Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie unloaded onto Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a heated debate Sunday, suggesting the health secretary’s tenure under President Donald Trump could be nearing an end.
In an appearance on ABC News’ This Week, the Republican lawmaker and Trump foe said Thursday’s Senate hearing, where Kennedy faced off against critics from both parties, “just confirms what all of us around this table have known for decades: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a foolish man, full of foolish and vapid ideas.”
Bipartisan senators grilled Kennedy for three hours over his ousting of top leadership at the CDC and his department limiting access to the COVID vaccine during the hearing. A growing number of Democrats have called on him to resign.
This Week host George Stephanopoulos noted that Trump, however, “didn’t seem rattled” by GOP worries about the conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic he picked for the nation’s top health job (the president called Kennedy “a very good person” who had a “different take,” after the hearing).
Christie suggested that Trump is unfazed because he knows “he can just can him,” adding, “And that’s what he will do if it gets much worse.”
He argued that Trump is “smart enough to know RFK Jr. doesn’t belong in that job,” and that he had installed “the greatest vaccine and public health denier of the last 20 years” as a “human middle finger … to everyone who opposed him.”
Trump’s former chief of staff Reince Priebus came away with a different read on Kennedy’s Senate hearing.
“I saw a decent, humble, caring guy,” Priebus said. “I think he’s trying to do the right thing.” He argued that Kennedy was simply trying to “balance the benefits of the COVID shot.”
The roundtable soon descended into a shouting match as Priebus and Christie sparred over Kennedy’s handling of public health.
“I’m very confused by you this morning,” Christie told Priebus. “I want to know: You think Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is the best man to be leading public health? Answer the question!
“It’s not my decision!” Priebus shot back. “It’s the president’s decision!”
“You’re supporting the decision,” Christie said. “You just called him a humble, qualified man, so you think he’s the best person to lead public health in this country?”
“I think he’s the best person, and I think he that the president of the United States has the mandate that you don’t,” Priebus shot back at Christie, who sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 and 2024.
Christie replied, “He’s a joke! He’s a foolish man and he’s a joke!”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.
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