Senate Republicans Voted to Put RFK Jr. in Charge and Now They’re Scrambling to Run From the Chaos He’s Unleashed
After testifying before the Senate Finance Committee last week, RFK Jr. has become a ticking political time bomb for Donald Trump and Republicans. Polling shows Americans of every walk of life and political belief overwhelmingly reject Donald Trump and RFK Jr.’s war on health care. Republicans are now stuck defending the indefensible: a conspiracy theorist in charge of the nation’s health who is not just out of step with science, but with the very voters they need. Instead of addressing skyrocketing costs, protecting rural hospitals, or strengthening coverage, Trump and Republicans are allowing RFK Jr. to sow chaos in our health care system and undermine life-saving vaccines. The longer they stand by him, the more they own the disaster that follows.
As RFK Jr. Has Ramped Up His Anti-Vaccine Crusade, Polling Shows Overwhelming Support For Vaccines Across Party Lines
NBC: Poll: Trump’s job ratings stay negative; Americans express strong support for vaccines The latest NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey. Notably, the poll shows U.S. adults expressing strong, bipartisan support for vaccines as Trump’s health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has moved to limit certain shots. An overwhelming majority of Americans support using vaccines for the prevention of diseases, including 49% who strongly support it and 78% who strongly or somewhat support it. Across party lines, large majorities of Democrats (93%), independents (72%) and Republicans (67%) say they support using vaccines
CBS: Americans say vaccines should be made more available, but many say RFK Jr. making them less Americans tend to believe Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s policies are making vaccines less available rather than more available. But the large majority (74%) of Americans feels government policy ought to make vaccines more available if people want them. Also, there’s a wide view (70%) that government policy should encourage parents to vaccinate their children for diseases like measles, mumps and rubella, more specifically. Only a scant few think the government ought to discourage that.
NBC: Ahead of Kennedy hearing, GOP saw poll showing Trump voters support vaccines Polling showing that a majority of President Donald Trump’s voters support vaccines was shared with several Republicans lawmakers’ staffers in a closed-door meeting Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the meeting. NBC News obtained a copy of a memo, dated Aug. 26, summarizing the poll results. It was conducted by veteran Republican pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward and concluded “that there is broad unity across party lines supporting vaccines such as measles (MMR), shingles, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (TDAP), and Hepatitis B.” Fabrizio and Ward presented the findings during the meeting, the sources said.
RFK Jr. Is A Massive Political Liability For Trump And Republicans
CNN: Trump’s former surgeon general calls for RFK Jr. to be fired Jerome Adams, who served as US surgeon general during President Donald Trump’s first administration, is calling for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be fired as controversy continues to swirl over his handling of vaccine approvals. When asked by CNN’s Victor Blackwell on Saturday if Trump should fire Kennedy, Adams said, “I absolutely believe that he should for the sake of the nation and the sake of his legacy.”
STAT: Now, even Senate Republicans are pushing back on Kennedy’s vaccine views For the first time since health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation in February, visible fractures emerged in Senate Republicans’ united front of support for him. At the heart of the conflict: His stance on vaccines, which some Republicans had determinedly looked past before. At a contentious Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday, three Senate Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in poking at Kennedy’s contradictory statements on mRNA vaccines and Operation Warp Speed, the initiative by President Trump that distributed Covid-19 shots to millions of Americans.
The Washington Post: Doubts about RFK Jr. grow for some Republicans Seven months after they voted to confirm longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s health secretary, some Republican senators are having second thoughts. “I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told Kennedy at a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill. “Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.” Barrasso’s warning, which Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) echoed at Thursday’s hearing, was the latest and perhaps most significant sign of growing GOP doubts about the merits — and political wisdom — of Kennedy’s agenda.
The Hill: GOP senators signal to Trump that Kennedy is on thin ice Republican senators are sending clear signs of disapproval and unhappiness with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making it plain to President Trump that they want the administration to address the chaos Kennedy has caused by trying to rewrite the nation’s vaccine policies. GOP senators have stopped short of calling on Kennedy to resign and haven’t yet said they regret voting for him in February, but they want him to back off efforts to change vaccine policy recommendations without sound scientific backing as the administration faces a growing public backlash.
Axios: Trump breaks from RFK on vaccines: “Pure and simple, they work” President Trump said he’s supportive of vaccines on Friday, breaking with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Why it matters: Kennedy has faced widespread criticism for his new vaccine mandates and staffing shake-up at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Driving the news: Trump was asked Friday during an Oval Office meeting about Kennedy’s vaccine mandate changes, which include limiting which children are eligible for vaccines. “I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated,” Trump said of Kennedy’s vaccine mandates for children “They’re just, pure and simple — they work,” he added. “They’re not controversial at all. And I think those vaccines should be used.”