After endorsing then-presidential candidate Donald Trump for President ahead of the 2024 elections, the editorial board of the New York Post released a scathing editorial criticizing one of the President-elect's latest cabinet nominations.
On Thursday, the Post's editorial board published an editorial titled "Putting RFK Jr. in charge of health breaks the first rule of medicine".
The rule in question, which the newspaper describes as "overriding", is "do no harm".
"We sat down with RFK Jr. back in May 2023, when he was still challenging President Biden for the Democratic nomination," wrote the board. "As we noted then, he's an independent thinker who sees through a lot of bull, an incisive critic of some of Biden's worst policies, who saw that "the Democratic Party lost its way most acutely in reaction to" Donald Trump's first election."
"But the insights we were impressed with had nothing to do with health. When it came to that topic his views were a head-scratching spaghetti of what we can only call warped conspiracy theories, and not just on vaccines," they continued.
The publication then recounts how former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proceeded to perpetuate multiple baseless conspiracy theories, including the idea that neo-conservatives were to blame for what he saw as American policy failings, or that Tourette's syndrome and peanut allergies could be inflicted upon someone by exposure to "pesticides, cellphones, ultrasound".
"In fact, we came out thinking he's nuts on a lot of fronts," wrote the Post's editorial board.
They also noted that some of RFK Jr.'s goals of banning fracking and various pesticides and fertilizers are contrary to Trump's goals of supporting energy laborers, production and farmers.
"A radical, prolonged and confused transition ordered by a guy like RFK Jr., who will use his high office to spout his controversial beliefs, leaves a lot of room for things to go wrong — and for people to wind up harmed or even dead," they wrote.
"Donald Trump won on promises to fix the economy, the border and soaring global disorder; his team needs to focus on delivering change on those fronts — not spend energy either having to defend crackpot theories or trying to control RFK Jr.'s mouth," they continued.
In October, the newspaper endorsed Trump for president, calling him "the right choice."
"Today, Trump exhibits the same strength and vigor as he did in 2016, despite the unprecedented and disgraceful weaponization of the justice system against him, two assassination attempts and the all-too-familiar constant barrage of hysterical media attacks on him," wrote the publication's editorial board.
Originally published by Latin Times.
