Important Takeaways:
- Some staff members at the Food and Drug Administration are considering a quick exit as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is being floated as a potential health official in the incoming Trump administration, according to three former and one current government official who were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive issues. The former officials are still in touch with colleagues who work at the FDA.
- Staff turnover is typical when a new administration comes in, and a significant number of FDA employees similarly considered leaving before President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office, said one former and one current official. At the time, there were also concerns about what the FDA would look like under the first Trump administration.
- This time, however, there’s an added layer of anxiety outside Trump: Kennedy.
- Trump has said he’ll let the former independent presidential candidate and vaccine skeptic “go wild on health.” Meanwhile, Kennedy is promising a shakeup at the federal health agencies, including the FDA, telling NBC News the day after the election that “in some categories, there are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA that are, that have to go.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing the Wisconsin Elections Commission in an attempt to remove his name from the ballot in the battleground state just two months before the presidential election.
- The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Dane County, argued independent candidates such as Kennedy are treated unfairly by the elections commission because they operate under different deadlines from party-aligned candidates when it comes to ballot access.
- Party-affiliated candidates had until 5 p.m. on Sept. 3 to certify their candidacy, according to guidance from the elections commission, while independent candidates had until 5 p.m. Aug. 6. Kennedy ended his campaign on Aug. 23.
- Wisconsin law holds that anyone who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot — which Kennedy did — cannot decline nomination.
- The only exception to that provision is “in case of death of the person,” according to the law.
- “The only way he gets to not be on the ballot is to up and die, which I’m assuming he has no plans on doing,” WEC chairwoman Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, said last week. “The statute is absolutely clear on this.”
- Wisconsin is not the only battleground state where Kennedy appears likely to remain on the ballot. Elections officials in Michigan and North Carolina have also said Kennedy cannot withdraw from the ballots.
- There will be eight presidential candidates on Wisconsin’s ballot in November, including Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidate Cornel West.
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Important Takeaways:
- Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering ending his campaign to join forces with Republican rival Donald Trump, Kennedy’s running mate said in an interview posted online on Tuesday.
- The vice presidential candidate, Nicole Shanahan, said that as independents, she and Kennedy ran the risk of drawing support from would-be Trump voters and clearing the way for Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to win the November election.
- “Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump,” she told Los Angeles media company Impact Theory. When asked about the timing of their decision, she did not say.
- “Not easy, not an easy decision,” she added.
- Earlier in the interview, Shanahan stated, “I did not put in tens of millions of dollars to be a spoiler candidate.”
- “I put in tens of millions of dollars to win, to fix this country, to do the right thing,” she said. “We don’t want to be a spoiler.”
- “We wanted to win. We wanted a fair shot,” Shanahan added.
- Trump told CNN on Tuesday he would “certainly be open” to Kennedy playing a role in his administration if the independent candidate drops out of the race and endorses him.
- “I like him, and I respect him,” Trump told the network in an interview after a campaign stop in Michigan.
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