Can RFK Jr. Make America Healthy Again?
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I'm Martha McCallum. I'm Bill Hemmer. I'm Shannon Bream, and this is the Fox News Rundown. Tuesday, November 19th, 2024. I'm Dave Anthony. President-elect Trump is assembling his second administration.

And for the more controversial nominees, he may try to bypass the Senate confirmation process. The president rightfully looks at, hey, last time I wanted my people in and you guys, you know, slow rolled me forever. And that slowed down my ability to get the American first policy agenda done. I think he's looking at that and pushing that as an option.

I'm Jessica Rosenthal. He's controversial, but to those who say he'll harm America as Health and Human Services Secretary, he says the health of Americans is being harmed right now. I have a lot of confidence in Kennedy. He's very passionate about the goal of making America healthy again. We're a sick country. We've developed, I spent 50 years of my life in medicine. We don't really have a health system. We have a disease system.

And I'm Tammy Bruce. I've got the final word on the Fox News Rundown. It's been two weeks since former President Trump was elected again. Donald Trump is coming back to Washington, D.C. with a mandate from the American people and is entitled to have his cabinet around him that he chooses. Trump senior advisor Corey Lewandowski also tells Fox & Friends...

Even though some Trump nominees are controversial, from Matt Gaetz to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., facing strong criticism and opposition from Democrats and some Republicans. I want to remind everybody that Donald Trump's mandate also allowed him to make the U.S. Senate a Republican majority with his...

winning in Pennsylvania, his winning in Ohio, bringing those candidates across the line, also in Montana. So as these U.S. senators consider the president's nominees, they should remember why they're in the majority. Well, not all of the nominees are as controversial. A governor, Doug Burgum, is the Trump-picked-to-be Interior Secretary, a job that

Ryan Zinke had in the first Trump administration. I know Doug Burnham very well. And I can tell you, the governor, he's sharp. He understands American energy being from North Dakota. Ryan Zinke is now a Republican congressman from Montana who was just reelected. Well, in Department of Interior is really the Department of Production.

Because they have offshore, onshore, a lot of the permitting. So does Department of Agriculture, by the way. But I would say the production side of our energy disposition is interior. When I was secretary, we were 8.3 million barrels a day and declining when I first came in. In two years, we were 12.5 million barrels a day, the number one energy producer in the world. And oh, by the way, we lowered emissions.

As the United States becomes energy independent, energy dominant, I think we'll reverse some of these policies. We'll do it cleaner, better, and more efficiently. And we'll bring gas down to where it's, you know, two bucks a gallon or so. And that drives the economy. Well, gas has been down a quarter since a year ago. And I've been reading that even with President Biden's push for a cleaner energy future, right?

that we still have had record outputs of oil and gas. We've had the curve on production, but we can do so much more. We also, you know, it's running through kind of a rabbit through a snake scenario. So if you shut down leasing...

and permitting, then that will have an effect, you know, a year, two years down the line. So we're going to have to reverse that. The policies haven't fully come through yet to, in your view, lower under what Biden's plan would do, lower output. Well, and we've made energy costs more expensive. I mean, the reliance and push towards green energy in some sectors, it doesn't make sense. I mean, when you have

You know, one ton of concrete, for instance, in a windmill produces about a ton of CO2.

And then, of course, the push for EV, you have to look at the critical mineral side of it. What's driving the EV as far as critical components? You know, cobalt, lithium, where are they made? And as important as where they mine, but where are they produced as far as production and processing? China, right? China, northwards of 80%. So the great irony, as this administration pushed towards green energy, they were actually pushing towards a more reliance on China, right?

which could be our adversary. I think they're hyper-competitive now, moving into the adversary role, and could be moving to our enemy if they don't quell their aggressiveness. All right, so away from Interior and Energy, some of the other nominees are more controversial. Matt Gaetz, now a former congressman from Florida.

tapped to be the attorney general? Seems like Democrats and even some Republicans are very much against that. Well, that's by far the most controversial. One is that President Trump said he would be disruptive, particularly on Department of Justice, who he rightfully so is not fair. They've shown a bias, extreme bias. So he's a promise made as a promise kept.

