Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Sept 2, 2024 1:51:25 GMT
Trump-RFK Jr. alliance resurrects debate over COVID restrictions, vaccine skepticism in 2024 campaign - Published Sept 1, 2024
WASHINGTON — In securing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement, Donald Trump gained an ally who could steer him crucial votes by providing cover on some of the themes that defined Kennedy’s campaign: distrust of the COVID vaccine, opposition to government mandates, and lingering outrage over the handling of the pandemic.
With the 2024 presidential election set to be decided by razor-thin margins in a handful of states, Trump and his team are betting that winning over Kennedy supporters — many of whom deeply distrust Trump, whose Operation Warp Speed initiative launched the COVID vaccines — could help push them to victory.
Already, Trump surrogates are spelling out how Kennedy’s backing could boost the campaign. “RFK brings a special subset to the campaign,” said Corey Lewandowski, a Trump 2024 senior adviser, on MSNBC Wednesday night. “Those moms and women, 25 to 40 years old, who are concerned about their children, and the vaccines and the food they’re being ingested … are coming now to the Trump campaign disproportionately because they support the belief that RFK is going to help fix that problem going forward.”
Influential pro-Trump activists such as Charlie Kirk, meanwhile, have reposted several accounts of Kennedy supporters announcing their intent to vote for Trump.
In his first appearance with Kennedy last week in Arizona, Trump promised to work with him as president to establish a “panel of top experts” to investigate chronic health problems and childhood diseases — many of which Kennedy has long insisted are caused by vaccines.
This bargain, however, could easily backfire on Trump, and not only because his alliance with Kennedy tethers him to a broad range of fringe views. Democrats are confident that most voters will reject a Trump campaign infused with Kennedy rhetoric on COVID and vaccines — and, more to the point, will resent having to revisit a pandemic that most would love to leave behind.
“The sentiment of most voters in Michigan is, we want to move on, we don’t want to re-litigate 2020 or COVID-19,” said Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic state senator from Michigan, where violent backlash to COVID safety measures sparked a foiled right-wing militia plot to kidnap and assassinate Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
In any event, Kennedy’s place as a factor in the 2024 election ensures that more than four years removed from the onset of the pandemic, a small but vocal faction is poised to re-inject COVID fixations back into the political arena — and potentially a second Trump administration.
Kennedy’s supporters are hoping so.
“As Kennedy pounds away at the news cycle campaigning with Trump, every interview will further solidify the promises Trump has made to Kennedy,” Michael Kane, who founded a group for teachers opposed to vaccine mandates, wrote in an article on Substack.
The prospect of a general election filled with Kennedy and top Republicans campaigning on vaccine skepticism has public health advocates alarmed. And they are downright frightened that Kennedy could wind up with significant power if Trump wins.
Heading into this election season, anti-vaccine and COVID-skeptic energy was “softening,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., who specializes in public health.
“The embrace of these two political leaders will just amp up all the anti-vaccine sentiment … the implicit promise of putting [Kennedy] in a senior position in the administration shows that anti-vaccination is coming from the fringes into the halls of power,” Gostin said. “This is a perfect storm.”
Asked about the impact of Kennedy’s endorsement, Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said Trump’s “broad coalition of supporters” is expanding “across partisan lines.”
“While Kamala Harris doubles down on her ‘values’ to open our border to migrant criminals and enact Venezuela-style price controls, we look forward to expanding President Trump’s ‘big tent campaign’ with these powerful voices on the team as we work to restore America’s greatness,” said Hughes.
Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment.
Kennedy has long leveraged his famous name to cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and mandates, even for common childhood vaccines for diseases such as polio and measles.
Kennedy disputed the notion that he was anti-vaccine during his presidential run, recasting his lifelong advocacy as a quest for “medical freedom” to reject mandates. But his campaign became a magnet for COVID vaccine skeptics and those still consumed with anger toward figures such as Anthony Fauci, the lead federal pandemic specialist.
As recently as May, Kennedy was attacking Trump over his handling of the pandemic as president. “With lockdowns, mass mandates, the travel restrictions, President Trump presided over the greatest restriction on individual liberties this country has ever known,” Kennedy said at the Libertarian Party convention.
