Harris’s one-word response to Trump’s declaration that he wants RKF Jr to work on ‘women’s health’

Katie Hawkinson
Fri, November 1, 2024 

Harris’s one-word response to Trump’s declaration that he wants RKF Jr to work on ‘women’s health’
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Kamala Harris gave a short but clear response after Donald Trump suggested that he will put Robert F Kennedy Jr in charge of “women’s health” if elected on Tuesday.

“No,” the vice president wrote from her personal X account Thursday night, attaching a red heart emoji. In the clip she re-posted, Trump told his supporters in Nevada that Kennedy will work on “health and women’s health” if he regains the White House.

“He’s going to work on health and women’s health, and all of the different reasons because we’re not really a wealthy—or a healthy country,” Trump said on Thursday night.



Kennedy also claimed earlier this week that Trump promised him “control” over multiple health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Trump campaign called his claims premature, according to the New York Times.

Kamala Harris gave a one-word response to Donald Trump’s announcement that Robert F Kennedy Jr will work on ‘women’s health’ if he’s elected (Getty Images)

“President Trump has promised me ... control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others, and then also the USDA, which ... is key to making America healthy,” he said. “Because we’ve got to get off of seed oils, and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture.”

Kennedy ran alongside Nicole Shanahan as an independent candidate for the presidency before suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump in August.

Before leaving the race, the 70-year-old said he supports restricting access to abortion at “fetal viability,” CNN reported.

In addition to his stance on abortion, Kennedy is a staunch opponent of the COVID-19 vaccine and has spread misinformation about its safety and efficacy.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, seen here with Donald Trump, is known for his anti-vaccine views, previously said he supports restricting abortion after ‘fetal viability’ (REUTERS)

Kennedy’s organization, Children’s Health Defense, has advocated against vaccinations, including by spreading the unfounded claim that vaccines cause autism.

Kennedy also falsely claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci colluded with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to exaggerate the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic in his book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Forbes reported.

Spreading COVID-19 misinformation resulted in Meta deactivating his Instagram account in 2021.

He also spread a baseless conspiracy theory about COVID-19 last year, claiming the virus targets “Caucasians and Black people” while “Ashkenazi Jews and [Chinese people]” are the most immune.

“The claim that COVID-19 was a bioweapon created by the Chinese or Jews to attack Caucasians and Black people is deeply offensive and feeds into sinophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories,” according to a statement from the Anti-Defamation League at the time.

The Independent has contacted Kennedy for comment.


Harris: RFK Jr. ‘last person in America’ who should set health policy

Joseph Choi
Fri, November 1, 2024 

Vice President Harris on Friday blasted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s possible role as a public health authority in a second Donald Trump administration, calling him the “last person” who should be considered for such a position.

“He [Trump] has indicated that the person who would be in charge of health care for the American people is someone who has routinely promoted junk science and crazy conspiracy theories, who once expressed support for a national abortion ban. And who is the exact last person in America who should be setting health care policy for America’s families and children,” Harris told reporters Friday afternoon.

In recent weeks, Kennedy and the Trump campaign have indicated he would have outsized influence over public health policy should former President Trump retake the Oval Office.

Harris has previously cited Trump’s embrace of Kennedy as evidence of him being unfit for office.

“Putting an anti-abortion conspiracy theorist in charge of our public health agencies says everything you need to know about how Donald Trump would govern,” Harris said in a post on social platform X.

Kennedy said Monday that Trump has promised him “control” of public health agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Trump has said he would let Kennedy “go wild on food” and “go wild on medicines” if reelected.

“The key that … President Trump has promised me is — is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its subagencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others, and then also the USDA, which is … key to making America healthy,” Kennedy said in a video viewed by The Hill, referencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. “Because we’ve got to get off of seed oils, and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture.”

Health experts have expressed concerns over the harmful impact Kennedy could have on public health if Trump wins a second term, citing his long-held beliefs in debunked conspiracy theories.

Kennedy is a leading voice among anti-vaccine proponents, having long pushed the debunked claims linking vaccinations to autism. Though he has at times rejected being called anti-vaccine, he has also claimed there is no such thing as a “safe and effective” vaccine.

Critics of Kennedy have cited his actions in Samoa as an example of the harm his influence can have on public health. In the months before a 2019 outbreak of measles in the country that killed 83 people, Kennedy and the nonprofit he leads, the Children’s Health Defense, visited Samoa and publicly supported prominent vaccine opponents.

Kennedy has denied any involvement, saying in a 2023 film, “I never told anybody not to vaccinate.”

Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team, said in an interview on CNN that Kennedy is seeking federal data to force vaccines off the market.