Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is investigating medications used to support gender transitions and related surgeries and whether those drugs could have played a role in Wednesday's deadly church school shooting in Minneapolis.
"We are doing those kind of studies now," said Kennedy in reference to medications taken by the shooter, Robin Westman, and the potential impact of the drugs on the male who transitioned to female and opened fire during the school's first Mass of the academic year. Two students were pronounced dead at the scene, and 17 other victims are in varying states of recovery.
"We are launching studies into [the drugs'] potential contribution," Kennedy told "Fox & Friends" on Thursday. Kennedy admitted he did not have data in hand verifying what drugs Westman may have been taking throughout the transition from male to female.
Kennedy's comments drew the immediate ire of Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., who posted, "I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don't kill kids, antidepressants do. Just shut up."
Smith directed an expletive at the secretary and said Kennedy "should be fired."
The transgender shooter reportedly wrote a journal that was left behind where a reference was made to the sex change. The New York Post reported the comments to include, "I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself."
Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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