Spineless Republicans Cave to Trump and Advance RFK Jr. Confirmation

The Senate Finance Committee voted to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for secretary of health and human services Tuesday in a narrow 14–13 vote, with every Republican voting for the nomination and every Democrat voting against it.

Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican and medical doctor, announced his support for Kennedy Tuesday morning in a shocking X post after previously being open about his reservations. Kennedy has a reputation as a staunch anti-vaxxer, and Cassidy had urged the nominee to disavow comments that vaccines cause autism, which has been thoroughly debunked.

Now Kennedy’s nomination will go to the full Senate, where he will likely be confirmed, as no Senate Republicans have publicly spoken out against him despite numerous allegations of sexual abuse, including a new revelation Monday that he paid nearly $1 million to settle a sexual misconduct claim from an employee at his anti-vaccination nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, in 2020.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has been a staunch opponent of Kennedy’s nomination, attacking his wishy-washy views on abortion and even releasing a video montage last week highlighting Donald Trump’s criticisms of Kennedy when he was an independent candidate for president in early 2024.

In his confirmation hearings, though, Kennedy has hinted at restricting access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which indicates that he’s now fully behind Trump and the Republican Party’s anti-choice policies. That would be enough for Kennedy to be confirmed by the Republican-majority Senate, putting him in position to carry out his and the right wing’s extreme views on public health.

This story has been updated.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. paid nearly $1 million to settle a sexual misconduct case brought by one of the employees at his anti-vax nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense.

The woman who accused Kennedy was roped into a nondisclosure agreement in 2020, according to sources that spoke with Mediaite.

Kennedy was tapped by Donald Trump to head the Department of Health and Human Services. During his confirmation hearings last week, Kennedy categorically denied what he described as “frivolous, unfounded allegations” against him.

“I entered into confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements to prohibit these individuals from continuing to make these allegations,” Kennedy said at the time.

The 71-year-old was further pressed on the matter by Senate Democrats in a series of follow-up questions after the hearings. That’s when Kennedy plainly admitted to at least one incident in which he settled a case over inappropriate behavior.

Two of the questions submitted to Kennedy by Democrats read as follows:

“Yes or no, have you ever reached a settlement agreement with an individual or organization that accused you of misconduct or inappropriate behavior?”

“Yes or no, have you ever agreed to or been subject to a non-disclosure agreement with any individual or organization?”

Kennedy answered yes to each one, but volunteered no follow-up details.

It’s not the only time that sexual misconduct details have emerged about the conspiratorial political hopeful, however. In 2024, Kennedy was accused of (and sort of apologized for) groping his children’s babysitter, Eliza Cooney, in the late 1990s.

The myriad details of Kennedy’s private life—as well as his virulent anti-vax prerogatives—have given pause to a number of lawmakers on the Hill responsible for confirming him. Kennedy has publicly admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park, believed the 2004 presidential election was stolen from Democrat John Kerry, peddled conspiracies that the CIA killed his uncle, chainsawed off the head of a dead whale (per his daughter Kick Kennedy), and late last month was described by his cousin Caroline Kennedy as a “predator” who is “addicted to attention and power.”

In a disclosure form filed for his nomination, Kennedy claimed that he had resigned as chairman and chief legal counsel of Children’s Health Defense in December. He made roughly $326,000 for just three months of work at the nonprofit in 2023, according to the group’s 990 form that year. The same disclosure form revealed that the outspoken vaccine critic made roughly $10 million over the last year related to speaking fees, dividends from his vaccine lawsuits, and leading Children’s Health Defense.

China has retaliated with tariffs of its own on American products after Donald Trump’s 10 percent tariffs against the country went into effect Tuesday.

China’s Ministry of Finance announced the same day that it would levy a 15 percent tax on certain types of coal and liquefied natural gas, as well as a 10 percent tariff on agricultural machinery, crude oil, large-displacement cars, and pickup trucks coming from the United States.

In addition, China’s customs administration and Ministry of Commerce announced new export controls on several metal products and related technologies. These include tungsten, used in industrial and defense projects, and tellurium, which is used to make solar cells. The ministry also added two American companies to its unreliable entities list: the biotechnology firm Illumina and clothing company PVH Group, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.

Also, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said it had begun an investigation into Google for violating the country’s anti-monopoly laws. The search engine is not available in China and has minimal operations there.

While Trump’s tariffs target $450 billion worth of Chinese goods, China’s tariffs only target about $20 billion of American products, about 12 percent of the total imported from the U.S. to Beijing. Thus they appear to be more about sending a message to the U.S. and other countries. On Sunday, China pledged to take “corresponding countermeasures” by filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization and “resolutely defend its rights.”

On Monday, stocks took a slide as a result of Trump’s tariffs before Canada and Mexico secured one-month delays. The markets were volatile on Tuesday, although the full impact of China’s measures have yet to be felt. Trump said Monday that he would be speaking with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping soon and may either walk away claiming victory or vowing to take this trade war further.

