With the exceptions of former President Joe Biden’s dead-man-walking debate performance and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Penn., no event swung the 2024 presidential election to our current president more decidedly than his endorsement by Robert F Kennedy, Jr.

The impact that the scion of the Democrats’ greatest family had on voters should not be lost on Republican senators as they consider his nomination for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services this week.

These members of the world’s greatest deliberative body, direct descendants of those in ancient Rome, should remember that SPQR, or Senatus Populusque Romanus, means The Senate and The People. And that the latter usually win in the end.

The day before RFK, Jr.’s Aug. 23, 2024 endorsement of Trump, I wrote in this very space what independent and frustrated voters I met across the country who were ready to just sit it out had to say.

• ‘’hey’re both so tied down by money and special interests,’ a couple in San Francisco told me. ‘We need a real outsider.’
• Another voter said to me, ‘What are we even voting for?’
• If Kennedy comes out this week and says he believes Trump is the one who can break up the monotonous monopoly of Washington power, then many of these voters may well pivot to the former president’s side.’

Columnist Selena Zito, who might be the only person who expended more tire tread than I during the past election, had this to say this week on X:

‘The most interesting voter bloc I saw in Pennsylvania move towards Trump happened when Bobby Kennedy Jr endorsed Trump & just enough young, college educated suburban moms who were concerned about what their children are eating, joined him.’

Between the disaffected voters I was talking to and the moms Zito met with, none of whom were overly fond of Trump, there were enough votes for Republicans to win up and down the ballot.

Don’t want to trust the anecdotes and instincts of shoe-leather columnists? That’s a mistake, but for those who prefer analytical data, well, it shows up there too.

On the day RFK, Jr. endorsed Trump, polls showed Kamala Harris had a 3.7 point lead over Trump. It was the largest lead she would ever have in the race.

Elections have consequences, and millions of new Republican voters demand that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of HHS be one of them.

After RFK, Jr. threw in with the Donald, Harris fell and fell in the polling until we all know what happened.

The health food moms and disgruntled dads Kennedy brought into the GOP fold are not going to take kindly to the bait and switch if oh-so-principled .senators replace their reason for voting Republican with a run-of-the-mill establishment lackey.

There is likely only one bite at the apple that the Republican Party has with the RFK, Jr. voters. If they spit in their faces, they ain’t getting them back, and that could cause electoral woes in 2026 and beyond.

In terms of the American voter who matters, who is persuadable, or who might just sit it out, RFK, Jr. is as big a mandate as border security or the economy It would be foolish for Republican senators to ignore their will.

RFK, Jr. is a symbol. For some, he represents a new way to think about health and the food supply. For others, he is a check on power, or the guy with nothing controlling him. To still others, he may remain a climate activist. 

All of that is as may be. What we know is that the voters who put this Republican majority in power, at least those who were not already on board, want Kennedy. And there no reason to fear that he’s going to cause a smallpox outbreak, ban penicillin, or outlaw the polio vaccine.

In ancient Rome, when senators fell too far out of line with the people, bad things could happen. If the old school Trump-skeptical GOP members of the upper body of Congress defy the will of the people, it’s not just them falling on their own electoral sword, but the whole party.

Elections have consequences, and millions of new Republican voters demand that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of HHS be one of them.

President Donald Trump has ordered the construction of an advanced, next-generation missile defense shield to protect the United States from aerial attack.

On Monday, the president signed an executive order that tasks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with drawing up plans to build an ‘Iron Dome for America’ that will protect Americans from the threat of missiles launched by a foreign enemy. In doing so, Trump kept a campaign promise to prioritize missile defense.

‘By next term we will build a great Iron Dome over our country,’ Trump said during a West Palm Beach event on June 14. ‘We deserve a dome…it’s a missile defense shield, and it’ll all be made in America.’

