Bill Nye Says Barrage Of Old Texts From RFK Jr. Prove He's 'Not Suited For This Job'
Bill Nye revealed a barrage of old text messages from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., some of which were links to articles promoting vaccine skepticism.
'And if you read these articles he sent, they're all this speculation about autism and just cause-and-effect, and mercury in vaccines, that maybe there's a connection,' Nye told Men's Health in an interview published Tuesday.
Nye, known as 'Bill Nye the Science Guy' after his popular 1990s educational show of the same name, told the magazine that he and Kennedy met through a mutual friend several years ago when Kennedy was an environmental activist. Nye did not specify exactly how old the text messages were.
Nye said Kennedy had 'just no self-awareness' during their text exchange, which included what Men's Health described as 'miles and miles' of long messages from Kennedy, with little response from Nye.
'I wrote him back and said, 'Okay, I'll read your book. I think you've confused causation with correlation.' Your friend, Bill,' Nye recalled.
Kennedy responded with what the magazine called 'more miles of texts.'
'So I wrote, 'Okay, no more texts,'' Nye said. 'And he started again! So I cut him off,' Nye said. 'He does not have good judgment. He is not suited for this job.'
HuffPost reached out to HHS to address Nye's comments. A spokesperson told HuffPost, 'Kennedy is leading one of the most ambitious public health reform efforts in modern history, grounded in evidence, radical transparency, and a true commitment to the American people.'
Kennedy has made several questionable decisions during his tenure as health and human services secretary.
Last month, Kennedy's department released the 'Make America Healthy Again' report, which cited nonexistent studies — a concern the White House called a 'formatting error.'
This week, he removed all members of the U.S. vaccine advisory panel. So far, his new appointees have included two people known for spreading vaccine misinformation.
One pick is Dr. Robert Malone, a former mRNA researcher who suggested that COVID-19 vaccines cause a form of AIDS, and downplayed deaths related to one of the largest measles outbreaks in the U.S.
In his interview with Men's Health, Nye expressed anger at people who argue they have the right not to get vaccinated.
'No, you don't!' he said. 'And unvaccinated people can, and usually do, spread a disease. And that's why we have these rules, for public health! It's not arbitrary. It's not about your rights. It's about my rights, people.'
RFK Jr. Drops All Members Of U.S. Vaccine Advisory Panel
Top COVID Vaccine Adviser Quits After RFK Jr. Changes Recommendations
RFK Jr.'s Gotcha Moment On CNN Goes Viral Again Amid 'MAHA' Report Controversy
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
12 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump's immigration clampdown could affect these 5 industries the most
As President Trump enforces his election promise to clamp down on immigration, he is coming good on his mandate: 'On day one, I will launch the largest deportation programme of criminals in the history of America.' Once in office, Trump began to also target criminals and migrant workers, as well as students and tourists with visa issues. White House officials have said they hope ICE can make 3,000 arrests a day. That's up from around 660 per day they made during the first 100 days of Trump's presidency. Though an independent watchdog project at Syracuse University, The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, says that of the 51,302 people in ICE detention facilities as of the start of June, about 44% had no criminal record, apart from entering the country without permission. There have been two notable effects of Trump's clampdowns: one is that recent immigration crackdowns are causing widespread alarm which are seeing play out in protests in LA, for example. The second effect is that because people are being taken from the workforce, this has resulted in its own set of consequences. Aligned with that is a wider concern around the U.S.' ability to remain competitive in terms of innovation. There is a growing concern within the tech community around global competitiveness in the face of a potentially restricted workforce. Dmitry Litvinov is the CEO and founder of Dreem, a platform supporting tech immigration. He says that tech immigration to the U.S. has become incredibly challenging, and that this has the potential to significantly affect the U.S. AI landscape. 'As a relatively new field, AI faces unique challenges in proving applicants' eligibility and expertise for immigration,' Litvinov says. 'Even in established fields like physics, demonstrating outstanding qualifications is difficult—AI is far more complex.' He also points out that the U.S' loss could benefit its competitors. 'Restrictive policies are driving talent to other AI hubs, strengthening rival nations and weakening U.S. innovation. Applicants report they are increasingly considering alternative AI hubs like Canada, the UK, the UAE, or even China, where immigration processes are faster and more welcoming.' According to a recent study by Brooks Law Firm, the American workforce is being reshaped. It analyzed key U.S. industries to identify and rank the ones most vulnerable to labor disruption under potential Trump-era immigration enforcement policies. Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, the firm has created a list of the industries it says may be the most affected by new immigration laws. Reflecting the concerns of the tech sector, it says the information industry will be the most affected by the latest Trump immigration laws, with 416K immigrant workers currently in the workforce. While this represents just 1.4% of its total workforce, because it is the second-fastest growing industry, the fear is this growth can be stymied by a reduced talent pipeline. Educational and health services rank as the second with the most to lose. That's because this is an industry with the largest share of immigrant workers at 18.4%. Effectively, this accounts to about 183,500 industry workers with the potential to be removed from the workforce. In third place is the professional and business sector. Professional and business services employ the second-largest proportion of immigrant workers at 15.8%. Now, because of the latest Trump laws, over 157,600 workers could leave the industry. Public administration comes fourth. Currently, 765,000 immigrant workers are employed in public administration. The study points out that because this industry has the slowest growth rate at 0.1%, this means that recovery from worker loss can take a longer time than for other industries. In fifth place is the leisure and hospitality industry. This is an industry with a large share of immigrant workers, employing more than three million people from other countries. As a result, it has the potential to shed 101,700 workers. Other industries are vulnerable too. The financial sector employs 5.4% immigrants, and due to a slow growth rate of 0.4%, the loss of these workers could take a long time to recover from. In transportation and utilities, more than 2.1 million workers employed in the sector are immigrants, and in the wholesale and retail trade sector, three million immigrant workers are employed. Ready to find a new role? Browse thousands of jobs on The Hill Job Board
