Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Once Pitched Deadly Human Vaccine Experiment

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, once pitched the idea to run an experiment on the children of Samoa to see whether vaccines actually work.

Kennedy Jr., who ran the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense (from which he profited greatly), still claims the long-debunked theory that vaccines cause autism and a range of health problems. A report from NBC News published Friday shows that the man who may be in charge of America’s health agencies is more than willing to play games with public safety to test his own conspiracy theories.

In July 2018, Samoa was rocked by the death of two infants, who died after being administered improperly prepared vaccines. The scandal resulted in a 10-month pause in Samoa’s vaccine program. When the program eventually resumed, parents were slow to rejoin the line for vaccines for their children.

Less than a year later, in June 2019, Kennedy Jr. received an invitation to visit Samoa from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who had expressed that he’d previously lost a grandchild “under similar circumstances,” which many understood to mean due to complications relating to vaccines. Edwin Tamasese, a local vaccine skeptic, had told Malielegaoi about Children’s Health Defense, and urged him to invite Kennedy Jr. to speak with him.

Kennedy Jr. knew all about the deaths in Samoa, and Children’s Health Defense had been using it to make misinformation materials and escalate its calls for “vaccine safety science,” despite the fact that the deadly error in the case had been a human one.

It was then that Kennedy Jr. pitched his cruel experiment: to use the drop in vaccination rates as an opportunity to see if vaccines actually work (spoiler alert: They do).

He brought with him Dr. Michael Craven, the Children’s Health Defense’s new chief information officer, who could set up an information system to track the effects of vaccines, or lack thereof.

Ultimately, his pitch wasn’t convincing. “I was not interested in his ideas—he was not a medical doctor,” Malielegaoi told NBC News. “Our medical experts are more credible to me.”

But Kennedy Jr. wasn’t far from done trying to intervene. Months later, when a measles outbreak started to spread through Samoa, Kennedy wrote to Malielegaoi suggesting that there was another reason for the spate of deaths. By the end of the year dozens of children were dead.

That’s when Kennedy reached out to Tamasese, the vaccine skeptic. Tamasese said that Kennedy helped assemble a team of doctors who advised him on the real cure, a vitamin C treatment, to save the kids of Samoa from the spread of measles. Meanwhile, one of the doctors on Kennedy’s team asked Tamasese to secure a vial of the measles vaccine and send it to the U.S. for testing.

Eventually, Samoa instituted a vaccine mandate, and the Covid-19 pandemic diverted Kennedy’s efforts in Samoa. Kennedy continues to claim that the measles were not responsible for the deaths of 82 children. “Nobody died in Samoa from measles,” Kennedy said in August. “They were dying from a bad vaccine.”

The Oath Keepers involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection are facing new restrictions from a federal judge, just days after they had their prison sentences commuted by Donald Trump.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Stewart Rhodes and seven other members of the far-right militia can’t enter Washington, D.C., or the U.S. Capitol without the court’s permission.

Rhodes was originally sentenced to 18 years in prison, one of the toughest sentences handed down as a result of January 6, and given the heavy charge of seditious conspiracy. Unlike other January 6 rioters, Rhodes was not pardoned but had his sentence commuted, along with other defendants convicted of seditious conspiracy.

“My only regret is they should have brought rifles,” Rhodes said in a January 10, 2021, recording played at his trial in 2022. “We should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang fucking Pelosi from the lamppost.”

On Wednesday, following his release from prison, Rhodes was spotted in the Capitol complex, sitting down in a Dunkin’ Donuts and casually speaking to reporters. The far-right militant also met with several Republican members of Congress, drawing the ire of Democrats.

“It’s just incredibly sad that this is someone who House Republicans feel should be welcomed in this building, someone who doesn’t support the rule of law, someone who actively worked against the peaceful transfer of power in our country,” Democratic Representative Pete Aguilar told Politico.

Now, at least, Rhodes and several of his far-right compatriots will be restricted from the site of their crimes four years ago. Many of their supporters, however, will be under no such restrictions, and Trump has effectively told them that they don’t have to worry about legal trouble.

The family of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hopes to see the declassified government files on his assassination before they are made public.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing administration officials to make a plan to release thousands of classified government documents on the assassinations of King, as well as former President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy.

“More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Federal Government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events,” the order stated. “Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay.”

