Trump-Kennedy mystery repeats itself
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks before former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, in Manhattan. Credit: AP/Evan Vucci
Even the most bizarre little moments of national history can repeat themselves in the chaotic public world of the new president-elect, Donald Trump.
In January 2016, 10 days before Trump’s first inaugural, he reportedly asked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to chair a “commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity” and the son of the late New York senator accepted.
Or at least, that’s what Kennedy — who for years had spread debunked claims of a link between childhood vaccines and autism — told reporters after a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan. But Trump’s transition team released a statement that day saying the president-elect was only considering such a panel and “no decisions have been made at this time.”
Fast forward to February 2018. Nothing had happened and it appeared Trump or his advisers punted on the idea of a vaccine commission. Kennedy rather darkly blamed the president’s about-face on high-level “corruption” — allegedly involving the new administration and the pharmaceutical companies, the Guardian news site reported.
At the time, a dismayed Kennedy said that parents interested in the debunked autism link had “put tremendous faith” in Trump but were now “feeling enormous betrayal and disappointment.” Kennedy added: “Much of what happens in this administration is obscure so there hasn’t been transparency.”
Now, nearly seven years later, in the wake of Trump’s latest election win, we have a new set of conflicting announcements from the two.
In August, Kennedy quit his rival run for president and endorsed Trump. Before that — when the ex-president still saw Kennedy as a threat to siphon anti-vaccine votes — he branded RFK Jr. on social media a “Radical Left Lunatic” who was “far more liberal than anyone running as a Democrat.”
But on Oct. 27, with the two reconciled in public, Trump hailed his “respect” for Kennedy. On the stage at his Madison Square Garden rally that day, Trump said if elected again he’d let the eccentric environmental activist “go wild” on the subject of food and medicines.
Two days later came the confusion. Kennedy told supporters in a livestreamed organizing event that Trump had vowed to give him “control” of several public health agencies. That would mean the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CNN reported.
But Trump’s transition team cochair, billionaire Howard Lutnick, who hails from Jericho, said in a televised interview that Kennedy “is not getting a job for HHS.” On Wednesday, Kennedy told NBC News his role could be “WH Health Czar or something like that.”
Is someone pulling someone else’s leg? It’s hard to tell. Both septuagenarian scions tell strange stories. One topic is dead animals. Kennedy revealed recently that he left a deceased bear cub in Central Park. Trump falsely told of immigrants eating the pets of Ohio residents.
Now that Trump has won, and Vice President Kamala Harris is no longer proclaiming the joy of “not going back,” it’s on to the joy of resuming an old and frenzied show that’s been off the air for four years. This first episode could be called “Go wild!” If past is prologue, there will be more confusing stories about the how’s and why’s of Trump appointments to come. Get ready for the sequel.
n COLUMNIST DAN JANISON’S opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.