Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been one of the most high-profile anti-vaccine activists in the country, heading an organization described by the Associated Press as “an anti-vaccine juggernaut” when its revenues surged to more than $23 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kennedy has continued to push the long debunked claim that childhood vaccines cause autism. He has also argued that the COVID-19 vaccine was part of an elite plot to prolong the pandemic and shun other unproven or debunked remedies.
“Because the plan ... is to lengthen this pandemic, to intensify it, to make it lethal so that people are terrified and they’ll take these vaccines,” he said during a podcast with Ellsworth internist Dr. Meryl Nass. “And they won’t take any other medicines ... that could have stopped this pandemic and saved the lives of 500,000 Americans who unnecessarily died.”
Kennedy’s discussion with Nass is just one example of how his views have taken root among some in Maine. It also helps explain why Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ upcoming vote on whether to confirm Kennedy as head of the Department of Health and Human Services is getting so much scrutiny.
During the pandemic, the Maine State House saw multiple protests charged with similar anti-vaccine rhetoric. Some Republican state lawmakers have been receptive, too. They have submitted bills to repeal vaccine requirements for most schoolkids, even though 70% of voters rejected the idea at the ballot box in 2020.
Nass has testified on some of those bills. She is affiliated with the Maine and New England chapter of Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense and recently signed a letter endorsing Kennedy to lead HHS, a sprawling department with a budget of $1.7 trillion. Among HHS’ primary responsibilities is the oversight of vaccine research, approval and recommendation.
Kennedy could helm that agency as soon as next week if confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Last week he narrowly cleared the Senate Finance Committee, 14-13, after convincing Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor and vaccine supporter, that he wouldn’t scuttle the nation’s childhood vaccination program.
Such assurances are part of Kennedy’s attempts to downplay his anti-vaccine activism. Meanwhile, his allies have attempted to burnish his scant health care credentials.
A letter co-signed by Nass, headed with “Doctors for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” was submitted into the Senate record as a testimonial for President Donald Trump’s pick to lead HHS. It was meant to counter the Nobel Laureates in health care, scores of doctors and American Public Health Association urging the U.S. Senate not to confirm him.
AP found that many pro-Kennedy signatories, including Nass, had their licenses revoked, suspended or faced other discipline. Others weren’t doctors, or had no affiliation with the health care profession at all.
The Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine temporarily suspended Nass' license in 2022. The board accused Nass of spreading misinformation and failing to follow proper procedures in telemedicine and record-keeping. Kennedy’s group helped pay for Nass’ legal expenses.
While facing licensing board scrutiny, Nass participated in an information session with lawmakers in the Maine Legislature and boasted that she had lied to a pharmacist to fulfill a prescription of hydroxychloroquine for a COVID patient.
“And so I lied and said the patient had Lyme disease, which is another legitimate reason to get this drug,” Nass told state lawmakers. “And so the pharmacist dispensed the medication only because I lied. If I had said the patient was getting it for COVID, they would not have received the drug.”
Hydroxychloroquine was not approved to treat COVID. A 2020 study that suggested it may work in some patients was retracted last month on ethical and scientific grounds.
Nevertheless, vaccine skepticism appears to be on the rise. A survey commissioned in January by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that although large shares of the public support childhood vaccines and school vaccination requirements, there has been a noticeable dropoff in support. For example, 82% of parents of children under age 18 say they keep their child up to date with vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella. That’s an 8-percentage-point drop from 2023. Skepticism is acute among Republican parents. About one in four now reported skipping or delaying vaccines for their kids, up from 13% in 2023.
Public health experts worry those numbers will drop further if Kennedy is confirmed to head HHS. During a separate confirmation hearing, Collins appeared worried about that, too, telling Kennedy that physicians are concerned herd immunity will be lost if more kids continue to go unvaccinated.
“All vaccines are dropping and they’re doing that because people don’t believe the government any more,” Kennedy replied. “We need good science, and I’m going to bring that in. I’m going to restore trust and that will restore vaccine uptake.”
Collins, a potential swing vote to confirm or deny Kennedy, did not push him further to explain why he had contributed to that mistrust. She has not yet said how she’ll vote when the Senate moves to confirm him.
Collins supports Project 2025 author
In another high-profile nomination fight, Collins supported Trump’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget despite Russell Vought’s clearly stated opposition to Congress controlling federal spending.
Vought previously served as OMB’s director for a time during Trump’s first term. He was also a key architect of Project 2025, the conservative playbook to overhaul the federal government. He has also made clear that the Trump administration plans to challenge the 1974 law that severely restricts a president’s ability to unilaterally go against Congress’ wishes on federal spending.
As we discussed in last week’s Pulse, Collins has a major stake in the legal and constitutional fight over “impoundment,” which is the term for when a president tries to withhold or cancel spending authorized by Congress. Collins is chairwoman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, which along with its House counterpart decides how federal money is doled out.
