Convicted Felon Donald Chump is having a bit of an episode lately. He rants and raves and calls things "fake news" when they are, in fact, true. Steve Benen (MS NOW) gives us one example:
Plenty of Republican officials and candidates have recently overhauled their websites to remove references and images of Donald Trump, but when Rep. Byron Donalds did the same thing, it was a harsh reminder of how just how far the president had fallen.
The Florida congressman, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, has been a sycophantic, election-denying Trump loyalist and surrogate in recent years, tying his fortunes directly to his unapologetic embrace of the president. But as Donalds’ gubernatorial campaign in the Sunshine State reaches the homestretch, he and his team nevertheless thought it would be a good idea to start scrubbing his website.
The changes were hardly subtle. The campaign website used to be filled with references to the incumbent president. The Miami Herald reported, “A button to ‘Chip in to Support Trump Endorsed Byron Donalds’ was at the top of the homepage. ‘TRUMP-ENDORSED Proven Conservative Fighter. BYRON DONALDS’ was the page’s main text. A yellow banner reading ‘ENDORSED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP!’ marked the middle of the homepage and a prominent section quoting Trump’s 2025 endorsement said ‘RUN, BYRON, RUN!’”
Recently, all of these Trump references have been removed, as was a photo of Donalds and his wife, Erika Donalds, posing with Trump.
The president doesn’t appear to be taking it well. On Saturday, Trump responded to the edits to Donalds’ campaign site with a lengthy, 459-word tirade on his social media platform. It read in part:
Another Fake Story is that a very close friend of mine, a man I endorsed very early, Byron Donalds, is taking me off his website and Campaign materials. … The story started with the Woke and Dying USA Today, and then, of course, it permeated to CNN, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Newsweek, The New York Times, ABC, NBC, Forbes, and others. […]
This is the Corrupt Media Outlets trying to demean. … This was a Fake Story, with no sources, and the only justification for it is they want to stop my ever upward momentum. … If Florida thought the story that Byron “dropped” me was true, he would lose the Election, and that would be a terrible thing because he’s going to be a fantastic Governor!
There’s no point in fact-checking every error of fact and judgment in the president’s rant, but at its core was simple claim: Donalds didn’t remove Trump from his campaign website.
The trouble is, Donalds removed from Trump from his campaign website.
Yesterday, Mr. Chump announced a new steel mill would be built in Iowa. In 2030. It was supposed to have been built over a decade ago in Minnesota -- where the steel mine is. It is not an American company though Mr. Chump did not want to get into that either. (It is a company based in India.) There is no location announced for it in Iowa. And, again, it would not be built until 2030. So it is all a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Why? Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) notes:
Republican strategists are privately expecting a wipeout in Iowa as a deepening farm crisis tied to President Donald Trump's policies threatens the party's grip on a state he carried by more than 13 points, according to a new report.
"In Iowa, we should brace for losing everything, definitely the governor's race and maybe the Senate race and who knows what else," one top GOP campaign consultant told Axios.
Farmers say two Trump-driven pressures have compounded years of rising costs and consolidation. Tariffs have raised prices for fertilizer, pesticides and equipment while roiling markets, and the resulting trade fights have strained ties with Canada, which buys roughly 30 percent of Iowa's exports. Meanwhile, the war in Iran has pushed diesel prices in the state up nearly 80 percent, leaving some farmers weighing loans just to stay afloat.
"Iowa is on the front end of a farm crisis. It's ground zero," the consultant said, warning that signs of trouble are spreading to Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.
So this is all a stunt to try to trick Iowa voters into backing the GOP. Meanwhile, Ben Palen (KANSAS REFLECTOR) notes:
In recent weeks, I have had a number of conversations with other farmers.
They cover the spectrum from Millennials to Gen Zers to folks of my generation, with many of that last group remembering the heartache of the 1980s. During that time, lots of folks lost their farms, and the effects were felt throughout rural America as bankruptcies were frequent occurrences.
The essence of a bankruptcy for an individual or an entity is either to reorganize one’s financial affairs or completely liquidate assets, in effect, to start over. Bankruptcies are not reflections on a person’s character, but sometimes an indication of unexpected circumstances that could not be reasonably foreseen.
I soon realized that some of the farmers on the other side of our conversations were not referring to the possibility of the nation experiencing financial bankruptcy, although the current budget deficit of nearly two trillion dollars was clearly on their minds, as was the reckless spending on monuments and misadventures around the world.
