Could Abortion Doom Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS Appointment?

Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is drawing opposition from former Vice President Mike Pence over Kennedy’s remarks on abortion. 

In a statement, Pence said Kennedy “would be the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history.” 

“On behalf of tens of millions of pro-life Americans, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and give the American people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services,” Pence’s statement said. 

Trump’s choice of Kennedy has drawn alarm from health care professionals, who see his history of opposing vaccination as a threat to public health. Kennedy has also pledged to root out “corruption” in U.S. health agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, and has floated the idea of removing fluoride from the nation’s public water supply. 

Kennedy’s views on abortion, though, have drawn criticism not only from anti-abortion stalwarts like Pence but also from abortion rights supporters, who point to Kennedy’s comments earlier this year vaguely supporting limits on abortion “after a certain point.” Pence’s comments suggest there could be opposition to Kennedy from the former vice president’s fellow Christian conservatives in Congress. 

Pence, who served in the House from 2001 to 2013, had a falling out with Trump in 2021 after certifying the 2020 presidential election results despite Trump’s supporters attempting to violently storm the Capitol. The rioters at the time even set up a noose and gallows outside the building while chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” with Trump at the time reportedly thinking that Pence deserved the chants.  

With Trump thinking so little of Pence, it remains to be seen whether the former vice president’s views on Kennedy will carry any weight on Capitol Hill. In the Senate, however, Republicans may see abortion as a more important issue than Trump’s opinion, which might doom Kennedy’s nomination. Kennedy also has other skeletons that could prevent his nomination to a Cabinet position: animal skeletons. 

No one on the right seems to want to criticize Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks—even if they desperately warrant questioning.

Several major conservative politicos have ducked and weaved direct questions about Trump’s decision to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a virulent opponent of all vaccines—to front the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, effectively handing the reins of the nation’s health policies to a renowned conspiracy theorist who doesn’t believe that AIDS is caused by HIV, insists that WiFi causes cancer, and wants to remove fluoride from U.S. drinking water (fluoride was first introduced into public waterways in 1945 and has reduced cavities and tooth decay in adults and children by as much as 25 percent, according to the American Dental Association).

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday, Indiana Senator-elect Jim Banks refused to come out on the side of science, backing Trump’s anti-vaccine Cabinet pick by entertaining the notion that a “thoughtful conversation about vaccines” is warranted.

“The scientific and medical community has been clear for years that what he says about vaccines is false. They don’t cause autism, there’s no direct link. Does that bother you at all?” asked Tapper.

“Look Jake, in the election Donald Trump won the popular vote, and one of the things that he promised on the campaign trail is to have a serious and thoughtful conversation about vaccines, especially after the pandemic,” Banks said, criticizing long-standing mandatory vaccine policy.

“Remember, it’s Congress that makes policy and works with the president—President Trump—to carry out his agenda,” Banks added. “I feel very comfortable with RFK Jr. having a significant seat at the table to lead big debates about this.”

Kennedy’s vaccine conspiracies aren’t just hogwash—they’ve caused legitimate, real-world harm. Preceding a deadly measles outbreak on the Pacific islands of Samoa in 2019, Kennedy’s anti-vax nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, spread rampant misinformation about the efficacy of vaccines, causing the nation’s vaccination rate to plummet from the 60–70 percent range to just 31 percent, according to Mother Jones. That year, the country reported 5,707 cases of measles—an illness that was declared eliminated by the United States in 2000 thanks to advancements in modern medicine (read: vaccines)—as well as 83 measles-related deaths, the majority of which were children under the age of 5.

But at least one former member of Trumpworld has condemned Kennedy—though only because the ardent vaccine foe is too pro-choice.

“For the majority of his career, RFK Jr. has defended abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy, supports overturning the Dobbs decision and has called for legislation to codify Roe v Wade,” former Vice President Mike Pence said in a statement obtained by The Dispatch. “If confirmed, RFK, Jr. would be the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history.”

“On behalf of tens of millions of pro-life Americans, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and give the American people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services,” he added.

It should be reiterated that vaccines have proven to be one of the greatest accomplishments of modern medicine. The jabs are so effective at preventing illness that they have practically eradicated some of the worst diseases from our collective culture, from rabies to polio and smallpox, a fact that has possibly fooled some into believing that the viruses and their complications aren’t a significant threat for the average, health-conscious individual.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin may be putting his weight behind Democrats’ final push to approve Joe Biden’s pending judicial nominees.

