Aug. 29, 2025

CDC Chaos: RFK Jr. Purges Vaccine Panel & Trump Plots Pre-Midterm Conventions

Show Notes
Transcript

From mass resignations at the CDC to Trump’s bizarre idea of holding national party conventions before the midterms, things in D.C. are getting weird. Patrick Gutfield breaks down RFK Jr.’s attempt to fire CDC Director Susan Monarez, the total reshuffling of the vaccine advisory committee, and why doing things that are illegal and anti-science seem to be this administration’s favorite hobby. Plus: Jen Psaki warns Trump could rig the next election, thanks to the appointment of conspiracy theorist Heather Honey to Homeland Security. And yes, we’re just as concerned about her name as you are.

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Callaroga Shark media from Washington, DC, where we're totally screwed.

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There's a pandemic. This is ballot.

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Why would the CDC be run by someone who understands,

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you know, help, let's hit this. I'm Patrick Gutfield, and

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the Centers for Disease Control is having what you might

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call a situation.

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Health Secretary Robert F.

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Kennedy Junior is trying to fire CDC Director Susan Monrez,

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but her lawyers are saying, not so fast.

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You need Trump to do it personally.

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Meanwhile, three top CDC officials just walked out. Well, we're

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escorted out by security in what can only be described

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as the medical equivalent of a very dramatic exit from

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a reality show. The whole thing started when Kennedy demanded

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that Monterrez fire her top people and agree to rubber

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stamp recommendations from his newly appointed vaccine Advisory Committee. Now,

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when I say newly appointed, I mean Kennedy fired all

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seventeen independent scientific advisors and replaced them with eight people

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of his own, choosing. One of them already dropped out

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due to financial conflicts, so we're down to seven. Monarez

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refused Kennedy's demands, which apparently made him very upset. According

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to sources, she told people there were two things she

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wouldn't do, anything illegal and anything that flew in the

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face of science. Well, lady, I have news for you.

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Doing things that are illegal and flying in the face

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of science are the core tenets of this administration. The

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CDC has already been through mass layoffs, budget cuts, and

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earlier this month an actual shooting at their Atlanta headquarters.

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At this point, working at the CDC is like being

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in the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. So both parties

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are suddenly floating the idea of holding national conventions before

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the twenty twenty six midterms. This has never been done before,

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which is political speak for huh, we have no idea

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what we're doing, but we're going to do it anyway.

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Trump announced this on truth Social, his personal echo chamber

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where every thought becomes a press release, saying he's thinking

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of recommending a Republican convention, not committing, just thinking about recommending.

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That's like saying you're thinking about thinking about maybe possibly

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doing something. Very decisive leadership there. The timing is perfect,

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though Trump's team wants to motivate voters who only show

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up when his name is on the ballot. You know,

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the people who treat democracy like a limited engagement Broadway show.

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They'll only buy tickets when the star is performing. Meanwhile,

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the Democrats heard about this idea and immediately thought we

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should do that too, which is classic democratic strategy. See

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what Republicans are doing and say, hold my kombucha, we

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can be just as confused. This will give us two

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extra years to realize all their presidential candidates are completely

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out of touch with average Americans. Picture it a political

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talent show where instead of singing and dancing, candidates compete

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to see who can pander most effectively to their base.

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Speaker Mike Johnson was so excited he responded with yes,

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mister President, let's go, followed by three American flag emojis.

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Three flags, not two, not four. Three.

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That's the exact amount of patriotism required to express enthusiasm

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for an unprecedented political gathering that nobody really understands yet.

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I say bring it on, mainly because I get paid

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by the download and this will spike the numbers. I

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also encourage Taylor Swift to run for president for the

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same reason. MSNBC's Jen Psaki is warning that Trump might

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rig upcoming elections, which is interesting timing considering we just

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had an election and Trump won. But apparently the concern

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is about future elections, and her evidence is Trump's new hire,

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Heather Honey, who just got appointed to a Deputy Assistant

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Secretary for Election Integrity position at Homeland Security. I'm sure

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she's super competent, but we all have to admit there's

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a non zero chance that Trump hired her just because

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her name is Heather Honey. Now, Honey runs something called

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Haystack Investigations, and yes, that's a real company name. She's

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the one who came up with that claim about Pennsylvania

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having two hundred and five thousand more votes than voters

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in twenty twenty. Sake points out this was not at

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all true, which makes sense since that's how math works.

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Trump has been talking about banning mail ballance and encouraging

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Republican governors to redraw congressional maps. He's also made those

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comments about potentially running for a third term, which would

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be unconstitutional, but hey, why let a little thing like

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the constitution get in the way. Remember doing things that

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are illegal and flying in the face of science are

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the core tenets of this administration. Portions of today's show

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were made with the help of Heather Honey, and AI

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released the Epstein files.

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