In the wake of that pressure, Trump had dialed up his rhetoric on the subject, saying at a conservative conference in July that he would “not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate” if re-elected.
Since Kennedy endorsed Trump, top Republicans have been forced to publicly answer for Kennedy’s positions on vaccines and the pandemic. Largely, they have defended them.
When Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about Kennedy’s endorsement, he said he didn’t agree with Kennedy on everything. But Vance instead condemned the COVID-era masking of young children, claiming “we knew it caused developmental disabilities.” (That assertion was not widely researched during the height of the pandemic; scientific studies have remained inconclusive on the topic.)
Vance added that if officials had listened to voices like Kennedy, “I think our kids would have been much better off in the wake of the pandemic.”
In 2022, many Republicans who put COVID backlash at the center of their campaigns fared poorly, particularly those who challenged governors who were in charge of their states’ pandemic responses. In the 2024 GOP primary, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida sought to outflank Trump on the pandemic, betting that most right-wing voters would follow him; they didn’t.
Democratic campaign organizations said they plan to tie Kennedy and Trump together in the eyes of voters.
“When RFK Jr. talks about ‘children’s health’ what he’s really talking about are his anti-vaxx positions, including casting doubt on [measles, mumps, and rubella] and polio vaccines,” said Matt Corridoni, a Democratic National Committee spokesperson. “We’re going to hold Trump’s feet to the fire on his embrace of RFK Jr. and these extreme positions.”
For the thousands of Kennedy supporters motivated primarily by his stances on vaccines, however, their support is far from assured. In fact, many of them may only vote for Trump if he does something that is sure to inflame anti-vaccine sentiment: condemn his own administration’s historic effort to develop the COVID vaccines.
Before Kennedy endorsed Trump, his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said on a podcast that “the hesitation we have right now in joining forces with Trump is that he has not apologized or publicly come out and said Operation Warp Speed was his fault.”
Kane, the cofounder of Teachers for Choice, expressed doubt that any such admission was coming.
“Many Kennedy supporters won’t vote for Trump unless he admits OPERATION WARP SPEED was a dangerous failure,” he wrote. “It was a dangerous failure. But Trump will never admit that; and certainly never before November 5th.”
WASHINGTON — In securing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement, Donald Trump gained an ally who could steer him crucial votes by providing cover on some of the themes that defined Kennedy’s campaign: distrust of the COVID vaccine, opposition to government mandates, and lingering outrage over the handling of the pandemic.
With the 2024 presidential election set to be decided by razor-thin margins in a handful of states, Trump and his team are betting that winning over Kennedy supporters — many of whom deeply distrust Trump, whose Operation Warp Speed initiative launched the COVID vaccines — could help push them to victory.
Already, Trump surrogates are spelling out how Kennedy’s backing could boost the campaign. “RFK brings a special subset to the campaign,” said Corey Lewandowski, a Trump 2024 senior adviser, on MSNBC Wednesday night. “Those moms and women, 25 to 40 years old, who are concerned about their children, and the vaccines and the food they’re being ingested … are coming now to the Trump campaign disproportionately because they support the belief that RFK is going to help fix that problem going forward.”
Influential pro-Trump activists such as Charlie Kirk, meanwhile, have reposted several accounts of Kennedy supporters announcing their intent to vote for Trump.
In his first appearance with Kennedy last week in Arizona, Trump promised to work with him as president to establish a “panel of top experts” to investigate chronic health problems and childhood diseases — many of which Kennedy has long insisted are caused by vaccines.
This bargain, however, could easily backfire on Trump, and not only because his alliance with Kennedy tethers him to a broad range of fringe views. Democrats are confident that most voters will reject a Trump campaign infused with Kennedy rhetoric on COVID and vaccines — and, more to the point, will resent having to revisit a pandemic that most would love to leave behind.
“The sentiment of most voters in Michigan is, we want to move on, we don’t want to re-litigate 2020 or COVID-19,” said Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic state senator from Michigan, where violent backlash to COVID safety measures sparked a foiled right-wing militia plot to kidnap and assassinate Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
In any event, Kennedy’s place as a factor in the 2024 election ensures that more than four years removed from the onset of the pandemic, a small but vocal faction is poised to re-inject COVID fixations back into the political arena — and potentially a second Trump administration.