The recess appointments that have been touted are interesting because they're a little more complicated. One, it does say advise and consent. Okay, so back up for people who don't know what you're talking about. In theory, when President-elect Trump is inaugurated in January, the Senate and the House, led by Republicans, could recess, correct? They could recess. They both could agree to recess, although the Senate...

My understanding, talking to the parliamentarian, is that amendments are in order. So if the Senate were to recess, then other members would get an opportunity to put amendment and restrictions on that recess. But those have to be passed. Those would have to be passed by 51. And Democrats don't have 51. Well, and the idea is this, though, too. When I was secretary, after two years, I had 17 Senate-confirmed positions outlawed.

After two years, I only had seven out of 17. Okay. So for the Democrats, they want a slow roll, make sure that the president doesn't get his team in. From the Republican side, the president has a lot of latitude to get his own team in. Where the hard part is going to be is if both bodies decide, and Thune can go into recess, but again, amendments are in order. John Thune, the incoming majority leader. Yeah.

The president rightfully looks at a last time I wanted my people in and you guys slow rolled me forever. And that slowed down my ability to get the American first policy agenda done. I think he's looking at that and pushing that as an option. But if it were a recess, that would allow.

the president-elect to put Matt Gaetz or even Tulsi Gabbard or Pete Hegseth, people who Democrats and some Republicans seem to want to fight over the most, could put them in the office, at least temporarily, right? I think all options on the table are recessed. If there's no amendments on it, if the amendments don't pass, then a 51%, you know, they could. It's not an easy process, but I can tell you the picks, let's take Pete Hegseth in defense.

And they comment, well, he's too young. Well, Donald Rumsfeld was about the same age. And they said, well, he doesn't have the experience. He certainly has military experience. He has two bronze stars. And then you have Les Aspen or Perry had no military experience at all. People have said, well, what what? As you know, the Defense Department is a giant organization, a huge bureaucracy. Does he have experience leading that organization?

size entity? Well, he's not going to be alone. Remember, he does work for the commander in chief and he's not going to be alone. He has a number of deputies that are going to come in with enormous amount of experience too. So I think the team that will be put forth will be strong, certainly stronger than the team today. And I remember you also have the commander in chief. And in this case, I think Trump's going to be a lot different than President Biden on his tone and tenure and moving forward. And also the Department of Defense

it needs to be reorganized. So I think there's going to be a look at making it more efficient, making sure we can get the right equipment, right training, right techniques to the battlefield quickly. And that's going to be probably giving the combatant commanders, those guys in uniforms, more authority to go out and purchase what's necessary to win. Okay. You were a Navy SEAL. Absolutely. And thank you for your service. And a lot of others, you know, in the Congress or whatever are,

also retired military. Michael Waltz would come in as national security advisor as a former Green Beret. Do you support the changes in the military that the president-elect Trump wants? So there's talk about the DEI and some of the woke policies, quote unquote, that the Republicans have called out. Do you think that we need to change that? Is distractions on DEI or

Everything has to be green. So let's get back to what's important is to make sure when we engage in the field of battle, we win decisively in the field of battle. We're out of position in the Pacific.

We face $200 billion in Ukraine and an escalation. Now you have North Korean troops and you have longer range, deadlier weapons capable of deeper strikes. You have Iran firing ICBM missiles, not through surrogates, but directly into Israel. And you have Venezuela, which a lot of people don't talk about. I think it's a concern. We're feeling Venezuela now in our streets by gangs, etc., etc.,

And since we're talking about cabinet members, I'm very, very excited about Senator Rubio because I think we do need to pay attention. Secretary of State nominee. Absolutely. But we need to pay attention to Monroe Doctrine in Mexico, Central and South America. I can tell you America is stronger because we don't have the problems with the mass immigration we're seeing in some of our border security and other issues. No, no.

