Rosie O'Donnell demands RFK Jr resign over comments about autistic children
Rosie O'Donnell lashed out at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday for his recent comments about autistic children destroying their families, saying he should be fired or resign as secretary of Health and Human Services.
"I think it's very disrespectful," she told CNN. "I think it's disgraceful, and I think he is wholly unqualified to be the head of Health and Human Services. I think most of the cabinet picks that Donald Trump has made are part of his vision of a reality show government, and not the most qualified people available, especially Robert Kennedy.
"And to think that his family is the one that created the Special Olympics, and he would go on with such disgraceful, dehumanizing remarks, is absolutely deplorable. And I feel he should resign or be released from his position."
Kennedy's remarks last week sparked backlash among some autistic individuals and their families, due to what they deemed his implication that they were all hopeless burdens. Kennedy said "autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children."
While Kennedy said he was referring to severe cases, he drew criticism for saying they were kids who would never do ordinary things like use the bathroom unassisted, hold down a job or pay taxes. Kennedy has directed the HHS to investigate the rise in autism rates and claimed the agency will have discovered a cause for the "epidemic" by September.
Kennedy's nomination for HHS Secretary was highly controversial due to his past work trying to link vaccinations to autism; most medical experts have repeatedly refuted such theories as unsubstantiated and based in part on flawed studies like the retracted Andrew Wakefield research about the MMR vaccine in 1998. Most research points to a genetic cause for the disorder, which presents itself in individuals on a wide spectrum.
Kennedy has claimed he is not anti-vaccine, although he has made repeated remarks questioning their efficacy and side effects throughout his life. While autism experts claim that the rise in cases stems from greater awareness and improved diagnostic testing, Kennedy attributed the rise in cases to environmental factors while speaking last week.
"This is coming from an environmental toxin, and somebody made a profit by putting that environmental toxin into our air, our water, our medicines, our food," Kennedy said. "And it's to their benefit to say ‘Oh, to normalize it, to say all this is all normal, it's always been here.’ That's not good for our country."
O'Donnell has a non-binary, autistic child named Clay, and she referred to Clay with "they" pronouns during the interview, saying "they were really regressing into themselves" at a young age before a therapy dog helped the situation.
O'Donnell, who currently resides in Ireland, added it's been "heartbreaking" to see the country decline in her view under President Donald Trump's leadership. She said she had no regrets about fleeing for Ireland after his election. The two have had a decades-long feud stretching back to her time hosting "The View" in the 2000s.
"I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country," she said on Tuesday. "I made the decision within my family and my therapist… And then when he did [win], we made the plan into action and we were gone before he was inaugurated."
Fox News Digital contacted the HHS for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News Digital's Diana Stancy contributed to this report.