Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) tried Thursday to distance himself from one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wild health claims, though he wouldn’t go so far as to call the health secretary’s guidance “dangerous.”
Speaking with MSNBC journalist Ali Vitali during an interview aired on the “Morning Joe” talk show, Thune said that if he were a woman, he “wouldn’t be taking advice” from President Donald Trump’s Cabinet member, who is a known anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist.
Thune’s comments came after Vitali asked him whether Kennedy’s unscientific public health advice, which has drawn significant controversy from medical and public health experts, is “dangerous.”
“Well, I’ve said that I think that if I were a woman, I’d be talking to my doctor and not taking, you know, advice from RFK or any other government bureaucrat, for that matter,” Thune responded.
Last month, Kennedy and Trump made an announcement linking Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism. The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists slammed the administration’s unproven guidance as “irresponsible” and “unsettling” in a statement.
Days after the Tylenol remarks, which weren’t prompted by any significant new research, Thune said he was “very concerned.”
Kennedy, who was appointed by Trump, has a long history of spreading misleading and false statements about health, including making repeated incorrect statements about vaccines that have raised doubts about their safety.
Earlier in his interview with MSNBC, Vitali grilled Thune over whether he thinks the GOP is becoming a “party of no dissent” and whether he would consider that to be “healthy.”
“I mean, I would argue and I’ve dissented a number of times just in the last few weeks,” Thune said, which prompted him to point to his previous opposition of RFK Jr.’s Tylenol claims.
Thune went on to say that “there are subjects and issues on which we have differences of opinion,” but that he typically prefers to “litigate those privately rather than publicly.”
“But I think there are plenty of examples and there are lots of times I could point out to you where we have differences in opinion, and I make my voice clear,” he continued.
Thune noted that “in some cases it results in a change and sometimes it doesn’t.”
“But I think that’s our job is to try and present that check and balance,” he added.
Data analyzed by researchers at the conservative Institute for Legislative Analysis shows Thune voted in support of the GOP agenda 76% of the time in 2024.