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THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

“Terrifying”: Trump’s Ominous Moment with RFK on First Measles Death

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4800 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Texas, an unvaccinated child just died of Measels—the first reported death related to the disease’s recent outbreak. This came up at President Trump’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday, and the results were troubling. After Elon Musk admitted that his cuts had briefly closed down Ebola prevention, anti-vax Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. was surprisingly cavalier about the outbreak, and didn’t bother urging Americans to get vaccinated. Trump said nothing to reassure the nation. We talked to Stephanie Psaki, a former top White House official who specialized in pandemic response. She explains what we want from public officials at moments like these—and why Musk’s wanton cuts to government, the anti-vax views of RFK, and the cavalier approach to public health from all three of them add up to a picture that’s “terrifying.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:31.5

I'm your host, Greg Sargent. In West Texas, an unvaccinated school-aged child just died of measles.

0:46.9

This is the first reported death that's related to the frightening recent outbreak of the disease,

0:52.3

which has been spreading in Texas and now into New Mexico.

0:56.2

All this came up at President Trump's cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon. What happened was

1:02.0

really troubling. Elon Musk, apparently a de facto member of the cabinet,

1:07.9

cavalierly admitted that his cuts had briefly closed down Ebola prevention.

1:12.9

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that these types of measles

1:17.4

outbreaks are not unusual, something critics immediately jumped on. Today we're talking to

1:23.7

Stephanie Saki, a former senior HHS and White House official under President Biden,

1:28.7

who specializes in pandemic response. We're going to get into how serious this measles outbreak

1:33.6

has become and how big a threat having people like Musk and RFK overseeing public health

1:39.4

really is. Thanks for coming on, Stephanie. Thanks for having me, Greg.

1:49.3

Let's start with the comic relief, or, well, maybe this isn't really that funny.

1:55.3

Here's Elon Musk, who somehow got invited to a cabinet meeting, talking about Doge.

1:59.3

And I should say, also, we will make mistakes.

2:00.4

We won't be perfect.

2:04.0

But when we make a mistake, we'll fix it very quickly.

...

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