Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was “having fun” on the same day he announced the Department of Health and Human Services would cut 10,000 jobs.
The remark came as health workers across the country were reeling from the shock of learning that they could be losing their livelihoods.
In a video announcing the job losses, Kennedy said there would be a “painful period” ahead and slammed the department he runs as a “sprawling bureaucracy.”
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“I want to promise you now that we’re going to do more with less,” he said.
However, when Kennedy met podcaster Drew Pinsky, known as “Dr Drew,” in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, he seemed to be in good spirits.
Pinsky was one of a group of podcasters invited to the White House by President Donald Trump. Later, he broadcast live from the Capitol and told his guest, right-wing commentator Jack Posobiec, that he had met Kennedy.
Pinsky said he asked how Kennedy was doing after he “pulled him aside.”
“He said one thing to me that made me enthusiastic,” the podcast host added.
He said Kennedy told him: “I’m having fun.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Pinsky said.
The Associated Press reported that federal health workers reacted with shock and anxiety across the country after learning the news. They said they had not been given any notice of the cuts.
The HHS anticipates the move will save $1.8 billion per year but didn’t provide a breakdown.
“We’re all pretty devastated,” one employee at the National Institutes of Health said. “We don’t know what this means for public health.”
