‘Well, America – I Hope You Like Measles’: Jake Tapper Horrified By Trump Picking RFK Jr. to Lead HHS

CNN’s Jake Tapper offered some dark humor after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services.

On Thursday, Trump picked the controversial anti-vaxxer, whale decapitator, self-described brain worm-haver, and admitted bear carcass-dumper to lead the nation’s leading public health department.

In a strong field, Kennedy’s nomination is one of Trump’s more controversial selections. On Wednesday, the president-elect nominated the embattled former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. The day before, Trump nominated former Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense.

On Thursday’s edition of The Lead on CNN, Tapper asked former Rep. Adam Kinzinger to weigh in on whether enough Republican senators will oppose some of the nominations to sink them.

“Congressman Kinzinger, your expectation is that they’re all gonna get confirmed, or do you think some Republicans might actually stand up?” the host asked.

“I’d actually be surprised if Gaetz gets confirmed,” he replied. “That’s why I was surprised he resigned in the House because he’s not gonna have anything to fall back on, but he’ll go be a Fox News commentator or something.”

Kinzinger said he is not confident in predicting the fates of the other nominees.

“Maybe RFK Jr,” he said. “Here’s the thing. A lot of the sane Senate Republicans – particularly those who voted to remove Donald Trump? They’re up for reelection, so now it becomes a whole different ballgame. Will they resist RFK on vaccines? I don’t know.”

Former Biden White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield responded by saying that Democrats are powerless to stop the nominations since Republicans will control the Senate, but that “they should direct their ire” at successful nominees who perform poorly in the administration.

“And Democrats can start to lay out their own alternative, positive vision,” she added. “It’s never too soon to start doing that.”

“Well, America – I hope you like measles,” Tapper concluded.

In 2019, a measles outbreak ravaged Samoa, where Kennedy had visited just months before. His nonprofit organization “helped spread misinformation that contributed to the decline in measles vaccination that preceded the lethal eruption.” Eighty-three people died in the outbreak.

Watch above via CNN.