Vice President JD Vance is drawing on a decades-old conspiracy theory that falsely claims antidepressants are responsible for mass shootings.

Speaking to steelworkers in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday, the Vice President addressed the mass shooting a day earlier at a Minneapolis Catholic school—where two young children were killed during Mass and 17 others were wounded, including a dozen children—when he declared that America faces a mental health crisis and alleged that Americans take too much psychiatric medication.

“We take way more psychiatric medication than any other nation on earth, and I think it’s time for us to start asking some very hard questions about the root causes of this violence,” Vance declared, after speaking at length about the shooting. “I’m going to be part of that and the First Lady and the President are going to be part of that, but that’s gonna be an American conversation that we’re gonna have together.”

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Multiple studies have found no evidence that anti-depressants cause mass shootings.

“The suggestion that antidepressants are linked to mass shootings has been amplified by right-wing figures such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson,” The Washington Post reported last year. “But experts caution there is no credible research linking antidepressants to mass shootings. Studies show only a small percentage of mass shooters were taking medications or suffering from serious mental illness when they committed the crimes.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly tried to link antidepressants with gun violence, and like Vance, did so again on Thursday.

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“We are doing those kind of studies now at NIH, we’re launching studies on potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence,” Kennedy said.

“You know, many of them, on their — had black box warnings that warn of suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation,” he alleged. “So we can’t exclude those as a culprit and those are the kind of studies that we’re doing.”

Some critics slammed the Vice President.

“Three years ago, Republicans killed a bill to expand mental health services in schools. Then, the Trump-Vance administration defunded school counselors and social workers,” charged Human Rights Campaign national press secretary Brandon Wolf.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Vance: This happens too much in our country. We really do have I think a mental health crisis We take way more psychiatric medication than any other nation and I think it’s time for us to start asking some very hard questions about the root causes of this violence pic.twitter.com/xKV6hkno8n

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 28, 2025

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Image via Reuters 

The Trump administration is being sharply criticized after President Donald Trump fired the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who had been confirmed by the Senate just one month earlier. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is facing condemnation over her stated reason for the abrupt termination.

When asked during Thursday’s White House press briefing what Dr. Susan Monarez did wrong to be fired, Leavitt claimed that the microbiologist and public health official did not share President Trump’s mission.

Dr. Monarez, who previously worked at the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and on the National Security Council, was installed at the CDC on January 23, as the acting Director. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 29.

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In announcing her nomination in March, President Trump praised Monarez’s “decades of experience championing Innovation, Transparency, and strong Public Health Systems.” He touted her “Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and PostDoctoral training in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine,” and called her “an incredible mother and dedicated public servant.”

Trump said she “understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future.”

“Look, what I will say about this individual,” Leavitt told reporters, “is that her lawyer’s statement made it abundantly clear themselves that she was not aligned with the President’s mission to make America healthy again.”

“This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the President has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission,” she added.

Monarez was confirmed by the Senate in a 51-47 vote.

Critics blasted the press secretary.

READ MORE: RFK Jr. Attacks CDC for Abortion Praise That Doesn’t Exist

Responding to her remark that she “never received a vote in her life and the President has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission,” Fred Wellman, host of the “On Democracy” podcast, wrote: “You know…just like a dictator.”

“Apparently what Dr Monarez did wrong was to refuse to rubber stamp vaccine policy written by a non physician who doesn’t believe in vaccines,” wrote Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst.

“The WH’s line here is that Susan Monarez didn’t align with the president’s mission, which is probably something they would have checked on when Trump nominated her,” noted The Bulwark’s Sam Stein.

“So the President’s mission includes killing children with preventable diseases?” asked Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a noted virologist.

“Firing your own pick after a few months on the job is always a great move!” snarked Fox News host Jessica Tarlov.

“Donald Trump is directly gutting the public health apparatus in the United States. Dangerous is an understatement,” warned U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI).

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reporter: On the firing of the CDC director.. What specifically did she do wrong?

Leavitt: This woman has never received a vote in her life and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission pic.twitter.com/nEyicRHGbN

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 28, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Total Implosion’: Experts Sound ‘Massive Alarm’ Amid ‘Wholesale Destruction’ of CDC

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., already under scrutiny for attempting to fire the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is now attacking the CDC for information on its website that he wrongly claims characterizes “abortion” as one of the ten greatest advances in medical science — while also appearing to suggest vaccines and fluoridation should not be on that list.

There are several versions of the list, one titled, “Ten Great Public Health Achievements — United States, 1900-1999,” and dated April 1999 — more than a quarter century ago.

It includes: “Vaccination, Motor-vehicle safety, Safer workplaces, Control of infectious diseases, Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke, Safer and healthier foods, Healthier mothers and babies, Family planning, Fluoridation of drinking water, and Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard.”

Abortion does not appear on any of the lists NCRM was able to locate.

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One portion mentions contraception, but not abortion.

Secretary Kennedy, a promoter of conspiracy theories — especially about vaccines — on Thursday refused to discuss his attempt to fire the CDC Director. He told Fox News, “It would be inappropriate for me to comment on a personnel issue.”

“What I will say is, you know, there is, President Trump has very, very ambitious hopes for CDC right now. CDC has problems. We saw the misinformation coming out of COVID.”

“They got the testing wrong, they got the social distancing, the masks, the school closures that did so much harm to the American people,” he charged.

“Today on CDC’s website right now, they list the 10 top advanced greatest advances in medical science, and one of them is abortion,” Kennedy inaccurately claimed. “The other is fluoridation, another is vaccine.”

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STAT News reported on Thursday that “Kennedy’s brief critique of the CDC ranged from incontrovertible missteps by the agency, such as its failure to handle the onslaught of Covid testing at the beginning of the pandemic, to issues such as masking, where there is still scientific debate, to issues such as fluoridation, which is broadly viewed by the medical community as beneficial. He also appeared to leave key context out of his description of the list of great medical achievements on the CDC’s website.”

Kennedy also told Fox News viewers that the CDC’s “priorities” need to be examined, and denounced what he alleged was a “malaise” at the nation’s top health agency.

“This agency, the gold standard science [sic] and do what it was when we were growing up, which was the most respected health agency in the world.”

In 2024, The New York Times characterized Kennedy as a “leading vaccine skeptic and purveyor of conspiracy theories,” and someone who has “promoted a conspiracy theory that coronavirus vaccines were developed to control people via microchips,” and “endorsed the false notion that antidepressants are linked to school shootings.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

RFK Jr. was on Fox & Friends this morning complaining that the CDC includes “vaccines” on its website as one of the 10 “greatest advances in medical science,” says we need to look at its “priorities.” pic.twitter.com/bB1wzXVMbm

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) August 28, 2025

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