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Amid Tension Around H.H.S. Cuts, Kennedy Meets With Tribal Leader

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Amid Tension Around H.H.S. Cuts, Kennedy Meets With Tribal Leader

At the very moment that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was set to take the stage, the governor of Gila River Indian Community was still standing at the podium, articulating his uneasiness around recent Trump administration moves.

“Let me repeat that: We have spent a good part of this year providing education on why tribes have a political status that is not D.E.I.,” Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said to a room of 1,200 people, who clapped and cheered.

When it comes to cuts sought by what has been called the Department of Government Efficiency, “we need a scalpel and not a chain saw approach to making these changes,” he said.

The Gila River Wild Horse Pass Resort and Casino in Chandler, Ariz., owned and operated by two tribes, was the latest stop on Mr. Kennedy’s Make American Healthy Again tour through three Southwestern states. Mr. Kennedy was set to host a “fireside chat” at the Tribal Self-Governance Conference, an event celebrating 50 years of tribal sovereignty under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

The act, passed by Congress in 1975, marked a shift away from federal government control, so that Native communities could run their own programs based on their unique cultural needs.

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Mr. Kennedy has long expressed a particular zeal for improving tribal health, citing his family’s long history of advocacy, his childhood trips to American Indian reservations, and parts of his own environmental career.

But the encounter came at an awkward moment. Mr. Kennedy’s agency has laid off senior advisers for tribal issues at the federal Administration for Children and Families, terminated employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Tribes initiative and shut down five regional offices that served large swaths of the Indigenous population.

Mr. Kennedy’s recent decision to reassign high-ranking officials to remote Indian Health Service locations seemed to many more like a sort of political banishment than a serious attempt at supporting Native groups.

When Mr. Kennedy was welcomed onstage for the chat — pink and yellow lights swirling through the auditorium — he took care to shake hands with every tribal leader at the table. He opened the discussion by announcing that parts of the Indian Health Service would be exempt from several recent executive orders.

The tone was collegial as officials discussed strategies for improving the health of tribal communities, often with consensus. Mr. Kennedy described his worries over the high rates of obesity among Native groups. “If we’re really going to change public health on the reservations and end this crisis, we need to address what’s causing the crisis, which is food systems,” he told the tribal officials. His words were met with applause.

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Still, there were moments of disconnect. Mr. Kennedy veered into stories about his childhood, citing powwows on Martha’s Vineyard where his father took him to taste “some of the best oysters.”

And then there was the announcement that Mr. Kennedy had planned to have Indigenous groups test out “robotic nurses” — A.I. voices that could serve as substitutes for human health care providers, by calling patients as a way to circumvent challenges with health care delivery.

“We are going to try to roll out systems like that in Indian Country — we’d like to make Indian Country pilot programs for these kinds of systems,” he said, triggering boos from the crowd.

“Well,” he added, “there are some places that don’t have access to doctors. These are remote places, for example, in Alaska.”

Mr. Kennedy’s work on behalf of Indigenous communities dates back to the 1990s, when he represented various groups in negotiations to halt dam construction projects, oil development and industrial logging in several countries. He was also one of the first editors of North America’s largest Native American newspaper, Indian Country Today.

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At his confirmation hearing, Mr. Kennedy pointed to a multigenerational frustration with health care for tribal groups. He testified that his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, President John F. Kennedy, had been “deeply, deeply critical of the function of the Indian Health Service back in 1968 to 1980, and nothing’s changed. Nothing’s gotten better,” he said.

In an exchange with Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, at the hearing, Mr. Kennedy vowed to install a Native leader at the assistant secretary level of the department and to tackle unique cultural and logistical challenges of providing high-quality health care to tribes using tools like telemedicine.

But Ms. Murkowski ticked aloud through an array of health issues on which Native Americans have fallen far behind other ethnic groups, including depression, substance use, hypertension and stroke. She also rattled off infectious diseases that the groups have proven vulnerable to — hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis, whooping cough and measles — and asked Mr. Kennedy to use his influence to build confidence in vaccines.

He did not directly address that request.

On Tuesday Mr. Kennedy also visited Native Health, a federally qualified health center that serves Native Americans in the Phoenix area through four primary care clinics and a food pantry to help patients with diabetes prepare Indigenous recipes.

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The secretary’s staff said his tour would bring more outreach to tribal groups, including a Wednesday visit to a charter school in New Mexico that serves mostly Native students, and a hike with leaders of Navajo Nation.

Mr. Kennedy ended the day with a news conference at the Arizona State Capitol, where he defended his agency’s response to the ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas by calling it “a model for the rest of the world.”

When a reporter approached the microphone and began asking about his views on the MMR vaccine, the reporter was booed away by parents and other attendees, several of them calling for the journalist to be removed from the room.

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Republican House leader signals plan to begin contempt proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton

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Republican House leader signals plan to begin contempt proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton

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GOP House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said he plans to commence contempt of Congress proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton for ignoring the committee’s subpoenas related to its ongoing probe into the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. 

In July, a bipartisan House Oversight Subcommittee approved motions to subpoena Bill and Hillary Clinton and a slew of other high-profile political figures to aid its investigation looking into how the federal government handled Epstein’s sex trafficking case. 

The subpoenas were then sent out in early August, and the Clinton’s were scheduled to testify Dec. 17-18. 

