DeSantis clarifies comment that he would ‘sic’ RFK Jr. on FDA or CDC

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis clarified his comment that if elected president he would "sic" Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on a medical agency, saying instead he would put the Democrat on a bipartisan task force that would hold medical agencies accountable for supposed government overreach.

“It wouldn’t be he would be the head of CDC,” DeSantis told Megyn Kelly in an interview on Friday. “That would be a doctor or a PhD.”

“I’m going to have probably a task force to go in there, hold people accountable for Covid, hold people accountable for what [has] happened,” DeSantis continued. “It would be more in that role that I’d want to get a bipartisan group of people together who understand the problem, understand the federal government's Covid response was a disaster.”

On Tuesday, DeSantis suggested to Clay Travis on OutKick that he saw a role for Kennedy on a medical-related federal agency, noting that they align on many conservative viewpoints about vaccines and the government’s response to Covid. Several Republicans, including former vice president Mike Pence, were quick to criticize him in response.

“If you’re president, sic him on the FDA if he’d be willing to serve,” DeSantis said on Tuesday — a role that he clarified on Saturday would be “outside” any particular agency.

In the Friday interview, DeSantis said he would look to nominate to medical agencies people like Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor who was a notable early opponent of lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic and opponent of mask mandates and vaccine passports. He also touted a pandemic policy approach of returning to normal life while protecting low-risk groups. In April 2021, Bhattacharya served on a roundtable for DeSantis around alleged censorship from technology companies during the pandemic.