They were referring to asocial and moral bankruptcy. Keep in mind that many of these folks had voted for Donald Trump in 2024, with some also voting for him all the way back to 2016. Many admitted the error of their ways in their prior votes and acknowledged that they had been conned.
Mind you, these folks are typically salt of the earth types who place high values on trust, integrity and keeping one’s word. They see a nation that is adrift, one that is “led” by a president aided and abetted by people who have no moral code. They see a nation that has lost the respect and the trust of the world, and they realize that regaining that trust and respect may take decades.
It is truly something to see Mr. Chump turn us into pariah on the world stage, to start nonsense fights with countries like Canada that have always been there for us and always been good neighbors.
This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for today:
Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Farmers feel the sting from Chump's choices, Senator Elizabeth Warren calls out Secretary of Health and Human Services Junior on his inability to keep his word, Pete Hegseth and Chump sneak out the news that a September 14th attack not noted previously left 8 Marines injured, Bill Clinton serves up some First Amendment truths, and much more.
“We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,” Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, told Axios. “It’s mind-boggling.”
Chump just can't turn around his poor polling. Tara Suter (THE HILL) notes:
President Trump’s approval rating has fallen to a record low in Wall Street Journal polling for a president only a few weeks out from the midterms.
In the new poll from the Journal, Trump’s approval rating sat at 37 percent, the lowest of a president shortly before a midterm in the outlet's polling going back to former President George H.W. Bush.
The closest presidential job approval to Trump’s shortly before the midterms was that of former President George W. Bush, at 39 percent in his second term.
The poll comes only about a month from this year’s midterms, with the president and his party dealing with a challenging electoral environment.
There are 35 days until the midterms with early voting already started in some states. It's a little late now to be worried about polling and trying to turn things around. Simon Marks (THE i PAPER) reports:
If there is one state in the US that Republicans had thought was entirely safe terrain for them in November’s midterm elections, it was the Sunshine State of Florida. At the start of this year, Democrats gave no thought to the possibility of flipping the state and turning it blue. After all, their Republican opponents currently control 20 of Florida’s 28 seats in the House of Representatives, both seats in the US Senate, and the Governor’s Mansion. Democratic Party grandees had sensibly written it off. But suddenly, such is the American public’s disquiet over Donald Trump’s stewardship of the nation and the economic crisis that his war on Iran has ignited that even Florida is in play.
With fewer than 40 days left in the midterm campaign, last week Byron Donalds, the Republican Party’s candidate to succeed Ron DeSantis as Florida’s governor, suddenly removed virtually every reference to Trump from his campaign website. Donalds, a former congressman who is so close to Trump that in November 2023 he was considered one of the top candidates to serve as vice president in a second administration, is now running from his political mentor as fast as his legs can carry him. Endorsed by Trump, Donalds had proudly emblazoned the President’s backing of him on all his campaign communications for months. Now, voters visiting Donalds’ website are hard-pressed to find the candidate making any mention of the President at all. The Miami Herald found that at least eight references to the President were removed from the site, including one that said Donald’s first priority as governor would be to “Enact the Trump Agenda”. Instead, he is now vowing to take on the issue of “affordability”, a word that Trump claims that Democrats have concocted to describe economic travails that he insists do not exist.
Chump's planning to return to Texas -- as Ruth noted last week, he was there for two months earlier this month -- and to go to Alabama, Ohio and other states. It all seems too little too late. Frank Yemi notes, "CNN said on Monday that members of the Trump team have admitted privately that the party is in a tough situation, one of them stating, “It’s obviously going to be f—— rough.” The president’s staff are preparing an intensive campaign timetable for October featuring Trump and Vice President JD Vance, with appearances scheduled for battleground states and areas that are Republican-leaning since the advisers think they can boost voter turnout." Lee Moran (HUFFINGTON POST) notes Republican and former US House Rep Barbara Comstock spoke on MS NOW on Sunday:
“I think elections are won in the summer. And we’re now here in late September,” said Comstock, who left Congress in 2019. “Donald Trump did everything he could to help Republicans lose over the summer,” she continued, citing his unpopular Iran war, the resultant soaring gas prices and rising interest rates.
