Supporters of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda have a message for senators who may be entertaining the idea of tanking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination: opposition won’t go unnoticed among the American public.
Though Kennedy’s nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary is drawing fierce resistance from the medical establishment and corporate media, the former independent presidential candidate has a legion of supporters willing to go to the mat to secure his confirmation. MAHA advocates believe that Kennedy is uniquely positioned to help the president-elect usher in a “golden age in health” during the next four years.
MAHA advocates are also prepared to scrutinize senators who oppose Kennedy for any ties to Big Pharma and other corporate interests, according to interviews conducted by the Daily Caller News Foundation with several prominent Kennedy supporters.
“It would be outrageous for Republican or Democratic senators to vote no against RFK Jr.,” Zen Honeycutt, founding executive director of the medical freedom and health advocacy nonprofit, Moms Across America, told the DCNF in an interview. “It would be a huge step back in the wrong direction and people will be outraged.”
“It will be a clear sign that those senators [who vote no] are putting the special interests of Big Pharma before the health of the American people,” Honeycutt added. “What Kennedy is asking for is to have safer food and vaccines. How can you be against that?”
Republican Senators MUST confirm @RobertKennedyJr
The MAHA agenda was a big part of the Trump campaign. Americans voted for it.
There’s a mandate for it. Senators have no business opposing it on policy grounds. pic.twitter.com/5Og1C3GfC0
— steve hilton (@SteveHiltonx) December 19, 2024
Heading Into January With Notable GOP Allies
Kennedy met with more than a dozen GOP senators on Capitol Hill in December during which the life-long Democrat appeared to win the support of several social conservatives, including Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, by committing to uphold pro-life Health and Human Services (HHS) policies that Trump pushed during his first term.
Senate Republicans also appear to be embracing many of the food and health policy issues raised by MAHA advocates as a considerable number of the GOP conference rallies behind Kennedy’s nomination.
On Dec. 19, Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall announced the creation of the Senate MAHA Caucus, which promises to “work with RFK Jr. to be the legislative force that ensures the key pillars of MAHA are executed.”
We need transparency with our vaccines and health care. We need to fix our food safety standards. We need to Make America Healthy Again.
I’m proud to join @RogerMarshallMD, @SenLummis, and @SenRickScott in the MAHA Caucus. https://t.co/MgcYP8mv8F
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) December 19, 2024
Republican Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming are founding members of the Senate MAHA caucus.
No GOP senator has yet to oppose Kennedy’s nomination, but Republicans seen as more willing to cross Trump, including Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are noncommittal.
‘Trying Desperately To Derail’ Kennedy
Long experiencing contempt from corporate media over their advocacy, MAHA advocates are tuning out outlets’ coverage of Kennedy’s nomination and hoping that senators are as well.
“They have not been reporting accurately on vaccine safety or on the pesticides in our food. They’ve been putting their ad dollars — from Big Pharma to Big Ag — before the health and safety of Americans,” Honeycutt told the DCNF. “We see through that. Mainstream media does not tell us hardly anything that is truthful.”
McConnell issued a veiled threat to Kennedy to distance himself from efforts to probe the safety of vaccines following the release of a misleading New York Times exposé on Dec. 13 alleging that Aaron Siri, one of Kennedy’s lawyers, asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an independent agency under the HHS, to “revoke its approval of the polio vaccine.”
“Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous. Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts,” McConnell, a polio survivor, said in a statement on Dec. 14.
But the New York Times’ story was “categorically false,” according to Siri, because his petition only sought to have the FDA conduct another clinical trial of one of the six polio vaccines licensed in the United States to ensure its safety when administered to children, Siri told Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson during an interview in December.
“Even if this petition was granted, there is not a single child or adult in America that would not have had access to a polio vaccine,” Siri told Carlson. “That is what makes the New York Times headlines absolutely false. They knew it was false. They intended for the country to be deceived because they’re trying desperately to derail Mr. Kennedy’s nomination.”
MAHA advocates believe that Kennedy’s prior statements advocating for subjecting vaccines to further scientific study is a position most Americans would support.
Bottom line: I’m not going to take anyone’s vaccines away from them. I just want to be sure every American knows the safety profile, the risk profile, and the efficacy of each vaccine. That’s it. pic.twitter.com/JD8eyenO5H
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 15, 2024
“Bobby Kennedy has said one thing consistently, which is pharmaceutical products should be subjected to science,” Calley Means, a prominent MAHA advocate and co-author of the best-selling book, Good Energy, told the DCNF. “The president’s directive is to figure out why kids are getting sick, why kids are getting autism. And that includes resetting research to answering that question.”
