The Madness of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the inauguration of Donald Trump at the Rotunda of the US Capitol on January 20. Kevin Lamarque/Sipa via AP

The media has failed the public on a crucial matter: the derangement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Often he is described in news reports as a vaccine skeptic, when he is far more than that. He is an extreme vaccine opponent. And he has lied about this, saying he has “never been anti-vaxx,” though he recently declared, “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.” He still promotes the debunked notion that vaccines cause autism. In May 2021, he petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to stop the use of all Covid vaccines. He proclaimed it “the deadliest vaccine ever made”—though these vaccines were estimated to have saved 20 million lives globally in the first year of their use. His anti-vaccine advocacy also played a role in a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019 that killed scores of children, and this, too, he has lied about.

But Kennedy’s false claims about vaccines and his own stance on the issue are merely just one slice of his craziness that has not been fully conveyed to the public. For years, he has pushed a host of conspiracy theories and false propositions in such an aggressive and unhinged manner as to raise profound questions about his judgment and analytical abilities. Placing a fellow this cracked, disingenuous, and paranoid in charge of the American public health system—which Donald Trump has proposed to do by nominating him to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services—threatens national and global security. This could be the most dangerous act of Trump’s presidency. Yet Republican senators and much of the public are ho-humming this perilous appointment.

Like Trump, Kennedy for years has wielded a firehose of falsehoods across multiple fronts and has engaged in assorted misconduct and odd behavior, so much so that the individual lies and misdeeds zip by and blur into a mess that becomes tough for the media to thoroughly depict and hard for the public to absorb.

During the pandemic, he not only recklessly opposed the vaccines; he also made the baseless and seemingly antisemitic comment that Covid was engineered to spare Jews and Chinese people. He compared anti-Covid public health measures to the Holocaust and claimed Dr. Anthony Fauci was orchestrating “fascism.” (Kennedy published an entire book in 2021 outlandishly attacking Fauci, asserting this public health official, over his decades-long career, had mounted “a historic coup d’état against Western democracy.” In this book, he claimed that Fauci once funded testing of an AIDS treatment on a group of foster children and many of them died because of the experiment—a scurrilous allegation that has been debunked.) Kennedy, who has no training in science or medicine, also hyped unproven treatments for Covid, including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.

In 2022, Kennedy pushed a wild-eyed theory about the pandemic that showed how bonkers he can be. He claimed that a global elite led by the CIA had been planning for years to use a pandemic to end democracy and impose totalitarian control on the entire world. This was Alex Jones-level crazy. But Kennedy fervently insisted he had proof: the ominous-sounding Event 201.That was the name of a pandemic simulation held at a New York City hotel in October 2019, months before Covid struck. In one podcast, he said that no one had to take his word on this claim of a diabolical scheme and that you could look up Event 201 and even watch its recorded proceedings on YouTube. I did and discovered the simulation, conducted publicly by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, was a rather anodyne gathering of corporate execs, former government officials, and policy experts that did not come close to matching Kennedy’s description of it. Yet Kennedy maintained this exercise was proof of a worldwide plot to exploit a pandemic to “execute a coup d’etat against democracy.” Only an observer far removed from reality could sit through the three-and-a-half-hour-long Event 201 and reach such a loony conclusion.

While excitedly propagating this conspiracy theory, Kennedy demonstrated a methodology he has employed in other instances. He misrepresents facts. He fabricates. He sounds authoritative and offers what appears to be oodles of evidence. But he blends dollops of reality with fevered fantasies and concocts a goulash of irrational conspiracy. If he’s not a self-aware con man, he must be delusional. Whatever the case may be, he has pocketed millions of dollars—including $10 million last year—as an anti-vax champion.

On other health policy matters, he has peddled canards and shams. He falsely suggested that HIV did not cause AIDS and that this disease was attributable, in part, to the use of recreational drugs—notably, poppers—by gay men. He has frequently said that human-made chemicals in the environment could be making children gay and causing “gender confusion.” (There is no scientific evidence to back this up.) He has bolstered the baseless claim that the usage of antidepressants has led to school shootings. He has promoted the drinking of raw milk, which presents the risk of foodborne disease and the spread of avian flu, given the recent outbreak in dairy cows. He has pushed the unfounded view that fluoride in drinking water causes arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. (Major public health groups say fluoridation prevents cavities and is safe.)

Outside the public health realm, Kennedy has hawked other unfounded conspiracy theories. He once asserted, "They're putting in 5G [high-speed broadband service] to harvest our data and control our behavior. Digital currency that will allow them to punish us from a distance and cut off our food supply." (He also told podcaster Joe Rogan that wifi “radiation” causes cancer, “cellphone tumors,” and “opens your blood brain barrier” to toxins—of which there is no scientific proof.) Not surprisingly, he has long insisted that the CIA was part of the plot to assassinate his uncle, President John Kennedy. (He also believes Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of murdering his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, did not fire the shot that killed the senator and that a second gunman was involved.)

