Up First from NPR
RFK Jr. Tapped To Head HHS, Trump & Government Bonds, Biden Meets Xi In Peru
Fri, 15 Nov 2024
President-elect Donald Trump selects vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Bond markets are reacting to Trump's economic proposals, with fears of rising inflation and higher borrowing costs that could affect everyday Americans. And, President Biden meets China's Xi Jinping in Peru for a final summit, aiming to maintain stability during the transition of power to a new administration.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Diane Webber, Pallavi Gogoi, Roberta Rampton, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Julie Depenbrock.And our Executive Producer is Erika Aguilar.We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and why is he leading HHS?
President-elect Trump wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is a vaccine skeptic who's pushed conspiracy theories, so how would he handle a department overseeing public health?
I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. Stocks climbed after the election, while bond markets sent a different signal. Bond prices suggest investors see higher inflation and higher debt in President-elect Trump's economic plans. How might that affect your economic situation?
And President Biden sits down with China's Xi Jinping in Peru for their last meeting before Biden leaves office. there is actual work to do in this critical moment to ensure that we don't run into any problems biden is focused on keeping relations steady during a delicate transition of power will their meeting help maintain stability stay with us we'll give you the news you need to start your day
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be nominated by President-elect Trump to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
The environmental advocate and vaccine skeptic made many claims during the presidential campaign. He said he will drastically reduce rates of chronic disease in just two years. He also spread several conspiracy theories. While chatting with the podcast host Joe Rogan, RFK Jr. said Wi-Fi causes cancer. While talking on X with Elon Musk, he claimed that school shootings are linked to antidepressants.
And elsewhere, RFK questioned the link between AIDS and HIV, which is the virus that causes it.
Joining us to tell us more about Kennedy's background and what his confirmation could mean for the agency is NPR health policy correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin. Selena, good morning. Good morning, Michelle. So obviously many people have heard of Kennedy. He's part of a very famous Democratic political family that includes the former president, John F. Kennedy.
But tell us more about him as a public figure.
Well, most recently, he ran for president as an independent before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump, who's been enthusiastically using his Make America Healthy Again line. Kennedy is an attorney. He went to Harvard in the 70s and got his law degree at UVA.
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of Trump's economic proposals?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those are probably the health agencies people hear the most about. But there are all these other agencies, like one that runs community health centers across the country. There's another for mental health. In all, HHS employs about 90,000 people across these agencies.
Trump has promised to let Kennedy, quote, go wild on health and dramatically shake things up.
Do we have any idea of what Kennedy going wild on health might look like?
Well, he recently said he'd like to fire 600 NIH employees. He's talked a lot about rooting out corruption. Some of his ideas are pretty mainstream, like promoting nutritious foods and addressing chronic disease. He said he wants to ban prescription drug advertisements. He rightly points out that American life expectancy is really pretty bad and lags behind other wealthy countries by a lot.
But he has some views that are really far out of the mainstream. We've talked about vaccine skepticism. Current CDC director Mandy Cohen wrote to NPR yesterday, quote, I don't want to go backwards and see children or adults suffer or lose their lives to remind us that vaccines work, and so I'm concerned, unquote.
The idea of someone who's actively sowed misinformation about vaccines being in charge of the government's scientific research and public health agencies really horrifies a lot of people in those fields.
This is a Senate-confirmed position. Do we have a sense of whether he will have the votes to be confirmed?
Well, we'll have to see. Some Republican senators have responded enthusiastically to his nomination. Others won't say yet. Interestingly, his campaign website says he supports abortion access. He wrote, quote, I'm for choice and medical freedom. We'll see how that position plays out among Republicans who are eager to curtail abortion access federally once they take power in Washington.
That is NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin. Selena, thank you.
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Chapter 3: What happened during Biden's meeting with Xi Jinping?
Fear is pretty contagious after all, and it has happened before around the world. About two years ago in the United Kingdom, bond investors revolted. It helped create a financial storm, and it took down the prime minister in a matter of weeks. There's even a term for bond investors that wield their power this way, bond vigilantes. These investors could stop buying bonds.
It's effectively telling the government, like I was telling you, we're not going to lend you any more money unless you reconsider some of your policies. Now, the U.S. is obviously much bigger than the U.K., and we also don't know what Trump is actually going to do. But things could get rocky very quickly if he does all the things he's promised.
So very briefly, how would this affect regular people?
Yes, because the U.S. bond market influences all kinds of interest payments, from credit cards to auto loans to mortgages. So when there's pain in the bond market, it's not just the Trump administration that will feel the impact. It could be people like you and me.
That is NPR's Raphael Knapp. Raphael, thank you.
Thank you.
President Biden is in Lima, Peru, where he's meeting with leaders from the Asia-Pacific region, including China's President Xi Jinping.
The two will sit down tomorrow in what is expected to be their final summit before Biden leaves office. Here's how the president's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, described it. So it's an important meeting.
It will not be just a valedictory, although there will be an element of reflecting over the course of their long relationship. There is actual work to do in this critical moment between the U.S. and China to to ensure that we don't run into any problems in the next two months in this transition of power.
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