Grand Rapids, Michigan - Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined in with other Trump administration officials pushing anti-Arab and Muslim sentiments ahead of the midterms.
Kennedy made his remarks while giving a speech in Michigan on Monday at an event to support Republican Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate against Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.
The secretary said the Muslim religion once had a "golden age" in which "the Islamic lands were the center, the foundation for art and literature and science and engineering, and they were highly tolerant and pluralistic and cosmopolitan."
But he went on to claim that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood – an Islamist political movement – has "created stagnant societies" among Arabs.
"There's 500 million Arabs in the world, and yet they don't produce – they don't win the Nobel Prize, they don't win the Field prize, they don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature," he falsely stated.
Kennedy appears to be parroting similar bigotry pushed by other MAGA Republicans and President Donald Trump, who have been ramping up such rhetoric aimed at Arab and Muslim Democrats ahead of the November midterm elections.
MAGA has aggressively taken aim at El-Sayed, who is currently leading in the polls, with multiple elected officials – including Trump – publicly describing him as a "jihadist" and claiming without evidence that he is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In response to Kennedy's comments, a spokesperson for El-Sayed's campaign told The New York Times, "It’s rich to have an anti-scientist come to Michigan to lecture a doctor with two doctoral degrees who has spent his entire career working on public health."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces condemnation from his own sister
Kennedy's remarks went viral, facing widespread condemnation as critics described them as racist and Islamophobic. Many also pointed out that Arabs have won all of the prizes he listed, with the most recent being the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The secretary's sister Kerry Kennedy – who has become a staunch critic of her brother since he aligned himself with MAGA and the Trump administration – shared an X post that included a quote from 2016 in which RFK Jr. argued, "The easiest thing for a political leader to do is to appeal to our bigotry and our hatred and xenophobia and prejudice."
Kerry went on to say that she is "ashamed" of her brother, adding that her thoughts are with "all those hurt by my brother's false, cruel and derogatory words."