Comstock recalled a remark she said an unnamed GOP operative made after Senate Majority Leader John Thune campaigned in Georgia with Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins, who, in polling, she noted “is double digits behind” Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff.
“We’re trying to make the patient comfortable,” the operative said, according to Comstock, who suggested Trump’s planned Alabama rally reflected the same mindset.
“I think we’re trying to make the patient comfortable by sending Donald Trump to Alabama,” she added.
Ed Mazza (HUFFINGTON POST) notes a similar conversation that took place Sunday on ABC's THIS WEEK:
With just five weeks to go until the midterm elections, a key analyst is warning Republicans that their fate is likely already sealed ― and it’s all because of President Donald Trump.
“There’s not a lot you can do,” Charlie Cook, founder of the Cook Political Report, told ABC’s Martha Raddatz on “This Week” on Sunday.
Voters are angry over rising prices ― especially fuel ― and the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
“All these things came together at the same time, right as voters start paying attention,” Cook said. “It was almost like the bottom fell out suddenly.”
He said what’s coming in November isn’t a “blue wave” so much as a “red undertow.”
Nationally, 53 percent of voters chose Democrats on the generic congressional ballot, compared with 41 percent for Republicans, in recent PBS/NPR/Marist polling. A recent Emerson survey showed a virtually identical 12-point Democratic advantage. Just as important, independents are breaking decisively toward Democrats, favoring them by 29 points in Emerson's survey and 25 points in the Marist poll.
Across all polls, Democrats hold a 9-point lead on the generic congressional ballot, according to RealClearPolitics.
Looking back at 2018, the last Democratic “blue wave,” the final generic congressional polling average gave Democrats a 7-point advantage. To be sure, a repeat of their 41-seat gain is unlikely because two more rounds of partisan gerrymandering and redistricting have sharply reduced the number of competitive House districts.
Even so, Democrats appear well positioned to capture the handful of seats they need for a majority.
There is a phrase in Trumpist newspeak used to indicate that the president of the United States is on top of matters — “maintains laser focus.” The problem, just a little over a month before the midterms, is that polls show voters are not satisfied with the issues Trump is pointing that laser at.
The obsessions that drive him these days include, among others: the architectural projects he has undertaken or wants to carry out at the White House and in Washington; attacks on three media outlets whose coverage he dislikes; promoting fear of communism; his and his family’s personal enrichment; and promoting (and renaming) artificial intelligence (AI), which he has been trying to relabel — without much success, but with great determination — as “superintelligence.”
Voters and Republican candidates in the most competitive districts would prefer his priorities to be different: lowering the cost of living; reducing the price of gasoline and diesel (which this past week hit a historic record, with inflationary carryover); cutting back somewhat on corruption; ending the war with Iran. They would also prefer he take the threat from AI seriously, given that its experts openly describe it as potentially catastrophic for humanity, and that he rein in data centers — now an electoral white unicorn, one of those rare issues that unites the left and the right.
Chump has grossly underestimated both affordability and the public's ability to see through his lies (including call affordability "a hoax). Chris Isidore and Tami Luhby (CNN) report:
John Yeley has spent the last 26 years working on his farm, which his family has owned since 1852.
Yeley is the seventh generation to run his farm in Illinois, just over the state line from Indiana. Although he plans to keep doing so, he’s not sure he wants his 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to take over because the current economics are so rough.
“Right now, the way all of this is now, no, I wouldn’t wish it on them,” he said about farming.
Farmers like Yeley as well as agriculture experts agree that the farming sector is in a painful recession. Farms are dealing with record-high diesel prices, a fuel that is critical to their equipment. Trade disputes have cut off access to vital markets. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have sent fertilizer costs soaring, just as farmers pay higher interest rates on the loans needed to get from planting to harvest season.
Yeley is not sure he’ll earn a profit this season, even with prices up for for his corn and soybeans.
“We’re not a big county, but we’ve had three farmers go under this year,” said Yeley. “I know that’s on the minds of everybody, is it really worth it to keep going on? The stress level is pretty high.”
Currently, the price of diesel is the most pressing problem for farmers.
Diesel is a workhouse fuel that powers farming equipment, like tractors and combines. The national average for diesel has accelerated faster than the price of gasoline and is now near its recent an all-time high of $6.53. In many states in the Midwest farm belt, the cost is even greater: The average price in Illinois, for example, was $6.82 as of Friday.
