Washington — Three days after the “blue wave” in last week’s elections, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted a warning on X for anyone suspecting that his Make America Healthy Again movement — “MAHA” — had been weakened. “It’s time to unleash the Kraken,” he wrote.
The phrase refers to the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, and it gained popularity in 2020 among far-right online personalities who claimed that the Democrats had stolen the election. The post suggests that Kennedy will fight for his agenda and has no intention of leaving office, despite the defeat of several MAHA-backed candidates.
The question now is whether Democrats will use their new majorities in Congress to try to remove him.
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Many want to investigate him, arguing that his vaccine-related agenda and his handling of measles outbreaks put American lives at risk. Some, including the elected senator Annie Andrews, from South Carolina, want to launch impeachment proceedings against him. Senator Angela Alsobrooks, a Maryland Democrat, wants Kennedy removed, but did not say how.
“The time has come,” Alsobrooks wrote on X the day after the election. “RFK Jr. needs to resign or be fired. End of discussion.”
Agendas Similar to Democrats’
But others want to work with Kennedy in areas where they may reach an agreement. They believe his food and environmental policies — which faced obstacles in Trump’s White House — naturally align with those of the Democrats. They also see an opportunity to win part of the health-focused coalition that helped President Donald Trump to secure a second term.
Democrats such as Maine Representative Chellie Pingree, a farmer who practices regenerative agriculture, and Tim Ryan, former congressman from Ohio, believe the party should not waste the opportunity to attract MAHA voters to these issues.
The elected senator Abdul El-Sayed, from Michigan, a physician and former state health official, proposed his own MAHA-like agenda, but under a different name: Building a Healthier America.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Ryan wrote in response to Alsobrooks. “Why wouldn’t we work together to see what advances we can achieve?”
Emily Hilliard, Kennedy’s spokesperson, said the secretary “will continue to serve the American people and looks forward to working with all members of Congress to translate shared priorities into lasting MAHA reforms.”
MAHA activists from across the political spectrum were disappointed with Trump’s White House for delaying Kennedy’s efforts to regulate ultraprocessed foods. Many of the so-called “MAHA moms,” who believed Trump when he said he would “let Kennedy act freely in the health arena,” felt betrayed by the president when he signed an executive order expanding glyphosate production, a herbicide some scientists associate with cancer.
“Women feel they have been deceived,” said Alex Clark, conservative podcast commentator and MAHA influencer, in February after the glyphosate order.
Two prominent MAHA leaders, Vani Hari, cookbook author and healthy eating advocate who calls herself “Food Babe,” and Zen Honeycutt, environmental activist who founded Moms Across America, are former Democrats who followed Kennedy onto Trump’s side. Both say they vote for the person, not the party.
“Frankly, I’m tired of reporters asking me whether I’m loyal to Republicans or Democrats,” Hari, who served as Barack Obama’s delegate at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, said. “I’m loyal to my children.”
The day after the election, Honeycutt took part in a MAHA Action webinar, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports Kennedy. She urged Democrats to join forces with the secretary.
“I ask every Democrat who is thinking of working against him to sit down and talk with him,” she said. “I think you’ll like him. I think you’ll enjoy working with him.”
Critiques by Doctors and Scientists
The blue wave brought a cohort of doctors, scientists, and health professionals who align with Democrats to Washington this week to counsel first-term lawmakers. But working with Kennedy may be difficult for many of them.
In the past, most doctors in Congress were Republicans, often worked independently, and ran for office driven by business concerns. The new generation of Democrats with professional health experience is mobilized by the cost of care, access to treatments, and, in some cases, opposition to Kennedy.
Andrews, the South Carolina senator-elect — a state hard hit by the measles epidemic — campaigned on a platform that included impeaching Kennedy.
“He is a clear and present danger to public health,” said Andrews, a pediatrician, during the campaign.
