RFK and Trump. MAHA Meets MAGA

Debra Saunders on Jan 30, 2025

WASHINGTON -- Caroline Kennedy, the surviving child of the late President John F. Kennedy, is leading the charge against her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's pick to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services.

In a letter released Tuesday, she wrote that her cousin Bobby's "views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed." Then Caroline K., former President Joe Biden's Ambassador to Australia, went for the jugular. "I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together," she wrote. "It's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator."

She continued that RFK Jr., 71, is a "charismatic" predator whose younger brothers and cousins followed Kennedy down the path of "addiction, illness and death."

Sadly, RFK Jr.'s younger brother David died of a drug overdose in 1984. Some 40 years later, Caroline Kennedy is using that against her own cousin, who aligned himself with a Republican. That's her idea of family.

"Unlike Bobby, I try not to speak for my father," JFK's daughter disingenuously continued, "but I am certain that he and my uncle Bobby, who gave their lives in public service, and my uncle Teddy, who devoted his Senate career to improving health care, would be disgusted."

For you kids out there, "uncle Teddy" is the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who in 1969 drove a car into the drink in Chappaquiddick and then swam away, leaving passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, to drown. During hours that should have been used to alert authorities and save the young woman, Kennedy spent the night in his hotel room. Uncle Teddy did not call police until the morning.

But Teddy was a good Democrat.

And RFK Jr. was not.

RFK Jr. has been very open about his addiction to opioids, which he abused for 14 years. His recovery has spanned 40 years.

Caroline K. doesn't care. She wants to burn his career.

It's a shame, because the would-be secretary has a mission that would be good for America. Great even. As he told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, "President Trump has asked me to end the chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again."

Washington does not know how to react.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., responded, "So is that the only reason why you're at HHS? ... To address that one issue?"

Well, it is The Issue.

Kennedy responded that Trump picked him because he's "in a unique position to do that."

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., offered that he is "struggling" with RFK Jr.'s nomination because of the nominee's long history of criticizing vaccines. RFK now describes himself as pro-vaccine. As a doctor, that bothers Cassidy, because vaccines have saved lives.

Maybe this will help. Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Robert R. Redfield recently told "Humanize" podcaster (and my husband) Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute that he is "a big advocate of Bobby Kennedy becoming Secretary of Health. Bobby Kennedy is not anti-vaccine."

Redfield continued: "Bobby Kennedy is for transparency about vaccines. What is the safety profile of the vaccine? What does the data show about safety of the vaccine?" Asking about safety "doesn't make you anti-vaccine."

Tell that to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who told Kennedy, "Frankly, you frighten people."

Whitehouse then called on Trump's HHS pick to make it "indisputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases where that will keep people safe."

Mandatory vaccinations? People lost their jobs and careers for refusing the jab. That frightens people.

I support vaccines, and I am vaccinated, but I also believe in choice.

I can't think of a better way to get Americans behind Kennedy than to have a cousin release a letter impugning a recovering addict's decades of sobriety, a Democrat scoff at RFK Jr.'s war on chronic disease, and another Democrat propose mandatory vaccinations.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.

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