“It has been more than four months since Bill and Hillary Clinton were subpoenaed to sit for depositions related to our investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific crimes. Throughout that time, the former president and former secretary of state have delayed, obstructed, and largely ignored the committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony,” Comer said in a press release issued Friday evening.

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DOJ CLEARED TO RELEASE SECRET JEFFREY EPSTEIN CASE GRAND JURY MATERIALS

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton.  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“If the Clintons fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January, the Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings to hold them accountable.”

Comer’s threats come as Democrats from the House Oversight Committee released a new batch of photos obtained from Epstein’s estate, which included further images of the disgraced financier with powerful figures like President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Thousands of images were reportedly released, with potentially more to come.

Other high-profile figures subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee include James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, Robert Mueller, William Barr, Jeff Sessions and Alberto Gonzales.

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FEDERAL JUDGE APPROVES RELEASING GHISLAINE MAXWELL CASE GRAND JURY MATERIAL

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Jeffrey Epstein. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

In addition to testimony from these individuals, Comer and the Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for all documents and communications pertaining to the case against Epstein.

In September, the committee released tens of thousands of pages of Epstein-related records in compliance with the subpoena, and the Oversight Committee indicated the DOJ would continue producing even more records as it works through needed redactions and other measures that must occur before they are released.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)

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Kristi Noem grilled over L.A. Purple Heart Army vet who self-deported

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Kristi Noem grilled over L.A. Purple Heart Army vet who self-deported

The saga of a Los Angeles Army veteran who legally immigrated to the United States, was wounded in combat and self-deported to South Korea earlier this year, became a flashpoint during a testy congressional hearing about the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was grilled Thursday on Capitol Hill about military veterans deported during the immigration crackdown launched earlier this year, including in Los Angeles.

“Sir, we have not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans,” Noem responded when questioned by Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.).

Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) speaks during a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security on Thursday. He was joined on a video call by Sae Joon Park, a U.S. military veteran who self-deported to South Korea.

(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

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An aide then held up a tablet showing a Zoom connection with Purple Heart recipient Sae Joon Park in South Korea. The congressman argued that Park had “sacrificed more for this country than most people ever have” and asked Noem if she would investigate Park’s case, given her discretion as a Cabinet member. Noem pledged to “absolutely look at his case.”

Park, reached in Seoul on Thursday night, said he was skeptical that Noem would follow through on her promise, but said that he had “goosebumps” watching the congressional hearing.

“It was amazing. And then I’m getting tons of phone calls from all my friends back home and everywhere else. I’m so very grateful for everything that happened today,” Park, 56, said, noting that friends told him that a clip of his story appeared on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show Thursday night.

The late-night host featured footage of Park’s moment in the congressional hearing in his opening monologue.

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“Is anyone OK with this? Seriously, all kidding aside, we deported a veteran with a Purple Heart?” Kimmel said, adding that Republicans “claim to care so much about veterans, but they don’t at all.”

Park legally immigrated to the United States when he was 7, grew up in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley, and joined the Army after graduating from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in 1988.

Sae Joon Park

Sae Joon Park received a Purple Heart while serving in the Army.

(From Sae Joon Park)

The green card holder was deployed to Panama in 1989 as the U.S. tried to depose the nation’s de facto leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega. Park was shot twice and honorably discharged. Suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, he self-medicated with illicit drugs, went to prison after jumping bail on drug possession charges, became sober and raised two children in Hawaii.

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Earlier this year, when Park checked in for his annual meeting with federal officials to verify his sobriety and employment, he was given the option of being immediately detained and deported, or wearing an ankle monitor for three weeks as he got his affairs in order before leaving the country for a decade.

At the time, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Park had an “extensive criminal history” and had been given a final removal order, with the option to self-deport.

Park chose to leave the country voluntarily. He initially struggled to acclimate in a nation he hasn’t lived in since he was a child, but said Thursday night that his mental state — and his Korean-language skills — have improved.

“It hasn’t been easy. Of course, I miss home like crazy,” he said. “I’m doing the best I can. I’m usually a very positive person, so I feel like everything happens for a reason, and I’m just trying to hang in there until hopefully I make it back home.”

Among Park’s top concerns when he left the United States in June was that his mother, who is 86 and struggling with dementia, would die while he couldn’t return to the county. But her lack of awareness about his situation has been somewhat of a strange blessing, Park said.

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“She really doesn’t know I’m even here. So every time I talk to her, she’s like, ‘Oh, where are you?’ And I tell her, and she’s like, ‘Oh, when are you coming home? Oh, why are you there?’” Park said. “In a weird way, it’s kind of good because she doesn’t have to worry about me all the time. But at the same time, I would love to be next to her while she’s going through this.”

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Video: Trump Signs A.I. Executive Order

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Video: Trump Signs A.I. Executive Order

new video loaded: Trump Signs A.I. Executive Order

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Trump Signs A.I. Executive Order

Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that would limit individual states in regulating the artificial intelligence industry.

“It’s a big part of the economy. There’s only going to be one winner here, and that’s probably going to be the U.S. or China. You have to have a central source of approval. When they need approvals on things, they have to come to one source. They can’t go to California, New York.” “We’re not going to push back on all of them. For example, kids’ safety — we’re going to protect. We’re not pushing back on that. But we’re going to push back on the most onerous examples of state regulations.”

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Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that would limit individual states in regulating the artificial intelligence industry.

By Shawn Paik

December 11, 2025

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