Republicans Sucking Up to Trump Dodge Questions on RFK Jr.

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.

Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth, who was nominated by Donald Trump to be the next secretary of defense, was previously investigated for sexual assault, Vanity Fair first reported Thursday.

Susie Wiles (who has been tapped to be Trump’s next chief of staff) was briefed on the allegations Wednesday night. Hegseth allegedly acted inappropriately with a woman in Monterey, California, in 2017, two sources told Vanity Fair.

The allegations were serious enough that Wiles and Trump’s lawyers approached Hegseth about them Thursday, one transition source told Vanity Fair.

Hegseth assured Wiles that the interaction had been consensual, and testimony that said otherwise was “he said, she said,” the transition source said.

Before the meeting on Thursday, one high-level MAGA insider familiar with the allegation opined that Hegseth “wasn’t vetted.” A senior transition source denied that claim. “Hegseth was vetted, but this alleged incident didn’t come up,” they said.

News of Hegseth’s alleged misconduct comes on the heels of Trump nominating Matt Gaetz, who has been the subject of investigations into alleged sexual misconduct and sex trafficking, as his next attorney general. Gaetz’s nomination was reportedly the result of one conversation on Trump’s plane Wednesday morning. The Florida Republican’s nomination was announced later that day.

Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, responded to the allegation against his client on Thursday. “This allegation was already investigated by the Monterey police department and they found no evidence for it,” he said, per Vanity Fair.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung released a statement addressing the claims about Hegseth. “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration. Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed. We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense so he can get started on Day One to Make America Safe and Great Again.”

Since being appointed, the 44-year-old television host has been criticized for his lack of high-level military experience, his blatant misogyny, extremist Islamophobic rhetoric, and his spate of tattoos with white nationalist connotations.

Even America’s most spineless senator doesn’t want Matt Gaetz to be attorney general.

In a Thursday Newsmax appearance, Texas Republican Ted Cruz was asked for his thoughts on President-elect Trump’s potential nomination of the loathed and embattled MAGA Representative Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general.

The senator initially dodged the question, instead accusing Joe Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department and “infecting” it with partisan bias. He eventually addressed Gaetz, avoiding any advocacy of the nominee.

“I will say that was a pick that was, I think, very surprising to the entirety of the Senate. And so we’ll assess the nominee on the merits, said Cruz. “But there is a process that will unfold that examines a particular nominee’s background, their experience, and their suitability for a role.”

Cruz was much warmer to the idea of his “dear friend” Senator Mike Lee as the attorney general pick, and reiterated the seriousness of the position.

“I don’t know that there’s a more important position in this Trump administration than the attorney general,” said Cruz. “And so I think it’s critical to have someone there who will follow the law, who has integrity, who is a constitutionalist, and who has the courage to root out the incredible partisanship and weaponization that has infested this DOJ.”

Gaetz grew unpopular within the Republican Party’s elected leadership after his destabilizing ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy. His attorney general nomination is currently jeopardized by a House Ethics Committee probe into allegations of trafficking and having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a drug-fueled party in 2017. Gaetz resigned from Congress in an effort to end the investigation, but it is expected to be leaked in the coming days.

Elon Musk is apparently trying to broker some kind of agreement between the United States and Iran.

The tech mogul and world’s richest man met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York on Monday, The New York Times reports, citing two anonymous Iranian officials. The meeting, held in a secret location, reportedly focused on how to defuse tensions between the two countries and lasted for over an hour.

The two officials said the meeting was “positive” and “good news,” according to the Times. Neither Donald Trump’s campaign nor Musk commented on the meeting. In the past week, Musk has been spending a lot of time with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, and also traveled to Washington with him.

This raises the question of whether Musk was meeting with Iranian officials on Trump’s orders. According to the Times, Musk requested the meeting and the ambassador picked the location. The president-elect included the tech CEO on a phone call last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy only hours after Trump won the election, so it wouldn’t be Musk’s first dip into Trump’s foreign policy communications.

Musk has reportedly engaged in secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Wall Street Journal report last month, and Russia is allied with Iran. Trump also has a worrying relationship with Putin and Russia, which raises questions about whether Musk’s Monday meeting also has to do with Russia.

The meeting could also signal a change in tone between Iran and the United States. Relations between the two countries have not been positive since Trump’s first term, when he infamously dissolved the nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by the Obama administration and approved the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020. U.S. support for Israel’s brutal war against Gaza and Lebanon under the Biden administration has not helped matters either, especially since Iran backs the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the stated target of Israeli bombing.

Trump has been a staunch supporter of Israel’s war and attacked President Biden for insufficient support of the country, which considers Iran its top enemy. A Washington Post report Wednesday said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seeking to give Trump an inauguration gift of a cease-fire with Lebanon. Maybe Trump hopes to make a grand show of “good deals” in the Middle East to start off his presidency. Or, as was the case in his first presidential term’s foreign policy efforts, his overtures may end up going nowhere.

