National Review Slams ‘Unsuitable’ RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard for Flip-Flopping in Hearings: ‘Senators Shouldn’t Be Fooled’
LEFT: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) RIGHT: Tulsi Gabbard (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
The editorial board of National Review panned the performances of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard — President Donald Trump’s nominees to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services and Director of National Intelligence, respectively — in their confirmation hearings in an editorial published on Friday.
Kennedy and Gabbard appeared before the Senate committees considering their nominations this week where they, in the words of National Review‘s editorial, tried “to backpedal just enough to get confirmed without any true change in their worldviews.”
Under the headline “Will the Real Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard Please Stand Up?” the long-running conservative magazine suggested that while “there’s a role for gadflies and dissenters in our society (we’ve published many of them over the years), and their deep-felt convictions can make them admirable even if they are wrong-headed. They aren’t usually appointed to positions of major governmental responsibility after accumulating zero or very little relevant experience.”
Worse yet, the pair are accused of “selling new versions of themselves minted shortly after Trump picked them,” with Kennedy distancing himself from the panoply of conspiracy theories he’s pushed over the years and Gabbard flip-flopping on Edward Snowden and FISA.
“At his Senate finance committee hearing, Kennedy wanted everyone to know that he’s not anti-vaccine — and has the receipts. His own children are vaccinated. He left out that he has said that he regrets that. He’s written books about vaccines. Yes, but he didn’t mention that they were all intended to cast doubt on vaccines. He’s just been willing to ask uncomfortable questions. Asking questions is obviously fine — if you are willing to accept evidence not to your liking,” wrote the editors.
“Meanwhile, in her testimony before the Senate intelligence committee, Tulsi Gabbard couldn’t persuasively explain why she’d gone from a fierce, uncompromising opponent of Section 702 of FISA, which allows the U.S. to surveil foreigners overseas, to a firm supporter,” they continued. “Her sudden shift is as stark as a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union suddenly endorsing Jägermeister shots during lunch breaks.”
“Watching these performances, observers who have disagreed with Kennedy and Gabbard over the years might be tempted to conclude that at least they don’t have the courage of their convictions,” concluded the editorial. “But Kennedy and Gabbard are obviously trying to backpedal just enough to get confirmed without any true change in their worldviews. Senators shouldn’t be fooled.”
