❓WHAT HAPPENED: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) criticized President Donald J. Trump’s Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during an appearance on MSNBC.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: John Thune, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and MSNBC’s Ali Vitali.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The comments were made during an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show.
💬KEY QUOTE: “I think that if I were a woman, I’d be talking to my doctor and not taking advice from RFK, or any other government bureaucrat for that matter.” – John Thune
🎯IMPACT: Thune’s remarks highlight ongoing issues with GOP lawmakers being out of step with the Trump administration and its priorities.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has taken shots at President Donald J. Trump’s Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show. Speaking to Ali Vitali, Thune boasted that the Senate GOP was at odds with the White House on multiple issues, including the use of Tylenol during pregnancy, which President Trump and Secretary Kennedy have warned could increase the risk of autism.
Asked if he “feel[s] the way RFK Jr. Is talking about [Tylenol] is dangerous,” Thune bluntly stated, “I think that if I were a woman, I’d be talking to my doctor and not taking advice from RFK, or any other government bureaucrat for that matter.”
He stressed he could provide “plenty of examples” of issues where he disagrees with the Trump administration, and implied he believes he and the Senate GOP have a mandate to go against the President, as the Senate is “a co-equal independent branch of the government.”
President Trump has previously expressed particular frustration that Thune and the Senate GOP allowed Senate Democrats to obstruct the appointment of many of his nominees for months. However, Thune finally began stopping the Democrats from preventing the President from exercising his electoral mandate in recent weeks, by considering his nominees in batches.
JUST IN: Senate Majority Leader John Thune tells Americans not to take HHS Secretary RFK Jr’s health advice.
This guy has always been a Republican in name only.
— Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) October 16, 2025
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