The Daily Show‘s Ronny Chieng tore into Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for his latest comments about people with autism.
In addition to making false—and insulting—claims about autism in a press conference on Wednesday, RFK Jr. also declared that he’ll have figured out “what has caused the autism epidemic” by September. And that he’ll “be able to eliminate those exposures.”
“Why are you even pretending to study it?” Chieng asked RFK Jr. in his Thursday monologue.
The recurring host of The Daily Show argued, “We all know you’re gonna blame vaccines, OK? This whole thing is more rigged than a golf championship at Mar-a-Lago.”
Kennedy has long been criticized for his anti-vax policies, such as his constant disparaging of the measles vaccine amidst an ongoing deadly measles outbreak.
“I mean, just look at who he hired to do the research,” Chieng continued. He played multiple news clips unpacking the many controversies of David Geier, the vaccine skeptic who Kennedy hired as a senior data analyst.
Geier is already infamous for his discredited anti-vax views, and in 2012 he was fined $10,000 for practicing medicine without a license.
“You know when commercials say nine out of 10 doctors agree? This is the tenth doctor,” Chieng joked. “I mean, this guy looks like the reason second opinions were invented.”
Chieng also ripped into the part of Kenndy’s speech lamenting that people with autism will, among other things, “never pay taxes.”
“That’s what you’re gonna lead with? That’s the big tragedy for you?” Chieng asked. Doing a Kennedy impression, Chieng joked, “These poor kids will never know the joy of attaching a Schedule K to a 1048…”
“It’s not even accurate,” Chieng said. “I mean, autistic people do pay taxes. Are you thinking of art history majors?”
Regarding Kennedy’s claim that autistic kids will “never write a poem,” Chieng replied, “Well, who wants kids to write more poems? That’s something we should be preventing.”
“It’s no wonder why people are pissed at him,” Chieng concluded. “Most autistic people can do all that stuff, and even the ones who can’t are still human beings.”
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