CNN reports:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Health and Human Services, has a long history of scathing critiques against Trump, labeling him a “threat to democracy,” a “bully,” and, as recently as July, a “terrible president.”

But Kennedy’s harshest attacks date back to Trump’s rise in 2016, when on his radio show “Ring of Fire,” Kennedy applauded descriptions of Trump’s base as “belligerent idiots” and suggestions that some were “outright Nazis” and “spineless fellow travelers.” Kennedy also likened Trump to historical demagogues like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, accusing Trump of exploiting societal insecurities and xenophobia to amass power.

After Trump won in 2016, Kennedy concluded in one episode from December of that year that Trump was at least in one way not like Hitler, because, “Hitler was interested in policy.”

A CNN KFile review of Kennedy’s past comments shows they fit a pattern of consistent, broad-based criticism that Kennedy has leveled at Trump over the years.

In 2019, Kennedy argued that Trump had turned his first administration over to corporate lobbyists from industries they were supposed to regulate— industries that Kennedy would actually be able to regulate in some cases if confirmed as Trump’s HHS secretary.

As the head of HHS, Kennedy would oversee vast swathes of the American food and health care industries. The sprawling federal agency has a mandatory proposed budget exceeding $1.7 trillion and oversees key public health initiatives, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Medicare and Medicaid, which together impact the lives of all Americans.

In a statement to CNN, Kennedy expressed pride in serving in Trump’s administration, supported Trump’s vision for the country and said he regrets his past comments about the former president. [Continue reading…]