Earlier this year, Manchin had pledged that he would not back any Biden-nominated judge who did not have at least one vote of GOP support. But now it seems Manchin is finally ready to play ball with the rest of the Democrats.

“We’re in different times right now,” Manchin told Axios when asked about his past promise to reject Biden’s nominees. He added that “my Republican friends are under the microscope.”

Manchin previously claimed his objection was in the name of bipartisanship.

“Just one Republican. That’s all I’m asking for,” he said during a March interview with Politico. “Give me something bipartisan. This is my own little filibuster. If they can’t get one Republican, I vote for none. I’ve told [Democrats] that. I said, ‘I’m sick and tired of it, I can’t take it anymore.’”

Manchin has voted against several of Biden’s judicial nominees based on that rule.

Senate Democrats are rushing to confirm Biden’s final nominees for federal judge positions before the party loses the chamber majority and Donald Trump returns to office in January. There are currently 45 judicial vacancies, and the Senate has 20 days left in session.

One of Matt Gaetz’s closest allies in Congress, Representative Jim Jordan, thinks the House Ethics Committee report about Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee should not be released. 

On Fox News Thursday night, Laura Ingraham asked Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, what would happen regarding the committee’s report on Gaetz that was scheduled to be released Friday. Jordan defended his former House colleague.

 “Well, it’s my understanding that it’s not supposed to go public. So if it’s not supposed to under the rules, it shouldn’t go public,” Jordan said. He spoke approvingly of Gaetz taking the attorney general position. 

“There are very few people who have the cross-examination skills he does, and I want someone in the Justice Department who’s not going to say moms and dads in school board meetings need to be investigated,” Jordan added.   

Jordan’s defense of Gaetz suggests that Trump’s nominee still has allies on Capitol Hill, at least in the House of Representatives, and that they will try to defend him if details from the report or the report itself become public. The choice of Gaetz as the nation’s top law enforcement official has drawn backlash from Republican senators, even unpopular ones like Ted Cruz, which is not unexpected when one is under investigation for allegations of trafficking and having sex with a 17-year-old girl. 

Jordan, it should be noted, has been accused of ignoring accusations of widespread sex abuse while coaching wrestling at Ohio State University. 

Gaetz also has extremist Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on his side, who hopes that Gaetz would prosecute vaccine “crimes against humanity.” But her opinion matters little in a Senate confirmation process, where Gaetz will have to win over a narrow Republican Senate majority. Trump may have to resort to recess appointments to get Gaetz confirmed. 

Historically, presidential Cabinet picks are background-checked by the FBI—but Donald Trump’s administration has instead opted to rely on private companies to examine his appointments, a decision that could allow him to practically shoe-in some of his most controversial candidates.

Trump and his team are attempting to avoid a process that they believe is both excessively slow and intrusive, and which turns up dirt that could later be turned into political leverage by their opponents, according to sources that spoke with CNN.

The FBI has conducted the president’s background checks since President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, providing critical security clearance to confirm that malicious foreign agents aren’t infiltrating the highest rungs of government.

But the decision to move away from traditional security expectations has the dual effect of helping the incoming administration circumvent a particularly grueling process for a pool of candidates who are, by all means, dangerously bizarre and inexperienced.

His choice for director of national intelligence, former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, regularly amplifies Russian propaganda and conspiracy theories. Her role would have her oversee 18 intelligence agencies, but critics—even in the House Intelligence Committee—have drawn attention to the danger of her nomination considering her particular affinity for foreign dictators like Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s pick for attorney general, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, has been the subject of several major controversies. Perhaps most notably, he was the subject of a House Ethics investigation that accused him of sex trafficking a minor, and was also faced with a related investigation by the Justice Department. (The conveniently timed appointment—and Gaetz’s subsequent resignation—had the added benefit of killing the House investigation into Gaetz’s alleged misconduct with women and minors.) Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

And Trump tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a virulent vaccine conspiracy theorist with a wild history that included propping up a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park for fun—to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Last week, it was leaked that the administration did not believe Kennedy would pass the bar for a security clearance—but that could all change with Trump’s decision to veer away from the federal standard.

National security experts in Washington believe that the decision to outsource the clearances is further evidence that Trump—who has a known history of benefiting from Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election—“doesn’t want harmony.”

They “don’t want the FBI to coordinate a norm; they want to hammer the norm,” Dan Meyer, a national security attorney, told CNN.