Mass deportations. President-elect Trump has vowed to do that once he takes office. He's talked about a national emergency using military assets as part of the plan.

obviously Democrats are going to fight this. Governors and Democratic governors, Democratic mayors are going to fight this. And we saw this in the first Trump administration. How is he going to do it? Well, you know, I talked to our sheriffs in Montana. It's interesting. Now, Montana is a small state, but really large area. We have big Indian reservations. So I thought the sheriffs in Montana has had a long history of rounding up.

I said, Sheriff, give them the authority. If you were tasked with rounding them up and giving the authority, would you do it? And every sheriff says, absolutely. But they need some place to put them. Yeah. So it's rounding up and put them in. And I'm all for Montana leading the way. But I think local sheriffs are good. They're elected officials. They're constitutional. I think that's an important aspect. And look, the sheriffs know who's good.

You know, and we're not going after the dishwashers or people that are doing good things. There's a lot of really bad behavior in sex trafficking, child trafficking, drug trafficking. And if it's in Montana, you know it's across the country, and it is. But not, you talk about Montana, a lot of Republicans, but what about a sheriff who's a Democrat?

Well, I'm hoping as they see the other parts of the economy start to be safer, our community be safer, the drugs, you know, off the streets, they will also run to make sure, look, these are the really bad people. That's the gangs, the sex traffickers, child traffickers. And we know who they are. So we're going after them. One last question. You worked in the Trump administration in his cabinet. You've dealt with the former president, now president-elect many times.

What do people not know about working with him? Because people, a lot of times, his critics talk about him being a tyrant or a dictator or this Nazi. What is he like when you actually do the job with him on a daily basis? You know, I found him to be a good boss.

He held me accountable. I would talk to him. I'm a former military officer, so I preferred to work. Let's get a clear defined objective. This is the plan. These are the objectives in order to reach this plan. I would do an executive order, tasking other departments to make sure they supported that effort.

And then he'd hold me accountable. I mean, he'd call me at 2.30 in the morning and believe me if he had a question on it. But I would say he's an active manager. Did he listen? Like if you had input, did he listen to you? Yeah, yeah, he did. Sometimes he agreed, sometimes he didn't. But I got my shot as a boss to articulate why.

and give the best reasons forward, and work at the privilege and the pleasure of the president. Well, we'll see what is in store for us in the second act for President-elect Trump when he takes office in January. Of course, you'll be in the House when that occurs. Congressman Ryan Zinke, Republican from Montana, former Interior Secretary. Great to talk to you. Thanks so much. I'd say for American people, we're going to ride a rocket, just strap in.

Because it's kind of a Elon Musk kind of analogy. But here we go. If we're going to take off, and I am absolutely, it's going to be an exciting period. And you know what? America's going to be great again. Well, thanks so much for joining us. Pleasure. Fever. Cough. Congestion. When the symptoms keep coming, but you've got to keep going, you can rely on Mucinex FastMax All-in-One.

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It's time to take the quiz. Five questions, five minutes a day, five days a week. Take the quiz every weekday at thequiz.fox and then listen to the quiz podcast to find out how you did. Play, share, and of course, listen to the quiz at thequiz.fox. This is Tammy Bruce with your Fox News commentary coming up. He could face a lot of resistance. He could face a lot of pushback. RFK Jr. for HHS will not make anyone healthier. FDA employees consider how to handle him.

These are just a few of the headlines reacting to President-elect Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He told us he'd let RFK Jr., an environmental lawyer, do what he wanted in his quest to make America healthy again, as long as he didn't touch oil and gas. Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold. Other than that,

Go have a good time, Bobby. While Kennedy has made comments before about vaccines, including in a podcast in which he questioned vaccine safety and efficacy, he says he is not actually anti-vaccine, that he wants to do placebo-controlled trials on them. Dr. Ashish Jha, the former White House COVID response coordinator and dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, is among many critics of RFK Jr. He doesn't understand the basics of scientific thinking and of vaccines

rigorous analysis. He says things that are just flatly wrong and he peddles in conspiracy theories. Having someone like that at the top of our entire national health infrastructure, I think it's going to harm people. It's going to really harm the health of the American people. But RFK Jr.'s argument to those who say he will harm people's health is that the health of the American people is being harmed now.

specifically as we see increases in obesity and chronic disease. The autism rate among American children and in 70-year-old men today, in my generation, is 1 in 10,000. In my children's generation, it's 1 in every 34 kids, 1 in every 22 boys. And the diabetes, a typical physician when I was a kid would see one case of juvenile diabetes in his lifetime or 40- or 50-year career.

