Aug 30 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Saturday called on Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign, days after a senior public health official was fired and four others resigned in disputes over Kennedy’s unorthodox opposition to vaccines.
Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, wrote in a New York Times guest essay that Kennedy is “endangering the health of the American people now and into the future.”
This week, Kennedy ousted the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez, less than a month into her tenure, deepening disarray at the nation’s main public health agency. Monarez had refused to adopt new limitations on the availability of some vaccines urged by Kennedy, saying they went against scientific evidence.
Four other senior CDC officials resigned in protest, citing anti-vaccine policies and misinformation promoted by Kennedy and his team; hundreds of their colleagues walked out of the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta in support of the departing leaders.
Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate’s health committee and an opponent of Kennedy’s confirmation earlier this year, wrote that Kennedy ousted Monarez because she refused “to act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous policies.”
Yeah. Before he even started would have been ideal.
I know right, how that twatwaffle ever got confirmed is beyond me.
Because Harris told him no, so confirming him was anti Democrats. It didn’t have to be any more complicated than that. He went to both presidential frontrunners, asked for a quid pro quo scenario that is illegal … and one candidate said yes, the other said no. So he endorsed the one who said yes for a position. Performing an illegal act and being anti Democrats is all it takes to get MAGA support. He could have advocated to euthenize half the population and they would have confirmed him.
Definitely plausible, but source?
In early 2024 Trump called Kennedy a radical left liberal, a bunch of lunatics, and of course not a Republican. That all flipped as soon as Kennedy met with Trump and suddenly Kennedy endorsed him, and was given a position in his cabinet.
Kennedy trying to get a meeting with Harris was reported by just about every media station.
Even Fox reported on it at the time http://www.foxnews.com/politics/rfk-asked-harris-cabinet-post-exchange-dropping-out-endorsing-her-report.amp?espv=1
Trump meeting with Kennedy was reported as well. Going so far as to say they were working together but didn’t guarantee a position on national television. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4846476-robert-f-kennedy-jr-endorsement-donald-trump-administration/
Trump saying he was going to put him into a position before the election occured: https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/11/01/2024-elections-live-coverage-updates-analysis/trump-rfk-jr-health-care-vaccines-00186837
You’re leaving out the part where Democratic party didn’t have a primary, tried to coronate yet ANOTHER candidate that didn’t win a single primary, screwed with Kennedy’s name on ballots in multiple states, and loads more I’ve forgotten or otherwise neglected to mention.
To add to the sources shared by the other user, RFK Jr. was also talking with his running mate about wanting to be secretary of health and human services as a quid pro quo for dropping out of the presidential race.
He was rejected by Harris, but received favorably by Trump, whose campaign had more to lose if RFK Jr. stayed in the race, given that his platform was closer to Trump’s and risked splitting the vote.
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We can get paid? Where do I sign?
The best time for RFK Jr.'s career to end was twenty years ago. The next best time is today.
Kennedy’s an interesting case.
With the rest of Trump’s appointees, it’s tough to suss out exactly what they’re about. They’re generally some combination of corrupt, ideologically blinded, power-hungry, narcissistic and emotionally unstable, but it’s hard to be sure just how much of which they are.
But with Kennedy, it’s simple - he’s a raving lunatic.
Just plain ol’ batshit crazy
But with Kennedy, it’s simple - he’s a raving lunatic.
I think you’re heavily underestimating Kennedy as a corrupt, ideologically blinded, power-hungry, narcissistic and emotionally unstable bureaucrat.
Those aren’t mutually exclusive.
He doesn’t seem to be in it for money or power, though. Fame maybe. Or power in the sense that he’s given a lot of levers to pull, though he doesn’t get to choose the levers. Narcissistic maybe, emotionally he seems fine though mentally wacko.
He doesn’t seem to be in it for money or power, though.
He’s absolutely in it for the power. His campaign to reshape US Health policy around a survival of the fittest eugenics ideology is plain as day.
Also, former (maybe current?) junkie.
