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Inside Politics
Experts Warn RFK Jr. Would Be Damaging to U.S. Public Health; Former Political Rivals Join Forces to Support Kamala Harris; Trump Baselessly Says Pennsylvania is Cheating. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired October 30, 2024 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Coming up, Donald Trump says he'll let Robert Kennedy Jr. "Go wild when it comes to public health." So, what would that mean for you and your family?
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BASH: Donald Trump says he plans to let RFK Jr. "Go wild on health" if he wins a second term. Kennedy seemed to back that up on Monday.
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ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., (I) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The key that I think I'm -- that President Trump has promised me is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, and NIH, and a few others, and then also the USDA, which is key to making America healthy.
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BASH: Just a quick reminder, this is a man who pushes wild conspiracies about public health. He claims vaccines were developed to control people via microchips and anti-depressants are linked to school shootings. CNN's Medical Correspondent, Meg Tirrell joins me now. Meg?
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not clear what RFK Jr. means when he talks about having control of HHS and USDA. As you noted, a lot of folks I've spoken with have suggested it could be difficult for Kennedy to get through the confirmation process to actually take leadership of those agencies, but they suggest who he puts in charge could be very influential as well if he is given the task of choosing those folks or at least influencing those choices.
And he has been hinting in recent days about wanting to potentially gut all or part of some of these major agencies. He tweeted on Friday about the FDA, saying its "War on Public Health is about to end." He says that includes its, what he calls, aggressive suppression of things like psychedelics, raw milk, Ivermectin, sunshine, exercise and anything else he says that advances human health and can't be patented by pharma. He says, if you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you. One, preserve your records and two, pack your bags. He's also made comments about overhauling research at the NIH, including stopping all infectious disease research there, which really puts public health experts on edge as we've just come out of the COVID pandemic. And COVID, of course, is still with us and there are other public health threats.
And what they really note in conversations I've had over the last couple days with people in public health is that the thing they worry about the most with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking a potential health leadership role in a Trump Administration is actually the thing he's not talking about in the most recent weeks as part of his 'Make America Healthy Again' platform, and that of course is vaccines.
That's the thing everybody associates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. within the health space. He's sown a lot of doubt and mistrust around vaccines and they're really worried that that could lead to people not wanting to get vaccines, a lot of misinterpretation of science or blocking of science from getting to folks, and could lead to outbreaks of diseases that we have tried to put in the past.
BASH : Yeah. And Meg, I just want to underscore something you alluded to, which is that to be in a presidential cabinet, you have to have Senate confirmation. So whether it's Health and Human Services, CDC, that would have to happen. It's hard to imagine that happening, but there could be other ways that RFK Jr. could have influence in any Trump Administration.
I want to ask you about the things that he says about food, because I've talked to some physicians, some wellness experts, who say some of what he says really sounds good about eating healthy. It's a more holistic sort of point of view and approach to how we consume our food. But you are talking to people who say that there are some doubts about what he is saying and what he wants to do.
TIRRELL: Yeah, what's been really interesting about watching Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talk about health over the past few weeks, he was really focused on what he says is chronic diseases. He has not been talking about vaccines quite so much. He's been talking about obesity and diabetes, childhood illnesses, things like that. And some of these public health experts told me that masks, really a link that he suggests is to vaccines that they say is without evidence. But also he is talking about food policy in ways that food policy researchers find themselves surprised to be agreeing with him on.
I talked with Marion Nestle about this, a prominent food researcher, and she said -- she agrees with a lot of his ideas, but she doubts that they will necessarily come into fruition. Also based on the Trump Administration the last time, she says she does not believe it would be good for public health.
BASH: OK, Meg, thank you so much for that. Appreciate it. We'll be right back with more "Inside Politics."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:43:35]
BASH: Last year, a rising star on the Democratic Party announced her retirement after she received a devastating diagnosis, a rare degenerative brain condition. Now, Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton is teaming up with her one-time political opponent in support of Kamala Harris. Because of Wexton's medical condition which you will see in our interview, she had to input her answers to our questions before we sat down together.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wexton, you shall go first.
BASH (voice-over): Jennifer Wexton and Barbara Comstock were once political rivals.
REP. JENNIFER WEXTON, (D-VA): My opponent is a masterful political chameleon.
BARBARA COMSTOCK, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: My opponent is rated the most left-wing state Senator.
BASH (voice-over): In a hard-fought race to represent the Northern Virginia District in Congress.
WEXTON: I stand before you tonight as your Congresswoman elect.
(CROWD CHEERING)
BASH (voice-over): One Comstock, a Republican, now joining Wexton to campaign against Donald Trump now says she was secretly relieved to lose.
