All articles tagged with #kennedy
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said he will vote for the landmark Senate crypto bill in the Banking Committee this week, after negotiating changes (including fiduciary-responsibility language) and leaving room to consider amendments at the markup, signaling momentum for the legislation regardless of bipartisan backing.
Ars Technica, citing The New York Times, reports that the FDA blocked publication of studies on COVID-19 and Shingrix vaccines showing benefits; the CDC reportedly scrapped a separate vaccine study. HHS says withdrawals protected scientific integrity, but critics frame the moves as censorship connected to RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda under his health department.
RFK Jr. has paused $600 million in U.S. vaccine funding for Gavi to press the charity on data transparency and vaccine safety claims. Gavi says the money is crucial for vaccines across more than 50 low‑income countries and warns that withholding funds could cost lives, while Kennedy argues some vaccines used by Gavi are obsolete or contain thimerosal. A Boston federal judge recently ruled that many of Kennedy’s vaccine‑policy changes were invalid for procedural reasons, complicating the dispute and leaving the funding in limbo as lawmakers and officials push for a resolution.
RFK Jr. testifies before the Senate in a high‑stakes vaccine policy clash that also pits Sen. Bill Cassidy against Kennedy’s allies. Kennedy supporters are backing Julia Letlow with a seven‑figure sum, suggesting political retaliation for Cassidy’s criticisms of Kennedy’s vaccine agenda. While experts say the vaccine issue may not derail Cassidy, the dynamic underscores a broader health‑policy clash within the race and could influence oversight of the Health and Human Services Department if Cassidy wins in November.
Republican Senator John Kennedy criticized Donald Trump's feud with Pope Leo XIV, calling the idea of a 'holy war' with the pope a distraction and saying the pope is entitled to his opinion, while noting his respect for Catholicism as a Methodist. The remarks come amid a broader Trump-Pope clash linked to Iran policy, with Trump and allies attacking the pope and others defending Trump.
The article argues that Donald Trump’s recent attacks on a pope fit a long-standing pattern of Protestant-led skepticism toward Catholic political influence in the U.S. It traces his upbringing at Marble Collegiate Church under Norman Vincent Peale—a pastor who helped mobilize opposition to John F. Kennedy’s Catholic faith in 1960—and situates current hostility within a historical arc that includes debates over church–state separation and earlier anti-Catholic campaigns by Protestant groups and even the Ku Klux Klan.
Trump’s attack on Pope Leo XIV revives the century‑old debate over whether a U.S. president is beholden to the Vatican, recalling Kennedy’s 1960 assurances of church‑state separation while the Vatican defends its peace efforts amid the clash.
Netflix’s Kennedy adds 13 to its recurring cast, including Patrick Fischler, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Denis O’Hare and Eddie Marsan, as production continues in London on the JFK-era drama based on Fredrik Logevall’s JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century. The eight-episode first season, headed by Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy, Sr. and Laura Donnelly as Rose Kennedy, also introduces new Kennedys and notable figures such as Eunice Kennedy, Kick Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, Inga Arvad, Charles Lindbergh and Winston Churchill.
A New York Times oral history reveals that after RFK Jr. became health secretary, the CDC was transformed from a science-led agency into a politically driven one: thousands of staff were fired or forced out, the ACIP was purged and reconstituted with vaccine skeptics, public communications were tightly controlled, and vaccination policies were dramatically altered without the usual scientific checks. The result, according to current and former CDC employees, is a weakened public-health infrastructure and a public increasingly exposed to health threats, as measles outbreaks and vaccine controversies unfold under a reoriented governance model.
Health Secretary Kennedy Jr. signals that the FDA will broaden access to peptide therapies—a fast-growing, largely unregulated market—by taking action that could loosen rules for domestic compounding. Supporters say it will improve patient access, while critics warn of safety risks due to limited long-term data and a thriving gray/black market for unproven products. The move comes amid industry litigation, lobbying by compounding pharmacies, and high commercial interest in peptide-based treatments like GLP-1 therapies.
A federal judge blocked HHS's overhaul of the U.S. vaccine schedule and paused the replacement of the CDC's vaccine advisers, leaving ACIP's future uncertain as its planned meeting was canceled and the legal challenge proceeds.
A federal judge blocked Health Secretary RFK Jr.'s sweeping changes to the nation’s childhood immunization schedule, ruling the administration unlawfully altered policy and reconstituted the CDC vaccine advisory panel. The ruling pauses the overhaul as appeals unfold and highlights ongoing disputes over who should shape federal vaccine guidance and how independent expert panels are used in policy decisions.
Sen. John Kennedy said U.S. intelligence indicated Iran had taken “baby steps” to restart its nuclear program, a claim he says supports Trump’s military operation with Israel against Iran and aims to deter broader conflict. He described a plan from classified briefings to destroy Iran’s navy, air force, missile- and drone-making facilities, and Revolutionary Guard infrastructure before withdrawing. Democrats like Mark Warner disputed the immediacy of a threat, and both chambers failed to pass bipartisan war-powers resolutions. Kennedy argued the conflict would be brief and that Trump isn’t seeking a war, though he joked about the unlikely prospect of US troops on the ground.
Industry groups led by the National Association of Manufacturers warn that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda could raise regulatory costs and fragment the food-supply system, pushing for a uniform national standard and a seat at policy talks as Trump recalibrates his messaging ahead of the midterms. The campaign underscores tensions between Kennedy’s push for stricter ingredients rules and the industry’s push to protect prices and investment, even as Trump seeks to rebuild factory towns.
President Trump’s executive order to boost domestic glyphosate production triggers backlash from the Make America Healthy Again movement, risking erosion of his base and giving Democrats a talking-point on health and chemical issues ahead of midterm elections, as Kennedy’s role and broader pesticide debates complicate MAHA’s influence.