But what exactly are Trump’s plans for an ‘Iron Dome’? Here’s what you need to know: 

1. Israel’s first defense

The Iron Dome missile defense system Trump has called for is similar to one that Israel has developed to intercept thousands of rockets. 

Israel’s first line of defense, a missile defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is labeled the Iron Dome. It was first deployed in 2011, and has since rebuffed and destroyed rockets from Hamas terrorists, Hezbollah forces and Iranian drones and missiles.

The Iron Dome is land-based and built to keep the citizens of Israel safe from barrages of rockets deployed most often by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials claim the Iron Dome has been 90% effective in intercepting thousands of rockets fired into Israel. 

The U.S. has contributed at least $2.6 billion to the development of Israel’s Iron Dome system since 2011. 

2. The threats facing the U.S.

Critically, the Iron Dome is a short-range defense system capable of tackling missiles with ranges between 2.5 miles and about 43 miles. Trump’s executive order identifies attack by long-range ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles as ‘the most catastrophic threat facing the United States,’ so his proposed defense system will need to be adapted and redesigned to defend against intercontinental missiles.

Russia currently has an arsenal of 1,250 deployed weapons, according to the New York Times. Pentagon analysts believe China will have a weapons stockpile of similar size within 10 years, if not earlier, and North Korea has continued development of intercontinental ballistic missiles under both Trump and President Joe Biden’s watch.

Most recently, Russia and China have experimented with hypersonic missiles, which are designed to exceed Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. Intercepting missiles at such speeds is a challenge the U.S. has partnered with Japan to confront at an estimated cost of $3 billion, the Associated Press reported. 

3. Reagan tried it first

President Ronald Reagan was the first U.S. president to call for a national defense system that would counter the threat of the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons, including warheads attached to ballistic missiles.

On March 30, 1983, Reagan proposed ‘a vision for the future that offers hope’ that he called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The idea was to develop a space-based missile defense program that would protect the country from large-scale nuclear attack. Reagan proposed to develop technology that would allow the United States to identify and automatically destroy numerous incoming ballistic missiles before they reached their targets.

Acknowledging that the technology to realize his vision did not yet exist, Regan urged the scientific community to partner with the defense community and work towards a future where Americans need not fear nuclear attack.

‘I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete,’ Reagan said.

The president’s critics derided the plan, nicknaming it, ‘Star Wars,’ and questioned why his administration would pursue a costly defense initiative with no guarantee that it would work. The Soviet Union accused Regan of violating a 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that committed both countries to refrain from developing missile defense systems. Arms control measures stalled during Reagan’s term because he refused to give up the project.

After Regan left office, interest in SDI waned and the program was canceled before the U.S. could develop a functional missile defense system. However, research conducted while SDI was active contributed to the Iron Dome’s development. In 2002, the U.S. withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which now allows Trump to pick up where Reagan left off.

4. Hegseth’s to-do list

Under Trump’s order, freshly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must submit to the president ‘a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield.’ 

The plans must include defense against ‘ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries.’ 

Hegseth is also instructed to accelerate the deployment of a satellite-based sensor system developed by the Missile Defense Agency that is currently in its prototype phase. Called the Hypersonic Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, the system uses ‘birth-to-death’ tracking to follow missile threats from launch through interception, according to the Defense Department.

Additionally, Trump’s order instructs the development and deployment of several space-based missile interception technologies, including systems that could disable a missile prior to launch, as well as a ‘secure supply chain’ to ensure that the ordered missile defense infrastructure is made in America.

Hegseth must also submit a plan to pay for these dense systems before the president puts together his fiscal year 2026 budget. 

5. Cooperating with U.S. allies

Trump’s order calls to ‘increase bilateral and multilateral cooperation on missile defense technology development, capabilities, and operations,’ as well as to ‘increase and accelerate the provision of the United States missile defense capabilities to allies and partners.’

Hegseth is also directed to conduct a review of the U.S. military’s missile defense posture in theaters across the globe and identify areas for cooperation with allies.

