Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was the deciding vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary. Months later, Cassidy seems unable to accept the reality of what he unleashed.
As I note in a new piece, Cassidy still refuses to directly criticize Kennedy despite flagrantly flouting Cassidy's demand not to edit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website in a way that falsely undermines the evidence that vaccines do not cause autism. As I wrote:
On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Cassidy refused to face the facts when host Jake Tapper said, “Dr. Cassidy, he lied to you.” Instead, Cassidy doubled down on the very message that Kennedy is undermining: “Vaccines are safe,” he insisted. “That’s the most important message.”
After Tapper pressed him, asking if he was worried about the impact the CDC website could have on Americans’ decisions whether or not to vaccine, Cassidy conceded that the messaging was a problem, but still refused to name Kennedy as its source or express regret over confirming him. “Anything that undermines the understanding, the correct understanding, the absolute scientifically based understanding that vaccines are safe and that, if you don’t take them, you’re putting your child or yourself in greater danger, anything that undermines that message is a problem,” Cassidy said.
Of course, Kennedy is playing an outsize role in that "messaging" problem by continuing to sow doubt and misinformation about vaccines. He has also fired HHS staffers en masse and defunded critical research and clinical trials—something his cousin Tatiana Schlossberg took him to task for in an essay published this weekend in the New Yorker in which she revealed her terminal cancer diagnosis. Considering what Cassidy enabled, is it any wonder he's doing everything he can to shirk responsibility?
And now for some personal news: Today is my last day working at Mother Jones. It has been a privilege to land in your inboxes every day. This newsletter will continue under the care of my brilliant colleagues—and I'll continue to be a fan and avid reader of it in my next role! Thanks as always for reading.
—Julianne McShane
P.S. This weekend's Reveal episode goes inside the impacts of federal funding cuts to public radio stations in Alaska and Pittsburgh. Give it a listen wherever you get your podcasts.
