Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
I, for one, was delighted to see anti-vaccine loon Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed as the new Health and Human Services secretary. Between him and freshly confirmed national intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard – whom Republican Sen. Mitt Romney once slammed for “parroting false Russian propaganda” – the quack-ification of the U.S. government is complete.
President Donald Trump has filled his Cabinet with an assortment of cranks and dog murderers, and Republicans in the Senate have dutifully rubber-stamped each one. Because of course they did.
This impending chaos is what Republicans wanted. This is what Americans who voted for Trump wanted. So whatever fresh hell flows from this League of Incompetent Ninnies is on them. They own all of it, from the vaccine denier who eats roadkill and now dictates your child’s vaccine schedule to the derpy Fox News host who stumbled into heading up the largest military in human history.
Of all Trump’s loony picks, RFK Jr. was the looniest
Virtually all of Trump’s Cabinet picks have been absurd, with the possible exception of Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of State, but Kennedy was far and away the most ludicrous.
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He was the one even some conservatives thought, “There’s no way that freakin’ guy actually gets confirmed.”
Opinion:I’m an anti-Trump conservative. Kennedy, Gabbard confirmations prove he owns GOP.
Surprise!
On Thursday, all but one Republican senator – Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor – voted to confirm a man who has said that the polio vaccine’s effectiveness is “a mythology” and claimed the vaccine led to cancer “that killed many, many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did.”
Kennedy is an unhinged conspiracy theorist now in charge of our health
They voted to confirm a man generally viewed as a laughingstock who has wrongly and repeatedly and despicably linked vaccines to autism.
A man who blabbered falsely that COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” and that the people “who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
These Republicans willfully chose a man who last year falsely claimed the Food and Drug Administration is in cahoots with the food industry and is involved in “mass poisoning the American public” to run the department that oversees the FDA.
This is like putting an astrologer in charge of NASA. It’s the singularly most dangerous, irresponsible and morally delinquent decision a governing body could make, and it puts the health of all Americans in legitimate peril.
I honestly hope these kooks succeed – but it doesn’t seem likely
We are facing an evolving crisis with bird flu, and your elected Republican senators decided a conspiracy theorist who drinks raw milk was the way to go?
God help us all.
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Now, I’m not foolish or obnoxious enough to root against my own country. As this team that Trump has assembled moves forward, I will be delighted to be proven wrong about their competence.
Who knows, maybe RFK Jr. will tell us we can cure cancer by sticking a potato in our ear and he’ll wind up being right. That would be great.
This is the chaos and stupidity Republicans wanted. They own it.
But what I want to make clear right now is the fact that Republican lawmakers and every single, solitary soul who cast a vote for Donald J. Trump are getting exactly what they wanted.
These Cabinet picks are the people they believe are the most qualified, and these are the people they believe have America’s best interests at heart.
I disagree with that on a level so profound it’s impossible to put into words. I think our country is in the hands of a pack of boobs who have no business being anywhere near the levers of power. I think a lot of intelligent politicians know that’s true and still opted to put themselves and their party over what’s best for Americans. I think those who supported Trump are about to learn the hard way what happens when you get conned.
But what do I know? According to America’s new secretary of Health and Human Services, the CIA has been involved in a “systematic takeover of the American press.” Maybe I’m a deep-state government plant. Maybe I’m an alien from the U.S. Air Force’s Area 51.
You all can believe whatever you want. I just want everyone to know and remember who this impending mess belongs to. Because it sure as hell ain’t me.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