Fox News Digital’s Gabriele Regalbuto contributed to this report.

House Democrats are demanding answers regarding the Justice Department’s move this week to fire more than a dozen officials involved in former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, arguing the action was in ‘complete contradiction’ of President Trump’s effort to keep a ‘merit-based system’ for government employees. 

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Gerald Connolly, D-Ma., penned a letter to acting Attorney General James McHenry Tuesday, obtained by Fox News. 

‘We write to you with alarm and profound concern about reports of the administration engaging in the widespread summary firing and involuntary reassignment of excellent career prosecutors and federal agents throughout the Department of Justice (DOJ),’ they wrote. ‘This onslaught against effective DOJ civil servants began within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, in complete contradiction of the president’s repeated pledges to maintain a merit-based system for government employment.’ 

Raskin and Connolly added that the officials worked ‘strenuously to defend the rule of law have been removed from their positions without any evaluation—much less any negative evaluation—of their work.’ 

McHenry, on Monday, fired more than a dozen key officials on Smith’s team who worked to prosecute the president, saying that they could not be trusted in ‘faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.’ 

Fox News Digital first reported the news exclusively on Monday. 

Raskin and Connolly argued that the officials terminated on Monday were ‘part of an expert, non-political workforce tasked with protecting our national security and public safety.’ 

‘They have been hired and promoted based on their professional merit and excellence,’ they wrote, adding that ‘many of them have decades of experience under their belt and have served under, been promoted by, and received awards from presidential administrations of both major political parties, including President Trump’s first administration.’ 

The Democrats argued that McHenry removed them from their posts ‘without regard to their demonstrated competencies, their recognized achievements, or their devoted service to the Department, in some cases reassigning them to areas that are outside of their legal expertise.’ 

‘By removing them from their positions in this hasty and unprincipled way, you have very likely violated longstanding federal laws,’ they wrote, also accusing McHenry of having ‘taken aim at law students who applied to, interviewed for, and received offers from the Department based on their demonstrated academic achievements and their commitment to public service.’ 

The Democrats claimed that the DOJ ‘rescinded job offers to summer interns and entry-level attorneys hired through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, a highly competitive 72-year-old recruitment program that receives applications from students at hundreds of law schools across the country.’

‘We have also received disturbing reports surfacing that White House staff are playing a substantial role in these employment decisions and examining career civil servants’ LinkedIn and other social media profiles to ascertain their personal political leanings,’ Raskin and Connolly wrote. ‘Taken together, your actions raise significant concern that you are determined to fill the ranks of the DOJ and FBI with career employees selected for the personal loyalty or political services they have rendered to President Trump.’ 

Raskin and Connolly are demanding the DOJ provide them with a list of names of officials who have been reassigned or terminated; and provide any communications between the DOJ and the White House since Inauguration Day regarding the content of personal social media accounts of career DOJ employees or applicants. 

Raskin and Connolly demanded the information by Feb. 11 at 5:00 p.m. 

Their letter comes after McHenry, on Monday, transmitted a letter to each official notifying them of their termination, a Justice Department official exclusively told Fox News Digital. It is unclear how many officials received that letter. The names of the individuals were not immediately released. 

‘Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,’ a DOJ official told Fox News Digital. ‘In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda.’ 

This action ‘is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,’ the official told Fox News Digital.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

A letter signed by 77 Nobel laureates opposing the confirmation of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being touted as a reason to oppose him is almost entirely composed of political donors, many of them who supported Democrat campaigns.

‘In view of his record, placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences, in both the public and commercial sectors,’ more than 75 Nobel laureates wrote in an open letter published by the New York Times last month. 

A Fox News Digital review found that at least 60 of the signatories are political donors, mostly to Democratic campaigns, including Steven Chu, who served as former President Barack Obama’s secretary of Energy. Chu gave $5,400 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. 

Nobel Medicine Laureate Joseph L. Goldstein, who also signed the letter, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats, including former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former President Joe Biden and the Democrat-aligned SMP Super PAC.