The American people are suffering. And it doesn't help Chump when he and his cronies have excessive celebrations. Nick Hilden reports:
On Monday, a prominent GOP insider declared that the Trump administration is having a “Marie Antoinette” moment as it pushes “tone-deaf” messaging that clashes with the economic pain felt by its voters. This is according to longtime conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes, who noted that even MAGA was put off by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino’s weekend post of an AI-generated video showing him along with Eric and Laura Trump popping bottles of champagne and celebrating as golden confetti rained from above.
“Marie Antoinette, who lost her head over this sort of thing, would have blushed,” writes Sykes. “Even right-wing influencers were gobsmacked by the crassness of the thing. ‘You really have no shame, do you?,’ Conservative activist Carrie Prejean Boller wrote. ‘Many Americans can’t afford groceries, gas or their mortgage payment, and you post a tone-deaf AI video of you and your buddies partying at the People’s House.’” Another self-proclaimed Trump voter account expressed similar sentiments, musing, “Wow... This is really going to resonate with everyday Americans. They are so out of touch. It’s astonishing.”
According to Sykes, this is part of a wider trend in which the Republican Party abandons all sense of “shame” and “virtue” under the influence of President Donald Trump. Sykes points to other examples, like Trump’s use of taxpayer dollars to pay for an “unhinged new MAGA ad,” a Trump loyalist-turned-ambassador to Greece boasting about the engineered collapse of another government and a MAGA lawmaker taking to the Senate floor to freak out over “furries.” All of this, argues Sykes, is part of the GOP’s abandonment of “morality” the framers of the Constitution asserted was at its core.
Sarah K. Burris quotes THE BULLWORK's Sarah Longwell (who is also a pollster) stating, "The thing that I'm hearing over and over again from Republicans and focus groups is they are so mad about the war. They are so mad -- and it's not that they're like nonplussed. They're mad about the war, and they're mad about gas prices. So, to turn out for a Republican -- and this is this is the analogy I'm trying to make -- is that a lot of times when people talk about a wave, what they think is like an overwhelming force of sort of liberals rising up or Democrats rising up and some swing voters rising up to put a check on Trump. But it will have as much to do with a depression of enthusiasm among Republicans who are just not turning out."
U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains at uncomfortable lows just five weeks before the midterm elections.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found that the President’s approval rating stood at just 32% — the lowest of his political career under any Reuters/Ipsos survey.
Chump and the White House struggle to deal with that reality. No one wants to break it to Chump just how unpopular he is. So one toady says it's "fake news" and Chump's convinced all is well. Former President Bill Clinton spoke last week at The Clinton Global Initiative and noted that as president you take your press lumps.
Bill Clinton: I got news for the people who work in the White House today. There were lots of times when I wanted to ban the White House press corps. And there’s a reason we have a constitution. Because none of us are immune from being pissed off. But I’m glad I never did, and I’m glad I couldn’t. And these people shouldn’t. The law should be what it is.
If you don't like bad press, don't court it by lying. And that's what Chump does. He lies non-stop. Daniel Dale (CNN) points out:
Facing abysmal poll numbers on inflation as the midterm elections approach, President Donald Trump is sticking to the communications strategy he tried in the summer: lie.
Trump has tried for months to concoct an alternate reality in which the country has experienced broad deflation during this presidency, with prices for groceries and other items down big and still falling. He falsely told reporters Sunday: “The prices for groceries have come way down from Biden. Almost every price has come way down.”
It wasn’t clear whether the second sentence was about groceries in particular or about products of all kinds, but it was inaccurate regardless. Then, speaking to reporters again later in the day, he falsely said, “With the exception of oil, everything is going down.”
For good measure, Trump then made two more false claims in one sentence: “We inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country, and it’s going really down.”
Use the link for the walk through that Dale provides. But, again, you lie, you're a liar. And if you're lying, the press is going to focus on your lies. Especially if you are an elected official. People in the White House may kiss your butt and just nod along blindly with your lies but that's not how the press or the electorate should treat you. You shame yourself when you lie.
And let's be clear that omissions are lies as well. You are commander in chief. That means you are honest with the American people when bad things happen. Not that you lie and pretend tragedies didn't happen. If an attack left eight Marines injured, you announce that immediately. You don't wait several days to make the announcement. Emily Blumenthal (THE TELEGRAPH OF LONDON) reports:
An Iranian cruise missile struck a ship carrying US forces in the Strait of Hormuz, American officials have admitted.
