Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is reportedly being eyed for a Cabinet post in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, had a heated exchange with an NBC News reporter of the subject of removing fluoride from drinking water.
The journalist interviewed the former independent presidential candidate from Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday morning following Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Before Trump’s victory, Kennedy pledged to advise the GOP nominee to push health agencies to eliminate fluoride from America’s public water supply. In his interview with Hillyard, he asserted that fluoride was lowering children’s IQs.
“You also talked about fluoride in the U.S. water supply. You would see to ban fluoride in the U.S. water supply?” interviewer Vaughn Hillyard asked.
“I would advise the water districts that are currently using it that there is a lot of new science out there. In fact, there’s a federal judge decision by an Obama-appointed judge on October 4th of this year in which he sent the EPA back to the drawing board and said, you’ve never done the safety studies on it, by the way…” RFK Jr. said before Hillyard interrupted.
HILLYARD: And so what does that look like without debating, without going back and forth on the science.
KENNEDY: It’s lowering IQ in our children.
HILLYARD: What would you — on January 2025 we’re 3 months away here, what would you actually do?
KENNEDY: I think fluoride is on it’s way out —
HILLYARD: And how would you make that happen? This is your chance is what you’re suggesting to me. How would you make that happen?
KENNEDY: Listen to what I’m saying! And then I’ll tell you. I think fluoride is on the way out because that court decision, I think the faster that it goes out, the better. I’m not going to compel anybody to take it out, but I’m going to advise the water districts about their legal liability, their legal obligation to their service, to their constituents. And I’m going to give them good information about the science. And I think fluoride will disappear.
Elsewhere in the interview, RFK Jr. also made it clear that, if he becomes the nation’s top health official, he had no intention of taking away vaccines, as some have claimed. Rather, he said he would hold federal health agencies to the “gold standard of science” and make sure that more Americans are informed about them so they can make their own choices.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris called President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to concede in the presidential race.
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Now, Trump’s team has revealed some of what was discussed on the call between the two leaders.
Trump’s campaign communications director, Steven Cheung, said Trump “acknowledged Vice President Harris on her strength, professionalism, and tenacity throughout the campaign, and both leaders agreed on the importance of unifying the country.”
Her campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, told campaign staff that Harris told Trump she would make sure there was a peaceful handover of power from Biden’s government to the incoming Trump administration.