American economist George A. Akerlof, who is married to Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, also signed the letter on top of donating $25,000 to Biden in 2020 and $20,000 to the DCCC in 2018.

Akerlof signed a letter in June of last year warning of the economic dangers of electing President Donald Trump back into office, which was amplified by the Biden campaign and other Biden surrogates and also littered with signatories who have either donated to Biden or supported him politically in the past.

Akerlof, who donated nearly $90,000 to Democrats between the 1990s and 2022, also signed a letter supporting Build Back Better, and signed a letter in 2020 calling Trump’s re-election effort ‘selfish and reckless.’

Louis E. Brus, an American chemist who signed the letter, is a frequent Democrat donor, including sending $2,000 to Biden’s campaign.

Chemists Walter Gilbert, Johann Deisenhofer, Alan Heeger and Brian K. Kobilka also donated to Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Obama, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. 

Other signatories include Planned Parenthood donor David Baltimore, John Kerry donor Michael Rosbash, former President Bill Clinton NIH Director Harold E. Varmus and Adam Schiff donor Kip Stephen Thorne. 

‘If there’s one thing Americans should understand about politics, it’s that things are rarely as they seem,’ Camryn Kinsey, executive director of Confirm 47, told Fox News Digital. ‘This letter appears to be nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt by special interests to block a critical Cabinet nomination. The fact that one of the signers is a former Obama Cabinet official, and that the majority are Democrat donors, tells you everything you need to know.’

Kennedy is also facing a million-dollar opposition campaign from Protect Our Care, which is backed by the dark money group Sixteen Thirty Fund that is not required to disclose its donors, Politico reported.

The dark money fund is a group ‘committed to tackling society’s biggest social challenges’ such as climate change and gun reform, brought in $181 million, spending about $141 million in 2023.

Kennedy, who has been criticized by both sides of the aisle for previous positions on vaccines and his stance on abortion, will have his first confirmation hearing Wednesday at 10 a.m. 

On top of facing opposition from experts in the New York Times letter and other petitions, Kennedy has faced support in the medical community, including an initiative backed by IMA Action, a coalition of over 15,000 healthcare professionals, who are rallying support for Kennedy.

‘Our coalition is broad, highly active and deeply committed to much needed healthcare reform,’ Lynne Kristensen, Communications Director for IMA Action, said in a statement. ‘We’re going to push back against the falsehoods of the Pharma-financed opposition to RFK Jr., and our healthcare professionals will be exceedingly active with their home state senators, policy makers and public health agencies.’

‘The Kennedy and other HHS confirmations are about restoring health to America’s healthcare system, and IMA Action is excited for health reform to be at the forefront of the national conversation.’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will emphasize that he is not ‘anti-vaccine’ when he appears Wednesday in Congress at the first of two straight days of Senate confirmation hearings.

‘I want to make sure the Committee is clear about a few things. News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. Well, I am neither; I am pro-safety,’ Kennedy will say in his opening statement in front of the Senate Finance Committee.

The statement was shared first with Fox News ahead of the appearance by Kennedy, who, if confirmed, would have control over 18 powerful federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

And Kennedy will emphasize he’s not ‘the enemy of food producers. American farms are the bedrock of our culture and national security … I want to work with our farmers and food producers to remove burdensome regulations and unleash American ingenuity.’

The hearing, as well as a Thursday hearing in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (a courtesy hearing as only the Senate Finance Committee will vote on Kennedy’s confirmation), are expected to be contentious because of Kennedy’s controversial vaccine views, including his repeated claims linking vaccines to autism, which have been debunked by scientific research.

Kennedy also served for years as chair or chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit organization he founded that has advocated against vaccines and sued the federal government numerous times, including a challenge over the authorization of the COVID vaccine for children.

After Trump’s convincing November presidential election victory, Kennedy has said he won’t ‘take away anybody’s vaccines.’

