A lighting malfunction repeatedly threw Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off his stride as he went on a conspiracy-laden tirade about chemtrails and vaccines to a crowd of fellow anti-vaxxers.
Kennedy had something of a homecoming Thursday as he delivered an address at a Washington, D.C., conference of the Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group he co-founded and chaired until 2024.
But while the conspiracy theorist-turned-Trump Cabinet member was welcomed with applause by the room full of vaccine skeptics, his speech ran into trouble almost immediately.
He glanced uncertainly toward the ceiling before asking, “Can you turn on these lights?”
Kennedy was told the problem was being fixed, but shortly after, someone offstage could be heard letting out an audible “F---.”
The 72-year-old health secretary pressed ahead with his speech and was eventually handed a flimsy reading light, only to accidentally switch it off moments later.
“This is going to be a challenge,” he said with an awkward laugh, as he fumbled with the light, which not only turned on and off but also kept falling over.
After he finally got the light turned on, it once again toppled over, and Kennedy inadvertently flicked it off and on as he struggled to prop it back up.
“Luckily, I’m not using much of this written speech because I can’t read any of it,” he said to scattered laughter.
He then pleaded, “I need some help with this light again, just in case I run out of stuff to say.”
A staff member effortlessly switched it back on by tapping the top of the light, prompting the crowd to erupt in laughter.
“Uhh, show me how to do that next time you come up here,” Kennedy said.
The health secretary proceeded to veer deep into fringe topics, declaring at one point that his department was “looking at chemtrails and the impact of emissions, uhh, emissions from, uhh, from aircraft and those potential impacts on health.”
But the lamp wasn’t done getting in his way, toppling over again as Kennedy turned his attention to criticizing childhood vaccines, repeating his claim that vaccines are linked to autism, which is contradicted by decades of research finding no causal link.
“President Trump will not allow the government to treat parents who question vaccine orthodoxies as lepers,” Kennedy said, insisting that rather than taking vaccines away, he had simply started asking “the questions that you and millions of American parents have been asking for years.”
“President Trump has continued to press this work—” he began, when the unruly light interrupted him yet again.
“OK, I need help again. Is there a button on this?” he asked, fumbling with the light as audience members called out that it was on top.
“Thank you for the tip,” Kennedy replied. “It’s committing to civil disobedience.”
The light toppled over once more as Kennedy told his anti-vax audience they had a “strong and steadfast friend at the White House.” This time, it fell completely off the podium as Kennedy sighed, “Oh boy.”
The light finally settled down after a staff member intervened again, though it gradually slumped over as Kennedy carried on.
