The GOP Doctor Who Has Done Much Harm

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) speaking on the Senate floor on February 4 to defend his vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary.

Doctors, I imagine, tend to be proud of all the lives they have improved and saved. I’m sure that’s the case for Dr. Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His biography is full of medical accomplishments that no doubt helped a great many people. After attending Louisiana State University for undergraduate and medical school, he taught medical students and residents at Earl K. Long Hospital, a facility for the uninsured. He co-founded a clinic that provided free dental and health care to the working uninsured. He also created a public-private partnership to vaccinate 36,000 children in the Baton Rouge area against hepatitis B and the flu—at no cost to their families. After Hurricane Katrina struck, he led a group of health care workers to transform an abandoned Kmart into an emergency health care facility that provided basic care to evacuees.

It seems Cassidy did a lot of good. Then he entered politics. Once a Democrat, he switched parties, and in 2006 was elected to the state Senate as a moderate Republican. He then became a congressman and won a US Senate seat in 2014. And with one vote earlier this year, Cassidy wiped out much of his legacy as a public-interest-minded doctor.

That was his vote to confirm anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as secretary of health and human services. As chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Cassidy had the power to kill this nomination. And he appeared genuinely worried about Kennedy’s years of crusading against vaccines, which included spreading falsehoods and lies. After much to-and-froing, Cassidy yielded to Donald Trump. Now he holds a significant ownership interest in all that Kennedy does—which includes RFK Jr.’s defunding of biomedical research and his ongoing war on vaccines.

This past week, Kennedy delivered a serious blow to public health. He canceled nearly half a billion dollars in research and grants for developing mRNA vaccines. These vaccines are a major scientific breakthrough. They essentially cause a body to produce a small slice of a virus, and that, in turn, triggers the body’s immune response to protect against serious infection. This technology was first deployed to quickly devise Covid vaccines. The wonder with mRNAs is that they can be quickly altered to combat viruses that are changing. Two scientists who made discoveries that led to the development of the mRNA Covid vaccines won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and it’s widely believed that mRNA research will yield other lifesaving vaccines and cancer treatments.

Snuffing out $500 million in mRNA research will likely result in deaths that could have been avoided. Don’t take my word for it. Every story on this Kennedy decision contains quotes from scientists decrying this move. Rick Bright, a prominent virologist, noted in a tweet that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which develops medical countermeasures to address public health threats and emerging infectious diseases, “invested in mRNA technology precisely because it could deliver safe, scalable vaccines in record time, a capability proven during COVID. By dismantling that platform, we’re crippling our front-line defense, just ahead of unknown biological threats.”

In response to Bright, Jerome Adams, a physician and Purdue University professor, commented, “I’ve tried to be objective & non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions – but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives. mRNA technology has uses that go far beyond vaccines…and the vaccine they helped develop in record time is credited with saving millions.” There’s something else you should know about Adams: He was the surgeon general in the first Trump presidency.

Of course, this is not Kennedy’s first anti-vax action. In May, he ripped up a $600 million grant to develop an avian flu vaccine. In June, he removed all the scientific experts on a key vaccine advisory panel and replaced them with a group of people with less expertise that included several aligned with vaccine foes. He has talked down vaccination and promoted restrictions on the use of vaccines.

Kennedy, who is not a vaccine skeptic (as many in the media describe him) but a vaccine opponent, is doing precisely what was expected. The probable outcome will be more disease and death, especially if (or when) another pandemic strikes.

Which brings us back to Cassidy. During Kennedy’s confirmation process, he hemmed and hawed. But he eventually bowed before Trump and backed RFK Jr. During a Senate floor speech explaining his vote, Cassidy said:

Regarding vaccines, Mr. Kennedy has been insistent that he just wants good science and to ensure safety. But on this topic, the science is good, the science is credible. Vaccines save lives. They are safe. They do not cause autism. There are multiple studies that show this. They are a crucial part of our nation’s public health response...Mr. Kennedy and the administration reached out seeking to reassure me regarding their commitment to protecting the public health benefit of vaccination.

To this end, Mr. Kennedy and the administration committed that he and I will have an unprecedently close collaborative working relationship if he is confirmed…Mr. Kennedy has asked for my input into hiring decisions at HHS, beyond Senate-confirmed positions…He has also committed that he would work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems and not establish parallel systems. If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.

Kennedy and the Trump administration lied to Cassidy. RFK Jr. is not committed to the “public health benefit of vaccination.” He is pushing the opposite. And he did not maintain that advisory committee on vaccinations “without changes.” He eviscerated it.

Kennedy’s lies are no surprise. During his confirmation hearings, media fact-checkers caught him prevaricating again and again and again. In fact, he lied six minutes into his first confirmation hearing when he testified, “News reports claim I am anti-vaccine…I am not.” At that, a protester in the audience, shouted, “You lie.” She was removed from the hearing room by Capitol Hill police. But she was correct.

