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‘This Is a Lie’: RFK Jr. Criticized by Experts, Including Trump Surgeon General

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Medical experts, including Donald Trump’s first-term Surgeon General, are questioning Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services and urging the Senate to uphold its “obligation” to conduct a thorough vetting process, following resurfaced remarks RFK Jr. made last year about the polio vaccine, suggesting it “killed many, many more people” than polio ever did. Some experts are flat-out accusing Kennedy of promoting “grotesque misinformation” or lies about the polio vaccine.

Before the polio vaccine, thousands in the U.S. died during outbreaks. In the 1916 epidemic, about 5000 people in the U.S. died, including over 2000 in New York City.

In 1952, “during the worst polio outbreak in U.S. history, 57,000 people were infected, 21,000 were paralyzed and 3,145 died, most of them children,” History.com reported. “Pools and movie theaters were shuttered, and panicked parents kept their kids at home, haunted by black-and-white images of toddlers in leg braces and rows of infants sealed in iron lungs.”

The CDC estimates that since 1988, decades after the first polio vaccine was created, “global polio cases have decreased by more than 99%. As a result, an estimated 20 million people who would have been paralyzed by the disease are walking today, and more than 1.5 million lives have been saved.”

READ MORE: ‘Should Be Looked At’: Trump Again Speaks Against Mandates for Childhood Diseases Vaccines

Now, resurfaced video (below) of RFK Jr. from a podcast just last year declaring “there is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective,” has gone viral on social media. It was also the subject of FactCheck.org report showing he incorrectly claimed to have never made that statement.

“I have never said that,” Kennedy in a PBS Newshour interview from November, 2023. “You are wrong. And you’re making something up.”

“If you are reading reports about me in the mainstream media, including this network, they’re almost all inaccurate,” Kennedy also alleged, according to FactCheck.org.

Kennedy is an environmental lawyer, an anti-vaccine activist, and has a “history of trafficking in conspiracy theories.” He is not a physician or infectious disease scientist.

The remarks he made just after declaring no vaccine is safe and effective are also concerning medical experts.

FactCheck.org’s report says, Kennedy “misleadingly suggested that the polio vaccines given to his generation caused cancer — despite a lack of evidence that this is true.”

“The polio vaccine contained a virus called simian virus 40, SV40,” Kennedy says in the video. “It’s one of the most carcinogenic materials that is known to man. In fact, it’s used now by scientists around the world to induce tumors in rats and guinea pigs in labs. But it was in that vaccine — 98 million people who got that vaccine, and my generation got it, and now you’ve had this explosion of soft tissue cancers in our generation that killed many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did.”

“So if you say to me, ‘The polio vaccine, was it effective against polio?’ I’m going to say, Yes. And if you say to me, ‘Did it kill more people … did it caused more death than averted?’ I would say, ‘I don’t know, because we don’t have the data on that,'” Kennedy also said, according to FactCheck.org. The organization also determined another statement of his was “incorrect or misleading on several fronts.”

Dr. Angela Rasmussen is a virologist and research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO). Her bio says she focuses “on highly pathogenic emerging viruses that cause the most severe disease, such as Ebola virus, influenza viruses, and SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19.”

Responding to the video of RFK Jr. suggesting the polio vaccine “killed many, many more people” than polio, Dr. Rasmussen declared, “This is a lie. And it’s an abhorrent lie because the goal of this lie is to prevent polio vaccination and kill even more people.”

Dr. Neil Stone, an infectious diseases doctor and clinician-scientist on Tuesday wrote that RFK Jr. claiming that the polio vaccine “killed many more people than polio ever did…is simply not true.”

“Either he grossly misunderstands the topic,” or, “he does understand it and is lying.”

“Either way this is grotesque misinformation,” Dr. Stone concluded.

Dr. Benjamin Mazer is an assistant professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologist, and an editor at the peer reviewed journal BMJ Oncology.

READ MORE: ‘Trump ’28, Come on, Man!’: Bannon Calls for Third Term

Last month at The Atlantic, he wrote that during the COVID pandemic, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was indeed spreading misinformation with a fire hose. (For example, he has falsely said that the COVID shots are the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”)

And on Monday, responding to a social media post from CNN’s Manu Raju about RFK Jr. telling reporters, “I’m all for the polio vaccine,” Dr. Mazer wrote: “His strategy is to lie.”

“Here’s what he actually said about the polio vaccine: their harms ‘dwarf’ the harms of polio itself. (Obviously not true.) Oh and RFK Jr also suggested that doctors and scientists drummed up the AIDS epidemic because polio wasn’t a problem anymore.”