Eight marines suffered concussion and smoke inhalation in the incident earlier this month. They belonged to a battalion landing team, but the purpose of their mission in the strait was not clear.
At the time of the attack on Sep 14, the marines were not on a US navy ship. Sources speaking to US media referred only to a “maritime vessel”.
All eight of them – seven enlisted troops and one officer – returned to duty shortly after the attack, NBC News reported.
Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) also notes the attack:
A group of eight Marines was injured when an Iranian missile struck a ship they were operating on in the Strait of Hormuz, it has been revealed.
Details of the Sept. 14 attack have not been publicly disclosed by the U.S. government, with the eight injuries not appearing on the Pentagon’s public database for several days.
Officials have now told NBC News that the Marines were not seriously hurt in the attack but did suffer smoke inhalation and displayed symptoms of concussions, such as headaches, suggesting possible traumatic head injuries. The Pentagon itself has not commented.
Chump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are not doing their jobs by concealing strikes that leave service members injured. They are lying to the American people when they hide these attacks and hide the number of service members injured. It is outrageous. And it goes to how little respect that Chump and Hegseth actually have for the military. Jon Michael Raasch (DAILY MAIL) notes:
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is being accused of covering up injuries to eight US service members that occurred in a previously unannounced mission aboard a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
An Iranian cruise missile struck a 'maritime vessel' with at least eight soldiers onboard, seven enlisted and one officer, during a September 14 operation, three anonymous American officials told NBC News.
[. . .]
Multiple Democratic lawmakers have accused Hegseth of covering up the total number of casualties, including Congressman Pat Ryan of New York, who has said the delay in DCAS reports represents a 'blatant, unprecedented cover-up.'
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to Hegseth accusing the Pentagon of obfuscating the number of casualties linked to the Iran war.
The article provoked rage among some former Trump allies who have turned on the President over the conflict.
'If this report is true, it means we are using US troops to escort oil tankers through the SOH, where oil had been flowing freely before we started this disastrous war of choice at the behest of the Israelis,' said Joe Kent, a former intelligence official who resigned from the Trump administration in protest of the conflict.
'This is a reckless and frivolous gamble with American lives, which we are foolishly opting to put at risk - not to thwart active terrorist threats to the homeland, but as an attempt to mitigate the damage we inflicted on ourselves and the global economy.'
Hegseth has other problems as well. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) reports:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's personal choice to run the Army is running into a wall of his own making — and a little-known Pentagon budget official is emerging as the beneficiary.
Sean Parnell, Hegseth's chief spokesman and senior adviser, has been the administration's presumed favorite to replace Dan Driscoll as Army secretary. But Senate Republicans are making clear he doesn't have the votes, according to The Hill.
"His record, particularly the spousal abuse stuff, is just a bridge too far for the vast majority of people," Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told reporters. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said he'd vote no outright, citing Parnell's press restrictions at the Pentagon."If you're proud of your work product, you want press to ask you the tough questions," he said.
A GOP Senate aide put it more bluntly: "Everyone knows the backing just isn't there."
Pete Hegseth has made religion a highly visible part of his leadership at the Pentagon.
Now a seemingly bureaucratic change to military personnel records has opened another front in the argument over faith in the armed forces.
Airmen are complaining after discovering that atheism is no longer available as a specific option under the Defense Department’s dramatically shortened list of religious affiliations. One service member says the change effectively prevents them from identifying in military records the same way they have for years.
Critics have gone further, accusing the Pentagon of creating an environment that increasingly favors Christianity.
The Air Force rejects the suggestion that religious freedom is being weakened and describes the new system as an administrative change designed to standardize records and help chaplains allocate resources.
