RFK Jr.’s Conspiracy Theories: Here’s What Trump’s Pick For Health Secretary Has Promoted

Topline

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now primed to take over as President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services next year, drawing renewed scrutiny to a string of false claims he has helped spread over the better part of the past two decades.

Key Facts

He Claimed Vaccines Can Cause Autism

For years, Kennedy Jr. has promoted the theory that the preservative thimerosal, which has largely been phased out of modern vaccine formulas, appears to be responsible for a rise in autism diagnoses,and that the government knew but “knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children,” he wrote in Rolling Stone and Salon in 2006. This has been thoroughly debunked, with a consensus among a number of certified health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and more, found no credible link between vaccines and autism.

He Claimed Dr. Anthony Fauci And Bill Gates Exaggerated The Pandemic To Promote Vaccines

Kennedy Jr. accused the pair in his 2021 book, The Real Anthony Fauci, of launching “a historic coup d’état against Western democracy” by exercising outsize influence over the media and public health realm, while Kennedy also promoted use of unapproved treatments for Covid-19, such as ivermectin.

Rfk Jr. Said Covid-19 Targets ‘caucasians And Black People’

Kennedy Jr. was caught on camera in July telling fellow diners that “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” and “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” according to a video made public in the New York Post, which also shows him saying the U.S. “put hundreds of millions of dollars into ethnically targeted microbes” and labs in Ukraine collected Russian and Chinese DNA “so we can target people by race.”

He Says Mass Shootings Are Linked To Prescription Drugs

Kennedy Jr. blamed school shootings on drugs like the antidepressant Prozac in a recent Twitter Spaces discussion, telling owner Elon Musk, “Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events” (there’s no scientifically established correlation between psychiatric drugs and mass violence, according to experts cited by PolitiFact).

He Believes The 2004 Presidential Election Was Stolen From John Kerry

Kennedy Jr. said in a 2006 Rolling Stone article he was “convinced” that voter fraud in the 2004 presidential election allowed former Republican President George W. Bush to steal the victory from Democrat John Kerry, but while a 2005 postmortem by the Democratic Party found a breakdown of the election system in Ohio, it found no evidence of fraud.

He Says The Cia Was Involved In The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy

He’s made the claim for years, and repeated it recently to Fox News’ Sean Hannity (though the federal government’s Warren Commission found that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he shot JFK in 1963, conspiracies have persisted ever since).

He Thinks Sirhan Sirhan May Not Be Guilty Of Killing His Father

Kennedy Jr. cast doubt on the conviction of Sirhan Sirhan in the 1968 assassination of his father, former U.S. Attorney General and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s lawyers have claimed in recent years that he was hypnotized and coerced to kill Kennedy.

Chief Critic

Four of Kennedy Jr.’s 10 siblings criticized his independent run Monday, calling it “dangerous” in a statement by Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend released shortly after his announcement. “Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same vision, values or judgment,” they wrote. The rebuke marks the latest effort by members of his family to publicly distance themselves from his controversial views. His sister, Kerry Kennedy called his comments about a genetically engineered Covid-19 virus “deplorable and untruthful,” his brother Joseph Kennedy II told the The Boston Globe the statements were “morally and factually wrong” and a “play on antisemitic myths and stoke mistrust of the Chinese” that “in no way reflect the words and actions of our father, Robert F. Kennedy.” His nephew, Joe Kennedy III, called the statements were “hurtful and wrong,” tweeting “I unequivocally condemn what he said.” His wife, actress Cheryl Hines, who introduced him on stage in Philadelphia Monday, said his “opinions are not a reflection of [her] own,” in a tweet in 2022 after he compared vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany.

Contra

Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly disavowed the “anti-vaxx” label, claiming he is not against safe vaccines and has vaccinated his children.

Key Background

Kennedy is the founder and chairman of the Children’s Health Defense nonprofit, a leading promoter of vaccine skepticism. The group’s influence surged during the Covid-19 pandemic and was the subject of widespread condemnation for a controversial film critics said targeted the Black community with vaccine misinformation. Kennedy Jr. announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination on April 6, calling Biden a close family friend and vowing not to run a “mean-spirited campaign,” while explaining the two “differ really dramatically on issues like the war, like censorship, like the control of Wall Street and the big corporations of our federal government and the pharmaceutical companies and also use of fear as a governing tool,” he told CNN. Politicos have observed Kennedy Jr.’s relatively strong polling numbers (similar to those of GOP candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis) are more of a reflection of his name recognition and a lack of enthusiasm about Biden, who more than half of Democratic voters don’t want to run again, according to an April Associated Press/NORC poll.

Further Reading

Robert Kennedy Jr., With Musk, Pushes Right-Wing Ideas and Misinformation (The New York Times)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tests the conspiratorial appetite of Democrats (Washington Post)

Have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and His Anti-vax Conspiracies Found a Home? (Vanity Fair)