Prior to his nomination, Kennedy’s penchant for spewing falsehoods was well documented. In 2023, the Associated Press reported that though Kennedy insisted during his failed presidential run that he was not anti-vaccine, he had a long record of fully and fiercely opposing vaccinations. Along with other journalists, I have reported on his various lies about vaccinations and other matters, including his baseless conspiracy theory that the CIA and a global elite plotted to use a pandemic to end democracy and impose totalitarian control on the entire world. (Not only is he a liar; he's Alex Jones–like bonkers.)

When Kennedy was nominated by Trump, his cousin Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John Kennedy, sent a letter to Cassidy and other senators that was unequivocal: “Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life…Even before he fills this job, his constant denigration of our health care system and the conspiratorial half-truths he has told about vaccines, including in connection with Samoa’s deadly 2019 measles outbreak, have cost lives.”

There was no good reason for Cassidy to trust Kennedy. For years, Kennedy had demonstrated that his word was rotten and his beliefs often untethered to reality. And it was evident that he would say anything at his confirmation hearings to attain this position so he could implement an anti-vax agenda. He didn’t bamboozle Cassidy. Cassidy bamboozled himself, acting as if the “assurances” of Kennedy and Trump had any value. Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges related to the January 6 riot. (“Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person,” he said. “I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.") Yet he did not have the fortitude to say no to Trump and Kennedy. Who knows how many people might perish because of this?

During Kennedy’s confirmation hearings, Cassidy failed to behave as any good doctor should: He did not address the core problem—that Kennedy is a lying charlatan. The symptoms were there. The condition was easy to diagnose. Cassidy chose to avoid the obvious. This was political malpractice.

Now Cassidy is upset with Kennedy. “It is unfortunate that the Secretary just canceled a half a billion worth of work, wasting the money which is already invested,” he complained on X. “He has also conceded to China an important technology needed to combat cancer and infectious disease. President Trump wants to Make America Healthy Again and Make America Great Again. This works against both of President Trump’s goals.”

Even this statement shows that Cassidy ought to be treated for hyper-credulity. Trump doesn’t care about the destruction RFK Jr. is wreaking upon the scientific and public health communities—or the consequences for all of us. (See Dumbass Comment of the Week below.) The situation Cassidy confronted was not complicated. An anti-vaxxer with a history of lying sought to gain control of the US vaccine infrastructure, and Cassidy, a longtime advocate of vaccinations, was too scared, timid, or whatever to stop the RFK Jr. virus.

The Hippocratic Oath, which is traditionally recited by new physicians, states a doctor should “abstain from doing harm.” Cassidy has broken that vow.

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

A scheduling note: I’ll be doing some traveling over the next few weeks. Consequently, the folks at Our Land World Headquarters will be taking time off and skipping a few issues of the newsletter. So if you don’t see it regularly in your inbox, have no fear. We haven’t run off to join the circus. We will return to our usual schedule in September. 

You might have heard it said that not all Trump voters are racists, but all racists are Trump voters—at least, those who vote. There’s new statistical evidence for that. Last week, Philip Bump, the former Washington Post columnist who always has a smart take on whatever he writes about, pointed out a “striking finding” in a recent YouGov poll. The question posed was “How important is being White to making someone an American?”

My hat’s off to whoever thought to include this query, for it certainly cuts to the heart of the issue. Eighteen percent of adults said it was somewhat or very important. Is that a lot? I don’t know. Only 7 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of independents said it was crucial. But 31 percent of Republicans replied that being white was an essential part of Americaness.

And that’s only those who felt comfortable enough in their racism to say this to a pollster.

When Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared at the White House on Thursday to announce with Trump a $100 billion Apple investment in US manufacturing—as Cook tries to protect Apple products from Trump’s steep tariffs—he brought a special gift for the president. Playing to Trump’s vanity and love of gold, he presented the president with a plaque designed by an Apple employee that rests on a 24-karat gold base.

Cook, with trembling hands, set up the gift on Trump’s desk in the Oval Office. It looked like the head of the third-largest company in the world was paying tribute to an emperor. Which is what it was.

