RFK Jr. Says He's Not Telling Americans to 'Do Anything That I Do' amid Questions About Using Nicotine and Tanning Beds

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is opening up about some of his lifestyle choices that would not generally be approved of by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Since he was confirmed as secretary of the department in February, the 71-year-old son of Robert F. Kennedy has ignited controversy by magnifying scientifically disproven theories about vaccines, and become a champion of the "Make America Healthy Again" initiative.

In a recent interview with The Atlantic, however, he was asked about how his use of tanning beds and nicotine — both of which are considered to carry major risks to the body — align with the "MAHA" ideology.

“I’m not telling people that they should do anything that I do,” RFK Jr. said when pressed.

“I just say ‘Get in shape,’ " he added.

The Atlantic story also noted that the nephew of late President John F. Kennedy, "regularly pulls Zyn nicotine pouches from his shirt pocket or desk drawers to tuck between his lower lip and gum."

This follows a January incident where RFK. Jr. allegedly popped a nicotine pouch into his mouth during his Senate confirmation hearing for his role in Donald Trump's government.

On top of questioning the safety of vaccines, RFK Jr. has also come out against artificial food dyes and seed oils and taken issue with the national fertility rate, along with a number of other controversial opinions.

Trump's appointment of RFK Jr. came amid blowback from multiple members of his family.

Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, his younger brother, slammed the department secretary in an op-ed for the Boston Globe, which referred to his behavior as "a betrayal of all that my father worked for."

"All those complicit in that betrayal have lowered themselves — not least my brother, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s secretary of health and human services, who knows my father’s legacy as well as anyone," he wrote.

Reflecting on what RFK, who served as the U.S. attorney general, would have thought of the Trump administration, Maxwell wrote, "Of course, there is no way to know precisely what he would have thought. But I do know what he cared about most deeply: the injustice of poverty in the richest nation in the world and our duty as citizens to make sure that no child goes to bed hungry."

"I know, specifically, that he would have been appalled by the cruelty the Trump administration has directed toward America’s neediest," Maxwell added.

Caroline Kennedy, RFK Jr.'s cousin and the daughter of JFK, also accused the politician of being a "predator" and said that he was "unqualified" for the role, in a January letter to the Senate during his confirmation hearings.

“Even before he fills this job, his constant denigration of our health care system and the conspiratorial half-truths he’s told about vaccines — including in connection with Samoa’s deadly 2019 outbreak of measles — have cost lives,” she said at the time.

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Caroline reflected on what her famous family members would think of RFK Jr., writing, “I am certain that he and my uncle Bobby, who gave their lives in public service to this country, and my uncle Teddy, who devoted his long Senate career to the cause of improving health care, would be disgusted.”

Two of Caroline's children have also publicly lambasted RFK Jr.

Her son, Jack Schlossberg, implied that Trump was "so obsessed with the Kennedys and the Kennedy name and the Kennedy brand that he caged one and put it in his Cabinet, a rabid dog in his Cabinet, put a collar on my cousin, RFK Jr.," during a November appearance on the MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) program The Weekend.

Her daughter Tatiana Schlossberg also slammed RFK. Jr. in an essay published by The New Yorker while reflecting on her terminal cancer diagnosis.