The hill r.f.k. jr. will die on
At a White House Cabinet meeting earlier this year, R.F.K. Jr. declared that, “by September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.” It’s now October, and, other than the last-ditch attempt to pin the blame on Tylenol last week, the secretary has shockingly little to show the class. Despite having the full resources of the U.S. government at his disposal, he’s no closer to proving that vaccines cause autism. The obvious solution, of course, would be to focus on the environmental pollutants with proven links to autism—but that would conflict with the big boss’s assault on the E.P.A., which rolled back regulations on those very pollutants and fired the scientists studying the links. So much for “gold star” science, and so much for the man Time once heralded as a “hero of the planet.”
TRUMP RX
In an Oval Office conference this week, Trump announced a new deal with Pfizer that will see prescription drugs highly discounted for American consumers. The drugs will be available for purchase on a new Web site, TrumpRx.gov, joining the portfolio of Trump Gold Cards, Trump Accounts, and the $Trump meme coin. In his remarks, R.F.K. Jr. joked that the president has “harangued and harassed” his department for months to finish the deal à la The Apprentice. The tagline of TrumpRx, we’re told, will be something along the lines of Walgreens’ “At the corner of happy and healthy”—but the opposite.
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
At the behest of his fellow MAGA-ists, R.F.K. Jr. had the F.D.A. review the safety of the abortion pill Mifepristone. Though it was first approved in the year 2000 and has been used by more than 7.5 million women since, conservatives are claiming it causes severe side effects, such as hemorrhaging and sepsis. (F.Y.I.: the study supporting that claim is rooted in “applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition” to public policy.) Most often prescribed through telehealth, Mifepristone is delivered by mail—and we all know how much Republicans hate mail-in anything! It’s a lifeline in red states with bans or tight restrictions on abortion, and so it will continue to be as the F.D.A., surprisingly, re-approved it this week. Former vice president Mike Pence pointed a finger at Trump and called it a “complete betrayal of the pro-life movement.” R.F.K. Jr. was last seen rocking back and forth under a table muttering the words “Mommy and Daddy are fighting again.”
the neo-nazi element
R.F.K. Jr. lost a case earlier this week when a judge ruled in favor of blogger David Vickery, who claimed that the MAHA leader shared a stage with neo-Nazis at a 2020 Berlin anti-lockdown rally. R.F.K. Jr. sued Vickery for libel, and the legal battle dragged on for four years. It turns out it’s hard to argue you weren’t onstage with neo-Nazis when you were, in fact, onstage with neo-Nazis. “Mein Führer, I object!”
Carolina de Armas and Paulina Prosnitz are Junior Editors at Air Mail