The Trump administration effort to cast Barack Obama, his former national security aides, and Hillary Clinton as treasonous criminals by drumming up the phony charge they orchestrated the Trump-Russia scandal in 2016 to subvert Trump has prompted many false and idiotic comments from Trumpists. Trump’s baseless cries of “hoax” and “witch hunt” are being endlessly repeated by his MAGA cult, as the Justice Department proceeds with a sham investigation that could lead to show trials. Right-wing pundit Byron York has been part of this chorus. He tweeted:

Indeed. Don’t focus on Vladimir Putin attacking the 2016 election to help Trump. Don’t focus on Trump denying the assault and providing cover to Putin. Don’t focus on Paul Manafort, who chaired Trump’s campaign, colluding with a Russian intelligence officer (as was disclosed in 2020 by a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation led by Republicans). Don’t focus on the Trump Tower meeting during which Trump’s top advisers in June 2016 conferred with a Russian emissary who they were told was bringing them dirt on Clinton as part of a secret Kremlin effort to bolster Trump. Don’t focus on the lucrative Moscow tower deal that Trump was secretly pursuing while he ran for president in 2016. Don’t focus on the fact that the Clinton campaign had nothing to do with the FBI’s launch of the Trump-Russia investigation. Don’t. Just don’t. Because, as always, it’s all about Hillary.

In pre-Trump days, York was a reasonable conservative commentator whose independent perspective was often interesting. Now he often seeks to boost Dear Leader’s disinformation. Sad.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was so happy this week with his order to restore a Confederate memorial to Arlington National Cemetery. "We recognize our history,” he boasted. “We don't erase it. We don't follow the woke lemmings off the cliff that want to tear down statues. We look at and learn from our history—all aspects of it. We're proud of our history, as difficult as it may have been.”

The statue was taken down in 2023, on the orders of a bipartisan commission that after George Floyd’s murder was handed the job of removing vestiges of the Confederacy from the US military. The monument includes a frieze displaying an enslaved Black man following his owner, a Confederate soldier, and an enslaved woman holding the baby of a Confederate officer. Honoring traitors who fought to preserve slavery and depicting human bondage in noble fashion—this is the history that Hegseth is “proud” of. I remember when Trumpers insisted on removing or downplaying references to slavery and other matters, if they made students (meaning, white students) uncomfortable. But the glorification of Confederate soldiers and slave owners? They have no problem with that.

Trump appears more out of it than usual these days. That was particularly true when a reporter asked him about Kennedy’s decision to kill mRNA research. Here’s the exchange:

Reporter: You were the driving force behind Operation Warp Speed, these mRNA vaccines that are the gold standard. Now your health secretary is pulling back all the funding for research. He’s saying the risks outweigh the benefits—which puts him at odds with the entire medical community and with you. What is going on?

Trump: Research on what?

Reporter: Into mRNA vaccines.

Trump: Well, we’re going to look into that. We’re talking about it. And they’re doing a very good job. And you know that is a past. With Operation Warp Speed, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, is considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country The efficiency, the way it was done, the distribution. Everything about it was, has been amazing. But you know that was now a long time ago. And we’re on to other things. We are speaking about it. We have meetings about it…We’re looking for other answers to other problems, to other sicknesses and diseases, and I think we’re doing really well.

After dishing out this word salad, Trump cut off the follow-up question. At first, he didn’t seem to know what the reporter was referring to—as if he was unaware of this major action of his administration. Then he suggested the move was still being discussed, when the decision had already been made. I don’t remember President Joe Biden ever being so incoherent about such a significant move.

But Trump’s vapid response to this important question did not win the week. That honor goes to a remark uttered by Newsmax host Greg Kelly regarding sex offender/trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell:

It seems to me that there's something else going on here. And that it's an injustice. It reminds me of when President Trump…would talk about Ashli Babbitt [the January 6 rioter who was shot dead as she tried to attack cops inside the Capitol]. Do you remember that? And he gained nothing politically from talking about that…It has the same feel…I know people are horrified when I say there’s a possibility this individual just might be innocent. But think about it. Who’s told us about her? The most reviled institutions in America, right? The media and the Biden Justice Department. They did the heavy lifting on this stuff.

Kelly was suggesting that Maxwell was framed as part of a nefarious plot mounted by the media and Biden’s Justice Department. One teeny-tiny problem with Kelly’s conspiracy theory. Maxwell was arrested and indicted in July 2020. Pop quiz: Who was president then? Yes, it was the Trump Justice Department that apprehended pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s gal-pal/procurer and initiated the criminal action against her. So if there was a scheme to set up Maxwell…then maybe Trump’s in on it!

For looking to turn a Trump scandal into a Biden scandal—the same way that York is looking to turn a Trump scandal into a Clinton scandal—Kelly placed first this week. The judges hope his viewers appreciate the effort he made.

The recent issue in which I wrote about how the daily outrages of Trump 2.0 distract from the big-picture narrative—that Trump is deconstructing America as he implements authoritarian rule—pushed a button with many OurLanders and drew a ton of mail.

