House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) faced tough questions Friday on CNN about sick kids in his state that left him struggling to defend President-elect Donald Trump.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Emmer about Trump's selection of vaccine-denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — and put it in the context of a measles outbreak in his home state of Minnesota.
"We don't see this kind of epidemic of measles in places where there is a vaccine mandate," Tapper said. "Are you concerned?"
Emmer expressed surprise to learn that Minnesota did not have a vaccine mandate.
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"I'm 63 years old and I got vaccinated for measles," Emmer said. "You're telling me at some point we decided we are not doing that anymore?"
Under the state's school immunization law, students must show documentation of either having received the vaccine or an exemption. Parents can opt their children out for personal or philosophical reasons, according to the Minnesota Reformer.
A measles outbreak began in Minnesota in May primarily affecting unvaccinated children in the Twin Cities metro area, according to the state's Health department.
More than half of the 52 cases reported as of this week have hit children under age 6, and 12 people have been hospitalized, according to the state.
Local news outlet KFGO reported last month that Measles vaccination rates plunged from 93 percent of kindergarteners in 2019 to just 87 percent at the start of the 2023-24 school year.
"We are all very terrified that this is just going to explode," Dr. Stacene Maroushek, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, told CBS News. "We have such low vaccination rates in certain pockets of our population, which put a lot of kids at risk."
Rather than address the outbreak, Emmer began to discuss the election.
"The bottom line is Donald Trump was elected to shake things up in Washington D.C. and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the HHS secretary will be moving to enact the Trump agenda," said Emmer. "This is what the country asked for."
Tapper admitted that the answer confused him.
"But you don't think the country asked for measles?" he asked.
Emmer said he needed more information but believed people in his state were vaccinated.
"I believe everyone is vaccinated in Minnesota," he said. "If there is something that has changed, that is news to me."
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