And in his opening statement at his confirmation hearing, Kennedy will spotlight that ‘all of my kids are vaccinated, and I believe vaccines have a critical role in healthcare.’

But he will also say, ‘In my advocacy, I have disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions. Well, I won’t apologize for that. We have massive health problems in this country that we must face honestly.’

HHS is a massive federal department, with approximately 90,000 people and an annual budget of roughly $1.7 trillion. And Kennedy has said he wants to shift the focus of the agencies he would oversee toward promotion of a healthy lifestyle and the root causes of chronic diseases, which has garnered some bipartisan support in Congress.

Kennedy has said he would aim to overhaul dietary guidelines and take aim at ultra-processed foods, among other initiatives.

‘American farms are the bedrock of our culture and national security,’ Kennedy is expected to say in his opening statement. ‘I want to work with our farmers and food producers to remove burdensome regulations and unleash American ingenuity.’

He will warn that ‘the United States has worse health than any other developed nation, yet we spend far more on healthcare — at least double; and in some cases, triple.’

And he will ‘thank President Trump for entrusting me to deliver on his promise to make America healthy again.’ 

‘Should I be so privileged to be confirmed, we will make sure our tax dollars support healthy foods. We will scrutinize the chemical additives in our food supply. We will remove the financial conflicts of interest in our agencies. We will create an honest, unbiased, science-driven HHS, accountable to the President, to Congress, and to the American people. We will reverse the chronic disease epidemic and put the nation back on the road to health,’ Kennedy is expected to say.

The 71-year-old Kennedy, the longtime environmental activist and crusader who is the scion of the nation’s most storied political dynasty, launched a long-shot campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination against then-President Biden in April 2023. But six months later, he switched to an independent run for the White House.

Kennedy made major headlines again last August when he dropped his presidential bid and endorsed Trump. While Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy – who were both assassinated in the 1960s – Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders due in part to his high-profile vaccine skepticism.

Trump announced soon after the November election that he would nominate Kennedy to his Cabinet to run HHS.

Opposition to Kennedy’s nomination has been fierce, with advocacy groups running ad campaigns urging senators to vote against his confirmation.

Kennedy, in his opening statement, will ‘thank my wife Cheryl, who is with us here today; and all the members of my large extended family, for the love that they have so generously shared. Ours has always been a family devoted to public service, and I look forward to continuing that legacy.’

But many members of the Kennedy family were very vocal in their opposition to his primary challenge against Biden as well as his independent White House run.

And on the eve of his confirmation hearing, his well-known cousin, Caroline Kennedy, sent a letter to senators on Tuesday that charged Kennedy as one who ‘preys on the desperation of parents and sick children’ and whose actions ‘have cost lives.’ 

She seemed to be referring to Kennedy’s connection to a measles outbreak in 2019 in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa, where 83 people died.

Among those vocal in their opposition to Kennedy is Democrat Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii, a former emergency room physician who traveled to Samoa to help treat the deadly measles outbreak, including vaccinating tens of thousands of individuals.

‘Our people deserve a Health and Human Services Secretary who champions science, supports vaccines, and is committed to lowering costs while safeguarding health care access,’ the governor said in a statement. ‘Mr. Kennedy’s lack of experience raises serious concerns about the future of critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid.’

It’s not just Democrats who have issues with Kennedy.

Social conservative Republicans aiming to curtail abortion rights take issue with his past comments in support of abortion rights.

On the eve of the confirmation hearing, former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom public advocacy group launched a modest ad campaign opposing Kennedy based on his abortion views.

‘We need leadership that defends life and protects the most vulnerable—not radical policies that undermine our values,’ the group wrote in a social media post.

Kennedy met with senators again on Tuesday, on the eve of his confirmation hearing, but didn’t take shouted questions from reporters.

But veteran Trump administration official Katie Miller told Fox News Digital that Kennedy’s ‘prepared and excited’ for the hearings.