Dr. Dena Grayson is a physician and researcher with a lengthy medical résumé.

On Friday, not specifying any particular remarks, Dr. Grayson wrote: “In the face of #polio—a virus that can kill you or lead to a lifetime of paralysis—it’s INSANE that RFK Jr wants to ban a safe and effective vaccine.”

Dr. Jerome Adams is a former Indiana state health commissioner who served as President Donald Trump’s Surgeon General from September, 2017 to the end of Trump’s term. He holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on chronic disease prevention.

On Tuesday Adams made statements responding to the RFK Jr. video, urging the Senate thoroughly vet Kennedy.

“No one is perfect, and as such, every political appointee has pros and cons that the Senate has to explore when considering confirmation. RFK is on the record – a lot. And the Senate will have to determine if someone who has said ‘no vaccine is safe and effective,’ and who doesn’t know ‘if the polio vaccine killed more people than it has saved,’ is qualified and suitable to be America’s secretary of Health,” Dr. Adams remarked.

“I personally like a lot of RFKs talk of improving the safety and nutrition of our food supply. But again the Senate will have to ask themselves if a healthy and respected America can have someone who has said HIV doesn’t cause AIDS leading health policy,” Dr. Adams added, pointing to this video:

Adams concluded, “America voted for Trump- and he has the right to nominate whoever he wants. The Senate has an obligation to vet these nominations before they consent. And as an American citizen and physician, I hope Senators at least ask RFK to explain- on the record- his many concerning past statements that seem inconsistent with making America healthy again. We all deserve that insight and clarity from the confirmation process.”

Over the weekend, without mentioning anyone specifically, Dr. Adams remarked: “In Scotland they’re working on elimination of cervical cancer via vaccines- and they’ve almost achieved their goal. I worry that in America some are working on a reintroduction of polio- and they’ve almost achieved their goal.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Wants a Global Stage’: Trump’s ‘Power Move’ Fizzles as China’s Xi Blows Off Inauguration

 

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News

‘Absolutely Has Juice’: CNN Analyst Warns Trump’s Hold on GOP Voters Is as Strong as Ever

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9 hours ago

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May 7, 2026

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CNN analyst Harry Enten says that President Donald Trump is as popular and powerful as ever among Republican voters.

Enten looked at this week’s results in the Indiana primaries, where a majority of Republican state lawmakers who opposed the president’s push for redistricting were voted out of office.

“As Indiana goes, so goes the nation when it comes to Republican voters and Donald John Trump,” Enten said. “He absolutely still has the juice, and when you’re a Republican and you go against Trump, you get voted off the island.”

Enten extrapolated that result to the rest of the country, saying that Indiana “is emblematic of what we see nationwide with Republicans.”

“I think there’s this myth that’s going on right now that, oh, ‘Trump is really losing support among Republicans.’ But compared to other midterm cycles, he’s just as popular with Republicans as he has ever been at this point in midterm cycles,” he said.

Enten found that at this point in his first term, in 2018, Trump’s approval rating among his GOP base was 85 percent. Now, it’s 84 percent.

READ MORE: Senate Republicans Just Dealt Trump a Major Blow

“That 85 looks a whole heck of a lot like this 84 percent right here,” Enten said. “The bottom line is this: Donald Trump still absolutely has juice with Republican voters.”

“You saw it in Indiana, and I think that you’ll see it down the line, as well, if any Republicans try and go against the President of the United States, who is still very much beloved by Republican voters nationwide.”

Enten says that the core Republican base “really loves Donald Trump.”

“The people who really love him, they’re the ones who are absolutely juiced up to go out and vote.”

“They would go over hot coals to vote in those primaries,” Enten observed, “and you saw that in Indiana, where the clear majority of those representatives who went against Trump on redistricting, well, they’re no longer gonna have a job come the next session.”

Enten continued, saying that “support among Republicans is just as strong as it was going into the 2018 midterm cycle.”

“So it’s not just that Republicans really like Donald Trump — it’s they want their leaders to follow Donald Trump, and when they don’t, as I said at the beginning, you get voted off the island.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Economic Agenda Is Collapsing — and He’s Running Out of Time

 

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Senate Republicans Just Dealt Trump a Major Blow

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11 hours ago

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May 7, 2026

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President Donald Trump for months has been pushing the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act — what critics call a voter suppression bill — and for months Senate Republicans have been unable to.

Although non-citizen voting is rare, NBC News has reported, the SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, something many Americans do not have easy access to.

In March, Trump threatened he would sign no other legislation until the SAVE Act came to his desk.

