Senator JD Vance of Ohio echoed some of the language of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on public health and the environment during a campaign rally on Tuesday in Michiganmoonrich88, a state where Mr. Kennedy — an ally of former President Donald J. Trump — was still on the ballot as a third-party presidential candidate and potential spoiler in the crucial battleground state.
Appearing in Detroit, Mr. Vance spoke of the importance of having clean air and clean water, and suggested that Americans relied more on antidepressants when compared with other countries. He also spoke of an American epidemic of obesity and the occurrence of “weird childhood diseases” that he said had not affected Americans 30 or 50 years ago.
“Does that suggest that we’re putting too much weird stuff in our water? Or too much weird stuff in our food supply?” Mr. Vance asked the crowd. He then praised Mr. Kennedy and the slogan he brought to the Trump campaign: “Make America healthy again.”
Taylor Van Kirk, a spokeswoman for Mr. Vance, said the senator “worries a great deal about the impact processed foods are having on all Americans, including rising rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes,” as well as “the impacts of microplastics and other contaminants in our water.”
Mr. Kennedy often raised similar concerns during his run for president this year, saying that federal health agencies should be doing more to target chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity. Mr. Kennedy has also frequently criticized the pharmaceutical industry and federal regulatory agencies and he has raised concerns about chemicals in the food supply.
Those concerns have at times veered into conspiracy theories, most prominently with his widely debunked claims that childhood vaccinations lead to chronic diseases, autism and other “injuries.” Mr. Kennedy has also repeatedly promoted the false notion that antidepressants are linked to school shootings.
Now an ally of the Trump campaign, Mr. Kennedy has claimed that a second Trump administration would work to eliminate pesticides and other hazardous chemicals in America’s food and water supply. But Mr. Trump in his first term of office ended more than 100 environmental policies, including bans on toxic chemicals known to pose serious health threats.
Mr. Vance has played up Mr. Trump’s record on environmental protection, saying during a campaign rally in northern Michigan last month that “of course we believe in protecting our environmentmoonrich88,” as well as in clean air and clean water. That has been at odds with Mr. Trump’s message on the campaign trail. A few days later, Mr. Trump said in Erie, Pa., that concerns about the environment were “one of the great scams of all time.”