Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) was quick to praise Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, suggesting it was his way of trying to see the best out of the situation.
Asked by CNN's Dana Bash on Friday if he thought Kennedy, an outspoken anti-vaccine activist, would be able to separate his personal beliefs from his personal beliefs, Polis said, “I think the glass is half-full.'' “I was brought up to see it as something that included things,” he said. his work.
That question was a nodinterviewIn a conversation with NBC Denver affiliate 9 News earlier this week, Polis asked, “Can we separate these false personal beliefs from chronic disease, nutrition, and our work with big pharmaceutical companies?”
Mr. Polis' glassy thinking comes as President-elect Trump has come under fire for initially praising Mr. Kennedy for choosing him as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“Excited about the news that the President-elect will appoint @RobertKennedyJr to @HHSGov. He helped defeat vaccination mandates in Colorado in 2019 and shakes up HHS and FDA to make America healthy again. He will help us do that,” the governor wrote in the post.Social platformLast week, it referred to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
He faced pushback from Democrats including Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and Colorado Sen. Kyle Mullica.
A spokesperson for Polis told The Hill last week that the governor's “overall view of RFK Jr.'s position has not changed.”
“Although he disagrees with RFK's positions on many issues, such as banning vaccines and fluoridation, he would welcome efforts to address pesticides and lower the cost of prescription drugs. If Trump If you're going to nominate someone like that, make sure they drink soda too. Processed foods, pesticides, and heavy metal contamination. “However, he has never supported actions that lead to measles outbreaks and opposes unscientific propaganda that undermines confidence in the life-saving effects of vaccines,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. , added that Polis received the flu and COVID-19 vaccines earlier this month.
In an interview with CNN, Polis criticized Alex Azar, a lobbyist and pharmaceutical executive whom Trump appointed to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during his first term. Hazard faced criticism in 2020 for his handling of the early coronavirus pandemic. Trump administration officials have discussed him as the successor to Secretary of Health and Human Services. Azar ultimately resigned in early 2021, citing the Capitol riot in a letter.
“The last time Donald Trump was president, he put a pharmaceutical lobbyist named Alex Azar in charge of a pharmaceutical company,” Polis said, adding to what he said was a lack of progress on many health-related issues. criticized.
“Of course, during the confirmation process, I think it's important to make sure that this person is someone who is going to promote policy on behalf of the American people and not make their personal statements and statements into official policy, so I “I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible,” Polis later added.
