NBA star Rudy Gobert shared his approval of President-elect Trump tapping antivaccine activist and environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“Let’s go @RobertKennedyJr🙏🏽,” Gobert wrote in a short Thursday post on the social platform X following the announcement.
The Minnesota Timberwolves center, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year award-winner, made headlines in March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he jokingly touched every microphone following a press conference. At the time, he played for the Utah Jazz.
Following the microphone gaffe on March 9, Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus a few days later. The NBA then halted all games on March 11 as the virus spread across the country and the world. The games resumed in Orlando nearly five months later. He received widespread criticism.
Gobert, a member of the French national team, told ESPN in late 2020 that he wouldn’t do it again if he could go back in time.
“It came from a good intention,” Gobert said in December 2020. “It was the first day that we found out that the media was not going to be able to interview us, right next to us, and, you know, we obviously didn’t know as much as we know now, and I only did that to try to liven the mood a little bit. It was, of course, if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t do it.”
Gobert said it was “great that the NBA reacted as fast as they did because just having thousands and thousands of people in a closed space, next to each other, while having way more people testing positive … it was really the smartest thing to do to try to save as many lives as they could.”
Kennedy’s possible appointment drew concern from some public health officials and Democrats. If confirmed through the Senate, Kennedy would oversee a nearly $2 trillion budget. The HHS oversees 13 separate agencies.
“Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!” Trump said in the announcement.
Kennedy, who ran for the White House, first as a Democrat and then as an independent, endorsed Trump in August and later served as a surrogate on the campaign trail.
The environmental attorney thanked Trump for picking him and said he is “committed to advancing your vision to Make America Healthy Again.”
“Together we will clean up corruption, stop the revolving door between industry and government, and return our health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science,” Kennedy wrote Thursday on X. “I will provide Americans with transparency and access to all the data so they can make informed choices for themselves and their families.”
