Rachel Abrams

The six Democratic members of Congress who recorded a video telling troops they could refuse illegal orders said they were being investigated by the FBI.

The group, which included veterans of the military and the CIA, said the bureau had requested interviews with them, though it's unclear what, if any, laws the videos could have violated.

In a statement, the four House members said that the president was, quote, "...using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress."

And Dr. Ralph Abraham, a critic of vaccines who's called the COVID vaccinations dangerous, has been named second in command at the CDC.

As Louisiana Surgeon General, Abraham had ordered the state to stop promoting vaccinations, and his appointment was not announced by the CDC at all.

Instead, it appeared on an internal database with a start date of November 23rd.

Dr. Abraham's views on some issues align with those of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including when he endorsed the unproven link between taking Tylenol during pregnancy and autism.

Today's episode was produced by Mooch Zadie, Alex Stern, and Anna Foley.

It was edited by Maria Byrne with help from Brendan Klinkenberg and Paige Cowett.

Contains music by Marian Lozano and Dan Powell.

And was engineered by Chris Wood.

Special thanks to Alexandra Mikulishin and Sasha Duckworth.

That's it for The Daily.

I'm Rachel Abrams.

See you tomorrow.

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

has repeatedly cited the skyrocketing autism rates as central to his mission as Health and Human Services Secretary.

He's laid the blame at the feet of everything from Tylenol to vaccines, and he recently instructed the CDC to abandon its longstanding position that the latter do not cause autism.

But while the rates of autism have increased in recent decades, the reasons are more complicated than what Kennedy has presented.