RFK Jr. Is Asked: What if You're Wrong?

Michael Scherer's lengthy profile of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Atlantic gets to the heart of the matter early: Is the health secretary a "truth-telling crusader, or brain-wormed loon?" Those on both sides will find ammo to bolster their cases in the piece, which is different from most other Kennedy profiles out there in that the health secretary spoke at length with the author. The story's main focus is on Kennedy's crusade against vaccines, and it traces Kennedy's long arc from environmental hero to public health villain in the eyes of the left. Earlier in his career as a lawyer, Kennedy went after corporations polluting waterways. "In the latter part of his career, he has come to perceive a comparable contamination of American health by pharmaceutical and food companies." That is, he sees the system as rigged for Big Pharma to profit from sickness.

"The whole medical establishment has huge stakes and equities that I'm now threatening," Kennedy tells Scherer. "And I'm shocked President Trump lets me do it." Kennedy insists he's always willing to listen to contrary evidence, but Scherer challenges this. "When presented with data that contradict his arguments, Kennedy regularly claims bad faith on the part of his adversaries—that they're motivated by profit or professional advancement," he writes, adding that Kennedy's "experience as a litigator may have made this reflexive." The piece as a whole makes clear that nearly the "entire scientific establishment" opposes Kennedy's views on vaccines. What if you're wrong? Scherer asked him.

• "'I mean, we would listen,' Kennedy said. It was the answer I wanted to hear. But then he listed, once again, the reasons he would not be wrong. ... 'You know, we have all kinds of interventions,' he said. 'Good health does not just come in a syringe.' The trial lawyer was still laboring to connect the dots that led to his preferred verdict, the orphaned child of American royalty, back from hell, still fighting to fulfill his birthright." Read the full story.