RFK Jr. is full of crap

While the health secretary posts environmental theater, the environmental group he co-founded is fighting Trump.

The nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., took a swim with his family in a poop-contaminated stream this weekend.

The New York Times reports:

Rock Creek, which flows through much of Northwest Washington, is used to drain excess sewage and storm water during rainfall. The creek has widespread “fecal” contamination and high levels of bacteria, including E. coli, and the city has banned swimming in all of its waterways for more than 50 years because of the widespread contamination of Rock Creek and other nearby rivers.

Kennedy has not responded to requests for comment to explain why he did this. Many have speculated that it’s because Kennedy does not believe in germ theory, the foundational scientific principle that germs—like bacteria, viruses, and parasites—cause disease.

On Bluesy, epidemiologist Dr. Elizabeth Jacobs writes: “RFK Jr. doesn’t believe in germ theory, so him hopping into a sewage-filled creek reminds me of Immanuel Pfeiffer. He’s the anti-vaxxer who in 1902 went right ahead and took his unvaccinated self to a smallpox ward and lo and behold became very ill with smallpox.”

But that doesn’t ring entirely true, because Kennedy has always said he believes contaminated water causes disease. In his 2021 book, The Real Anthony Fauci, he wrote that he believes in miasma theory, which “emphasizes preventing disease by fortifying the immune system through nutrition and by reducing exposures to environmental toxins and stresses." He’s said he believes in “fortifying the immune system through healthy living, clean water, and good nutrition."

In fact, protecting clean water was once integral to Kennedy’s public identity. In 1999, he was named a ‘Hero of the Planet’ by Time for his work cleaning up the Hudson River with the Riverkeeper Association. Kennedy was also a founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance, “where he took on pollution from coal mines, coal-fired power plants and factory farms,” reports Inside Climate News. Kennedy has called Waterkeeper “my life’s work,” and said it “will always be my proudest achievement.”

But today, Kennedy is the top health official in an administration decimating America’s clean water protections. Trump has said his goal is to cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 65 percent, which environmental groups say would be “devastating” for clean water. Already, Trump’s EPA has started the process of significantly reducing the types of waterways that are protected under the Clean Water Act, in order to allow landowners, farmers, ranchers, and home builders to dump livestock waste, construction runoff, and industrial effluent into small streams and wetlands.

Waterkeeper, Kennedy’s old organization, has called this move a “disaster” for clean water in this United States. It points out that polluting small streams and wetlands “also contaminates downstream waters, decimating fisheries and recreational waters, jeopardizing businesses and agricultural production, and increasing local water treatment plant costs.”

That’s why Waterkeeper has become an outspoken opponent of Trump’s anti-clean water agenda. Since taking office, Trump has withdrawn regulations limiting “forever chemicals” in waterways; paused enforcement against coal companies whose waste is leaching into groundwater; and cancelled a program to protect Alabamans from raw sewage, among many other things. “Collectively, these actions alone threaten to reverse more than a decade of progress to reduce highly toxic pollutants from the environment,” Waterkeeper said.

But while Kennedy’s old environmental group is sounding the alarm about the health risks of polluted water, Kennedy—the nation’s top health official—is posting pictures of himself swimming in it. The reason is clear: He’s trying to convince himself and others that he remains a legitimate environmentalist. Worse, he’s trying to provide green cover for Trump, who he insists is bonafide nature-lover. It’s more than environmental theater; it’s environmental propaganda.

Kennedy’s form of environmentalism is the equivalent of toasting all-natural marshmallows over a tire fire. It might make for a good photo, but it’s poison. True environmentalism requires protecting natural resources, listening to scientists, and prioritizing public health over polluter profits. Kennedy used to understand that. Now, he’s full of crap.

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