Trump and Marco Rubio may soon put a penal colony in El Salvador.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Rubio and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced they’d reached an agreement to “outsource” U.S. prisoners to El Salvador’s mega-prison.

“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said in regard to foreign nationals detained for violating U.S. immigration laws. “And he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.” The agreement was initially supposed to cover alleged gang members.

“We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system,” Bukele wrote on X. “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”

While some cheered the move, others reacted with a mix of shock and horror. Salvadoran opposition party member Manuel Flores stated that El Salvador housing U.S. prisoners would show that the country is America’s “backyard to dump the garbage.”

“Bukele is an all-time supervillain. We haven’t had a comprador like this since Chiang Kai-Shek,” criminology lecturer Emmy Rākete wrote on X. “Turning your country into a private black site torture-for-profit operation is a world-historical kind of evil.”

El Salvador’s prisons have been noted for sweeping human rights violations, incarcerated labor, and inhumane conditions.

Elon Musk is now considered a “special government employee” by the White House. But exactly what kind of access that provides—and whether he has appropriate security clearance to access the nation’s most sensitive data—is still unclear to even top officials in the Trump administration.

CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins pressed the issue during a briefing Monday, grilling White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as to whether the world’s richest man had received a clearance or a background check to operate within the federal government.

“Can you confirm that Elon Musk is a special government employee?” Collins asked. “And what kind of security clearance does he have?”

“I can confirm he’s a special government employee,” Leavitt replied. “I can also confirm that he has abided by all applicable federal laws. As for his security clearance, I’m not sure, but I can check back with you.”

“Did he pass a background check, do you know?” Collins continued.

“I don’t know about the security clearance, but I can check,” Leavitt repeated.

Leavitt was also unaware as to whether Musk’s team—which consists of young people between the ages of 19 and 24—had received their own security clearances.

“I don’t, no, but again, I can check on that for you,” Leavitt said.

A special government employee is “anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period,” according to the Justice Department.

Musk and his staffers at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have had seemingly unfettered access to federal databases containing Social Security numbers, home addresses, medical histories, and other sensitive data.

Last week, Musk’s team was spotted installing a commercial email server into the Office of Personnel Management, in what many considered to be a massive security risk. The server gave the uncleared team potential access to onboarding, job performance reviews, and government employee health care details, which could violate HIPAA laws.

“China and Russia are literally trying to hack us every day, and we just gave all this data over to somebody that’s not been properly vetted,” an OPM staffer told the substack Musk Watch on Monday.

“What [Musk is] doing will put so many government employees at risk. It’s not at all what the office is intended for,” a former OPM director told the digital publication. “I just can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

Tulsi Gabbard’s bid for national director of intelligence has gained a key supporter, in the form of “serial disappointer” Maine Senator Susan Collins, flipping an essential Republican holdout on one of Donald Trump’s most dangerous nominees.

In a statement Monday, Collins said that Gabbard had eased some of her concerns about her nomination, such that she could now support Trump’s disastrous pick.

“After extensive consideration of her nomination, I will support Tulsi Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence,” Collins said.

“As one of the principal authors of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 that established this coordinating position, I understand the critical role the DNI plays in the Intelligence Community. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, however, has become far larger than it was designed to be, and Ms. Gabbard shares my vision of returning the agency to its intended size.”

Ahead of Gabbard’s hearing last week, Collins had expressed dissatisfaction with Gabbard’s critique of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows intelligence officials to conduct surveillance operations on foreign targets and Americans without a warrant.

During the open hearing, Collins had also appeared frustrated when Gabbard refused to call whistleblower Edward Snowden a traitor before the Senate committee. Suddenly, it seems, Collins had a change of heart, though it’s unclear if they spoke more extensively since Gabbard’s hearings on Thursday.

“In response to my questions during our discussion in my office and at the open hearing, as well as through her explanation at the closed hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ms. Gabbard addressed my concerns regarding her views on Edward Snowden,” Collins said. “I look forward to working with Ms. Gabbard to strengthen our national security.”

While many are disappointed by Collins’s change of heart, few can be surprised.

“You know there’s an old saying in soccer, in English football: It’s the hope that kills you,” said Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Morning Joe Tuesday. “I suspect they have a similar saying in Maine about Susan Collins.”

“Susan Collins never misses an opportunity to disappoint. She’s a serial disappointer. And Tulsi Gabbard rarely misses an opportunity to get it wrong,” said Richard Haass, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, on Morning Joe.

Representative Sean Casten, a Democrat from Illinois, went straight for the jugular.

“Why bother even being a senator if you think Tulsi Gabbard is fit for DNI? Just admit you’re a g-d rubber stamp for a felonious rapist,” Casten wrote in a post on X Monday.

