RFK Jr. in a tight spot after Trump realized he doesn't need 'freaks' around: author

A former associate of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a recent podcast interview that his old pal seems to be in a tight spot as President Donald Trump appears to have realized that he doesn't need "freaks" like Kennedy around anymore.

Kurt Andersen, author of "Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire," about conspiracy theories, argued during an interview on "The Daily Beast Podcast" with Joanna Coles that Trump's recent nomination of former surgeon general Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention marked a significant shift in thinking for the Trump administration.

For the first year of the second term, Trump seemed content to let Kennedy do what he wished at Health and Human Services. Now, Trump appears to be taking a more mainstream approach to public health policy, which Andersen, who met Kennedy at Harvard University, noted puts Kennedy in a tenuous position.

"He does have this anti-vaccine, anti-science part of the coalition that was important," Andersen said, adding that Trump "doesn't need that now."

"I believe it's because most people that Donald Trump knows and talks to, at Mar-A-Lago or wherever, think this is nuts," he added. "Things like the undermining of scientific research from the National Institutes of Health and all of that are crazy. So, I think he's finally gotten around to saying, 'Yeah, I have gotten what I'm going to get out of Bobby Kennedy, probably. So I don't need these freaks anymore.'"

Andersen's comments came after Kennedy faced contentious hearings on Capitol Hill about vaccines before the House Ways and Means Committee.