Democratic governor celebrates Trump’s pick of RFK Jr. — and gets slammed

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) was met with fierce backlash Thursday after he surprisingly celebrated President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services Secretary.
Trump announced Thursday that he has selected Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist who dropped out of the presidential race to endorse Trump in August, to head the Health and Human Services Department in his new administration. While many Democrats and health experts are skeptical of Trump’s choice, Polis was quick to back Kennedy for the role.
“I’m excited by the news that the President-Elect will appoint @RobertKennedyJr to @HHSGov. He helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and FDA. I hope he leans into personal choice on vaccines rather than bans (which I think are terrible, just like mandates) but what I’m most optimistic about is taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health,” he wrote in a lengthy statement on social media platform X.
He went on to list a number of reasons of why he approves of the choice, including capping drug prices so that American consumers won’t pay more than Europeans on prescription drugs, reforming the nutrition department at the Food and Drug Administration and moving away from pesticide-intensive agriculture.
Polis was quickly met with criticism.
“is this a weird April fools joke that’s 5 months early?” one user commented.
Another user said: “It’s been a long since an elected official I thought I really liked said something this bafflingly wrong. Disappointed.”
Political journalist Aaron Rupar also pointed out Polis’s previous criticism of Kennedy back in August, when Polis suggested Kennedy’s stances on vaccines could bring back polio and the measles.
The Recount’s Steve Morris also noted that Polis’s endorsement of Kennedy is “remarkable” because Kennedy has previously suggested that homosexuality was caused by chemicals.
“Remarkable endorsement of RKF from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis — all the more so since Polis is the first openly gay governor in history and Kennedy has previously suggested homosexuality is being caused by chemicals,” Morris wrote.
Shortly after his initial post sparked backlash, Polis went on to explain that Kennedy’s policies must be backed by science.
“Re my thoughts on @RobertKennedyJr, Science must remain THE cornerstone of our nation’s health policy and the science-backed decision to get vaccinated improves public health and safety. But if as a country we follow the science we would also be far more concerned about the impact of pesticides on public health, ag policy on nutrition, and the lack of access to prescription drugs due to drug high prices,” he wrote.
“This is why I am for a major shake-up in institutions like the FDA that have been barriers to lowering drug costs and promoting healthy food choices. Lest there by any doubt, I am vaccinated as is my family. I will hold any HHS Secretary to the same high standard of protecting and improving public health,” he added.
Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic who has promoted false information about the pandemic, diseases and other illnesses. A recent analysis by NewsGuard has identified at least 90 provable false claims about health made by Kennedy as of Nov. 11.
With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the U.S., promising to model regulations imposed in Europe. In a nod to Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”
It remains unclear how that will square with Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.
Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. Kennedy has espoused misinformation around the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.