For years, Cheryl Hines labored to publicly distance herself from the extra excessive anti-vaccine campaigning of her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as she sought to take care of her persona as a beloved and sensibly liberal-minded Hollywood star. As a lot as potential, Hines additionally appreciated to play up being a member-by-marriage of America’s elite Kennedy household.
However Hines’ sunny Hollywood persona started to crumble forward of the Nov. 5 election when she rapidly appeared to embrace her husband’s ascent into Donald Trump’s internal circle. The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star additionally seemed pleased to play the position of “MAGA wife” by attending Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration and associated festivities, as The Reduce stated.
Then this week, Hines cemented her embrace of MAGA world by sitting behind her husband throughout his affirmation hearings to turn into the GOP president’s head of Division of Well being and Human Companies. Throughout Wednesday’s listening to earlier than the Finance Committee, Hines typically revealed a smirk or nervous smile as her husband rejected accusations that he’s “anti-vaccine,” however “spewed more misinformation about public health” and acquired a fairly intense grilling from Democratic senators, The Reduce additionally stated.
However Hines’ willingness to assist her husband’s controversial positions this week shouldn’t be that stunning, particularly to anybody who has fastidiously adopted Kennedy’s management of the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kids’s Well being Protection. Amongst different issues, Hines fortunately accompanied her husband of greater than 10 years on his notorious 2019 journey to Samoa, the place his conferences with anti-vaccine activists had been seen as enjoying a task in a measles outbreak that killed 83 folks, largely unvaccinated kids.
Samoa World Information reported in June 2019 that Kennedy and Hines had been particular company on the South Pacific island nation’s 57th independence celebrations, the place the couple stayed at a luxurious resort. Additionally they attended the annual Seki Fest musical pageant, the place Hines posted a photograph of herself with native performers.
“That #FridayFeeling in #Samoa,” wrote Hines, posing saucily in brilliant blonde hair and a one-shoulder mini gown. She additionally added, “I’m secretly hoping this pic bothers #TigNotaro,” a reference to the comic, a longtime pal and one-time podcast co-host.
That Samoa journey got here up no less than twice throughout Kennedy’s affirmation listening to Wednesday earlier than the Senate Finance Committee. Mom Jones reported that Kennedy tried to gloss over particulars about his involvement within the measles outbreak, as he testified that his journey to Samoa had “nothing to do with vaccines.” However that’s not what the report exhibits, in accordance with NBC Information and to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The Finance Committee member interrogated Kennedy on his try and deny that his go to to Samoa was vaccine-related and his false claims to that nation’s prime minister that kids weren’t dying from measles however from “defective” vaccines.
“I asked you about this in my office,” Warren stated. “You told me flatly that your visit to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccinations. We now know that’s not true. I have the documentation. You met with the prime minister, you talked about vaccinations. You met with an anti-vaccine influencer who described the meeting as ‘profoundly monumental for this movement.’”
NBC reported that Kennedy and Hines visited Samoa practically a yr after the nation’s ministry of well being quickly suspended its vaccine program after two infants died after receiving the measles vaccine. It was subsequently found that two nurses had mistakenly blended the vaccine with a muscle relaxant. Even after the nurses had been arrested and charged with manslaughter, Kennedy’s nonprofit was amongst organizations that continued to put up social media content material that instructed that vaccines had been unsafe, NBC Information reported.
Kennedy and Hines arrived in Samoa in June after the nation began up its vaccine program once more, however the vaccination charge remained low, in accordance with NBC Information. A lot in regards to the couple’s journey wasn’t made public, aside from pictures Kennedy posted to his Instagram account displaying him visiting church buildings, enjoying on the seaside and catching starfish. However throughout a dinner there, Dr. Take Naseri, Samoa’s director basic of well being, stated he briefly spoke to Kennedy who shared his view that vaccines weren’t secure, NBC Information reported.
A measles outbreak was declared in Samoa in October. Nonetheless, because the deaths started mounting, Warren reminded Kennedy that he despatched to a letter to the prime minister, selling the concept that the youngsters had died not from measles however from a “defective vaccine.”
“You are a very influential man,” Warren advised Kennedy, with Hines and conservative pundit Megyn Kelly prominently seated behind him. “In fact, you are called the leader of the disinformation dozen,” she stated, referring to Kennedy being named one of many high spreaders of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.
Warren then requested Kennedy if he felt “even a scintilla, just even a sliver of responsibility for the drop in vaccinations (in Samoa) and the subsequent deaths of more than 70 people?”
Kennedy responded by saying “No, absolutely not.” He started to argue that this system had been suspended earlier than he and Hines traveled to Samoa. However Warren, citing deadlines, shut down Kennedy by saying, “He takes no responsibility.”
As NBC Information acknowledged, Kennedy’s position within the measles outbreak is complicated. Throughout Thursday’s listening to earlier than the Senate well being committee, Kennedy once more rejected accusations that he’s “anti-vaccine” however was evasive when pressed about whether or not he believed some extensively used vaccines had been secure and efficient.
As for Hines, it’s not clear whether or not she was current when her husband talked to native officers in Samoa about vaccines.
Hines has lengthy had her apologists, who wish to see her as “an unwitting supporting player” in her husband’s “nonsense,” as commentator Kayleigh Donaldson wrote in an August essay for Pajiba. However Donaldson argued that it is a misreading of how Hines herself has portrayed her partnership with Kennedy. In any case, Hines publicly supported Kennedy’s run for president in 2024, throughout which he spouted conspiracy theories and false claims about vaccines inflicting autism, NPR reported.
The essay argues that Hines “is a bad person” and has been “a bad person” all alongside. Donaldson wrote: “You can deal with marrying someone whose politics don’t 100% line up with yours. That’s just life. But you don’t marry an anti-vaxxer AIDS denialist then hold his hand onstage as he runs for president based on those ideals without endorsing them, implicitly or otherwise.”
“Even if you hate everything they stand for, by staying married to them and acting as the doting political spouse, you’re empowering them,” Donaldson continued.
After Kennedy introduced his run for president, he advised the New York Occasions that he supplied to separate from Hines to spare her any embarrassment from his political positions. By the way, this supply got here a yr earlier than Kennedy embarrassed Hines by being caught in a sordid dishonest scandal with political reporter Olivia Nuzzi.
The dishonest scandal sparked reviews that Hines had lastly had sufficient and would divorce Kennedy. However the actor ended up laughing off these reviews at an occasion in October, saying she continued to depend on their love “connection” to assist them climate the assorted controversies round them. As Donaldson wrote in August that Hines “is exactly where she wants to be,” one other social media person reacted to Hines’ presence at Wednesday’s listening to by saying, “It’s time Cheryl Hines stops getting a pass. Standing by her ‘husband’ is abhorrent as he poses a deadly threat to all Americans and our healthcare system.”