The King family responded in a statement from the X account of Bernice King, Martin Luther King’s youngest daughter.

“Today, our family has learned that President Trump has ordered the declassification of the remaining records pertaining to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and our father, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” the statement read. “For us, the assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years. We hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.”

The assassinations of King and both Kennedys have been the subjects of speculation and conspiracy theories since they occurred. Many suspect the declassified information may implicate government agencies like the CIA or FBI in some way—as that may be why they’ve been classified for so long in the first place. There could also be personal information from the FBI’s aggressive surveillance of King in the 1960s.

Trump has ordered the director of national intelligence and attorney general to have a process to release the JFK records in 15 days, and the MLK and RFK files up to 30 days after that.

Senators are expected to cast their final vote on defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth by late Friday—but the man who appointed him doesn’t appear to be too tapped into the details of the massive Republican undertaking.

Speaking with Newsmax at Joint Base Andrews early Friday, Donald Trump insisted that Hegseth—one of his more controversial appointees—was a “good man.” But his tone, helicopters whirring in the background, more closely resembled that of a reality TV host playing both sides than an executive expressing total confidence that his appointee would ascend to the top of the Pentagon.

“I hope he makes it,” Trump repeated to the far-right network.

“I was very surprised that Collins and Murkowski would do that,” Trump continued, referring to Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who broke ranks with Republicans by opposing Hegseth’s nomination in a procedural 51–49 vote Thursday afternoon.

“And of course Mitch is always a ‘no’ vote, I guess. Is Mitch a ‘no’ vote? How about Mitch?” Trump added. McConnell voted on Thursday to advance Hegseth’s nomination, though he could still oppose Hegseth’s appointment in the final vote.

But even if McConnell ultimately swings against Trump’s pick, Democrats would still need one more Republican detractor to keep Hegseth out of the highest echelons of the nation’s military complex. Trump, it seems, is just creating suspense around the vote, which is still expected to pass.

Hegseth, a 44-year-old former infantry officer, has been under fire since Trump tapped him to lead the Pentagon. The heat has primarily stemmed from a shocking 2017 police report that revealed the Army veteran was accused of raping an attendee at a Republican women’s conference in Monterey, California. Hegseth has also admitted to several other scandals, including five affairs that he had during his first marriage.

Hegseth’s FBI background check ahead of his Senate hearing barely touched on the scandals, failing to interview Hegseth’s ex-wives or the woman who accused him.

Since then, his former sister-in-law has also accused him of “erratic and aggressive behavior” and abuse, claiming that the TV star grabbed his second wife and made her fear for her safety, to the point that the two sisters shared a code word to communicate when she felt she was in danger.

The MAGA base is in an uproar over JD Vance giving his first interview as vice president to Margaret Brennan of Face the Nation on CBS.

“Scoop: Vice President @JDVance will sit for his first interview since being sworn in with @margbrennan to air on @FaceTheNation Sunday exclusive,” CBS’s Olivia Rinaldi announced on X Thursday evening.

Brennan and Vance famously clashed at the vice presidential debate in October over whether Brennan was allowed to fact-check Vance’s comments during the debate (she was). Those farthest to the right still seem to be pretty upset by that.

“I’ll never understand why Leftist media that tried to destroy @JDVance and @realDonaldTrump are rewarded with exclusive interviews as opposed to those who were supportive and ethical,” MAGA extremist Laura Loomer wrote on X.

“Why is Vance rewarding a corrupt Democrat partisan who tried to rig a debate with his first interview as VP?” said Sean Davis, founder of the fraudulent conservative website The Federalist.

“Why would @JDVance even do this interview, let alone as his first? Don’t resuscitate your dying enemy,” right-wing radio host Rich Baris wrote.

“VP Vance rewards a left-wing media outlet by giving them his first interview,” wrote Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist’s editor in chief.

This distrust of “legacy media” like CBS goes further back than the vice presidential debate—it’s a core tenet of Trump’s ideology. But some supporters are feeling bullish about Vance appearing on CBS.

“It’s NOT a reward. He’s going to systematically dismantle every Leftest narrative they throw at him and he’s going to take the fight to them and their small audience,” said one X user.

“They’re the fool. Vance is a master at answering questions. He’ll make a fool out of her,” said another.

Vance’s interview with Brennan will air on Sunday.