Kennedy’s supporters are hoping so.
“As Kennedy pounds away at the news cycle campaigning with Trump, every interview will further solidify the promises Trump has made to Kennedy,” Michael Kane, who founded a group for teachers opposed to vaccine mandates, wrote in an article on Substack.
The prospect of a general election filled with Kennedy and top Republicans campaigning on vaccine skepticism has public health advocates alarmed. And they are downright frightened that Kennedy could wind up with significant power if Trump wins.
Heading into this election season, anti-vaccine and COVID-skeptic energy was “softening,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., who specializes in public health.
“The embrace of these two political leaders will just amp up all the anti-vaccine sentiment … the implicit promise of putting [Kennedy] in a senior position in the administration shows that anti-vaccination is coming from the fringes into the halls of power,” Gostin said. “This is a perfect storm.”
Asked about the impact of Kennedy’s endorsement, Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said Trump’s “broad coalition of supporters” is expanding “across partisan lines.”
“While Kamala Harris doubles down on her ‘values’ to open our border to migrant criminals and enact Venezuela-style price controls, we look forward to expanding President Trump’s ‘big tent campaign’ with these powerful voices on the team as we work to restore America’s greatness,” said Hughes.
Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment.
Kennedy has long leveraged his famous name to cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and mandates, even for common childhood vaccines for diseases such as polio and measles.
Kennedy disputed the notion that he was anti-vaccine during his presidential run, recasting his lifelong advocacy as a quest for “medical freedom” to reject mandates. But his campaign became a magnet for COVID vaccine skeptics and those still consumed with anger toward figures such as Anthony Fauci, the lead federal pandemic specialist.
As recently as May, Kennedy was attacking Trump over his handling of the pandemic as president. “With lockdowns, mass mandates, the travel restrictions, President Trump presided over the greatest restriction on individual liberties this country has ever known,” Kennedy said at the Libertarian Party convention.
In the wake of that pressure, Trump had dialed up his rhetoric on the subject, saying at a conservative conference in July that he would “not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate” if re-elected.
Since Kennedy endorsed Trump, top Republicans have been forced to publicly answer for Kennedy’s positions on vaccines and the pandemic. Largely, they have defended them.
When Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about Kennedy’s endorsement, he said he didn’t agree with Kennedy on everything. But Vance instead condemned the COVID-era masking of young children, claiming “we knew it caused developmental disabilities.” (That assertion was not widely researched during the height of the pandemic; scientific studies have remained inconclusive on the topic.)
Vance added that if officials had listened to voices like Kennedy, “I think our kids would have been much better off in the wake of the pandemic.”
In 2022, many Republicans who put COVID backlash at the center of their campaigns fared poorly, particularly those who challenged governors who were in charge of their states’ pandemic responses. In the 2024 GOP primary, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida sought to outflank Trump on the pandemic, betting that most right-wing voters would follow him; they didn’t.
Democratic campaign organizations said they plan to tie Kennedy and Trump together in the eyes of voters.
“When RFK Jr. talks about ‘children’s health’ what he’s really talking about are his anti-vaxx positions, including casting doubt on [measles, mumps, and rubella] and polio vaccines,” said Matt Corridoni, a Democratic National Committee spokesperson. “We’re going to hold Trump’s feet to the fire on his embrace of RFK Jr. and these extreme positions.”
For the thousands of Kennedy supporters motivated primarily by his stances on vaccines, however, their support is far from assured. In fact, many of them may only vote for Trump if he does something that is sure to inflame anti-vaccine sentiment: condemn his own administration’s historic effort to develop the COVID vaccines.
Before Kennedy endorsed Trump, his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said on a podcast that “the hesitation we have right now in joining forces with Trump is that he has not apologized or publicly come out and said Operation Warp Speed was his fault.”
Kane, the cofounder of Teachers for Choice, expressed doubt that any such admission was coming.
“Many Kennedy supporters won’t vote for Trump unless he admits OPERATION WARP SPEED was a dangerous failure,” he wrote. “It was a dangerous failure. But Trump will never admit that; and certainly never before November 5th.”