It looks like there is at least one person who is happy about Matt Gaetz’s nomination to be the next attorney general: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said she was hopeful Gaetz would prosecute vaccine “crimes against humanity,” whatever that means.

The Georgia Republican, with a penchant for regurgitating extremist conspiracy theories, unleashed a diatribe of vaccine misinformation during a congressional meeting Thursday titled, “Preparing for the Next Pandemic: Lessons Learned and the Path Forward.”

“I think one of the greatest lessons that has been learned here is that the government and its powerful agencies should never use the American people’s hard earned tax dollars to create viruses that can be unleashed on the world, like Covid-19 was,” Greene said.

Greene claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci “lied to the American people, abusing his power and position and role, a very powerful role paid for by the American tax people.” She suggested that the United States had been behind the deadly disease, just to sell Americans an even more horrific medicine.

“People that perpetuated and continue to perpetuate these crimes need to be prosecuted, and that needs to be starting in the next administration, and I’m pretty sure our next attorney general will do that, and I look forward to seeing that happen,” she said.

Greene, who bragged about being unvaccinated, also suggested that vaccines should be further “investigated” and linked them to a supposed “rise in autism” and neurological disorders—something that has also been suggested by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump announced Thursday will be his nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“This has literally been a war on people’s health,” Greene said, misusing the word “literally” and describing lifesaving vaccines as a “war.”

“Preparing for the next pandemic is actually recognizing that the last pandemic resulted in crimes against humanity,” Greene continued.

Will Gaetz be interested in prosecuting Fauci over his efforts to pull America out of a global pandemic? It’s unclear.

Gaetz claimed in 2021 that the best way to prevent yourself from getting Covid-19 was … to get Covid-19. “The best vaccine we’ve found is mother nature’s vaccine,” Gaetz told the right-wing One America News Network.

When CNN asked whether he had been vaccinated, Gaetz cut the interviewer off. “That’s very nosy of you,” he said.

“I think we should be talking more about freeing Britney,” he added.

Elon Musk’s Tesla stock is falling on Thursday after Reuters reported that the Trump transition team plans on axing Biden-era tax credits on electric vehicle purchases.

The president-elect wants to kill the $7,500 tax credit along with a larger tax reorganization. This will likely do damage to the E.V. industry and cause prices to spike. E.V. companies Rivian and Lucid, along with Tesla, have each taken hits on the stock market. Rivian fell by over 12 percent, Lucid fell by 3 percent, and Tesla fell by 5 percent.

And while this move does seem contradictory to his interests, the richest man on earth remains bullish. His aides parroted earlier points he made about this move, calling it “devastating” for his competitors, while Tesla would only take a small blow.

Smoother sailing was expected for Musk and his companies given his proximity to Trump this campaign cycle. The billionaire was a constant presence on the trail and has been with the president-elect constantly since his win, even joining Trump on diplomatic phone calls. Trump also placed Musk, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, a position that little is known about at this time.

Two former staffers from Donald Trump’s first presidential term are now vying to be his deputy national security adviser. 

Politico reports that Sebastian Gorka and Michael Anton are top contenders for the post, which would not require Senate confirmation. On Monday, Trump asked Florida Republican Representative Mike Waltz to be his national security adviser.

Both Gorka and Anton would be controversial picks. Gorka reportedly believes that violence is inherently part of Islam, and vehemently supported Trump’s Muslim ban. Born in London to Hungarian parents, Gorka lived in Hungary from 1992 to 2008, and at one point had an arrest warrant on gun charges in the country. 

In 2016, while also a consultant for Trump’s first presidential campaign, Gorka worked for the FBI, but was fired for his anti-Muslim diatribes. Gorka also was accused of having ties to a Nazi-allied organization in Hungary, Vitzi Rend, a charge he denies, although he has been photographed wearing a medal from the antisemitic group.  

From January 2017 until August of that year, Gorka worked in the Trump administration as a strategist and deputy assistant to the president and was supposed to work on national security issues. However, he was unable to obtain a security clearance, raising questions about what he was actually doing in the White House. Even Gorka’s academic credentials have been called into question, as he claims to have a doctorate, which experts say was awarded on weak standards.  

Anton worked as a speechwriter for conservative figures including Rudy Giuliani, Condoleezza Rice, and Rupert Murdoch before joining the Trump administration as a deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications in 2017. He has also espoused anti-Muslim views, criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, and even claimed in 2020 that George Soros was planning a coup with the help of the Democratic Party. He is arguably best known as the author of “The Flight 93 Election,” a 2016 manifesto that urged conservatives to support Trump. 

Of the two, Anton is more likely to get the post, according to one of Politico’s sources. But if either gets the job, they will have access to vital national security information, will craft policy, and will likely also target American citizens they disagree with. That’s a scary prospect, especially with a president who has repeatedly threatened to use the military against “the enemy within.”