RFK Jr.’s lawyer and top ally asked FDA to revoke approval of polio vaccine
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(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s personal attorney previously lobbied the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine, highlighting an influential Kennedy ally who, sources tell ABC News, has been helping interview candidates for top health jobs in the incoming Trump administration.
Aaron Siri, a partner at the law firm Siri & Glimstad, has long fought against the widespread prevalence of vaccines. He has also filed petitions seeking to pause the distribution of other vaccines, including Hepatitis B, and to revoke the emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccines.
The polio petition was made on behalf of one of Siri’s clients, the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a group founded by Del Bigtree, another close Kennedy ally who also has been involved in health-related transition matters, according to sources.
“Petitioner requests that the FDA withdraw or suspend the approval for [the polio vaccine] for infants, toddlers, and children until a properly controlled and properly powered double-blind trial of sufficient duration is conducted to assess the safety of this product,” Siri wrote.
The New York Times reported on the petition earlier Friday.
Siri did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Kennedy, meanwhile, did not respond to written questions about whether he agrees with revoking the approval of the polio vaccine or if, as Health and Human Services secretary, he would intervene in the FDA’s review of Siri’s petitions.
The polio vaccine available in the United States is recommended for children and three doses offer at least 99% protection against severe disease, including paralysis, according to the CDC. Side effects are usually mild and go away on their own, the agency notes, and the vaccine has not been known to cause serious problems.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — In the span of eight days, former Rep. Matt Gaetz went from a reelected House member to an attorney general pick in President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration to ultimately bowing out before a Senate confirmation.
Here is a timeline of the roller coaster of events for the embattled ex-congressman.
Nov. 13, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump announces that Gaetz, who had won reelection for Florida’s 1st district on Election Day, was his nominee for attorney general.
Gaetz resigns from Congress that day, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Several House Republicans meeting behind closed doors said there was an audible gasp in the room when they heard Trump had picked Gaetz, sources told ABC News.
Gaetz was investigated for alleged sex trafficking by the Justice Department, however, no charges were ultimately brought.
The House Ethics Committee has also been probing Gaetz on those allegations, which he has repeatedly denied.
Nov. 14, 2024
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announces he will hold a special election to fill the Gaetz’s seat but doesn’t immediately provide details.
Sen. John Thune, the incoming Senate majority leader, tells reporters he doesn’t know if Gaetz can get confirmed until they start the confirmation process.
Senators on both sides of the aisle call for the release of details from the Ethics Committee’s investigation into the former congressman.
ABC News reports the woman who was at the center of the Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations surrounding Gaetz testified to the House Ethics Committee that the former congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old.
Nov. 15, 2024
Johnson tells reporters that he would urge the Ethics Committee not to release their report on their probe into Gaetz.
The speaker says he didn’t think it was “relevant” for the public to know what’s in the report.
An attorney representing two women who were witnesses in the House Ethics Committee’s investigation tells ABC News one of his clients testified that she witnessed the Florida congressman having sex with a minor.
Nov. 18, 2024
In an interview with ABC News’ Juju Chang, Florida attorney Joel Leppard reveals new details regarding his clients’ closed-door testimony before the Ethics Committee — including that his clients told congressional investigators that Gaetz allegedly paid for them to travel across state lines to have sex on at least two occasions.
Nov. 19, 2024
Trump backer and Tesla/SpaceX/X CEO Elon Musk backs Gaetz despite more stories about his scandals coming to light. Musk said the scandals were “worth less than nothing” and called the former congressman “our Hammer of Justice,” in a post on X.
Johnson denied that he discussed the details of the draft ethics report on the Gaetz matter with House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, and further denied that Trump or Gaetz pressured him to bury the report.
A hacker gained access to an online secure document-sharing file between attorneys involved in a civil lawsuit brought by a close friend to Gaetz, and potentially revealed documents, including unredacted depositions from key witnesses in the case, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
During a Space X launch, Trump tells reporters he is not reconsidering his pick for attorney general.
ABC News reports the Ethics Committee obtained records, including a check and records of Venmo payments, that appear to show that Gaetz paid more than $10,000 to two women who were later witnesses in sexual misconduct probes conducted by both the House and the Justice Department, according to documents.
Nov. 20, 2024
Gaetz meets with Republican senators ,who push for his nomination process to continue.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee write to FBI Director Christopher Wray to request the complete evidentiary file in the bureau’s closed investigation into Gaetz.
The Ethics Committee voted against releasing the report after multiple rounds of votes, with all Republicans on the committee voting against its release, during a closed-door, two-hour meeting. The committee schedules another meeting in December. Two Democrats introduce privileged resolutions to make the report public.
Nov. 21, 2024
Johnson says said the House will take up the privileged resolution to force the release of the Gaetz report after Thanksgiving break.
Gaetz announces on X that he is withdrawing his name from the nomination process.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” he said in the post.
Illinois Democratic Rep. Sean Casten suggests that he plans to still move forward with forcing the House to vote on compelling the Ethics Committee to release the Gaetz report.
(WASHINGTON) President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
In a statement on Monday, Trump praised Lee’s background as a lawyer and said he’s known the former New York congressman for a long time.
“He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet,” Trump said. “He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance, that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”
Zeldin confirmed he had been offered the job in a social media post.
“It is an honor to join President Trump’s Cabinet as EPA Administrator,” Zeldin wrote on X. “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”
Zeldin represented Long Island’s Suffolk County in the House of Representatives for eight years. He ran for governor against Democrat Kathy Hochul in 2022, earning Trump’s endorsement but falling short of Hochul by 6 points.
Zeldin previously criticized the Biden-Harris administration for canceling a key permit needed for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline and rejoining the Paris climate agreement after Trump withdrew. During his gubernatorial bid, he wanted to reverse New York state’s ban on hydraulic fracking.
Zeldin will need to be confirmed by the Senate to lead the EPA.
Trump’s pick of Zeldin comes less than a week after Election Day and as Trump’s new administration begins to take shape.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON, D.C) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in portions of a New York Times podcast interview published Friday, blamed Vice President Kamala Harris’ election loss on President Joe Biden’s late exit from the presidential race and the lack of Democratic primary.
Pelosi told Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a host of “The Interview,” that “had the president [Biden] gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” the paper said in a story about the Thursday interview. The exchange won’t be posted in full until Saturday.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” Pelosi said.
“And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different,” she added.
As ABC News has reported, Pelosi worked behind the scenes to urge Biden to drop out of the presidential race following his performance at CNN’s debate.
The Times reported Pelosi also took issue with Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders saying, after Harris’ loss, that “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
“Bernie Sanders has not won,” she said. “With all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him, for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working-class families.”
The paper reported she suggested that cultural issues were more to blame for Democrats’ losses among working-class voters.
“Guns, God and gays — that’s the way they say it,” she reportedly said. “Guns, that’s an issue; gays, that’s an issue, and now they’re making the trans issue such an important issue in their priorities; and in certain communities, what they call God, what we call a woman’s right to choose.”
