He could have left this one in the drafts

The US health secretary, also known for conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine activism, spoke about his history of drug abuse when he was younger.

RFK Jr reflected on his recovery from alcohol and substance abuse, which lasted decades.

“I'm not scared of a germ… I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats”, he confessed, raising eyebrows on social media.

Referring to addiction, he said that “I know this disease will kill me”.

“Like, if I don't, if I don't treat it, which means for me going to meetings every day. It's just bad for my life.”

Following his interview on the podcast, a non-profit fighting for affordable healthcare in the US, Protect Our Care, called for Kennedy to step down.

It said in a statement that he was “the most dangerous, in over his head, ill-suited person ever to lead such an important federal agency that has life-and-death power”.

And the president of the organization, Brad Woodhouse, gave a very short response: “Resign.”

Meanwhile, a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, Malcolm Kenyatta, posted on X: “For some reason I don't trust this guy on public health”, after his comments.

A senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, highlighted a double standard on attitudes towards addiction.

“Just a reminder that the Trump admin calls immigrants who've fallen into drug addiction 'the worst of the worst' criminals, no matter how long ago their addiction problems”, he wrote.

Kennedy has spoken about his drug addiction also in the past. He said that it began after his dad, Robert F Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles, California in June 1968.

He also revealed that he was arrested twice for drug offences in the past. Once in 1970 for cannabis possession, and in 1983 for heroin possession.

He said that what pushed him to get sober was the latter arrest.

Kennedy, who leads the US government’s health policy, for the past 20 years has promoted vaccine misinformation and public-health conspiracy theories.

Others include the chemtrail conspiracy theory, HIV/AIDS denialism, and the scientifically disproved claim of a causal link between vaccines and autism.