But the Republican said Thursday that she planned to vote for Vought because he was “well-qualified,” having served as both director and deputy director of the OMB.
“When I am evaluating cabinet nominees, I base my support on whether the person is qualified for the job, not on whether I agree with all of their positions,” Collins said in a statement Thursday evening prior to the vote. “I have applied that standard to nominations from both Republican and Democratic Presidents and I believe that Presidents are entitled to broad discretion when selecting cabinet secretaries.”
Earlier in the week, Collins also told the Portland Press Herald that if Trump attempts to impound funding, “I believe it will end up in court, and my hope is the court will rule in favor of the 1974 impoundment and budget control act.”
Maine’s other senator, independent Angus King, meanwhile, denounced the nominee on Thursday during Democrats’ marathon attempts to delay a vote.
During a speech on the Senate floor, King called Vought “one of the ringleaders of the assault on our constitution” and cited his opposition to Congress’s so-called “power of the purse.”
“Mr. Vought was one of the principal authors of the infamous Project 2025, which the president strangely hadn’t heard of during the campaign but now seems to be an essential guideline for his presidency,” King added. “Project 2025 is nothing less than a blueprint for the shredding of the Constitution and the transition of our country to authoritarian rule. He is the last person we should put in the job.”
Vought was confirmed Thursday night on a vote of 53-47. All Republicans voted in support while every Democrat, plus independents King and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, opposed the nominee.
‘Weirdo billionaire’
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden this week joined the growing chorus of Democrats targeting Elon Musk’s incursion into the federal government, making local and national headlines for calling the world’s richest man an unelected “weirdo billionaire.”
Golden represents a district where Trump won in 2024 by 10 percentage points, and he has generally steered clear of criticizing the president.
That was the case this week when Golden didn’t target Trump’s flurry of executive orders, but instead the man the president has tasked with scouring the federal bureaucracy for needless spending. Golden claimed that it was Musk, not Trump, who was prompting constituents to flood his office with phone calls.
“Musk is stepping on the president’s toes — making decisions without his approval, pursuing his own agenda,” he said. “If I had an employee that sidelined me the way Musk is sidelining Trump, I don’t think I’d just sit back and take it.”
Golden’s posts on social media might be read as an attempt to provoke Trump’s well-documented desire to be the center of attention -- that is, if the president is paying attention to Golden’s statements.
But it might also be a sign that a billionaire rummaging in sensitive payment systems, Americans’ private data and classified material is becoming deeply unpopular. Recent polls show Musk has become increasingly unpopular since going full MAGA. Additionally, Democrats have repeatedly highlighted his own government contracts and how he may personally benefit from his purported mission to root out wasteful spending.
Dems bail on protests
This week’s anti-Trump protest in Augusta underscored the ongoing, internal debate in Democratic and progressive circles about the best way to respond to the deluge of controversial executive actions coming from the White House.
Several hundred people showed up for the rally, which was part of a national, grassroots day of action calling itself “50501” for 50 protests in 50 states on one day. It wasn’t a huge turnout, especially when compared to protests around the time of Trump’s first inauguration. But it was one of the larger political protests in Maine in recent months.
Notably absent, however, were any leaders or prominent members of Maine’s Democratic Party, even though dozens of Democratic lawmakers were just steps away inside the State House complex because multiple legislative committees were meeting.
The Augusta rally had originally been co-sponsored by the Kennebec County Democratic Committee. But committee leaders abruptly canceled days before the event because, according to a Facebook post, it had been “infiltrated by bad actors looking to spread hate, misinformation, and turmoil.”
They also cited concerns about the safety of participants and others suggested the rally was a “false flag” organized by people intent on undermining the resistance to Trump. None of those fears materialized, however.
The committee’s cancellation post was taken down Wednesday night or Thursday morning, as were other committee references to the Feb. 5 rally they had been planning. But a number of frustrated commenters chimed in before the post was removed to essentially accuse the committee (and the broader party) of losing its collective backbone at a critical time.
One of the grassroots organizers of Wednesday’s rally blasted party leaders for that decision.
“When the Democrats pulled it, it said two things: One, is that they are currently too afraid to stand up for this,” said Nicholas Jackson, a Hallowell resident who obtained an event permit from the Capitol Police so that the protest would still take place. “They are too afraid to stand up for their constituents. And, two, they don’t really know what is going on around them.”
Other party activists defended the decision. Some called for greater organization and development of a concrete, cohesive plan to respond to what they see as threats to democracy and constitutional rights from Trump.
Similar internal debates are happening among Democrats and anti-Trump activists at the national level and in other states. It’s still unclear, however, which side is winning out.
Maine's Political Pulse was written this week by State House bureau chief Steve Mistler and State House correspondent Kevin Miller, and produced by news editor Andrew Catalina. Read past editions or listen to the Political Pulse podcast at mainepublic.org/pulse.
