MSNBC used to sympathize with RFK Jr. on vaccines

They didn't call him an "anti-vaxxer" back then

These days, the mainstream media paints Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “conspiracy theorist” for being critical of certain vaccines. But years ago, they were a lot more sympathetic towards his views.

Here’s a remarkable video of Kennedy talking with MSNBC in 2005:

[UPDATE 10/9/2024: An earlier version of this article had linked to this video on YouTube. Since then, YouTube has taken the video down. Shocker.]

In the interview, Kennedy talks about a possible link between autism and Thimerosal, a preservative that was put in vaccines in the 1930s.

You’ll note that MSNBC host, Joe Scarborough, was very sympathetic towards Kennedy at the time.

SCARBOROUGH:

Let's talk about Thimerosal. ... There are a lot of people, a lot of Americans very concerned about the impact of this drug, which is found in vaccines, and how it causes autism.  Talk about that. 

KENNEDY:

That's right. Thimerosal is a preservative that was put in vaccines back in the 1930s. Almost immediately after it was put in, autism cases began to appear.  Autism had never been known before.  It was unknown to science.  Then the vaccines were increased in 1989 by the CDC and by a couple of other government agencies. 

SCARBOROUGH (emphasis mine):

OK, let me stop you there.  That's an important date.  And I will tell you why. 

My son, born in 1991, has a slight form of autism called Asperger`s.  When I was practicing law and also when I was in Congress, parents would constantly come to me and they would bring me videotapes of their children, and they were all around the age of my son or younger.  So, something happened in 1989. 

Remarkably, Scarborough plays along with Kennedy in considering the possibility that the increase of vaccinations in 1989 had something to do with the rise in autism.

KENNEDY:

Exactly.   What happened was the vaccine schedule was increased.  We went up from receiving about 10 vaccines in our generation to these kids receive 24 vaccines.  And they all had this Thimerosal in them, this mercury.  And nobody bothered to do an analysis of what the cumulative impact of all that mercury was doing to kids. 

As it turns out, we are injecting our children with 400 times the amount of mercury that FDA or EPA considers safe.  A child on his first day that he is born is injected with a Hepatitis B shot.  Under EPA guidelines, he would have to be 275 pounds to safely absorb that shot. 

SCARBOROUGH:

And yet, we are just constantly pumping our kids with these vaccines.  Where is the federal government in all of this? 

KENNEDY:

What happened was that, in 1988, one in every 2,500 American children had autism.  Today, one in every 166 children has autism. And, plus, one in six have other kinds of learning disorders, other kinds of neurological disorders, speech delay, language disorders, ADD, hyperactivity, that all seem to be connected, that are all connected, the science shows are all connected to autism — to Thimerosal. 

SCARBOROUGH (emphasis mine):

…You can't prove it, but, intuitively, you look at the spike.  You look at what happened with Thimerosal.  There's no doubt in my mind — maybe it's two years from now.  Maybe it's five years from now.  Maybe it's 10 years from now. 

We are going to find out Thimerosal causes, in my opinion, autism. 

Kennedy then goes on to mention that there are “hundreds and hundreds of studies that connect Thimerosal to these disastrous neurological disorders,” but the studies that federal bureaucrats use to defend Thimerosal, are weak.

KENNEDY:

Then I went and I talked to the federal bureaucrats who are defending Thimerosal. And I said, what are you relying on?  And I looked at the science they are relying on.  And I can tell you, Joe, it is so weak.  And you and I have seen, in the legal practice, junk science.  And we know what these phony scientists are who create this stuff. 

SCARBOROUGH:

It happened in big tobacco.

KENNEDY: 

Right.  Tobacco.

SCARBOROUGH: 

It happens in big oil. It's happening in global warming.  And now it's happening in a way that is impacting our kids` lives. 

In the interview, they also talked about regulatory capture, and Scarborough even said to Kennedy: “Let's get you running for a public office. I will defend your honor whenever any Republican says anything nasty.”

A full transcript of the interview can be found here.

Joe Scarborough today

Joe Scarborough has had a change of heart since 2005, because he’s a lot less sympathetic towards “anti-vaxxers” now.

For example, in 2021, he expressed support for vaccine mandates, and in a recent video from January 2023, he called anti-vaxxers “freaks”:

Excerpts (emphasis mine):

Let me say something about anti-vaxxers. I felt really sorry for anti-vaxxers and their children when they were left-wing freaks. And I feel really sorry for anti-vaxxers and their children now that they’re right-wing freaks.

The conspiracy theories are so bizarre, they’re ignoring science… we’re starting to see all of these old diseases that we beat… starting to come back because these freaks spread misinformation…

I’m not sure where Joe’s gotten the idea that anti-vaxxers are now more “right-wing” than in the past. Anyway, he continues:

This misinformation keeps getting spewed out there, and unfortunately the weakest, and perhaps the least educated, are the ones that fall prey to these stupid lies.

By the way, what’s the evidence that the vaccine skeptical are the “least educated”? In fact, we have evidence to the contrary.

So what happened to Joe Scarborough? It’s almost like he’s a different person now. You’d think he would have more compassion towards the vaccine-skeptical today, given what he said in 2005.

I guess something happened between then and now, to make him change his tune.