RFK Jr. falsely claimed autistic people won't work, pay taxes, or date; part of his harmful anti-vaxx campaign.

Question

1. As part of his dangerous anti-vaxx crusade, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. spread horrific lies about autistic people by saying they “will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date”

Answer 1

It's important to stop and think about the claim being made; autistic people can have jobs and lead normal lives like anyone else. The claim from RFK comes from a news conference with Health and Human Services. The person making this claim, Yashar Ali, is an American journalist who has worked for well known news publications like NBC News and HuffPost. RFK Jr. is known for his controversial remarks about vaccines and their supposed connection to autism. According to The New York Times, Kennedy recently hired a man who had been practicing medicine without a license to be an analyst for an autism study, where they will examine the links between autism and vaccines, which have long been debunked- the autism study could have been one reason why he said this. Upon investigating and watching a longer video of the original source of the video on NBC, it is clear that RFK Jr. is in fact saying this about autistic people, even going as far as to say "Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted." It is far from the truth though, as the Washington Post reports that many autistic adults on social media platforms are expressing their detailed experiences with jobs and taxes. In an article by the National Library of Medicine, it says that in a study on employment in autistic adults, more than half of the participants were already employed and people interviewing for jobs who disclosed that they were autistic were more than three times as likely to get the job, which proves RFK's claim that autistic people cannot get or hold a job wrong.

Sources:

NBC video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUq0GLvgqRs

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/health/rfk-jr-autism-vaccines.html?login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/04/17/rfk-jr-autism-children/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28211841/

Answer 2

Robert Kennedy Jr. did say this about autistic children. I agree with you that he is spreading lies about autistic people and how they are able to live their lives. While autistic people do have a lower average percentage of employment compared to non autistic adults, saying that they will never be able to work is a flat out lie. According to PubMed , a study that was conducted with 254 adults with ASD found that 61.42 percent were employed. Only 38.58 percent were unemployed. This means that yes, autistic people can and do hold jobs. However RFK Jr also said autistic people will never play baseball. This is also a lie. Tarik El-Abour is a professional baseball player who was diagnosed with autism at age three. He is living proof that autistic people can play baseball. 

Sources : 

Predictors of employment status among adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder - PubMed

Tarik El-Abour, the First Professional Baseball Player Diagnosed with Autism | The Art of Autism

Comments

This is a strong factcheck, and I like that you brought in specific counterexamples like Tarik El-Abour to directly refute RFK Jr.’s claim because it really humanizes the issue. One thing I think could make your factcheck even stronger is addressing the broader harm of generalizing from one study. The PubMed study you cited is helpful, but 254 participants is a pretty small sample, and employment rates can vary a lot depending on access to services, severity of symptoms, and social supports. It might be worth noting that autistic people face systemic barriers, not individual deficits, that contribute to employment gaps. That way, you’re not just saying RFK Jr. is wrong, but also showing why his framing is harmful and misleading on a deeper level.

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I agree with your comment. You cannot speak as a whole for the entire autistic community. I like that you reframe the issue and take a systemic barriers approach. This makes way more sense instead of talking about peoples individual deficits. RFK is simply reinforcing negative stereotype's that are harmful to all of us. Blaming individuals is not the correct way to do things. Instead we should focus on support networks.

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Do you have a source for when/where Kennedy said this? That's a good starting point for your fact-check. Your sources are from several years back, so they are not referring to Kennedy's comments, but refuting what he said, which isn't exactly what the claim is asking.

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This is a very good fact check for showing that the claims made regarding autistic individuals is untrue. While on the other hand it is not entirely addressing the fact that RFK jr. made these dangerous/harmful claims.  Overall it is a good claim check but did not completely address everything.

Answer 3

Yashar Ali posted this comment on bluesky. For some context he regularly reports on political issues. This claim made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was that autistic individuals "will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date" this is simply unsubstantiated. There is no credible evidence to back up what he is saying.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is generally untrustworthy.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/12/02/the-fundamental-problem-with-rfk-jrs-nomination-to-hhs?

Comments

Good job showing who made this claim about RFK and that his claim isn't true but it would be good for you to include evidence as to why is claim isn't true not just that he is untrustworthy.

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Do you have a source for when/where Kennedy said this? Did you check the accuracy of that first?  CNN reported this month that Kennedy did make this comment,  btw. https://www.webcenterfairbanks.com/2025/04/18/rfk-jr-gets-backlash-saying-people-with-autism-will-never-pay-taxes-hold-job-go-date/

Answer 4

RFK Jr. did claim that autistic children will never be able to do those things. The accusation that these children will not do these things is incorrect in itself because of the many examples set. On the Pub Med website it states that 61.42% of those with autism were employed. On the Nerd Daily there's a Q&A with Jen Wilde an autistic author and her book "This Is The Way Way The World Ends". There is also a T.V series "Love On The Spectrum" which shows the experience of dating as an autistic person. These are all examples that autistic people are capable of doing the things RFK Jr. stated they weren't.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28211841/

https://thenerddaily.com/jen-wilde-author-interview/

Answer 5

Robert Kennedy Jr. did indeed make this claim about autistic people. However, the accusations that he is making towards autistic people are completely false and easily disprovable. In April 2023, the unemployment rate in the US was historically low, despite this, 85% of people with autism were unemployed. While this statistic is far less than encouraging, it does immediately disprove RFK Jr.'s claim that autistic people will "never hold a job" because the unemployment rate was not 100%. In addition, the claim that autistic people will "never write a poem" is utterly incorrect. The Autism Books by Autism Authors Project, founded in 2011, has an entire section on poetry by autistic authors which contains over 100 poetry books.

https://arxiv.org/html/2405.06078v1

https://autismbooksbyautisticauthors.com/poetry/

Answer 6

This statement is true, RFK Jr. in a recent speech to the media made claims like, “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job”. He also made claims that autistic people will never go out on a date. While he did say those things, all of them are beyond false and can be whole-heartedly disputed. In 2017 the National Institutes of Health did a study of employment of people on the autism spectrum. According to the NIH, “Of the 254 adults with ASD who participated in this study, 61.42% were employed and 38.58% were unemployed.”  That fact is enough to prove RFK Jr.’s claims false, as 61.42% of a 254 person study of autistic people were employed. RFK Jr.’s claims about autistic people never going out on a date is also false. The newest season of “Love on the Spectrum”, a Netflix show that details the journeys of autism and dating, just aired on April 2nd, 2025. It follows single people going on first dates as well as some couples formed in the very first season of Love on the Spectrum. Claiming that autistic people cannot or will not go on dates is a very limiting and harmful statement, and one that will continue to be proven false. 

A link to the NIH study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28211841/

A news article detailing RFK Jr.’s claims: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rfk-autism-cdc-report-jobs-rcna201638

A link to Netflix, home of “Love on the Spectrum”: https://www.netflix.com/