Photo: Getty Images
CNN anchor Jake Tapper gave a blunt response to former Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an outspoken vaccine skeptic, being selected by President-elect Donald Trump as his administration's secretary of health.
"Well, America, I hope you like measles," Tapper said while announcing Trump's decision during the live broadcast of The Lead on Thursday (November 14) coinciding with Kennedy's appointment being officially announced.
Tapper has been critical of Kennedy's vaccine criticism, which includes unproven claims that they cause autism, for several years. The CNN anchor was challenged by Kennedy to debate in 2021, which he called "truly embarrassing."
“I’m not going to lend credence to a conspiracy theorist whose views are so false, unhinged, and dangerous to public health, his own siblings feel the need publish op-eds against him," Tapper said at the time via the New York Post.
Trump previously claimed that he would let Kennedy "go wild on medicines" in his administration prior to being elected earlier this month.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote in a statement announcing Kennedy as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday (November 14) via the New York Post.
Tapper was also critical of Trump's selection of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his attorney general during a live broadcast of The Lead Wednesday (November 13) night.
“Welcome to The Lead, I’m Jake Tapper. And let me begin the show by uttering some words that I never contemplated using together before. And those words are: U.S. Attorney General Matt Gaetz,” Tapper said.
“Because if you were wondering what Trump without the guardrails looks like, well, we’re getting an idea beyond the theoretical,” he added.
Trump announced Gaetz, 42, as his incoming administration's top prosecutor hours earlier on Wednesday, which was met with shock in Congress, including some Republicans whom Gaetz had openly criticized in the past. Gaetz immediately resigned from Congress after being selected by Trump, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson, which ends a House Ethics Committee investigation accusing him of engaging in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, dispensing special privileges and favors to those whom he had a personal relationship, and seeking to obstruct government investigations into the allegations.
The ethics panel was reportedly set to vote on whether to release its "highly damaging" report on Gaetz on Friday (November 15), however, it no longer has jurisdiction to pursue an investigation now that he's resigned. Trump referred to Gaetz, who has vehemently denied the allegations, as a "deeply gifted and tenacious attorney" who would "end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department" in his announcement on Wednesday.