Trump’s Own Pollsters Warned GOP Leadership About Danger of RFK Jr.’s Latest Moves: Report
(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Donald Trump’s own pollsters warned GOP leadership that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine worldview was not popular among Americans of either party, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Republican pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward briefed GOP leadership before Kennedy’s contentious testimony in front of the Senate Finance Committee last week, the report said.
WSJ obtained a summary of the poll that read, “Our recent national survey of voters shows that there is broad unity across party lines supporting vaccines such as measles (MMR), shingles, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (TDAP), and hepatitis B.”
The report concluded that “the results were in line with what numerous other surveys have shown: A majority of the public, including both Democrats and Republicans, remain broadly supportive of requiring that children be vaccinated against preventable diseases to attend school.”
Top Senate Republicans who voted to confirm Kennedy for Health and Human Services secretary expressed their serious concerns with Kennedy’s actions since taking office that include his effective limiting access to the Covid-19 vaccine and his doubts over routine childhood vaccinations.
But Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), also a physician, said Kennedy is doing exactly what Trump told him to do when he said “go wild” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Look, President Trump picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be a disrupter to the CDC, and that’s exactly what he’s doing,” Marshall told Face The Nation on CBS Sunday. “He’s focused on making the CDC more transparent, to make it more trustworthy right now. Right now, Americans don’t trust the CDC. So he is literally turning that place upside down.”
Trump continues to stand by Kennedy, despite some Senate Republicans’ misgivings. Shortly after Kennedy fired CDC director Susan Monarez last month, Trump said he liked the fact that Kennedy is “different.”