After the election, Erik Polyak, executive director of 314 Action, a political action committee that supports scientists and health professionals who run for public office, forecasted a difficult path for Kennedy. “We’ll see RFK Jr.’s head served on a silver platter,” Polyak told Politico.
The remark echoed online. News outlets said Democrats were “smelling blood” and were “going after” the health secretary. But in a interview, Shaughnessy Naughton, founder and president of 314 Action, rejected Polyak’s statement. “That’s not the kind of rhetoric that should be part of this conversation,” she said.
Still, Naughton, a chemist and former Pennsylvania congressional candidate, interpreted the election results as a rejection of Kennedy’s policies, including his criticisms of the CDC and the National Institutes of Health.
“For months we warned Republicans that voters would hold the Republican Party responsible for RFK Jr.’s recklessness,” she said.
For now, Democrats are more focused on opening impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, rather than Kennedy. “I don’t think Democrats can spend time pursuing impeachment against every cabinet,” Pingree said. “And if there is any impeachment, it should start with Secretary Hegseth.”
But Kennedy’s critics may soon gain new ammunition. Early next week, a WHO-affiliated agency is expected to strip the United States of its measles-free designation. The disease has killed 11 people in the country since Kennedy took office.
Senator Bernie Sanders, independent from Vermont who sits with the Democratic caucus and is likely to become the next chair of the Senate Health Committee, told CNN on Sunday that he is “absolutely open” to impeachment. In a statement to The New York Times on Saturday, Sanders declined to say whether he would prefer to file impeachment against Kennedy or work with him.
“RFK Jr. is, by far, the most dangerous Secretary of Health and Human Services in the history of our country,” Sanders said, adding that his committee “will hold Secretary Kennedy accountable.”
MAHA Stronger?
Although the election confirmed the split between the MAHA movement and the Republicans, paradoxically, Kennedy’s influence inside the White House may now strengthen. Last week, Trump announced he would replace his chief of staff, Susie Wiles — accused of blocking some MAHA policies — with Stephen Miller, the architect of the regime’s strict immigration policies. Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, served as Kennedy’s spokesperson during the transition.
“After me, Stephen Miller is the biggest MAHA supporter in the government,” Kennedy wrote on X, in the post saying it was “time to unleash the Kraken.”
Some Kennedy allies are encouraging the secretary to capitalize on the strained relationship between MAHA and the Republicans, as well as the shift in White House leadership, to push his agenda forward. Clark sees two options for Kennedy. One is to resign and plan a 2028 presidential run. “The other option,” she said, “is to come out swinging, regardless of consequences, and treat every day as if the president could fire me.”
Even Tony Lyons, a conservative editor and close ally of Kennedy who runs MAHA Action and its political action committee, has visibly softened his rhetoric. At the start of the cycle, Lyons pledged to raise $100 million to elect Republicans “aligned with MAHA and backed by Trump.” The MAHA committee helped elect a Republican, Julia Letlow, Louisiana’s senator-elect, though she did not change the party balance of the seat. She will replace Senator Bill Cassidy, who won in the primaries.
But several of the major Republican candidates backed by the MAHA committee lost last week. They include Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas; Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general who was contesting the Senate; and Zach Lahn, who had hoped to become governor of Iowa. At the MAHA Action post-election event, Lyons attributed the results to corporate influence and the big businesses in the food, agriculture, and pharmaceutical sectors.
He did not talk about the Republicans backed by Trump. “We have the building blocks of an incredibly powerful independent movement, not beholden to anyone,” he said.
Kennedy does not seem to be shaken. At a MAHA Action party held Monday night in Washington, he was surrounded by admirers vying for selfies; a young woman posed with a small rabbit. He spoke for about ten minutes, praising Stephen Miller and Wiles.
Yet, in addition to criticizing Democrats, Kennedy also attacked Republicans who refused to confirm several of Trump’s nominees for health positions. He suggested that perhaps he now has more freedom to act, since the president’s party is no longer in power.
This article was originally published in The New York Times.
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