He believes in miasma theory. It all makes sense in that context so he’s not just a raving lunatic.
Ah.
I’m betting that, like all too many people, he’s a binarist.
That seems to be the reasoning error at the heart of miasma theory.
The thing is that there’s some small measure of truth to it. Good health really does, to some degree, depend on good nutrition, good hygiene, a sound immune system and so on. But the way in which those things actually matter is the degree to which they help people fight off sickness (or to which their absence makes people more prone to sickness). The ultimate cause is, rather obviously, germs, viruses, etc., but we’re better able to resist them if we’re generally healthier, enjoying good nutrition and good hygiene and so on.
But that’s not the way Kennedy sees it. His simple-minded take on it is wholly binaristic, and essentially reactionary to boot. He can’t or won’t grasp the nuance of sickness being caused by germs and viruses and bacteria and things like poor nutrition and poor hygiene making us more susceptible to them - to him, it has to be entirely one or the other. And apparently mostly because disreputable people profit undeservedly from pretty standard capitalistic manipulations of health care based on germ theory, he’s decided that germ theory is entirely false and miasma theory thus entirely true.
So maybe not so much a lunatic as a shallow, confused snd deeply invested binaristic contrarian. Though I think a case could be made that that’s not far enough removed from lunatic to make any meaningful difference.
I mean the fact that it’s not every single democrat in Washington demanding this tells you all you need to know
What would change if they all did?
Every time a Democrat is President, I get an earful about how we need 60 votes in the Senate to do anything. Currently, the Republicans have 53.
Senatorial obstruction of the rest of the Republican agenda for '25/'26 could conceivably go a long way towards removing RFK Jr.
Barely any of this agenda is passing the legislative. It’s nearly entirely executive overreach. Democrats are unwilling to do that so nothing gets done. Republicans don’t care.
Barely any of this agenda is passing the legislative.
The Big Beautiful Bill reallocated trillions of dollars. Blocking that would have hampered Trump’s agenda significantly, simply by depriving him of the funds to pursue it.
And every single Democrat in the Senate voted against it. It passed anyway.
That was passed under the special rules of budget reconciliation. The Dems are shitheels but they did act pretty aggressively against the big bullshit bill (as much as they could within the “rules”).
What the hell are you talking about? He passed his entire legislative agenda with the full complicity of the Democratic leadership.
What kind of Fox News-equivalent bullshit reality are you living in? The Dem leadership are totally inept and feckless, but they certainly didn’t vote for this shit.
Yeah the comment you replied to makes no sense. Democrats have gotten their picks confirmed, everything after that is actions under the executive when it comes to RFK.
I can see how obstruction could make a difference (though not guaranteed). But not how them all saying he should be out would change anything.
Faith in the Democratic Party possibly
I see them as protecting their dignity by not screaming into the void. Sanders isn’t accomplishing anything.
He is a much needed voice of dissent that proves that someone, anyone, cares about what is going on. Anyone who does not speak out or act out against this is complicit, or else terrified into complacency and therefore still complicit.
Bernie can’t oust RFK on his own but he can raise a banner for others to rally around and perhaps force legislative action about this. It might happen. If he stayed silent then it is guaranteed not to happen.
A voice of dissent… in the New York Times? Few people who read the NYT are Republicans, and few of those Republicans are the sort that support Trump. Bernie is preaching to the choir here, and I don’t see why you assume that people who don’t preach to the choir actually don’t care.
Inaction in a situation like this is complicity. To hell with dignity, these people are fucking fascists
Dangerously and recklessly unqualified.
Yeah he should. But he won’t. Trump’s whole admin is full of the worst people possible.
I can’t believe we have a smack head leading NHS and giving advice about vaccines.
The worst people, rather than electing a bad government decided to vote for a worst government. Enjoy!
Amazon and Netflix thank you!
Bernie is great at saying things
I hope before he kills us all.
Secretary of Disease and Human Disservices.
You tell him, Bernie! That’ll teach him!
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