A Department of Justice prosecutor is unhappy with the blowback Elon Musk’s fake “Department of Government Efficiency” is getting, and is threatening legal action. 

Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin posted a letter to Musk on X Monday asking Musk to “utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting the DOGE work and the DOGE workers.

“Any threats, confrontations, or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws,” Martin wrote. “Let me assure you of this: we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people.” 

Martin is likely reacting to a Wired article published Sunday that named six young engineers whom Musk has brought with him to help take over government databases: Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. Some of them are still in college or are recent graduates, and many have connections to Musk’s companies, including xAI and SpaceX. 

Martin may also have been alluding to protests against DOGE. On Sunday, protesters showed up at the Office of Personnel Management’s  Washington, D.C., headquarters, attempting to block the doors of the building to stop DOGE employees from getting in. More demonstrators gathered outside of OPM on Monday to protest Musk and DOGE’s efforts, chanting, “We don’t want your tech solutions, give us back our Constitution,” and “Elon, Elon, have you heard? You’re a nasty, fascist nerd.”

The DOGE takeover at federal agencies including the OPM and the General Services Administration has been met with a backlash from civil servants in those offices, as well as the federal workforce at large. DOGE employees have locked out career employees at OPM and used an illegal server to facilitate their takeover of the agency, which manages all three million federal employees. 

Martin’s threats may have teeth, as Musk isn’t likely to take any challenges to his efforts lightly. But the tech mogul’s actions have likely also broken several laws through DOGE, including improper use of federal funds, possible HIPAA violations, and even security breaches of employees’ personal data. Donald Trump’s Justice Department doesn’t care about any of that, though.

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau stopped performing its oversight duties as soon as Trump appointed Scott Bessent as acting head, fulfilling the wishes of the country’s most powerful civilian, billionaire Elon Musk.

Bessent, who also serves as treasury secretary, sent a mass email to CFPB staff instructing them to stop all regulatory work, stop enforcing any rules, and stop conducting investigations, due to the need to “promote consistency” and align politically with the rest of the Trump administration, according to The Washington Post. The agency has also halted all public communications.

After Trump’s reelection, Musk called for lawmakers to “delete” the CFPB, stating that there were “too many duplicative regulatory agencies.” Republicans have long taken aim at the CFPB, with Texas Senator Ted Cruz recently introducing a bill to defund what he called an “unelected, unaccountable bureaucratic agency.”

The CFPB took initiative against predatory lending and hidden fees under its previous head, Rohit Chopra, and also increased its surveillance of large tech companies like Apple and Google. But with Chopra out and Bessent in, those days are over.

“Shutting down CFPB enforcement actions that are on the verge of delivering money into the pockets of working people is at odds with President Trump’s claim that he wants to lower costs for families—which he has done next to nothing on so far,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, who played a key role in creating the CFPB in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

The actions Warren mentioned are now essentially null and void, as Trump’s mass deregulation efforts continue.

JD Vance tried to defend Donald Trump’s tariffs Monday with an X post claiming that Mexico gave in to Trump’s demands in order to stall economic harm. However, the post quickly backfired on him.

Aside from the glaring mistake of spelling the president’s last name as “Trunp,” the vice president’s post included a screenshot of Trump bragging about Mexico sending 10,000 soldiers to the southern U.S. border. But there’s one problem with that: Mexico also deployed 10,000 troops to the border in 2021, under President Biden.

Commentators on X quickly seized on Vance’s attempt to seek praise over something Biden had also achieved without heavy tariffs.

Vance’s talking point even made it to Fox News, with commentator Marie Harf, a Democratic commentator, telling the right-wing network’s audience that Mexico’s troop deployment was nothing new.

Trump’s tariffs have already caused stocks to plummet and are drawing criticism from his fellow Republicans as well as retaliatory tariffs from Canada, with China threatening to take action with the World Trade Organization. Even if Trump claims that his tariffs have achieved something with Mexico (they haven’t), their full effects will be felt in the coming weeks and months, and experts say they won’t be good. Vance and the MAGA right may soon be struggling to find any silver lining.

Trump is placing a new condition on aid to war-torn Ukraine: guaranteed access to Ukraine’s valuable rare minerals in exchange for military support against Russia.

“We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earth; we want what we put up to go in terms of a guarantee. We want a guarantee, we’re handing them money hand over fist, we’re giving them equipment, [the European Union is] not keeping up with us,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “We have an ocean in between, they don’t. It’s more important for them than it is for us … so we’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things.”

“I want to have security of rare earth,” Trump added. “We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”

Rare earths are minerals that go into making various technologies like phones and computers.

One of Trump’s biggest campaign promises was a swift and peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, even saying he’d end it “within 24 hours” of becoming president. Tacking on these conditions as soldiers on both sides suffer doesn’t seem to align very well with that promise.