Good afternoon, Press Pass readers. We have just a few more days until Mitch McConnell wears jeans, the telltale sign that the session is over. At that point, the 118th Congress will be at an end, and the new era will be ready to begin. If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter and everything else The Bulwark publishes, consider joining our Bulwark+ community. It’s the best way to stay sane as the rest of the country gets, well, not that. Today’s edition focuses on yet another one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s strange beliefs. (This is turning into something of a regular series.) On the issue of gun violence prevention, Bobby is actually more in line with Democrats than with his newfound MAGA allies. But, never not himself, the Kennedy scion has based his view on conspiracy theories and misinformation instead of science. In addition, Kennedy’s vaccine opposition has become a bit of a road bump for his nomination, judging from how his first round of meetings with lawmakers went this week. Lastly, I wanted to share a fascinating video on the undisturbed treasure trove of vintage clothing in the Deep South, and the deadly risks some take to find old jeans in Alabama. All that and more, below. RFK’s Views on Guns Might Rankle RepublicansBut his views on vaccines remain the biggest obstacle to his confirmation
While endearing himself to MAGA, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has shrugged off a lot of what made him a Democrat, picked up straightforwardly Republican policies, and held on to a number of fringe ideas, which he seeks to use the GOP as a tool for implementing if he gets confirmed as secretary of health and human services. But one fairly standard Democratic belief he still holds is that American gun violence should be understood as a public health issue. “We have mass shootings every 21 hours. The question is: Why is that happening?” Kennedy said in an interview with Glenn Beck. “NIH is—under its own rules—is not allowed to look for the answer to that question,” Kennedy remarked, referring to the National Institutes of Health, which is a sub-agency of HHS. Kennedy’s assertion that the NIH is prohibited from studying gun violence is flat-out false. In 1996, Congress passed an amendment in one of the annual funding bills that stipulated “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” (NIH and the CDC are distinct agencies with somewhat overlapping missions.) But in 2018, after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Congress made clear that this sentence should not be interpreted to mean that studies on gun violence can’t be conducted. Since then, research has been underway. Both the CDC and NIH awarded grants for gun violence studies in 2020, for example. Kennedy, who famously lost both his father and uncle to gun-wielding assassins¹, also seems to believe some outside influence is being brought to bear by one of the power player industries, like food producers or pharmaceuticals, to prevent the research that is, again, already happening. “There’s a lot of things NIH won’t do,” Kennedy added. “NIH won’t look for the cause of the autism epidemic. They won’t look for the cause of peanut allergies. They won’t look at any of these things, because they’re frightened that there’s a big shot, a big food processor, big [agriculture], big pharma that is going to be angry at them at the answer. So they simply won’t do it.” For what it’s worth, there are many studies into the potential causes of autism, and the NIH has found that early introduction to peanut products can reduce peanut allergies by 71 percent. This is yet another rendition of Kennedy’s favorite song—the one about how shadowy industries are suppressing solutions to public health problems through intimidation. It doesn’t take a great deal of effort to show that actually, the studies and initiatives he says are disappearing thanks to the malign actions of greedy corporations are actually still here, visible to the public eye, should anyone care to look. Sure, major players in a variety of industries mount massive lobbying efforts to stop new laws restricting some aspect of their business based on those studies, but that’s a different story.² Earlier this year, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, a move that was hailed by gun reformers. This kind of framing has long been opposed by gun rights advocates at the National Rifle Association; the NRA called Murthy’s paper outlining the crisis a “propaganda document.” Back in 2014, during Murthy’s first nomination battle under then-President Barack Obama, he faced significant resistance from Senate Republicans for his perceived political bias in favor of stricter gun policy. His nomination was even briefly put in a procedural hold by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). A decade later, Paul is one of the leading advocates for Kennedy’s various crusades.³ Kennedy is being given unusual leeway to advocate a number of positions that have long been anathema to the GOP and its allied industries. Following his first round of visits to the Senate offices Monday, he might start to be feel some pressure. If anybody orders polio, I’m leaving“I’m all for the polio vaccine,” Kennedy said before entering the office of Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) Monday afternoon. That’s the first sign I’ve seen that Kennedy is aware of how toxic (pun intended) some of his views are to the people who hold his confirmation in their hands. It’s quite an admission for him to make, and it’s a significant departure from his past statements on the polio vaccine. “The proposition and the theology that smallpox and polio were abolished due to vaccination is controversial,” Kennedy said in a 2020 debate with Alan Dershowitz. “That is not a proposition that is universally accepted.” Some Republicans have started to speak out against Kennedy’s radical anti-vaccine views. “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed—they’re dangerous,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a polio survivor, said in a statement last week. “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.” “If I were he, I’d fire his lawyer, the one who is petitioning to get rid of the polio vaccine,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). (No relation to Bobby, just so we’re clear.) There is no shortage of anti-vaccine views among Republicans in Congress. Fueled by public distrust, lack of education, and indignation over the government’s occasionally unclear guidance on the COVID-19 responses, lawmakers, conspiracy theorists, and many who belong to the overlapping part of the Venn diagram between those groups have turned their anger into broad opposition to vaccines of all kinds. Kennedy, originally an environmental advocate, has long been primarily an anti-vaccine crusader. His obsession with food ingredients like seed oils and his baseless views that vaccines are causing autism, ADHD, and many other health problems have made him into a rallying figure for pseudo-health nuts on the right and left. Many lawmakers appreciate Kennedy’s new support for Trump, but that alone might not be enough to secure his confirmation if he doesn’t begin to adjust his language. After he’s confirmed, though, he will be able to say and do what he wants. What are they going to do—impeach him? Alabama PinesVintage clothing aficionado Albert Muzquiz posted a video to YouTube this weekend that I wanted to share. It documents Muzquiz’s travels to Huntsville, Alabama in search of rare, high-quality clothing, something America used to excel in producing. While New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Portland, Oregon get the most recognition in the world of vintage clothing, Alabama, it turns out, is an untapped treasure trove. But the tricky thing is that many of the warehouses and old clothing stores that have the good old stock have been left abandoned. As a result, high-quality vintage clothes are often closely guarded by Alabamians who either don’t know much about the resale market or are so protective of their property they are willing to become violent to defend it. In Alabama, trespassers can be shot. Muzquiz talks to vintage dealers about the risks and rewards of searching for top-tier denim and American workwear in Alabama, as well as the huge sums of money that can be made off finding the right stock. Watch the whole thing on YouTube. 1 Kennedy believes those assassins were acting at the behest of the CIA; whether putative government-sanctioned assassinations of domestic politicians constitute a public health issue is an open question. 2 Except maybe the peanut industry. If the best way to prevent peanut allergies is for kids to eat more peanuts, I don’t see why it would be in their interest to silence these studies. Perhaps it’s a plot by Big Cashew. 3 Murthy would go on to be confirmed, but then Trump fired him several years later. Biden rehired Murthy, and the Senate confirmed him 57-43. You’re a free subscriber to Bulwark+. For unfettered access to all our newsletters and ad-free and member-only podcasts, become a paying subscriber. Did you know? You can update your newsletter preferences as often as you like. To update the list of newsletter or alerts you received from The Bulwark, click here.
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