Today, one out of every three kids who walks through his office are diabetic or pre-diabetic. Kennedy says he's going to be heavily focused on, among other things, seed oils and pesticides. Yeah, I think he's an excellent choice. He's really bringing to the forefront something that's been neglected for way too long, and that is to make America healthy again. Dr. Robert Redfield was the director of the CDC during President Trump's first term.

He recognizes that when his uncle was president, we had about a 1% to 3% obesity rate. Very few of us, less than 3%, had chronic disease. Now you're looking at an obesity rate that may range from 40% to 70%, and more than half of the adults have chronic disease.

When I was CDC director, we lost 1.2 million or during the COVID pandemic when I was there in the next director, 1.2 million people died of COVID. And in other countries like Taiwan, less than 10,000. Why did so many die in this nation? And the reason is, is because we're a sick nation. We had a lot of people with chronic disease that COVID exploited. So Kennedy, you know, sees the possible, which is really important.

That is that we really can make America healthy again. And I think he has the leadership skills that he can try to tackle obesity.

And a lot of that, which is driven by highly processed foods and other ingredients in our foods, as well as the potential of different pesticides and toxic molecules in the food that we eat. You know, you've heard him say that, you know, there's sort of a chronic subclinical poisoning of the American people by the food that we're eating.

And so I think he's going to take that on, and I think he's going to be successful. I know when I was CDC director, I tried to go after obesity and wanted fast food industry, the cereal industry, the soft drink industry, you know, to come together and help me. And, you know, it was they had no interest in me.

in reprogramming their efforts that would align themselves with the health goals that we had. You just said we're a sick nation, struggling with obesity, and yet...

When we talk about RFK Jr. becoming Health and Human Services Secretary, we hear a lot of people cautioning against him, some even calling him dangerous. Talk of people maybe resigning from their positions at the FDA and HHS and CDC. Is there anything to be worried about with RFK Jr. at the helm?

Would you say that despite your, I guess, agreement with him on many of this, that there is something he should maybe be cautious about or careful with? No, I think he's very passionate about the goal of making America healthy again. We're a sick country. We've developed I spent 50 years of my life in medicine. And what I've been part of is a disease system.

We don't really have a health system. We have a disease system. We need to really flip the coin now and develop a health system. A lot of people, you know, I think it's a lot of hyperbole. They don't want change. Obviously, Kennedy is a potential threat to big ag and big pharma.

that may not want change. But I have a lot of confidence in Kennedy. Disappointed in people that choose to judge him without any primary knowledge.

You know, I have my opinion of Kennedy, not from the newspaper, but from my primary interaction with him. And I'm talking to him and understanding him and asking him questions. I mean, one of the biggest things people say about Kennedy, he's not anti-vax. Bobby Kennedy is not anti-vax. He's vaccinated. His children are vaccinated. What he's about is transparency about vaccine safety and efficacy.

But he's not anti-vax, and yet you can't read an article in any newspaper, even some of those that say that they're respectable, that doesn't start that he's anti-vax. He's not anti-vax. So there's a lot of discrediting of Kennedy, which is unfortunate, and I think a lot of that is driven –

by the potential threat in big pharma and big ag. It reminds me when I was a young doctor in the 70s and I started to raise serious questions about the health risk of cigarettes. And I remember being challenged right and left. And it took about a decade of arguing before some really good public health leaders finally just laid it out and said, no, you know what it is.

