Suffer The Little Children, At Kennedy's Whim

Joe Conason on Apr 18, 2025

Conducting his first press conference as secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved swiftly to demonstrate yet again why he is so unfit for that critical cabinet post.

In one of many egocentric abuses of his newfound power, Kennedy has directed his department's resources away from vital research on cancer and Alzheimer's, among other major diseases, initiating instead a massive effort to discover an environmental cause of autism -- which reflects his own obsession more than sound science.

But leaving aside the gross mismanagement of HHS, the National institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the many other agencies whose capacity for good he is rapidly destroying, Kennedy went out of his way on Wednesday to stigmatize the autistic children he is supposed to be helping.

As for Kennedy himself, there will be much more to say about his grimly incompetent and ruinous stewardship of the public health institutions that his family -- and especially his late uncle Sen. Edward Kennedy -- helped build into exemplars of American greatness.

For the moment, let's note that contrary to his suggestion, millions of autistic human beings around the world and in America go to work every day. They contribute to society by creating value in myriad ways, the least of which is their payment of taxes. They go on dates, fall in love, nurture families, and some of them not only can hit a baseball but are top athletes, including an Olympic snowboarder and a Division 1 basketball player. (I happen to know an autistic young woman who was the star of her Little League softball team.)

While acknowledging that some autistic kids are burdened with the disabilities recited by Kennedy, let's also note that the great majority of our autistic fellow Americans, unlike him, have never lapsed into heroin addiction for a decade or more; never peddled narcotics to fellow students; never serially betrayed their spouses with humiliating adulteries; never abused animals in public displays of weirdness; never injected themselves with overdoses of steroids; never profited from lethal disinformation about a pandemic; and never, ever blamed their own bad conduct on a hungry brain worm.

He has prospered and risen the same way he avoided prison and got the medical care he needed, strictly by accident of birth.

The more we learn about Kennedy, who has veered further and further from his once-illustrious career as an environmental advocate, the less there is to admire. Were his story not so sad, Bobby Junior would be a classic caricature -- the buffoonish nob whose inherited wealth and status have catapulted him into a position for which he lacks essential knowledge, experience and character.

Now we see again how Bobby's corrupt bargain with Trump cheated the nation, by elevating him to this position of trust at the expense of vulnerable children and their families.

"These are kids who will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date," Kennedy intoned, gravely and inanely. "Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted."

This broad-brush smearing of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder was both damaging and grossly inaccurate. There is a reason why scientists and doctors use the word "spectrum" to describe what is a very broad category that ranges from those who require intensive care and assistance to those who are fully autonomous and indeed display extremely high levels of intellectual capacity and talent in many fields.

Perhaps Kennedy should have a word with his fellow Trump henchman Elon Musk. Americans have at least vaguely understood the wide variations in autism ever since the tech zillionaire revealed his own childhood diagnosis on various platforms, including a monologue on "Saturday Night Live" and a TED talk. For all his egregious faults and fascistic inclinations, Musk does appear able to toilet himself and to get a few dates. He may or may not be able to write a poem but produces an alarming number of deceptive "Xeets" on his social media site X.

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