‘1918 Is Before 1945’: Jake Tapper Breaks Out a ‘Space-Time Continuum’ Argument to Fact Check RFK Jr’s Hearing Claims

The Lead anchor Jake Tapper delivered a highly critical monologue at the top of his show Wednesday about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony at the Senate Finance Committee hearing, even invoking the space-time continuum to fact-check President Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary.

Tapper played several clips from Kennedy’s contentious hearing earlier in the day, which featured him being grilled by multiple Senators skeptical of his qualifications and incredulous at his many past controversial comments and anti-vaccine activism.

The CNN anchor summarized how Kennedy was challenged about “his unscientific falsehoods about vaccines, including his role in the deadly measles outbreak in Samoa,” “conspiracy theory laden stances,” his changing stance on abortion, and other topics, and said he wanted to show his viewers “just a couple examples of how the answers we heard from Kennedy on Capitol Hill today at times seemed quite different from his past remarks.”

Tapper cued up Kennedy’s opening statement and comments insisting he was “not anti-vaccine.”

“But of course, there’s plenty of evidence in Kennedy’s own words, to suggest he is anti-vaccine, or at least not pro-vaccine,” said Tapper before playing several clips of Kennedy criticizing vaccines.

“‘There’s no vaccine that’s safe and effective,'” Tapper repeated Kennedy’s quote. “Excuse me — that seems pretty cut and dry. But today, when questioned about this specific statement, Kennedy blamed it on the interviewer. The interviewer cut him off and what he was going to say that there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective for every person.”

“Okay, so even if that is what he was trying to say, there is plenty of evidence showing Kennedy’s recent embrace of vaccine related conspiracy theories,” Tapper continued, playing Kennedy’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2023, in which he claimed that the 1918 Spanish flu “was vaccine-induced flu,” and “the deaths were vaccine induced” and from “bacteriological pneumonia.”

“This is very, very confusing and ahistoric,” said Tapper. “The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was caused by an H1N1 virus. It was not caused by a vaccine, not to mention the flu vaccine or even antibiotic treatments were not available in 1918. The first license for wide use of a flu vaccine was in 1945. According to the space time continuum, 1918 is before 1945.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.