00:00Do you agree with the majority of doctors that the measles vaccine could have saved that child's
00:04life in Texas? It's possible, certainly. It makes sense that he's backpedaling from some of his
00:10contentious vaccine positions, especially because he's being used as a midterm surrogate.
00:15Look, RFK Jr. brings a lot of pros to the equation for midterms. For one, he's the most popular
00:21member of the cabinet. Only 6% of Americans haven't heard of him. His favorability ratings
00:26are 44%. That's even higher than the president. And many of the health causes, not all, but many
00:31of them that he's championing are broadly popular across a whole bunch of Americans of different
00:36political ideologies. Most people are really concerned about a rise in chronic health conditions,
00:41about the decline in mental health, about all the additives in our food. The least popular and most
00:47divisive piece of his agenda is vaccines. And right now, the change in vaccination schedule that he
00:53had proposed is being held up in the courts, which gives him a reason to not talk about it,
00:58which I think actually plays in his favor as he goes out as a surrogate here for the Trump
01:03administration in midterms. Even though RFK Jr.'s favorability ratings are high, his unfavorable
01:09ratings are even higher. 48% of Americans have an unfavorable view of him. When you look at the list
01:15of Maha achievements so far, changing the food pyramid, companies voluntarily starting to remove
01:21food dies from the food, it's not really getting to the heart of things or what would need to be
01:27done to actually make a meaningful change. The substantive changes that this administration
01:31has taken on health care, which are mostly a reduction in funding, a reduction in Medicaid,
01:36a reduction in HHS budget and otherwise, are not popular. And so to the extent that the
01:40administration shines light on what it's doing on health care and the Maha movement and RFK Jr.,
01:45it also shines light on this, which I think is a bit of a liability for them.
01:48RFK Jr. is divisive, but right now he's the most popular person Republicans have.
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