“It must be done immediately,” he wrote on Truth Social. “It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY – ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL: NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS: NO TRANSGENDER MUTILIZATION FOR CHILDREN! DO NOT FAIL!!!”

Why has the president been so adamant in pushing the controversial legislation?

In April, he told Republicans that enacting the SAVE Act will “guarantee the midterms” — while claiming that was not the reason he was pushing the bill. “I don’t think you can politically exist if you’re not going to do voter ID and these things.”

READ MORE: Top Republican Warns Against Turning Supreme Court Justices’ Testimony Into a ‘Circus’

“We’ll never lose a race. For 50 years, we won’t lose a race,” if the SAVE Act passes, Trump said in February. Also that month, he said, “The Republicans should say — we should take over the voting in at least 15 places,” urging Republicans to “nationalize the voting.”

Despite the president’s persistence, the Republican-controlled Senate, under Majority Leader John Thune, just shelved the SAVE America Act.

“Senate Republican leaders are unlikely to hold additional votes on the SAVE America Act, the voter ID and proof of citizenship bill many Republicans say has done more harm to the party than good,” Punchbowl News reports, noting that some Republicans see another vote as “futile.”

Punchbowl adds that shelving the bill “will only anger the party’s base and intensify the long-shot push to scrap the filibuster.”

Majority Leader Thune and most Senate Republicans refuse to end the filibuster, while some Republicans warn that if they don’t end the filibuster, Democrats will do so when they take control of the Senate.

“I completely understand my colleagues who want to maintain the filibuster. We all want to maintain the filibuster, honestly,” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Punchbowl. “But I know the Democrats won’t. That’s the only division here.”

In April, Senate Republicans couldn’t even scrounge up 50 votes for Trump’s top-priority bill.

“To Senate GOP leaders,” Punchbowl observed, “that alone is a good enough reason to move on.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Economic Agenda Is Collapsing — and He’s Running Out of Time

 

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Trump’s Economic Agenda Is Collapsing — and He’s Running Out of Time

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14 hours ago

on

May 7, 2026

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Late last year, the White House announced that President Donald Trump would kick off 2026 by touring the nation to promote his economic agenda, with a focus on affordability. Instead, he launched a war attacking Iran — driving gas prices higher and pushing overall inflation up even further.

Now, with major campaign promises unfulfilled, and six months to go before the midterms, Trump’s economic agenda is collapsing.

He never lowered prices “on day one,” and Americans’ electric bills were not cut in half within his first six months. Six in ten Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy.

The price of gas has increased roughly 45 percent from when Trump was sworn in as president last year, but the White House is trying to spin that as a positive. The national average hit $4.55 per gallon on Thursday, per AAA, up from $3.13 the week he was inaugurated.

On Wednesday, Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, declared that rising consumer spending — including on gasoline — proves the economy is thriving, even as Americans put those costs on their credit cards. Despite Hassett’s claims that Americans “have so much more money in their pockets,” late last month, Gallup reported that 55 percent of Americans say their finances are getting worse.

Trump’s in-office economic proposals have not fared any better.

READ MORE: Top Republican Warns Against Turning Supreme Court Justices’ Testimony Into a ‘Circus’

“The biggest piece of housing legislation in a generation has languished on Capitol Hill because of lawmakers’ objections to a provision negotiated by the White House,” Bloomberg News reports. Trump has also abandoned a proposed 10 percent cap on credit card interest rates, following backlash from banks and skepticism from economists.

Bloomberg notes that “two executive orders, one aimed at easing access to mortgage credit and another that seeks to streamline regulations for builders, are not yet fully implemented and experts say they would only help marginally.”

A White House official told Bloomberg there are plans to try to bring down the price of some grocery store items, and said that the administration is negotiating with drug manufacturers to lower prices.

The administration also touted a “major housing announcement” related to new credit-score models for housing, but, Bloomberg notes, “those changes won’t translate to significant savings for consumers, according to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the right-leaning American Action Forum.”

“The cost of credit scores as a part of the purchase price of the house is nothing,” he said.

The cost of buying a home has increased. By buying $200 million in mortgage bonds, the administration briefly brought mortgage rates down to below 6 percent, but Trump’s Iran war escalated those costs, and today the interest on a 30-year mortgage is 6.3%.

Trump last year floated 50-year mortgages as a means to lower interest rates, but that proposal also went nowhere.

With six months until Election Day, the Iran war still in focus and gas prices still rising, voters say Trump has yet to deliver.

READ MORE: ‘Outrageous’: DOJ’s Push in $83 Million Carroll Case Fuels Cries of Corruption

 

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