It's cigarettes. And people who never thought we would change public opinion about cigarettes. Now, of course, that public opinion has been largely changed. Kennedy will accomplish the same thing with the food industry.

Let's talk about the debate around vaccines a bit, because that has been, I guess, one of the biggest things that people talk about when they talk about RFK Jr. He has, as you've already pointed out, he's been painted as being anti-vaccine for, I guess, certain comments he's made. But he insists that what he is is for choice, that Americans should have more choice over how many vaccines, when to give them.

I've specifically heard him say what he wants to do is placebo controlled trials. So, doctor, what would be placebo controlled trials when it comes to vaccines? Have we not had them? And would they be a good idea?

Well, I don't think Kennedy is going to change the use or access to a number of the vaccines that we've used for a long time. Polio, measles, you know, rubella, mumps, you know, the hepatitis vaccine, the human papilloma vaccine, the meningococcal vaccines. I think really what it's more about

is transparency of the data, the safety data and transparency about the efficacy data. This data should not be in a big black box that nobody can see. Put it out to the American public and let them make their choice. I think that's what Kennedy is about. Now, I think Kennedy and I agree, COVID's a great example, that when the COVID vaccine came out, there was a lot of policy mistakes that were made to mandate that vaccine.

you know, to people that didn't want it. I argued that if you tell somebody who doesn't want the vaccine, they have to take it, even though they don't want to take it. All you do is reinforce vaccine hesitancy. So I'm pretty comfortable. I mean, I'm one of the biggest vaccine advocates, I think, probably in public health in the United States. When I was...

When I was CDC director, I was out there all the time trying to improve vaccine uptake. When I was shocked that only half the American public took advantage of the flu vaccine. My first year, more children died of flu than ever had died before in the United States. What did they all have in common? Yeah, what did they have in common? Their parents didn't vaccinate them against flu.

So some people are shocked that someone like me, with my view on vaccines, who spent much of my life when I was in the military, 23 years as a vaccine researcher. Why would I support Bobby Kennedy when he's so anti-vaccine? And the answer is he's not anti-vaccine.

You know, he's for honesty about vaccines, you know, honesty about the discussion. So let me ask you also about pesticides. I know that's one of the things RFK Jr. has talked about, about how we farm. Farmers are obviously defensive over what they use and why they use it. But for example, like,

That weed killer roundup has been handled in our court system. You know, there have been multimillion dollar settlements after finding that the chemical in that contributed to cancer. Do we need to reassess our pesticides? How big of an undertaking would that be given what you've called it like big ag? Like it would be a big fight, right?

Well, I think we ought to do it. If you look at it, there's been almost an 80% or 70-80% increase in cancers that we're having now. There are significant changes in health that are making America more and more non-healthy. And, you know, you need to be open-minded and look and reevaluate with the modern tools whether there's safety concerns. I do think the pesticides...

um are likely to be uh candidates for not necessarily in the best interest of the human body ingesting um but i think it should be again evaluated open debate uh you know in not necessarily off the table

And I think Kennedy's really onto something. As I said, the biggest thing and why I'm such a big advocate for Kennedy, and it reminds me of his uncle again, when his uncle said in 1962, I'm going to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

Now, John Kennedy had no idea scientifically how to pull that off. Right. We didn't have the tools, the technology, but he said we were going to do it. And then he led our nation to act. And all I know, in 1969, we put a man on the moon. Bobby Kennedy is saying we can make America healthy again.

A lot of people are saying, no way, that ain't going to happen. We've got chronic disease. We're all obese. It's not going to happen. Bobby Kennedy says we can make America healthy again. I agree with Bobby Kennedy. We can make America healthy again. We need to do a couple of things. One, we got to get a handle on what we're eating and drinking.

and making sure that we're not contributing to chronic disease by eating and drinking that which is not in our best interest. And then the second thing we have to do is develop a much more aggressive health system to more effectively manage chronic disease, because chronic disease is driving our nation to be what it is today, which is we have a sick nation, not a healthy nation.

