A Meeting With Rfk Jr. Set Off Recriminations Inside Doctors’ Lobbying Arm

A meeting this month between the head of the American Medical Association and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has prompted infighting within the nation’s leading lobbying group for doctors.

Following the Jan. 7 meeting, a contingent of member doctors wrote to the AMA’s board chair because they view Kennedy as a threat to public health whom the group should shun, according to correspondence obtained by POLITICO.

The dissenting AMA members said the group, which speaks for more than 250,000 doctors and commands one of the country’s biggest lobbying war chests, should not have used its clout to back Kennedy’s new dietary guidelines. While AMA President Bobby Mukkamala issued a statement saying the guidelines were right to take on ultraprocessed food, sugar and sodium, the critics point to Kennedy’s recommendation that people eat red meat and other foods rich in saturated fat as poor advice.

The AMA’s positive take on the guidelines got Mukkamala the opportunity to engage in face-to-face diplomacy with Kennedy he’d sought most of last year. Many doctors rely heavily on the health department Kennedy now leads for their incomes, if they serve Medicare patients, and the AMA spends much of its energy fighting for raises.

The dissenters told the AMA board they should have been briefed. “This meeting was not communicated at all,” said an AMA delegate, a member of the group’s policymaking body. “It was basically a tacit approval without saying anything specifically. It makes it look like the AMA is supporting this disinformation on nutrition.”

POLITICO granted anonymity to AMA delegates and members in leadership roles familiar with the exchange because they would not otherwise share details about the frustrations inside the group.

AMA leaders, who have sought a seat at the table in health care policymaking for the past year, have found themselves in a Catch-22: Can the group work with Kennedy on issues of mutual interest while also standing up to him when it disagrees, as with Kennedy’s moves to cast doubt on the importance of vaccines?

When Kennedy’s Health and Human Services Department joined on Jan. 7 with the Agriculture Department to release the new dietary guidelines, Mukkamala put out a statement applauding it. “The Guidelines affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction patients and physicians can use to improve health,” he added.

That support enabled Mukkamala to secure the meeting with Kennedy — the first between the two — when the health secretary announced the new food pyramid.

The disgruntled AMA members learned about it only after Mukkamala posted photos of him, Kennedy and other Trump officials on Facebook, they said. In one photo, Mukkamala gave a thumbs up alongside Kennedy, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

When Saroj Misra, a physician, commented that he hoped Mukkamala pressed Kennedy on policies that are “destroying the health of America,” Mukkamala replied: “All collaboration begins with ‘Hello…nice to meet you.’”

He later clarified that his thumbs up was for Kennedy’s focus on nutrition.

“Obviously there are many things we don't agree on,” Mukkamala added.

Members of the group’s liberal wing messaged AMA Board of Trustees Chair David Aizuss to complain that they weren’t told of the meeting and that Mukkamala’s statement on the dietary guidelines didn’t reflect many physicians’ concerns about the health impacts of eating more red meat, whole milk and other fatty foods.

The exchange, shared with POLITICO by three AMA delegates, underscored the difficulty AMA leaders have had managing their members while also trying to get in Kennedy’s ear.

Though the AMA has objected publicly to Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes — including this week — the group has also sought to lobby him for support on issues over which Kennedy has control, such as how much Medicare pays doctors.

Over the past year, Mukkamala has repeatedly stressed shared goals between the AMA and the administration. After Kennedy’s confirmation last year, Mukkamala reached out in a letter urging cooperation, leaning on his background in lifestyle medicine and nutrition as common ground.

Aizuss emailed the protesting members to say they’d misread Mukkamala’s statement applauding the dietary guidelines.

“I want to make it very clear that the AMA did NOT in fact endorse or approve the full set of new dietary guidelines,” he wrote, adding that the group primarily supported the administration’s advice to avoid highly processed foods.

He concluded: “So to be clear, we continue to maintain our policies while also being viewed as relevant to physicians nationwide which is why we were invited to participate, an invitation that we would not have received in the recent past.”

Aizuss’ email did not reassure some internal critics, who said they have become increasingly demoralized by the group’s advocacy efforts.

In a statement, the AMA said it represents physicians from across the political spectrum.

“Our work on nutrition — the role of food in chronic disease and the necessity of conversations between physicians and patients — has strong support across medicine,” the group said. “We appreciate the administration’s engagement on this critical issue.”

After the meeting with Mukkamala, Kennedy, perhaps for the first time, had nice things to say about the AMA on Katie Miller’s podcast.

“He said we’re committed not to doctor's visits, we’re committed to making Americans healthier,” Kennedy said, referring to Mukkamala. “He came to the announcement. That was very gratifying for me.”