Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a Thursday interview did not directly answer a question about a statement his former running mate gave about him saying he’s being “controlled,” but described himself as a health “renegade.”
The battle concerns President Trump’s new nominee to serve as surgeon general, Casey Means, an ally of Kennedy and the “Make America Healthy Again” community.
“Listen, you’ve got sitting here four people who were all cancelled during Covid,” Kennedy said in response to a question from Fox News’s Bret Baier about remarks made on social media by Nicole Shanahan, his former running mate.
Kennedy was referencing Dr. Mehmet Oz, Marty Makary and Jay Battacharya, three other Trump administration officials with health care posts who joined him for the interview panel.
“The entire leadership of this agency are renegades who are, you know, who are juggernauts against convention and who are trying to look for truth, no matter what the cost. Casey is among those,” he added, referencing Means.
Shanahan in a post on X called the announcement of the Means nomination “strange,” adding that she was “promised” neither Casey Means nor Calley Means, the brother of Casey Means who has a separate post in the administration, would serve at HHS or be appointed to any post if Shanahan supported Kennedy’s confirmation for the Cabinet post.
“I was promised that if I supported RFK Jr. in his Senate confirmation that neither of these siblings would be working under HHS or in an appointment (and that people much more qualified would be),” Shanahan said. “I don’t know if RFK very clearly lied to me, or what is going on.”
“It has been clear in recent conversations that he is reporting to someone regularly who is controlling his decisions (and it isn’t President Trump),” she added.
Baier concluded the segment by summarizing what he characterized as Kennedy’s answer to his question.
