Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants people to do as he says, not as he does, in his battle to Make America Healthy Again.
President Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services has blamed sick people for their “choices” and lectured Americans about getting “fit, not fat,” despite having his own questionable health habits.
The former environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine crusader uses Zyn nicotine pouches throughout the day, and he often goes fake tanning, according to a 10,000-word profile published Sunday in The Atlantic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that nicotine pouches are “highly addictive,” and that artificial tanning devices are associated with an increased risk of skin cancer.
Journalist Michael Scherer wrote in The Atlantic that when he asked Kennedy, 71, to reconcile his nicotine and tanning habits with the federal health advisories against both, Kennedy “shifted in his chair.”
“I’m not telling people that they should do anything that I do,” he said. “I just say, ‘Get in shape.’”
During his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Kennedy, who often posts photos and videos of himself working out in blue jeans, could be seen slipping something into his mouth and then pushing it into place between his gum and cheek.
Critics pounced on the move as evidence that Kennedy had sneaked a dose of Zyn, a small pouch of crystallized nicotine powder that dissolves and gets absorbed directly into the bloodstream through gum tissue. The secretary never denied the story.
Kennedy, who is a recovering heroin addict, had previously been spotted carrying a pack of Zyn pouches in Los Angeles amid reports that he was having a cyber affair with journalist Olivia Nuzzi, 32.
The political scion has been open about abusing heroin for 14 years but says he has been “sober” for decades. He told The Atlantic that he attends 12-step meetings every day, no matter what city he’s in.
Nuzzi, however, alleges in a forthcoming book about their relationship that as recently as last year, Kennedy admitted to also smoking the psychedelic DMT, short for dimethyltryptamine.
Kennedy, who has been married to the actress Cheryl Hines since 2014, has said he never had a relationship with Nuzzi besides being interviewed for a New York magazine piece she wrote.
All of this would, of course, be the business of Kennedy and Kennedy alone if he weren’t also the nation’s health chief.
In April, he told CBS News that he wasn’t convinced Americans with unhealthy habits should be guaranteed a basic level of government care.
“People have a choice about how sick they’re going to be—many people,” he service said. “If you don’t have any choice then we should give you all the resources that you want. If you’re smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, should you expect society to pay when you get sick?”
Kennedy, who founded the anti-vaccine advocacy group Children’s Health Defense, didn’t say whether the same applied to people who chose not to get vaccinated and then came down with deadly diseases, such as the measles.
The Atlantic piece also revealed that Kennedy does testosterone-replacement therapy, which the FDA has approved to treat male hypogonadism, a clinical condition in which a man’s body doesn’t produce enough testosterone.
The therapy hasn’t been approved for men who naturally experience a decline in testosterone as they age, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
The Atlantic didn’t specify if Kennedy has been diagnosed with an associated medical condition that would require TRT, or whether he just does it to boost his workouts.
The Daily Beast has reached out to HHS for comment.
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