On Thursday, Fox News hosts and guests hailed President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The former Democratic presidential candidate is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who will undoubtedly face questions about this from Democrats in his confirmation hearing. He will also likely be grilled by Republicans over his pro-choice stance.
Additionally, Kennedy has criticized processed foods and said more needs to be done to curb obesity in the U.S. This has earned him plaudits from conservatives of late, including Fox News pundits. In primetime on Thursday, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity both struck optimistic notes as to how Kennedy might help address obesity in the U.S.
Ingraham wondered about a possible plan regarding “school lunches or other federally-subsidized foods” to “try to reverse some of this obesity epidemic.” Meanwhile, Hannity said, “I want other Americans to also make good choices, but it’s a choice. If you still wanna eat a bag of potato chips and get a Big Gulp, I’m not gonna stop you.”
On CNN NewsNight, host Abby Phillip played a montage of Fox News clips from 2010 in which hosts and guests slammed then-First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” public health campaign, which sought to reduce childhood obesity by encouraging exercise and healthy eating.
“Interestingly enough, there was another person many years ago who tried to raise concerns about the health of the food that we feed our children and our families,” Phillip said. “And here’s the reception that she received”:
GLENN BECK: When I heard this, I thought, get your damn hands off my fries, lady. If I want to be fat, fat, fatty, and shovel French fries all day long, that is my choice.
[…]
HANNITY: We’re gonna have, you know, the government fining us if we use salt.
[…]
BRIAN KILMEADE: Coming up straight ahead, all this talk about the government taking salt away from you because it’s so bad for you. But aren’t there good things about salt?
[…]
SOME GUY: I hate the government getting involved and telling me what to eat and not to eat.
STEVE DOOCY: Food police!
[…]
BILL HEMMER: Do you think the government should regulate the ingredients in the food we eat?…
MARTHA MACCALLUM: Can’t we make our own decisions about whether or not we want salt?
[…]
HANNITY: All right, an Obama government obesity task force… Does every American family need a dietician appointed by the government to tell them that this food is gonna make you fat and this food is not?
It should be noted that at no point during that time was the Obama administration considering a ban on salt, nor was it going to assign a dietician to every American.
“Make America healthy again,” Phillip said, reacting to the montage. “That’s pretty retro. Michelle Obama was actually responsibly – to be clear – talking about what we feed our children, what’s in our [school] lunches, whether or not our nutrition standards are up to the modern age given the obesity rates in this country.”
Watch above via CNN and Fox News.
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