'Wild and dangerous': CNN host calls out Trump for pushing 'debunked' health claim

CNN's Kate Bolduan hammered Donald Trump for again suggesting a link between vaccines and autism in his wide-ranging interview with Time Magazine after he was named "person of the year."

The president-elect has often echoed a thoroughly debunked study linking childhood vaccinations with autism, and he did it again while speaking to reporters from the magazine as he prepares to embark on a second term in the White House, this time with an anti-vaccine nominee to oversee the nation's public health.

"He also spoke and was asked about vaccinations," said CNN's Steve Contorno, "because he has Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now joining his administration and whether or not he believes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should go through with some of his proposals on eliminating vaccines, and he was asked if RFK Jr. moves to end childhood vaccination programs, would you sign off on that, and here's what Trump said."

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"He said, 'We're going to have a big discussion,'" Contorno quoted. "'The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it.'"

Bolduan said that shows the former president believes in the widely debunked theory that has fueled anti-vaccine hysteria for more than two decades, and Trump indicated that Kennedy agrees with him.

"That is what he said in this interview," Contorno said, "and then he went on to ask, do you think autism is linked to vaccines? He said, 'I'm going to be listening to Bobby,' who obviously has made very clear where he stands on this debunked link."

"Bobby, who listened to Andrew Wakefield, the doctor, non-doctor who came up with this damaging theory, faked a study, had to have it retracted, I believe," Bolduan interjected. "Lost his license then and had created havoc in its wake. There is no link between vaccines and autism, but he's still saying that it's a possibility."

Trump also said that any decisions he made on vaccines would be especially controversial, according to Contorno, but 75 Nobel laureates have already come out publicly and called on the U.S. Senate to reject Kennedy's nomination as secretary of health and human services due to his vaccine skepticism.

"That is wild and dangerous," Bolduan said. "If what he does on vaccines – who cares what you say about it, as we have seen – is damaging enough."

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