Barbara Stacy was flattering:

This was brilliant: the premise and the writing. It’s a point I haven’t read elsewhere that we who are anti-Trump, not only Democrats but those charged with being Democratic “leaders,” are so obsessed with the incessant deluge of specific Trump-induced horrors that we are blind and deaf to the overarching horror: He is deconstructing, dismantling, and destroying the fiber and fabric of our country. And we are that way by choice. We don’t want to take on a problem of that magnitude. But until we acknowledge that that is the problem, we have no hope of fixing the mess we are in.

Nola Lowther emailed:

This article resonates with me so strongly that I will give it to my class. What class? I am a retired nurse practitioner who is so disturbed that I started teaching classes on democracy, authoritarianism and what to do about it at the local library. I do it under name of local Democratic Party. They obliged but think it's not necessary. They continue with "business as usual" and hold ice cream socials for weak candidates who will lose in this very Red area of Ohio. I am telling the story to 16 citizens at a time. I am preaching to a choir, but the choir is expanding.

Anne Gomez Sterrett shared a discouraging view:

Let's face it, the majority of Americans are just not paying attention and won't know they're getting screwed until it's too late. I've had conversations with people abroad who know more about what's going on here than your average American. Is our education system that inadequate, or are Americans just not interested until they feel personally affected by government policies?

Valerie Justus-Rusconi wrote:

What I see as one of the largest hurdles to overcome is voter distress. I make my meager living selling handcrafts at a very small rural farm and garden market. I try to talk to as many people as I can about what is going on in this country. Mostly with fellow vendors but also with customers if they say or do anything that would indicate interest. Only two weeks ago I leaned a fellow vendor did not know about Alligator Alcatraz. The shocking thing I’m finding is a wholesale tuning out from news. No news, ever. I am told they are so freaked out, so angry, so disempowered that they cannot look. They tell me that they are so shaken they cannot function, blood pressure through the roof...and utterly helpless. So I see the biggest problem as how do you reach people actively avoiding information?

That is indeed the biggest challenge for our democracy right now—and for the Democratic Party. Many citizens are not engaged and don’t want to be—and this includes a fair number of Americans who do vote when elections roll around. How to reach them, especially in our highly fractured information ecosystem, is the question that political strategists, as well as people who own and run news media, are obsessed with, for good reason. So far there's no clear answer. This deserves a longer discussion, and I am pondering it constantly. 

In that issue on Trump’s “deconstruction of America,” I asked if there might be a better and catchier phrase to describe this. Readers piped up. Jay Abramowitz sent in these suggestions: “Dismantling America. Tearing America Down. Demolishing America. Bulldozing America. Ripping America Apart.”

Ray Lozano wrote:

Wired had an interesting piece about the “enshittification” of TikTok. For some time, I have been thinking of something like The American Degradation or The Great Degradation.

Jo Pulcini had a gripe:

I have admired your work. But do you think your recent article has taught any single thing new to your audience? Yeah, we know shit is bad and we know it's never going to be the same. Maybe focus on solutions and highlight those fighting back. Unless you want me to put a gun to my head. Because that's what this kind of writing does for those of us who are already in fucking trenches. The despair is at an all- time high. Thanks for all you do. Elevate the opposition. People need direction.  

I was hoping to get people to look past the daily outrages—which are outrageous—and be mindful of the big picture, which is something they can discuss with friends, family, colleagues on all sides. Part of deriving solutions is defining the problem as best you can. 

Chris Meikle offered this critique of Democrats:

The Democrats’ problem is that they foolishly took the bait and now are perceived by the majority of the country as having a notional platform whose primary objective is DEI and favoring illegal immigration. Labor is now jumping ship in droves. It could take years to bring labor back into the fold. How the party of labor is now seen as un-American and favoring fringe ideas in less than 10 years is an unbelievable transformation. With the media giving full attention to socialist extremists AOC, Jasmine Crockett, and Zohran Mamdani, unless the economy takes an extreme turn for the worse, Democrats could remain the minority party for decades if not longer.

The Dems do try to connect with labor, but the hot-button social issues receive far more attention—and that's hard for them to overcome. Even if they, as Joe Biden did, walk a picket line. It will be interesting to see how Mamdani, a self-identified democratic socialist, fares in the general election, though a New York City election may not be the best test case for other parts of the country.

John Simmons wrote:

I saw an obscure article in which a person who knows Trump said that Trump told him his policy is "Constant warfare all the time." This explains the deconstruction of America.

I believe that's how Trump sees it. If the opposition doesn't recognize that, it's at a disadvantage.

Dick Hayden sent in a blunt one-sentence note:

Your article well-qualifies you as a bigot.

He did not explain.

“C’mon, Moxie, we have to go. I’ve got to get back to work on the newsletter.”
“Don’t rush me. I’m working on my tan.”
“You’re covered in fur. You can’t get a tan.”
“It’s hair. Not fur.”
“Oh yeah, hair.”
“Sometimes I think you don’t really know me.”