Last week, we noted travel was down:
He brought it all on himself. He was handed a recovering economy. In his first four year term, Chump presided over 8% inflation. Then came the pandemic and Joe Biden was elected. Joe got the economy under control. We were the envy of the world as 2024 drew to a close for our economic recovery. Then Chump came in with his tariffs. Tariffs are a tax. A tax on the one purchasing. Chump wanted to lie about this. It's a basic, it's a fundamental. Lawrence O'Donnell and Stephanie Ruhle explained this over and over on what is now MS NOW ahead of the election and after. But Chump's an idiot. The tariffs immediately screwed up the economy. His war on immigrants screwed up the economy as well. Some don't understand that. Eateries targeted for their customer base are impacted. Any place that deals in customer service was impacted because some employees did not want to go to work because it wasn't safe for them. The housing industry? Construction sites depend upon workers. Texas isn't the only state that workers weren't showing in because they were worried they'd be hauled off. Immigrants make up as much as 35% of housing construction workers in the US. Chump's programs have resulted in increases in the prices of homes. In addition, his war on immigrants has given the US a black eye on the global stage and people aren't coming to the US as part of the tourism industry in the numbers that they were before Chump got back in office. Las Vegas, for example, saw a 7.5% drop in tourism. Tourism is airlines, it's rent a cars, it's restaurants, it's hotels and motels, it's gift shops. It is huge and some cities economies depend a great deal upon tourism -- foreign travelers coming to the US. Chump's war on immigrants is ugly and vile and people don't want to deal with it so they're choosing to go places other than the US. And then there's the third big factor in Chump's destruction of the economy: His war of choice with Iran.
Chump will be remembered for destroying this economy.
An angry e-mail came in saying I couldn't just say that but I had said it without backing it up because it can't be backed up.
It's backed up. It's certainly backed up here since we've been covering this topic regularly since March of last year. It's not my job to spoon feed you. But for those who need a source talking about this, yesterday, Martha McHardy (DAILY BEAST) reported:
America’s closest allies are increasingly looking elsewhere for their vacations.
Despite hosting the World Cup this year, the U.S. has suffered through a slump in international tourism.
Visitors from Canada are down 23 percent over the past two years, while travel from Germany and France has dropped 16 percent and 15 percent year-to-date, respectively.
Overall, the country is on pace to welcome 2 million fewer international visitors than last year, when approximately 68 million tourists came to the U.S.
That would put overseas visits roughly 20 percent below the 2019 peak of 79 million visitors.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Senators: “Your decision to withhold this information from Congress and apparent failure to report this change to agency ethics officials is deeply alarming.”
“This amounts to non-disclosure to Congress and an apparent failure to adhere to reporting through required ethics channels.”
Text of Response (PDF) | Text of Letter (PDF)
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released a response from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), revealing that RFK Jr. secretly deviated from his ethics agreement. Given this news, the senators are pushing the Secretary for answers about the credibility of his previous ethics commitments.
The letter builds on an investigation by Senators Warren, Blumenthal, Alsobrooks, and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) into whether RFK Jr.’s family may have benefited financially from a $50 million settlement, while he pushed an anti-vaccine agenda as HHS Secretary.
Prior to his confirmation as HHS Secretary, RFK Jr. helped spearhead a lawsuit against the vaccine manufacturer Merck & Co. (“Merck”) and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil. RFK Jr.’s initial ethics agreement allowed him to retain a 10% contingency fee in cases that he had referred to his former law firm, Wisner Baum. After warnings from Senator Warren about this conflict of interest, RFK Jr. agreed to amend his ethics agreement to “divest (his) interest in any such litigation (related to Gardasil) via an assignment to (his) non-dependent, adult son.” RFK Jr. also signed an ethics agreement compliance certification in which he indicated that he had “completed all of the divestitures indicated in (his) ethics agreement.”
However, in a new response, RFK Jr. revealed that he did not adhere to his ethics agreement, in that he did not transfer his right to receive 10 percent of fees awarded in contingency fee cases to his adult son. Instead, he referred those fees to his former law firm, Wisner Baum.
“You appear to have secretly revoked your commitment to ‘irrevocably’ assign your Gardasil stake to your adult son,” wrote the senators.
According to the response, RFK Jr. made this change on February 11, 2025, prior to a vote by the full Senate on February 13. Congress was not notified of this change in his divestiture process at the time, even though his nomination was under consideration by the Senate – a break from the Office of Government Ethics’ policy.
“Your decision to withhold this information from Congress and apparent failure to report this change to agency ethics officials is deeply alarming,” wrote the senators. “There is no indication that your ethics agreement was updated to reflect this change, and you have provided no explanation for why the change was not publicly disclosed.”
The modification also raises questions about the conditions and circumstances under which RFK Jr. decided to relinquish the stakes back to Wisner Baum.
