirms what Protect Our Care has been warning about for months: RFK Jr. never stopped pulling every lever at his disposal to ramp up unfounded attacks on vaccines, apparently until every preventable disease once thought eliminated makes a comeback. Just this week, we learned Kennedy sent a scathing letter attempting to bully a scientific journal over its decision to retract a study with dubious conclusions that Kennedy has used as a cudgel to stoke anti-vax fear.

Untrusted Inside and Outside the HHS: While Secretary Kennedy has been enjoying the lowest public trust rating for health information in the country, he’s apparently faring no better among his own staff. “More than a dozen federal employees and contractors who work inside” HHS told POLITICO “they continue to distrust Kennedy and his deputies’ policy decisions. … “The majority of health department employees who spoke with POLITICO said they’re still unhappy with life at work and don’t feel that they can do their jobs as effectively as they could before the Trump administration.”

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