The Grifters We Helped Make

At one level, the Trump Administration is a grift, stem to stern, top to bottom, sole to scalp. The slate of corruption already — and remember, we’re only 15% of the way through the four-year term — is massive, including crypto, planes, phones, and “donations.”

At another level, it is about casual cruelty, “soft eugenics,” and bigotry.

Both levels blend comfortably in the person of RFK Jr., who is showing that his stint as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) will hurt a lot of marginalized people while also being a grift for himself and his friends. It’s not like we couldn’t see this coming, as how he might proceed was outlined during a Senate meeting in January by Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), highlights mine:

Warren: In the past two years, you’ve raked in $2.5 million from a law firm called Wisner Baum. You go online and do commercials to encourage people to sign up with Wisner Baum to join lawsuits against vaccine makers. And for everyone who signs up, you personally get paid. And, if they win their case, you get 10 percent of what they win. So, if you bring in somebody who gets $10 million, you walk away with $1 million. Mr. Kennedy, will you agree that you won’t take any compensation from any lawsuits against drug companies while you are Secretary and for four years afterwards.

Kennedy: I’m not going to agree to that.

Warren: As Secretary of HHS, if you get confirmed, you could influence every one of those lawsuits:

— You can publish your anti-vaccine conspiracies, but this time on US government letterheads, something a jury might be impressed by.

— You could appoint a vaccine panel who share your anti-vax views and let them do your dirty work.

— You could tell the CDC vaccine panel to remove a particular vaccine from the vaccine schedule

— You could remove vaccines from special compensation programs, which would open manufacturers to mass torts. You could make more injuries eligible for compensation even if there is no causal evidence. . . . You could change which claims are compensated in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. I’m asking you to commit right now that you will not take a financial stake in every one of those lawsuits so that what you do as Secretary will also benefit you financially down the line

Kennedy: I have complied with all the ethics rules.

Warren: No one should be fooled here. Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it. Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in.

Kennedy: Senator, I support vaccines. I support the childhood schedule.

Thanks to excellent reporting, we know Warren’s predictions have largely come to pass: