RJK Jr. Admits to Claiming Lyme Disease is 'Bioweapon' Engineered By Military: 'I Probably Did Say That'

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary nominee Robert Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) conceded on Wednesday to "probably" saying that Lyme disease is a "highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon."

During a passage of his confirmation hearing, RFK Jr. got into a heated exchange with Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who asked him to confirm whether he had made a series of claims, including the Lyme disease one.

"I probably said that," the nominee said when questioned specifically about the disease, a bacterial infection caused by the bite of an infected ticks that, if untreated, can cause neurological symptoms and an infection in the brain and the heart.

Other questions from Bennet included whether RFK Jr. had said that "Covid-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targeted Black and White people but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people."

"I didn't say it was deliberately targeted. I just quoted an NIH-funded, published study," the nominee answered. Bennet said he would take the answer as a yes.

RFK Jr. then rejected having said "exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender," that "African AIDS is an entirely different disease to Western AIDS." Bennet then said he had the answers on record and he would give them to Committee chair Mike Crapo.

If confirmed, the 71-year-old former environmental lawyer would take the helm of a department overseeing more than 80,000 employees and a $1.7 trillion budget at a time when scientists are sounding the alarm over the potential for bird flu to trigger a human pandemic.

Critics have labeled him dangerously unqualified, citing his promotion of debunked claims linking measles vaccines to autism, his suggestion that HIV does not cause AIDS, his financial interests in law firms suing pharmaceutical companies, and more.

At the same time, the former Democrat has garnered praise for his "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) agenda, which riffs on Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan and emphasizes combatting the nation's chronic disease epidemic through healthier eating and prioritizing wellness.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is among Kennedy's detractors, using Donald Trump's own words against him in a message urging senators to "vote no." Pence used a video of Trump from May 2024 calling RFK Jr. a "Democrat plant" and a "radical left liberal" to beg senators not to confirm him as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

"President Trump was right the first time...Senators, Vote No on RFK Jr.," he captioned the tweet, which has since amassed more than 400,000 views.

In the video, Trump went on to call Kennedy "anti-gun," "an extreme environmentalist" and "anti-miliary" in his video demanding that Republicans and conservatives not vote for him.

With information by AFP