McConnell instructs RFK Jr. to dis­tance from anti-polio vac­cine mes­sages in con­fir­ma­tion bat­tle

Posted in Economy  •  Published by
McConnell instructs RFK Jr. to distance from anti-polio vaccine messages in confirmation battle

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R‑KY) sub­tly slammed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s choice to hire an attor­ney who peti­tioned the gov­ern­ment to with­draw the polio vac­cine, sug­gest­ing it could tank his HHS nom­i­na­tion.

McConnell was diag­nosed with polio as a child and is an ardent defend­er of the vac­cine.

“Efforts to under­mine pub­lic con­fi­dence in proven cures are not just unin­formed — they’re dan­ger­ous,” McConnell said. “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.”

HOW BIDEN IS TRYING TO SHAPE HIS LEGACY WITH JUST MONTHS LEFT IN OFFICE

The top Repub­li­can sen­a­tor will have sig­nif­i­cant con­trol over RFK Jr.’s con­fir­ma­tion as Sec­re­tary of Health and Human Ser­vices. While Repub­li­cans have a 53–47 major­i­ty in the Sen­ate, only a hand­ful of GOP sen­a­tors would need to defect for a choice to fail.

Kennedy is one of the most frag­ile of Trump’s Cab­i­net nom­i­na­tions. His past his­to­ry of vac­cine skep­ti­cism — new­ly bol­stered by his hir­ing of lawyer Aaron Siri, who has peti­tioned for a vari­ety of vac­cines to be with­drawn — has giv­en Sen­ate Repub­li­cans pause.

If McConnell choos­es to vote against Kennedy, it will com­pli­cate his con­fir­ma­tion great­ly. Despite McConnell’s sub­tle shot at Kennedy over the polio vac­cine, the long­time Demo­c­rat has said he’s not try­ing to take away vac­cines from Amer­i­cans.

How­ev­er, he has been adamant about review­ing the effi­ca­cy and side effects of these vac­cines.

MEET THE NEW CONGRESS: THE HOUSE AND SENATE FRESHMEN ELECTED TO SERVE NEXT YEAR

Kennedy also has a com­pli­cat­ed past. He is a for­mer hero­in addict and pled guilty to a felony charge of pos­sess­ing the drug in the ’80s. He has since recov­ered from his addic­tion.

He also faced a wave of heat for his revealed treat­ment of ani­mals dur­ing his inde­pen­dent pres­i­den­tial run. Kennedy faced fire for eat­ing what appeared to be a dog car­cass before he lat­er revealed that it was a lamb. Oth­er unusu­al inci­dents like tying a whale head to the roof of his car and hit­ting a bear cub with his bicy­cle before hid­ing it in Cen­tral Park added to con­tro­ver­sy around him.

While McConnell won’t be the Sen­ate Repub­li­can leader when the cham­ber judges his con­fir­ma­tion some­time past Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump’s inau­gu­ra­tion, he will still have major influ­ence as a senior Repub­li­can sen­a­tor. He’ll like­ly have some sway with new Repub­li­can leader Sen. John Thune (R‑SD) as well.

As for McConnell’s links with polio, he caught the dis­ease very young, and it par­a­lyzed his left leg before he lat­er recov­ered. He nev­er quite lost his uneven gait though, a com­pli­ca­tion of the dis­ease.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“From the age of 2, nor­mal life with­out paral­y­sis was only pos­si­ble for me because of the mirac­u­lous com­bi­na­tion of mod­ern med­i­cine and a mother’s love,” McConnell said.

“But for mil­lions who came after me, the real mir­a­cle was the sav­ing pow­er of the polio vac­cine.”