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump spikes NW salmon agreement
Jun. 13—President Donald Trump is killing the sweeping agreement that pledged significant investments in salmon recovery and could have paved the way for breaching the four lower Snake River dams. In a presidential memorandum issued Thursday, Trump directed members of his cabinet to withdraw from a legal agreement between the Biden administration on one side and Columbia River Basin tribes and conservation groups on the other. That pact exchanged a pause in fish-versus-dams litigation for investments in salmon recovery, tribal renewable energy projects and studies on the best way to replace the hydropower, irrigation and commodity transportation made possible by the dams. While the agreement stopped short of sanctioning dam breaching, it was designed to lay the groundwork for the move. Trump titled his memo "Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Generate Power for the Columbia River Basin." "My Administration is committed to protecting the American people from radical green agenda policies that make their lives more expensive, and to maximizing the beneficial uses of our existing energy infrastructure and natural resources to generate energy and lower the cost of living," Trump said in the memo. He also rescinded Biden's executive order issued in September of 2023 that called for a "sustained national effort" to honor treaty commitments to the Nez Perce and other tribes by restoring Snake and Columbia river salmon and steelhead to healthy and abundant levels. Shannon Wheeler, chairperson of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said the move erases significant progress on the effort to save salmon and steelhead from extinction. The fish are central to tribal culture and economies throughout the basin and are cherished by many nontribal people as well. The nutrients they return from the ocean are viewed as important to inland aquatic ecosystems and the decline of chinook salmon in particular has been tied to the problems faced by endangered southern resident killer whales in Puget Sound. "This action tries to hide from the truth. The Nez Perce Tribe holds a duty to speak the truth for the salmon, and the truth is that extinction of salmon populations is happening now," Wheeler said in a news release. "People across the Northwest know this, and people across the nation have supported us in a vision for preventing salmon extinction that would, at the same time, create a stronger and better future for the Northwest." The deal between Biden and salmon advocates was expected to bring more than $1 billion in federal investments to help recover wild fish in the Snake and Columbia rivers and to help tribes develop renewable energy projects. The output from the energy projects would have been devoted to replacing power generated at the four lower Snake River dams. But the agreement was viewed by dam proponents as an unfair pact for which they had little input and one that threatened to upend river transportation and hydropower production. Dam supporters like Kurt Miller, executive director of the Northwest Public Power Association, cheered the move. A news release from his organization said keeping the dams "provides a lifeline for the Northwest's clean energy economy and its most vulnerable families." Miller and others claim the agreement was one-sided.
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Praises Israel Attack, Warns Iran on Next Steps in Grim Message
Israel barraged several Iranian cities and nuclear sites early Friday, and Donald Trump has done nothing but incense the situation. In a phone call with ABC News's Jonathan Karl, the president referred to the attacks as 'excellent,' remarking that Iran 'got hit hard, very hard,' and that there was 'a lot more' to come. In early morning posts to Truth Social about the escalating situation, Trump claimed that he had pushed Iran for months to come to terms on a new nuclear deal, and warned that—if the nation refused—there would be 'nothing left.' 'I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,' Trump wrote. 'I told them, in the strongest of words, to 'just do it,' but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn't get it done.' The president also promised that Israel would continue to strike Iranian territory with American-made weapons. 'I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come - And they know how to use it,' he continued. 'Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn't know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. God Bless You All!' Trump said. In a separate post, Trump claimed that he had given Iran 60 days to make a deal approximately two months ago. 'They should have done it!' he wrote, adding that the country now has a 'second chance' to return to the negotiating table. But Iran has already said it would not participate in nuclear talks this weekend in the wake of the attack. Iran has argued that it is seeking uranium for peaceful purposes. Iranian officials announced Thursday afternoon their intentions to expand their nuclear program, despite facing a censure from a U.N. nuclear watchdog for failing to uphold nonproliferation obligations. Israeli strikes have so far killed four senior Iranian commanders, including Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian state media confirmed late Thursday, though regional sources told Reuters that up to 20 senior commanders had been killed. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said there would be 'severe punishment' for the strikes.
