RFK JR. Posts Bizarre Hike with Dr. Oz (Video)

RFK Jr., now serving as President Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, sparked outrage this week after posting a surreal video of himself hauling Medicare chief Dr. Mehmet Oz up a rock face in Colorado—just days after a deadly shooting at the CDC.

The three-and-a-half-minute clip, filmed at Colorado Springs’ Garden of the Gods park, was framed as part of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign. But the timing, less than a week after a vaccine conspiracy-motivated gunman killed a police officer at CDC headquarters, left critics accusing Kennedy of tone-deaf political theater.

“Instead of leading a grieving agency, he’s mugging for the cameras with Dr. Oz,” fumed Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). “It’s performative distraction at a moment of real crisis.”

The video begins innocently, with Kennedy and Oz strolling among the park’s towering red rocks, chatting about the benefits of daily exercise. “Walk 15 minutes a day, you save the country $100 billion in health expenses,” Oz proclaims. But midway through, Kennedy turns to the camera: “This mountain is not going to climb itself.”

Seconds later, the 71-year-old cabinet secretary, clad in jeans and hiking boots, is seen scrambling up a cliff face before yanking Oz up by the arm. Oz, visibly winded, then asks the obvious: “So how do we get down?” Park rules ban “rock scrambling” above 10 feet without proper climbing gear—making the stunt potentially a violation.

For many Democrats, this wasn’t just an awkward photo-op—it was part of a larger, troubling pattern. Kennedy, who abandoned his 2024 third-party presidential bid to endorse Trump in exchange for a cabinet slot, has repeatedly been accused of sidelining public health in favor of ideological spectacle.

Last week, Kennedy canceled $500 million in mRNA vaccine research, citing unsubstantiated claims about safety. “The data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” Kennedy said—despite overwhelming peer-reviewed evidence to the contrary. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, former CDC director, blasted the move as “a dangerous rollback that undermines decades of scientific progress.”

The Atlanta attack that killed Officer David Rose was allegedly carried out by a 30-year-old man who blamed the COVID vaccine for his mental health struggles—a claim echoing the kind of rhetoric Kennedy himself has trafficked in for years.

CDC employees told the Washington Post that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine messaging has “politicized and weakened” the agency’s credibility, creating fertile ground for violent extremism. “He waited nearly a full day to make a statement and didn’t show up here until three days later,” one staffer said. “Morale is the lowest I’ve ever seen.”

This isn’t the first time Kennedy has been spotted hiking in the midst of a departmental emergency. In March, as a measles outbreak tore through West Texas, he was photographed trekking in California’s Coachella Valley.

Critics at the time accused him of neglecting the crisis while fueling vaccine hesitancy. Now, as images of him playing action hero with Dr. Oz ricochet across social media, Democrats are warning that Kennedy’s “MAHA” brand is masking a deeper dismantling of public health priorities. “Americans need a steady hand guiding our health agencies,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told MSNBC. “What we’re getting instead is a dangerous sideshow.”