Last night, Lawrence O’Donnell asked Abigail Spanberger about RFK Jr’s unhinged, ill-informed, etc. testimony yesterday in the US Senate, as well as his disastrous tenure as HHS Secretary more broadly. See below for video and a transcript of Spanberger’s response, which was spot-on.
O’Donnell: “Mark Warner asked Robert Kennedy Jr. today in the finance committee hearing how many Americans died of COVID. and Robert Kennedy Jr.’s answer was, ‘I don’t know.’ Senator Warner was astounded at that ignorance. But in the face of that ignorance, Massachusetts Governor Mauraa Healey was saying earlier tonight she’s changing Massachusetts’ approach to public health. California is, New York is. What do you think Virginia has to do about public health now that Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy are in charge of public health nationally?”
Spanberger: “I think the landscape is even more dire than just having someone as unqualified as as Robert Kennedy at the helm in charge of public health. It’s the attacks on Medicaid, the attacks on rural hospitals in Virginia – more than 300,000 Virginians stand to lose their health care because of the reconciliation bill that the president signed into law. A minimum of six of our rural hospitals are likely to face closure in coming years. And we know that there are an estimated $26 billion in federal money that has historically come to Virginia hospitals over the next 14 years that will just disappear. So the threats to public health are then coupled with cuts to our health care systems and the social safety net that are dire. So this is a time when governors across the country need to stand up to protect access to vaccines, access to health care, access to public health and put those priorities first. Certainly that’s what I intend to do as governor. And it is a driving force for for me to run, because I will put Virginians first, their safety, security, our economy ahead of anything. Certainly ahead of a president or an ill-informed HHS secretary.”
In stark contrast, can you even IMAGINE what a Governor Winsome Earle-Sears would do to Virginia public health? Think Florida – and the insanity going on there with vaccines, etc. And if you think that’s exaggeration, you really haven’t paid attention to Earle-Sears’ wacky, loony-tunes, extremist career over the years. Maybe time to brush up, now that voting starts in just a couple weeks?