“(I)f the agreement involves any kind of implicit or explicit agreement with Wisner Baum about future payments or other future rewards in exchange for your Gardasil stake, it would prompt concerns about your ongoing conflicts of interest with the firm, and about the integrity of your decisions at the Department of Health and Human Services,” wrote the senators.
In the intervening year and a half since Secretary Kennedy failed to notify Congress of this change, HHS has made significant changes to HPV vaccine policy and public health guidance while sidelining experts on the issue. These major changes raise additional concerns about the lack of disclosure to Congress and, seemingly, to ethics officials about the disposition of RFK Jr.’s interest in the HPV litigation.
The senators are pushing RFK Jr. to answer questions about the terms of his agreement with Wisner Baum and the circumstances in which his ethics agreement was changed.
The timeline of these events are as follow:
- January 21, 2025: RFK Jr. discloses he intends to keep a 10% stake in the Gardasil lawsuit in his ethics agreement.
- January 29, 2025: At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) questioned RKF Jr., then-nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), about his dangerous conflicts of interest and record of profiting from anti-vaccine conspiracies.
- February 1, 2025: In response to concerns raised by Senator Warren and her colleagues, RFK Jr. amends his ethics agreement and affirms that he will divest the Gardasil stake to an adult family member, which was confirmed to be his son.
- February 11, 2025: RFK Jr. secretly opts to transfer the stake to his former employer Wisner Baum, a party to the Gardasil litigation, and not to his son. There is no public record of any amendment to his ethics agreement or disclosure of this change to Congress for 18 months.
- February 13, 2025: The full Senate votes to confirm RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS.
- May 12, 2025: Secretary Kennedy signs a certification of compliance with his February 1 ethics agreement. This certification makes no mention of the change in divestiture.
- May 14, 2025: The HHS Designated Agency Ethics Official affirms to the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that RFK Jr. is in compliance with his Feb. 1 ethics agreement. In this certification, Secretary Kennedy makes no mention of the material change in divestiture of his Gardasil stake.
- June 4, 2026: Bloomberg reports that Merck agrees to a $50 million settlement in the Gardasil lawsuit.
- July 29, 2026: U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) opened a new investigation to understand whether Secretary Kennedy’s family may be financially benefiting from the $50 million anti-vaccine settlement that his actions as Secretary could have influenced.
The senators pushed RFK Jr. to disclose whether he or his son received any portion of the multi-million dollar payout.
- August 1, 2026: RFK Jr. posts on X that, “Before taking office, I relinquished any interest in potential Gardasil fees back to the Wisner Baum law firm.”
- August 24, 2026: Sens. Warren, Alsobrooks, Blumenthal and Wyden press RFK Jr. over his social media post in which he disclosed that he opted to transfer the stake to Wisner Baum instead of to his son. The Senators ask whether he has changed his ethics agreement and, if so, how and when any changes were made.
- August 26, 2026: In response to the Senators’ investigation, HHS discloses that RFK Jr. secretly opted to divest the stake to Wisner Baum on February 11, 2025, and not to his son.
Senator Warren has led Senate oversight on RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda and conflicts of interest as HHS Secretary:
- In August 2026, Senator Warren, Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to RFK Jr. asking whether he has changed his ethics agreement, and if so, how and when any changes were made.
- In July 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) opened a new investigation into whether Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s (RFK Jr.) family may be financially benefiting from a $50 million anti-vaccine settlement that his actions as Secretary could have influenced.
- In January 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Markey (D-Mass.), and Alsobrooks (D-Md.) pressed RFK Jr. on his proposed overhaul of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which could threaten the domestic vaccine supply, undermine public health, and potentially enrich Secretary Kennedy’s family and close allies.
- In June 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), on the eve of a key committee meeting, slammed RFK Jr. for his “reckless” and “shortsighted” decision to fire all 17 independent members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replace them with eight members who appear to be hand-picked to advance RFK Jr.’s own anti-vaccine agenda.
- In February 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to RFK Jr., then-nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, pressing him to urgently resolve his serious conflicts of interest related to his stake in Gardasil lawsuits.
- February 1, 2025: Mr. Kennedy amends his ethics agreement and affirms that he will divest the Gardasil stake to his son.
- In January 2025, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) questioned RKF Jr., then-nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), about his dangerous conflicts of interest and record of profiting from anti-vaccine conspiracies.
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