(NewsNation) — An attorney who has represented Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clarified Tuesday that his former client has never supported a petition to eradicate approval for the polio vaccine.
Attorney Aaron Siri alleged the New York Times report titled Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine is misleading.
“This petition had nothing to do with him (Kennedy),” Siri said on NewsNation’s “CUOMO.” “And the claim that this petition would have left Americans without a polio vaccine is categorically false.”
Siri believes the publication “intended to mislead” Americans and that they’re “desperately trying to derail” Kennedy’s potential confirmation.
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Siri also clarified that the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) did not file the reported petition “in order to get the FDA to actually withdraw the vaccine.
“ICAN does not really want, and nor do they ever expect the vaccine to withdraw,” Siri added. “This is about choice. It’s about informed consent. That’s the point.”
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President-elect Trump tried to downplay concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, telling reporters that the nominee for Health and Human Services secretary won’t be “radical.”
“I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” Trump said during a wide-ranging news conference at Mar-a-Lago. “He’s going to have an open mind, or I wouldn’t have put him there.”
Trump’s comments came as Kennedy kicked off a week of meetings with GOP senators to shore up support for his nomination. Some GOP senators have expressed concerns over Kennedy’s history of vaccine skepticism, and wanted to hear directly from the former Democrat about what he believes.
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Opposition to Kennedy centers mostly on his policy stances, many of which run counter to traditional GOP orthodoxy. He has a long history of questioning vaccines and has promoted the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism.
Kennedy argues the rise of chronic diseases in America can be traced to ultra-processed foods, environmental toxins and chemical additives. He wants to ban fluoridated water and increase access to raw milk.
Kennedy has argued he is not anti-vaccine but thinks that childhood shots aren’t safe and that the government hasn’t done enough studies to prove otherwise.
NewsNation’s “The Hill” contributed to this report.