Dr. Robert Redfield, thank you so much for your time. Yep. God bless you. Take care. Bye-bye. I'm Gianna Gelosi with your Fox True Crime Minute. He's walked red carpets and modeled for Calvin Klein and Levi's, but now he's in cuffs appearing before a judge. Dinah Saxon was arraigned in a Bronx criminal court last week in connection with the November 10th death of Kadeem Grant. Police say they found the 35-year-old stabbed in the chest in an apartment in the borough, but have

said what the motive was or any other details surrounding the incident. Police say a knife was found near the victim's body and a trail of blood traced down the steps of the apartment building. Saxon appeared in court with a heavy bandage on his hand and prosecutors say he was bleeding from a gash when police arrived on the scene. The 20-year-old model is being held without bail until his next court date, December 3rd. He's charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. There's more on this story at foxnews.com or subscribe to the Fox True Crime Podcast.

I'm Gianna DeLossi with your Fox True Crime Minute. This message comes from Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination-focused dining, and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all-inclusive with no children and no casinos. Discover more at viking.com.

Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gowdy Podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com. Subscribe to this podcast at foxnewspodcast.com. It's time for your Fox News commentary. Tammy Bruce, what's on your mind?

Two weeks out of President Donald Trump's triumphant reelection, it still feels like a dream. We've all been through scores of elections and have been told that each one was the most important of our generation. And yet we can never really know something that significant until after the fact. This time it was different.

We knew in the small hours of November 6th that something remarkable had happened and it would be the election that would change everything. We knew Trump's election in 2016 was a turning point simply because of the improbability of it all. A man who was the ultimate insider became an outsider when he embraced the forgotten men and women of this country.

What we couldn't know was the reckless panic that consumed the Democrats would also break the spell and awaken Americans to the fraud of malevolence that had been destroying our lives. Americans were punched in the face by a smug, vile and hate ravaged Democratic Party bent on punishing us for Trump. And now we are in the aftermath of an election unlike any other. Trump not only won again, we delivered the whole of government to Trump and Democrats.

the popular vote. The astounding strength of Trump's victory feels almost like a national apology being made to the man, a sense of everybody as a whole apologizing for what he and his family were subjected to. But there is also a unique sense of relief many of you are experiencing. While Trump, his family, and associates have suffered greatly, do not forget what all of us have been through, and it has been plenty.

In some fashion, every day our own government categorized us as being the equivalent of the most horrible human beings ever to be on this planet. We were irredeemable bigots, white supremacist terrorists, semi-fascist threats to democracy, and most recently from President Joe Biden himself, garbage. So yes, we are feeling a remarkable shift in ourselves because we have defeated those who were working furiously to crush, defame, and inculcate us with fear. They failed. Trump won.

And why it can sound like a cliche to say that we are the real winners. We literally are, as each and every one of us has had our futures returned. But the victories for our country and families will not be delivered by leprechauns. It will again be achieved by the hard work of the very same people who worked on Trump's campaign, those who came to support him, like Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and all of us by keeping our eyes on the ball. In other words, our work has just begun.

Trump understands he has only four years to get as much done as possible, and he's out of the gate like a bullet train. At a rapid pace, he has been announcing his picks for his cabinet, those who will lead the consequential agencies of our government.

There have been some surprises, but his intent is clear. Trump is not back in Washington to play games. He's there to ignite the renaissance of our country. And you can't do that with the usual suspects. Recognizing this, he is choosing people he can trust, who can get the job done, and who are capable of putting country before self.

With Trump, after everything done to us, we have deliberately elected the ultimate disruptor to the presidency. Expect the unexpected and enjoy the fact that Trump and his team are serious about getting America back to where she belongs. To all of this, including his surprises and ups and downs, I say yes, Mr. President, we will take a side of extra salty fries with that order of freedom.

Just don't tell Bobby Kennedy. I'm Tammy Bruce, a Fox News contributor, and this column originally appeared at amac.us, A-M-A-C dot U-S. ♪

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