Senate Republican Blurts Anti-Vaccine Talking Points While Defending Trump’s RFK Pick: ‘Why is America Highest in Autism?!’
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) suggested there might be a link between vaccines and autism on Sunday’s Meet the Press while he defended Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
Mullin said that while he supported vaccinating children, he was open to hearing perspectives that link autism to pediatric inoculations – a link that was debunked years ago.
After being pressed on whether he supported Kennedy to run HHS, NBC’s Kristen Welker noted Mullin had defended vaccines previously and asked him, “Are of his views on vaccines a deal breaker for you, senator?” Mullin responded:
No, I absolutely appreciate Bobby Kennedy taking a hard look at the vaccines. There are some questions that had to be made and and I appreciate some of the scrutiny that’s going through there. I think Bobby can answer all those. I’ve had multiple conversations with him. I’ve sat down and had long conversations with him. And I actually find the guy extremely intelligent when it comes to this stuff. And some of this stuff does raise a lot of questions.
Mullin then hit the media for scrutinizing Kennedy while he said no such scrutiny was applied to transgender and nonbinary Biden picks for cabinet-level positions.
Welker asked him, “But Senator, let me just go back to this because you’ve been on the record saying that you do believe vaccines are safe and effective. You’re not concerned about RFK Jr. overseeing the largest health agency in the land?” Mullin replied:
I have said that there’s some positives to vaccinations. I’ve also questioned vaccines multiple times, and I think they should be questioned. For instance, why is America highest in autism?! What is causing that? Is it our diet or is it some of the stuff we’re putting in our our children’s system? It used to be almost not even heard of. Then it went from 1 to 10,000 and then 1 to 5,000, 1 to 2,000 and – right now, one out of every 36 kids by the age of three have developed some form of autism.
What is causing that? And if it is the vaccines, there’s nothing wrong with actually taking a hard look and finding is that what’s causing it? Is it something else that we’re putting in our systems? We do know we’re not as healthy as we should be right now.
Welker responded, “I just have to say, no credible expert or study has shown a link between vaccines and autism.”
MSNBC columnist Eric Michael Garcia responded to Mullin’s interview after he came across a clip of it on social media:
Watch above via NBC News.
