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“Well America, I hope you like measles,” Jake Tapper joked Thursday evening on CNN, segueing into a breaking report on vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being tapped by President-elect Donald Trump’s administration to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
The timing couldn’t have been more apt, as Tapper had been hosting a discussion with former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield on the controversy that the Trump administration has drawn for its proposed cabinet selections this week.
Kennedy, a once-Presidential hopeful who suspended his independent campaign in August and endorsed Trump shortly after, has long been vocal about his belief in the lack of effectiveness of vaccinations of any kind, also arguing against their ability to curb the spread of COVID. In recent days, a video has recirculated showing Kennedy proposing a theory that COVID “attacks certain races disproportionately” and “the people most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and the Chinese.” Kennedy denied the comments in 2023, saying his words were meant to express his belief that the U.S. was making “ethnically targeted” bioweapons.
Tapper has been a vocal opponent of Kennedy’s vaccine beliefs for several years now. When challenged to a debate by Kennedy in 2021, the CNN anchor called the invitation “truly embarrassing” and continued “I’m not going to lend credence to a conspiracy theorist whose views are so false, unhinged, and dangerous to public health his own siblings feel the need publish op-eds against him.”
Popular on Variety Before the election, Kennedy had made regular appearances at Trump campaign events. Trump had vowed that Kennedy would “go wild on medicines” in his administration if elected.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote in a statement Thursday, announcing Kennedy had been tapped to lead the HHS. “The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.”
