The co-chair of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s transition team promoted the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism in a CNN interview Wednesday. He also said Trump ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr., hopes to get “data” through a Trump administration to have vaccines pulled “off the market.”
Howard Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a longtime friend of Trump’s, told the network’s Kaitlan Collins that vaccines are “not proven” to be safe. Lutnick said he’d recently been schooled on vaccines by Kennedy, the failed independent presidential candidate and anti-vaxxer who has endorsed Trump.
Kennedy has said he would have significant influence over public health policy if Trump wins the White House.
“So, I spent two-and-a-half hours this week with Bobby Kennedy Jr., and it was the most extraordinary thing. Because, let’s face it, we’ve all heard on the news all sorts of sort of snarky comments about him,” Lutnick told Collins.
Recounting his conversation with Kennedy, Lutnick went on to link autism to the growth of vaccines — a discredited idea that dates back to a retracted study from 1998 — before Collins interrupted to remind viewers Lutnick is not a scientist.
“Hang on,” the anchor said. “OK, neither of us are doctors. Vaccines are safe.”
“Why do you think vaccines are safe? There’s no product liability anymore. They’re not proven,” Lutnick said.
“Because they’re proven. Kids get them and they’re fine,” Collins said.
“Why do you think they’re fine?” Lutnick responded.
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond Thursday morning when asked if the campaign stood by Lutnick’s comments.
Lutnick went on to say that Kennedy wants vaccines pulled off the market ― and that Kennedy hopes a Trump administration could get him the data to accomplish that.
“He wants the data so he can say, ‘These things are unsafe,’” Lutnick said. “He says, ‘If you give me the data, all I want is the data, and I’ll take on the data and show that it’s not safe. And if you pull the product liability, the companies will yank these vaccines right off ― off of the market.’ So that’s his point.”
The former president himself has long voiced skepticism of vaccines and has promised to cut funding for schools that require them, playing into anti-vax conspiracy theories that have gone mainstream in the Republican Party. (All states have variations of laws requiring certain vaccines.)
Trump also engaged in some anti-vax banter with Kennedy during a July phone call captured in a leaked video.
“When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s fit for a horse, not a 10-pound or 20-pound baby, it looks like you should be giving a horse this thing,” Trump said on the call.
After Kennedy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, the former president gave him a slot on his transition team.
Kennedy told supporters earlier this week that Trump had promised to give him “control” over key public health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The key that I think I’m — you know, that President Trump has promised me is — is control of the public health agencies,” Kennedy said in a livestream, video of which CNN obtained. He cited the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, among others.
Trump was scheduled to appear with Kennedy at a campaign event in the swing state of Arizona on Thursday.