U.S. Sen. John Barrasso said he believes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could bring a fresh perspective to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration if his nomination is approved by the Senate.
“I really do think it would be a good idea to have a fresh set of eyes look at the Food and Drug Administration and how they’ve done things for a long, long time,” Barrasso told Cowboy State Daily.
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated RFK to serve as U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, saying he will bring back the nation’s health agencies “to the traditions of gold-standard scientific research, and beacons of transparency, to end the chronic disease epidemic, and to make America great and healthy again.”
Barrasso, a doctor, is well-known for the health reports he’s delivered on TV stations across Wyoming for about 40 years.
“The idea of trying to make America healthy again — I’m for that,” Barrasso said. “As far as addressing the nation’s chronic disease epidemic, I’m for it.”
Who Is RFK?
RFK is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy Jr. He ran as an Independent candidate for president until this summer, when he withdrew his candidacy and announced his support for Trump.
If confirmed by the Senate, RFK would have authority over the nation's agencies responsible for public health, government-funded health insurance plans, Medicare and Medicaid services.
Many of his health views contradict with the messaging of the very public health agencies he would oversee. RFK has espoused many conspiracy theories linking vaccines with autism, chemicals in the water supply to gender identity, how people contract AIDS and saying the COVID-19 vaccine was “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”
Many, like RFK, have accused the FDA of colluding with pharmaceutical companies and being funded by this industry.
RFK has vowed on social media to “free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth.”
Shared Approach
Although Barrasso encouraged Wyomingites to get the COVID vaccines, he doesn’t support the approach of federally mandating vaccines or other health measures. Barrasso believes RFK shares this view and takes a more states-rights perspective to health guidelines.
“I’m never telling people what they mandatorily have to do, I’m giving information that they can use to stay healthy and overall keep down the costs of their care by early detection, early prevention,” Barrasso said. “We need to make sure we don’t have somebody dictating from Washington (D.C).”
Barrasso believes RFK, like all of Trump’s nominees, should get a fair and timely confirmation process. He expects him to address some of his more controversial views during the confirmation hearings.
Trump announced Tuesday that he would nominate Mehmet Oz, a doctor, author and former television host, to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Barrasso also supports this nomination and said he spoke to Oz the day he was nominated.
“He’s a world-renowned heart surgeon, he’s practiced medicine,” Barrasso said. “He understands Medicare, understands Medicaid — strengths as well as weaknesses of those programs.”
Trump has been lauded and criticized for saying he’ll “drain the swamp” on Capitol Hill.
Barrasso said the nominations of RFK and Oz are emblematic of what this phrase really means to him: taking a new approach to running the government rather than operating solely based on the way things have always been done in the past.
Barrasso also said the fact that Trump not only won the electoral college by a comfortable margin but also the popular vote, the first time a Republican has done that in 20 years, is a mandate from the American people that he can choose whomever he likes for his cabinet.
“I believe a president should be able to have who they want around them, people that they respect, people that they trust, people that they’re going to work for,” Barrasso said.
Barrasso said he met with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, on Wednesday night in the Senate. Rubio, Trump’s secretary of state pick, is the nominee Barrasso is most excited about.
“He’s very knowledgeable at world affairs and is going to be just terrific as the secretary of state,” Barrasso said.
What Do The Critics Say?
Former Vice President Mike Pence has issued concerns about RFK’s nomination, specifically calling out his pro-choice stance on abortion.
“On behalf of tens of millions of pro-life Americans, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and give the American people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services,” Pence said in a statement last week.
Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador and a Republican presidential hopeful, was also critical of Trump’s nominees, calling his choice for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” and Kennedy a “liberal Democrat” who doesn’t have enough experience for the job.
Contact Leo Wolfson at leo@cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
