Vice President JD Vance’s rush to defend embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after his combative hearing before senators sitting on the Senate Finance Committee earned him a scolding from The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, and an MSNBC panel joined the pile-on Friday morning.
After the controversial Trump appointee battled with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, Vance jumped on social media and wrote, “When I see all these senators trying to lecture and ‘gotcha’ Bobby Kennedy today all I can think is: You all support off-label, untested, and irreversible hormonal ‘therapies’ for children, mutilating our kids and enriching big pharma. You’re full of s--- and everyone knows it.”
That led the WSJ editors to scold him with “Classy, as ever, Mr. Vice President,” before adding, ”None of this is true of Dr. Cassidy, Dr. Barrasso, and other Senators, and the Vice President knows it. Mr. Vance is trying to rally Republicans to RFK’s side by framing this dispute in a polarized partisan framework, either/or, us/them. That may serve his political purposes as he courts RFK’s supporters with 2028 in mind, but it won’t win over anyone paying attention to the health secretary’s contradictions as he attacks life-saving vaccines.”
After portions of the editorial were read on “Morning Joe” on Friday, MSNBC contributor Katty Kay interjected, “I mean, in some ways, it was a frustrating hearing because you had a lot of slipperiness going on, right? You had the secretary saying that he supported mRNA, while we know he's doing something else. He's saying that, yes, covid vaccines will be available to everybody, but also saying at the same time, but it's not recommended for certain people who are healthy, which then means that they may not be available in pharmacies and insurers may not have it.”
Co-host Joe Scarborough then returned the focus to Vance’s comments.
"Basically, JD Vance, one of the dumbest things that, you know, this administration always does, this MAGA base always does is they take an issue like this and say, ‘Oh, you must be with like trans, you must be with mutilating children for surgeries when they're transitioning,’” he exclaimed. “He did that, yes. Total lies. Is he really saying that about [GOP senator] John Barrasso? Is he really saying that about [GOP senator] Bill Cassidy? Is he really saying that about the 75 percent of Republicans who oppose what RFK Jr. is saying?”
“Does JD Vance really think that 75 percent of Republicans support, like, trans operations for minors?” he asked. “Because that's what he said yesterday, and I'm so glad the Wall Street Journal –– there's only so much stupidity you can put up with. I'm so glad the Wall Street Journal editorial page called him out. But I know it's going to be hard. I mean, but outside of the Know-Nothings, what other political movement has produced such backward-looking stupidity?”
You can watch below or at the link.