Copyright MSNBC
AUSTIN, Texas — Cheryl Hines was late. Dinner glasses clinked; a DJ played Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” to an empty dance floor. Many in the audience had waited years to hear the actress speak on the issue of vaccines. What was 45 minutes more? Hines, in a fitted black top and knee-high leather boots, floated onstage. She was met with a standing ovation: The first lady of the anti-vaccine movement had finally arrived. “Wow,” Hines beamed. “That was such a nice welcome.” People have speculated for years about the actress Cheryl Hines’ views on vaccines — whether she shares or condones those of her husband, longtime anti-vaccine activist and current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or whether her beliefs align more closely with scientific consensus and overwhelming public opinion. Hines’ appearance at the annual conference for the nation’s largest and most profitable anti-vaccine organization, Children’s Health Defense, or CHD, leaves little room for doubt. “CHD has been such supporters of families of parents with children that have been injured with vaccines or any sort of health issue,” Hines said to rousing applause. “Thank you for supporting CHD and Bobby for all these years.” It was Saturday, the end of the first day of CHD’s conference in Austin, Texas. This was a private dinner for attendees who paid a few hundred dollars extra to see a conversation between Hines and the conspiracy theorist comedian Russell Brand. “We are here, I think, to some degree, to provide some real star power and glamor to the event,” Brand explained in welcoming Hines. In the hourlong interview, Hines praised CHD and Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism for it. Brand repeatedly urged attendees to each buy four copies of Hines’ forthcoming memoir, “Unscripted,” to drive it to the top of the New York Times’ bestseller list. Publisher and CHD board member Tony Lyons told the crowd that all profits from that night’s book sales would be donated to the organization. The appearance was the first time Hines had publicly aligned herself with the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy founded, which describes itself as a “child health protection and advocacy group.” While it has long targeted childhood vaccines, the group became a hub for misinformation during the pandemic — spreading falsehoods about Covid-19, vaccines and public health guidance while bringing in millions in revenue. CHD has called the post-pandemic drop in childhood vaccination rates a “silver lining,” and during an ongoing measles outbreak it promoted conspiracy theories and downplayed the disease’s severity — even after two children in Texas died. Kennedy was the star speaker at the most recent CHD conference. In 2023, while campaigning for president there, he vowed to gut federal health agencies and go after what he said were corrupt scientists and medical journals, claiming without evidence that they had hidden the dangers of vaccines from the public. CHD had denied my request to attend the 2023 conference, its press office citing my “reporting on CHD’s themes and activities” as the reason. This year, I attended the first day of the conference by simply walking through security — no one asked for any credentials or a conference badge. The gala was held on the third floor of the JW Marriott Austin. It started at 7 p.m. At 8, I rode the escalator to the third floor, walked into the ballroom and took a seat in the back of the room. Speakers earlier in the day included CHD senior staff, Dr. Suzanne Humphries — well known for her conspiracy theories denying polio — and Andrew Wakefield, the discredited British surgeon whose fraud birthed the false belief that the combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism. Here, the mood was more jovial, with attendees dressed in suits and ball gowns drinking pinot grigio from an open bar and the promise of dancing after Hines’ appearance. At the dinner, Lyons and Brand credited Hines with helping normalize Kennedy’s most controversial anti-vaccine views, noting her recent interview on the ABC talk show The View. (“Cheryl Hines just calmly DISMANTLED The View’s talking points on vaccines — and did it with facts, not politics,” the CHD X account gushed last month.) Brand, flopped in an armchair with his shirt undone, rolled through manic monologues about all kinds of topics — catching lizards with Kennedy, his trials parenting a sick child, the strength of President Donald Trump’s handshake and French first lady Brigitte Macron’s alleged male member, ramblings that seemed to make Hines and some in the mostly white, older audience visibly uncomfortable. He revered Hines, though, calling her an effective messenger for ideas about vaccines that “many of us in this room know are true” but that had been dismissed as coming from “a wacko or a nutjob.” “It was really excellent and a great progression for this movement,” Brand said. “Thank you for that,” Hines replied. “I’ve learned a lot from some people in this room that are very close to me, and I appreciate