All posts tagged "Robert F. Kennedy Jr"

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is thrilled about Stephen Miller’s promotion to White House chief of staff, and he borrowed a famous 2020 election-denial slogan to say so.

“Next to me, Stephen Miller is the strongest MAHA supporter in the administration,” Kennedy wrote on X on Friday, quoting the White House’s announcement that Miller would replace Susie Wiles. “It’s time to unleash the Kraken.”

The line is a callback to Sidney Powell, the former Trump campaign lawyer who promised to “release the Kraken” in 2020 with lawsuits that she said would overturn Joe Biden’s election win. Those lawsuits failed....

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s health crusade is coming apart at the seams, and one columnist says its toughest opponents are about to arrive.

In a column published Saturday by The New York Times, opinion writer Jessica Grose argued that a slate of physicians and public health experts on the ballot Tuesday could deliver a crushing blow to the Make America Healthy Again movement that the health and human services secretary built.

She pointed to Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and the Democratic Senate nominee in South Carolina; Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio's former health director now running for governor; and Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist seeking a Senate seat in Michigan....

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparked fresh backlash after his staff tried to wave off a reporter's pointed question.

The moment came Thursday, when Kennedy was speaking alongside Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA), who is running for reelection. A staffer cut in as a reporter began asking Kennedy about five deaths, and potentially a sixth, from measles in Pennsylvania.

"We're also not going to talk about measles," the staffer said, having already brushed aside a question about whether "the war" had affected Kiggans' campaign....

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s ballooning security costs were partly covered by money from an office created to fight Black infant deaths.

According to a Wall Street Journal article published on Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services told congressional appropriators earlier this year that it was shifting about $12 million from its Office of Minority Health to help pay for Kennedy's protection. The Journal cited people familiar with the matter and a document it reviewed.

According to The Journal's sources, Kennedy's security costs rose from roughly $10 million in fiscal 2025 to $17 million in fiscal 2026. Those sources said protection for previous HHS secretaries ran about $5 million a year....

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accepted more than $250,000 worth of gifts from a single major donor last year, according to newly disclosed ethics filings reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The haul included two separate international flights: one running close to $97,000 for a Fiji round-trip, and another costing roughly $45,000 to travel to and from Greece.

The gifts all came from Gavin de Becker, a longtime security consultant who provided protective services to Kennedy and served as a significant donor during his 2024 presidential run. Beyond the flights, de Becker also gave Kennedy free use of his vacation home in Washington, D.C. De Becker owns property in Fiji, where one leg of Kennedy's travel was headed....

William Boothby, who manages President Donald Trump's political appointees at the health department, was accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of punching a college student who was later found dead.

Boothby serves as the White House liaison to the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a report published Friday by Politico. He manages nearly 300 political appointees at the health department and its sub-agencies.

The case centered on Vincenzo "Vinny" Lirosi, a University of New Hampshire sophomore who fought with several fraternity members, including Boothby, after a night of drinking, according to court records and police reports obtained by Politico....