And then there’s just a wide range of RFK Jr. weirdness and questionable (if not scandalous) behavior. This includes dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park; decapitating a dead whale and taking its head home; allegedly sexually assaulting a babysitter; keeping a sex diary of his many extramarital affairs during his second marriage; hailing his past use of heroin; reportedly sexting with a reporter (while married to his third wife); and causing concern at an environmental group he led over his puzzling distribution of tens of millions of dollars.

Kennedy, once widely praised for his work as an environmental lawyer, has compiled a long history of personal misconduct, conspiracy-mongering, and unrelenting lying. It may be too much for senators to vet and consider during his confirmation hearings. But all this and his lack of experience managing a large government department warrants extensive scrutiny, as he is slated to take over the world’s biggest public health agency. Moreover, his recent policy pronouncements ought to spark worry. He has called for pausing all drug development for four years, as well as research into infectious diseases. So no work on pharmaceuticals that might help Americans stricken with cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other illnesses? And no research or vaccine development for a bird flu strain that might mutate into a virus transmitted between humans?

A forceful and articulate public speaker who has mastered the art of appearing to be well-informed, Kennedy has repeatedly showed that he is unfettered by reality and facts and that he is an erratic and stubborn pitchman for unfounded conspiracy theories and dangerously false propositions. Putting him at the helm of the nation’s public health system creates a risk of great magnitude. Had he succeeded in blocking the Covid vaccines, millions more Americans might have died.

A clear-eyed look at his positions, actions, and assertions leads to a frightening conclusion: He is an untrustworthy and unstable person. To put it simply, he is batty. And it is absolutely nuts for him to be in charge of an agency that must rely on sound science, solid research, and prudent policy to safeguard the health and well-being of the American people. If the Senate Republicans confirm his nomination, it will be an act of abysmal recklessness and irresponsibility. Out of mindless loyalty to Trump or fear of him, they will inject a potentially deadly virus into a system meant to protect us.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.

Maybe Happy Ending. Profound creativity is inspiring. As I watched the new Broadway hit, Maybe Happy Ending, I was moved by the extreme inventiveness of the production. It was hard to imagine how anyone had imagined such an imaginative musical—let alone turn it into reality on a stage. The story of Maybe Happy Ending is both a touch corny and thought-provoking. It’s 2064 in Seoul. Helperbot Oliver, a sentient android, is living in what’s essentially a retirement home for robotic domestic servants who have been put out to pasture. He likes listening to jazz and tending to his (plastic) plant, HwaBoon. It’s been 10 years since his owner James sent him to the Helperbot Yards, and Oliver still fervently believes that any day now James will arrive to retrieve him. (No spoiler alert: James is not coming.) Then he meets the Helperbot across the hall, Claire, who needs to borrow not a cup of sugar but a charger.

The two uneasily bond, and though they agree not to fall for one another, this being a musical, you know what’s coming. Eventually, the two go on a road trip in search of James and, for Claire, fireflies, which now only exist on one island in South Korea. And, of course, because they are robots, this is about human relationships and such weighty issues of love and death. But the poignancy—and there’s plenty of it—is never mawkish or overly sentimental. At one point, Oliver learns that Claire’s “shelf life” will end before his, and in anguish he asks, “How can people do this?” Yes, why do we invest so much in love, and how do we live with deep loss?

The show raises intriguing issues about artificial intelligence, memory, and what it means to be human—without being too highfalutin. And the tunes are catchy—"landing somewhere between Bacharach and Sondheim,” per the New York Times—especially as performed by the two winning stars, Darren Criss (who starred in Glee and won an Emmy  for portraying killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) and Helen J. Shen, a Broadway newcomer. But what blows the audience away is how all this is packaged in one of the most innovative stagings in Broadway history. Using smart screens, sliding panels, video imagery, incredible lighting, and movable sets, Maybe Happy Ending, directed exquisitely and thrillingly by Michael Arden, is presented in multiple, size-and-shape-shifting boxes, as if you’re viewing it on a high-tech device. This is no gimmick. It is visually stunning.

First produced in Korea nine years ago, Maybe Happy Ending is clever, original, unique, accessible, and teeming with how-did-they-do-that creativity. I was in awe for an hour and forty minutes. The below clip—one of the few available—doesn’t do it justice:

“A Stone Only Rolls Downhill,” OK Go. Remember when there were viral videos—posts that everyone that had to see and that everyone talked about? While social media posts still go viral these days, the ever-fracturing information ecosystem generates fewer viral items that grab attention across multiple demographics.

One of the early progenitors of viral videos was OK Go, the American rock band fronted by Damian Kulash that produced ingenious videos for its songs. You might recall its Rube Goldberg video (“This Too Shall Pass”), its defying-gravity video (“Upside Down & Inside Out”), its treadmill video (“Here It Goes Again”), or its drone-shot robotic-seat video (“I Won’t Let You Down”). Well, the OK Goers are back with another brilliant video for their new song, “A Stone Only Rolls Downhill.” It’s a mash-up of 64 videos shot on 64 smart phones. Trying to keep track of all the footage as you watch will likely make your brain hurt. Yet at the same time you will be thoroughly delighted. Enjoy this wonderful distraction.