This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

On Thursday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. got confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The only Republican to vote no was Mitch McConnell, who issued a powerful statement citing RFK's anti-vax conspiracy theories and crediting vaccines for saving millions of lives around the world. That prompted two unhinged

angry rants from Trump to reporters in which he savaged McConnell as a loser and a failure

and suggested he had subjugated McConnell

to his will. We think this Trump-McConnell rift captures a whole lot of uncomfortable truths

about the GOP in the Trump era, and about where we're headed next. We're going to get deep into this

with Norm Ornstein, a longtime congressional observer who probably understands McConnell and today's GOP better than just about anyone else alive.

Norm, thanks for coming back on.

Always a pleasure, break. What a day.

What a day. So McConnell's statement on RFK was quite powerful.

McConnell ripped RFK's record of trafficking and dangerous

conspiracy theories and his success in eroding trust in public health institutions.

McConnell described vaccines as scientific miracles and warned that RFK's ascension will lead to the

relitigation of proven cures.

Norm, this is a catastrophe.

You know McConnell as well as anyone.

Can you talk about where this is really coming from in him?

Here's what we know about Mitch McConnell.

One of the signature developments of McConnell's life was not just his bout with polio as a younger person,

but the fact that the scourge of polio has carried with him for the rest of his life.

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