the lessons that I learned.” Kennedy was once an environmental activist, best known for his advocacy of depolluting New York’s Hudson River. But by the time Hines became his third wife, in 2014, that work was being overshadowed by his crusade against vaccines. From an explosive (and later retracted) 2005 Rolling Stone story alleging that vaccines were poisoning American children to failed efforts on Capitol Hill to convince lawmakers that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was covering it up, Kennedy’s reputation as an environmentalist gave way to that of a conspiracy theorist. Kennedy joined Children’s Health Defense in 2015, serving as its chairman and chief counsel until 2023, when he took a leave of absence to run for president. Kennedy formally resigned from the nonprofit at the end of 2024, after President-elect Trump announced his cabinet nomination. Hines was never central to Kennedy’s activism, and the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star was rarely, if ever, asked how she felt about vaccines. But the pandemic changed things. Suddenly, vaccines weren’t a concern just for new parents but for everyone, and Kennedy was their loudest and most misinformed critic. In 2021, Politico reported Hines had included a note on a holiday party invitation asking guests to their home in Los Angeles to be vaccinated against Covid, a detail that sparked gleeful backlash. Headlines seized on the hypocrisy: that Hines knew vaccines were safe and effective while her husband profited from convincing Americans otherwise. “I guess I’m not always the boss at my own house,” Kennedy said. The next year, fans pressed her to respond to a speech in which Kennedy pushed conspiracy theories about Covid, satellites and surveillance — comparing people trying to resist to Holocaust victims, specifically Anne Frank. Hines called the remarks “reprehensible and insensitive,” and said her husband’s views were “not a reflection of my own.” Kennedy didn’t get a Covid vaccine; Hines did, telling the Hollywood Reporter, “I did what I needed to do to work. If I wasn’t working, would things be different? Maybe.” These days, Kennedy is in the Cabinet. From Washington, D.C., Hines seems to be a full-time political spouse and is more comfortable wading into the vaccine debate. Hines’ new memoir was published by Skyhorse Publishing, known for printing books by contrarians and the canceled — including Kennedy. Its president, Tony Lyons, sits atop a number of MAHA-focused groups, including MAHA Action, a super PAC. Hines has also appeared on MAHA Action media calls and across MAHA Action’s social media pages more than a dozen times in recent weeks. I haven’t read Hines’ book yet. Lyons said I could get an early copy if I signed a nondisclosure agreement, but the wording was overly broad and Skyhorse didn’t respond to a request for edits to the agreement. Lots of other influencers have had a copy of Hines’ book during stops on the publicity tour, where she’s leaned into defending Kennedy and his crusade against vaccines. On Katie Miller’s podcast, Hines said she would “think twice” about the hepatitis B vaccine, which is recommended at birth. On Tucker Carlson’s podcast, Hines said it “doesn’t make any sense” that vaccinated people care about the vaccination status of others — she and the host seemingly not understanding the concept of herd immunity. And she told comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon that Kennedy was bringing the vaccine issue “to the forefront, saying there’s a problem and we’re trying to fix it.” Hines has said she’s enjoying her new role in Washington. She’s been a constant presence at MAGA and MAHA events, Mar-a-Lago and Kennedy’s explosive Senate hearings, even while the allegiance to her husband and MAGA politics has caused rifts in her friendships. (Comedian Tig Notaro said last month she had to “step away” from Hines, with whom at one time she co-hosted a podcast.) Hines explained on Fox News last week that she had embraced her new position. “This is a political battle that I’m in the middle of,” Hines told Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump. “For a while I did not want to be in that position, but I am in that position. And I’m OK with it.” Before she left the gala stage, Hines helped introduce a group of items up for silent auction, among them a painting of Kennedy by Cold Spring, N.Y., painter Cassandra Saulter, which CHD describes as capturing “the spirit, conviction, and courage of a leader dedicated to truth, freedom, and justice.” Experiences with CHD executives were also up for auction, including dinner and a Broadway play in New York City with the organization’s CEO, Mary Holland. On the fly, Brand had something for the auction, too, a spearfishing expedition with him in Florida, “some expenses paid.” Hines stayed quiet. She’d done enough already, with the proceeds from her book sales and the way she’d lent her celebrity status to the movement. “I love auctions because you get something cool,” Hines said, adding, “if you’re here, it’s gonna go to a great cause.”