COMSTOCK: Jennifer didn't realize how -- kind of what a relief it was for me to be out of the Trump world. While I loved serving my constituents, I loved doing the work, I got to pass some great legislation, but being part of what would've become the Trump party really was a burden.
WEXTON: If you told 2018 me that I'd be sitting here with Barbara Comstock on CNN and that she was one of the biggest supporters of the Democratic nominee for President in her race against Donald Trump, I wouldn't have believed you.
BASH (voice-over): In 2023, Wexton was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, known as Parkinson's on steroids, and announced she would retire at the end of this term.
[12:45:00]
WEXTON: I'm here today supporting Kamala Harris for president.
BASH (voice-over): Now, she communicates using a tablet and with the help of AI, it's her own voice. BASH: No one would fault you for taking a step back from politics. Focus on your health instead. And yet, here you are giving interviews. You are out campaigning for Kamala Harris. Why is it so important to you?
WEXTON: I may not be here in four years, so I'm not about to sit on the sidelines. The stakes are too high. The reason I ran for Congress in the first place is because of my kids. After the 2016 election, I knew that I couldn't look my boys in the eye years down the road and say that I didn't do all I could to defend against the danger Donald Trump posed to the future of our country.
Looking out for kids and families has been the guiding principle throughout my public service. Now, my health battle has given me even more perspective on that.
COMSTOCK: I know what she has had to go through and how she has publicly dealt with it so courageously and been a voice for people who aren't out there. So, I just think it's so wonderful when you have literally a voice and she has shown other people how you can still have a voice and how you can be out there.
WEXTON: I also want to say how personally kind Barbara has been since my announcement of my condition and retirement. She and I have connected and talked a number of times over the past year, and it means a lot to me to have that kind of support at a time like this.
BASH: Do you think that this kind of partnership would happen with men?
WEXTON: I do believe that women are more likely to check our egos at the door when it comes to getting stuff done. It's something I've experienced firsthand working in Congress, and I imagine Barbara can say the same. Too much ego and pride to the point where it's hubris can be dangerous. That's no way to lead. And I think the former president is a perfect example of that.
COMSTOCK: Here we are in the 21st century. We cannot have the kind of misogyny and attacks on women that we've seen from this team, not just Donald Trump himself which is constant, but the people around him. I think internationally, this will make a big difference because somebody who is bowing down to Putin, who's bowing down to these kind of dictators, we need the strength of a woman at this time who doesn't get weak in the knees when you see a dictator.
And I have to add, I have never in my political career been in a room with somebody so profoundly stupid as Donald Trump.
WEXTON: I think that regardless of who you're voting for next week, this is an important conversation for Americans to see. Our differences don't have to divide us. That's a lesson that we and our country could benefit from. And don't forget to vote. Your vote is your power in our democracy. And regardless of who you vote for, I encourage you to exercise your right to vote and you forfeit your right to complain for the next four years if you don't vote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Thank you to both Congresswomen for sitting down together.
Coming up, Former President Trump is already claiming a key battleground state is cheating, already parroting his own election lies from 2020. Don't go anywhere.
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[12:52:43]
BASH: Donald Trump is already laying the groundwork to challenge the election results if he loses next week. Here's the baseless lie he pushed about Pennsylvania yesterday.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If you have a mail-in ballot, get that damn ballot in please immediately because they've already started cheating in Lancaster, they've cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. No, we caught them cold, 2,600 votes.
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BASH: That's just not true. Here are the facts. Last week, officials in Lancaster County announced incidents of suspected voter registration fraud. They're currently investigating 2,500 registration forms, but it's unclear how many were found to be fraudulent. It also affected two other counties. That is not the same at all as counting illegal votes.
David Chalian is back with me now, and we wanted to play this because, unfortunately, we need to warn our viewers that this is likely the tip of the iceberg, not only what we're going to hear from him, but what is already happening online by people who support him, feeding false information to unsuspecting voters.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Deja vu all over again. I mean this, let's call this what it is -- this is Donald Trump seeding the ground with this lie, falsehood, misinformation, disinformation to set up a potential post-election challenge, or at the very least, to set up his calling into question the legitimacy of the Pennsylvania votes when all the votes are counted. We saw this movie in 2020. We saw where it ended up.
I would just caution everyone to understand that you -- when you will watch the election returns come in on election night, the votes will be tabulated. They will be fact-based and that will be the result. And whether or not the campaigns have legitimate challenges to take to courts, the courts will adjudicate those. But this, as you said, is baseless and all it is, is setting the stage for more baseless information going forward.
BASH: OK. Well, anybody out there who has the wherewithal, please clip what David just said, send it to your friends and family, and then send it again.
[12:55:00]
Thank you so much for joining "Inside Politics." "CNN News Central" starts after the break.
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Campaigns collide in North Carolina.
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