Chris Pratt has said controversial things in the past and the latest is his defense of his wife’s cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current Secretary of Health and Human Services. And the man who cut funding to important vaccine research.
Pratt was on Bill Maher‘s Club Random podcast when he started to talk about the work that Kennedy is doing. To Pratt, the “important” work that Kennedy is doing doesn’t seemingly outweigh the horrible things that Kennedy and the Trump administration are doing. Like cutting funding to important research that could help prevent cancer.
“There’s certain things [that RFK Jr.] oversees that seem to be supported in a bipartisan way — like getting terrible toxic stuff out of our kids food,” Pratt told Maher. “I think that’s a great thing. If you just do that, that’s amazing. I’d hate to be so mired in hatred for the president that any success from his administration is something I’d be having an allergic reaction to. To be like, ‘Oh, well, if they do it, I don’t want it to happen. I’ll put Clorox in my children’s cereal myself!’ Be reasonable here. There’s certain things that would be a good thing to have. I want them all to be successful.”
Pratt went on to explain that he’s had great times with Kennedy and did point out that joining Trump means that Kennedy would look bad, seemingly saying that he doesn’t like Trump. But did say that he doesn’t know about his cousin-in-laws policies because when would he ask him?
“I’ve spent a number of occasions hanging with him [in a] strictly family dinner kind of vibe,” Pratt. “I really got along with him well and think he’s great. He’s funny, he’s wonderful. I love him … [But] when you jump on the bandwagon with the most divisive president ever, it makes sense that you’re going to be made to look terrible,” Pratt said. “So I don’t know what to believe [about his reported policies]. It’s not like I say to Bobby, ‘Let’s talk about this’ while we’re playing cards or having fun or having dinner. I’m not going to pick his brain to find out exactly which of those things are true. I just assume that none of them are? For the most part, I wish him well.”
All of this doesn’t change that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s cuts are going to hurt people
The idea that Kennedy is doing something good is heavily outweighed by the fact that his actions are going to hurt Americans. His “anti-vaccine” stance has cut mRNA funding that, in part, was for cancer vaccine research. So if you think that the “good” outweighs the bad…that’s a problem.
Pratt having this take doesn’t delight me. He’s literally in my favorite show, I’ve loved a lot of what Pratt has done with his career. But he has consistently had bad takes that make it feel disingenuous if you don’t speak out about them. Yes, I remember when all of the Avengers posted a “stop bullying Chris Pratt” post but for a man who is on one of the most liberally minded shows of the modern era, one that taught many of us to lead with kindness.
What Kennedy is doing with the health of our country is the opposite of that and to tell people to “be reasonable” when the Trump administration is actively hurting Americans is….something else.
(featured image: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage)
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