November 15, 2024 10:55 AM UTC

Gov. Polis Partly Walks Back Ill-Advised RFK Jr. Love

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• by: Colorado Pols

Politico reported the latest gobsmacking announcement from the Trump 2.0 transition team yesterday you’ve probably already seen, failed spoiler presidential candidate and preeminent public health conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be nominated to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services–the agency tasked with protecting the public from, among a host of other threats, crackpots like RFK Jr.:

The expected pick, which will roil many public health experts, comes after Trump promised to let Kennedy “go wild” with health and food policy in his administration after Kennedy dropped his own presidential bid to endorse the now-president-elect. It’s also a sign of the opening Trump sees after he scored a decisive electoral victory and Republicans won a comfortable majority in the Senate…

Kennedy, 70, may still face a steep slope to confirmation after his years of touting debunked claims that vaccines cause autism, written a book accusing former National Institutes of Health official Anthony Fauci of conspiring with tech mogul Bill Gates and drugmakers to sell Covid-19 vaccines and said regulatory officials are industry puppets who should be removed. [Pols emphasis]

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Kennedy will be treated like all other nominees.

“I don’t have any preconceived notion about it,” Cornyn said.

When asked if vaccine positions might make confirmation difficult: “I’m sure it will come up.”

RFK Jr. has for years promoted the thoroughly discredited and harmful misinformation that vaccines cause autism. Last year, RFK. Jr. was caught on camera suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic “targeted” white people while sparing “Ashkenazi Jews.” RFK Jr. promotes the completely unfounded idea that Wifi and 5G cell phone signals cause cancer and other health maladies. It’s a nomination so perfectly at odds with the needed skillset for the job that it manages to compare with nominating Rep. Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General, whose experience with the criminal justice system comes primarily from being investigated by the Justice Department for child sex trafficking.

Though most observers with a rudimentary understanding of RFK Jr.’s record agree that he is an almost comically poor choice to serve in any Cabinet position let alone Secretary of HHS, the debate over RFK Jr.’s nomination here in Colorado went sideways yesterday afternoon after Gov. Jared Polis, known despite his general progressive leanings as soft on vaccination requirements, hailed RFK Jr.’s nomination in a rude shock to local and national Democrats lining up to express their disgust:

To be clear, those were not the quotes from RFK. Jr. about Wifi causing cancer and COVID-19 being engineered to spare the Jews. It’s true that in the long record of public pronouncements on a wide variety of issues there are doubtless some issues RFK Jr. has touched on that may have a degree of scientific validity–although you’ll never catch us drinking unpasteurized milk. But there’s just no way to separate that bit of potentially useful alternative perspective from the completely insane and long-debunked ideas that RFK Jr. promotes about so many other subjects. And all of that before we even touch on RFK Jr.’s personal history, full of by RFK Jr.’s own admission “so many skeletons” that they could elect him “king of the world.”

As Colorado Public Radio’s Bente Birkeland reports, the reaction to Polis’ praise for RFK. Jr. from fellow Colorado Democrats including the chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party Shad Murib was, to understate out of politeness, not positive:

[Sen. Kyle] Mullica accused Polis of spreading misinformation, saying the governor should be standing up for science and standing up for public health experts.

“And I’ll tell you now, RFK Jr. is not an expert,” Mullica told CPR News. “He is not a scientist. He is someone who has figured out how to profit off of this misinformation and who really likes all the attention that comes along with it. And I think that it’s just a sad day.”

The head of the Colorado Democratic Party Shad Murib also weighed in after Polis made his endorsement with a one-word response on X: “Welp”…

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been credibly accused of sexual assault and consistently undermines trust in science using his personal beliefs and conspiracy theories as evidence,” Murib said in a statement. [Pols emphasis]

Gov. Polis’ praise for RFK Jr.’s nomination is especially problematic after Polis joined with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker this week to form a coalition of state governors to fight “against increasing threats of autocracy” created by Donald Trump’s re-election. Falling in line behind one of Trump 2.0’s most controversial nominees is not exactly a show of strength for the resistance, and within a few hours Polis found himself in full damage control mode:

This is a partial climb-down from Polis’ previous full-throated support for RFK Jr.’s nomination, but it doesn’t address enough of RFK Jr.’s deranged history on a broad range of issues to be sufficient–mostly because if it did, there’s no way any rational person could justify supporting this man for any position of authority let alone over public health. In a regrettable moment of “post-partisan” exuberance, Gov. Polis either forgot or disregarded the long list of excellent reasons to not issue his original statement.

Gov. Polis, who also has a reputation for being candid about mistakes when he makes them, will have plenty of chances to fully walk this gaffe back between now and when RFK Jr. is expected to face the scrutiny of confirmation in January–assuming that process isn’t short-circuited by a compliant Senate.

You’ll hear an audible sigh of relief from public health experts across the state and nation when he does.