“I don’t think any American disagrees with the idea that pharmaceutical products should be continually studied,” Means added.
‘There Will Be A Huge Backlash’
Refusing to confirm Kennedy could be seen as senators turning their backs on the millions of Americans who support the MAHA agenda and helped send Trump back to the White House to enact the food and health policies that Kennedy’s campaign helped push into the limelight, according to several Kennedy supporters.
“If RFK Jr. does not get Senate approval, I think there will be a huge backlash,” Valerie Smith, a metabolic health coach and Kennedy supporter, told the DCNF in an interview. “The millions of votes that went to Trump getting re-elected are the same people that are going to be very vocal if RFK Jr. doesn’t get in there [HHS].”
GOP senators voting no on Kennedy’s confirmation could also be viewed as alienating the nontraditional Republican constituencies, such as MAHA advocates, that Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign was able to successfully court and bring into the party’s fold.
“I believe moms are a major part of why Trump won and a major reason for that is because he had the wisdom to bring on Kennedy,” Honeycutt told the DCNF. “The fact that Trump used the words pesticides, autism, chronic illness and cancer on a presidential platform — that moment was historic.”
“Finally, somebody has heard us, and we don’t care which party they come from,” Honeycutt added. “Our kids with autism, with autoimmune issues, with asthma, with allergies — finally, they have a champion and somebody that’s standing up and speaking up for us.”
But MAHA advocates are aware that the reason Kennedy may appeal to so many Americans — his independence from and history of taking corporate interests — is exactly why he may face hurdles along the way to his Senate confirmation, several Kennedy supporters told the DCNF.
“He’s a threat to this massive amount of profit that’s gone unregulated up until now,” Smith told the DCNF. “He’s coming up against some very powerful lobbyists and massive amounts of money. I just hope and pray he can overcome them.”
“He isn’t captured by any industry or corporation, so he’s free to do what’s right by the American people, not what’s in the best interest of corporations,” Courtney Swan, an integrative nutritionist and host of the health and wellness podcast, Realfoodology, told the DCNF.
‘Bipartisan Issue Of Our Time’
MAHA advocates are holding out hope that Democratic lawmakers, already embracing parts of Kennedy’s agenda, will also support the prospective HHS secretary’s confirmation.
“Making America Healthy [Again] is the bipartisan issue of our time, Means told the DCNF. “If you closed your eyes at a Trump-RFK rally, you wouldn’t know which party you were listening to.”
“Transparency, medical freedom, getting conflicts out of science — these are bipartisan issues that President Trump has led on, and it’s encouraging that leading Democrats have expressed support for the MAHA agenda,” Means added. “I’m optimistic they’ll support the unimpeachable bipartisan agenda that Bobby has espoused.”
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who have all complimented parts of Kennedy’s policy agenda, have left open the possibility they could vote in favor of Kennedy’s confirmation to lead HHS.
“I think what he is saying about the food industry is exactly correct,” Sanders said told CBS News during an interview on Dec. 5 during which he also expressed concern about Kennedy’s positions on water fluoridation and vaccines. “You have a food industry concerned about their profits, couldn’t care less about the health of the American people. I think they have to be taken on.”
A mutual understanding that the nation’s food supply is contributing to making Americans sicker could bring Republicans and Democrats together, according to several MAHA advocates.
“Americans have never been sicker, and they are sick and tired of being lied to and gaslit by the food industry and medical system,” Swan, who applauded Sanders’ commentary on the food industry, told the DCNF in a statement. “We are in this mess because we have allowed industry to take control of the narrative.”
“This needs to end and RFK Jr. is the only politician openly talking about wanting to change it,” Swan added. “We have a once in a lifetime opportunity for real change and for people to do the right thing.”
Senators across the political spectrum should take note of MAHA’s and Kennedy’s political ascendancy, Honeycutt told the DCNF.
“The most important issue before us today is health,” Honeycutt said. “Moms have been driving that issue for a very long time and we’re overjoyed that this new administration has heard us and is making health a primary issue.”
“We don’t care what party someone is from,” Honeycutt added. “If they are putting health first, they will have our support. And we want senators to remember that come election time.”
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
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