Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he will clear out "entire departments" of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) if given a place in Donald Trump's administration, as the former president has repeatedly promised.
"In some categories, there are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA that are – that have to go, that are not doing their job, they're not protecting our kids," Kennedy said during a Wednesday morning interview on MSNBC.
The FDA, the U.S. federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is responsible for ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of drugs, biological products, medical devices, food and cosmetics.
RFK Jr. is an outspoken opponent of Big Pharma and Big Food, and has at various times attributed the source of America's health problems to insufficient regulation of pesticides, harmful additives, seed oils, processed foods, and vaccines.
When asked by the MSNBC interviewer whether he would eliminate any of the federal agencies altogether, Kennedy said: "To eliminate the agencies – as long as it requires congressional approval – I wouldn't be doing that.
"I can get the corruption out of the agencies, that's what I've been doing for forty years," he added, citing his experiences suing corporations and government bodies during his career as an environmental lawyer.
Newsweek has reached out to RFK Jr. for further comment on his proposals for federal agencies.
After being questioned on his history of vaccine skepticism, and asked whether he would remove any vaccine currently on the market, Kennedy said: "I'm not going to take away anybody's vaccines. I've never been anti-vaccine ... If vaccines are working for somebody, I'm not going to take them away. People ought to have a choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information."
Since suspending his own presidential campaign in August, Kennedy has endorsed Trump, earning several informal offers to serve in key, health-related roles in the future administration from the former president.
During a late October Zoom call with his supporters, Kennedy said that Trump had "promised [him] control" of the country's public health agencies. These included the HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FDA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the latter of which RFK Jr. said was "key to making America healthy, because we've got to get off of seed oils and we've got to get off of pesticides."
"Putting an anti-abortion conspiracy theorist in charge of our public health agencies says everything you need to know about how Donald Trump would govern," Kamala Harris wrote on X in response to Kennedy's comments.
Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the Trump transition team previously told CNN's Kaitlin Collins that Kennedy would not get the job of HHS Secretary.
Trump has, nevertheless, said Kennedy would play "a very big role" in his administration's health care policy and promised to let the independent "go wild on health ... go wild on the food."
Kennedy was also name-checked during the former president's victory speech.
"He's going to help make America healthy again. And now he's a great guy and he really means it. He wants to do some things, and we're gonna let him go to it," Trump said to his supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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