Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) tried Thursday to distance himself from certainly one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wild well being claims, although he wouldn’t go as far as to name the well being secretary’s steerage “dangerous.”
Talking with MSNBC journalist Ali Vitali throughout an interview aired on the “Morning Joe” speak present, Thune mentioned that if he had been a girl, he “wouldn’t be taking advice” from President Donald Trump’s Cupboard member, who’s a identified anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist.
Thune’s feedback got here after Vitali requested him whether or not Kennedy’s unscientific public well being recommendation, which has drawn important controversy from medical and public well being specialists, is “dangerous.”
“Well, I’ve said that I think that if I were a woman, I’d be talking to my doctor and not taking, you know, advice from RFK or any other government bureaucrat, for that matter,” Thune responded.
Final month, Kennedy and Trump made an announcement linking Tylenol use throughout being pregnant to autism. The American School of Obstetricians & Gynecologists slammed the administration’s unproven steerage as “irresponsible” and “unsettling” in a press release.
Days after the Tylenol remarks, which weren’t prompted by any important new analysis, Thune mentioned he was “very concerned.”
Kennedy, who was appointed by Trump, has an extended historical past of spreading deceptive and false statements about well being, together with making repeated incorrect statements about vaccines which have raised doubts about their security.
Earlier in his interview with MSNBC, Vitali grilled Thune over whether or not he thinks the GOP is changing into a “party of no dissent” and whether or not he would contemplate that to be “healthy.”
“I mean, I would argue and I’ve dissented a number of times just in the last few weeks,” Thune mentioned, which prompted him to level to his earlier opposition of RFK Jr.’s Tylenol claims.
Thune went on to say that “there are subjects and issues on which we have differences of opinion,” however that he usually prefers to “litigate those privately rather than publicly.”
“But I think there are plenty of examples and there are lots of times I could point out to you where we have differences in opinion, and I make my voice clear,” he continued.
Thune famous that “in some cases it results in a change and sometimes it doesn’t.”
“But I think that’s our job is to try and present that check and balance,” he added.
Information analyzed by researchers on the conservative Institute for Legislative Evaluation exhibits Thune voted in assist of the GOP agenda 76% of the time in 2024.
