The War on Health: Why MAHA is Changing Everything | The Riley Gaines Show

Y'all remember this guy, Admiral Rachel Levine, really Richard Levine. You know, Democrats, they freak out over Bobby Kennedy, RFK Jr. They say that he doesn't have the necessary qualifications to be the secretary of HHS. Just shut up. Just shut up. You took health advice from a man who thinks he's a woman and also believes that men can get pregnant. Your opinion is totally disregarded. Second of all, scoreboard, look at RFK. He's 72, I think. And if you're watching on screen right now at YouTube.com, then you're watching him rep out pull-ups in a suit, mind you. So if you're asking me who I would rather get health advice from, it's not the semi-obese man who believes he's a woman. It's the dude who's repping out pull-ups in a suit. We've had a lot of notable upgrades from President Biden's administration to now President Trump's, right? Kamala Harris to J.D. Vance, Karine Jean-Pierre to Caroline Levitt, Mayorkas to Kristi Noem. today's guest is my favorite of the upgrades on screen we have admiral richard levine the assistant secretary for health under president biden uh now you're looking at the assistant secretary for health under president trump this is admiral brian christine upgrade of the century check it out here well admiral thank you for joining the riley gain show uh this is the upgrade of the century your appointment and confirmation as far as I'm concerned. Can you start by just telling us a little bit about your background and your path through the military as well? Yeah, thank you. So number one, it's really special to be here with you. I've certainly followed you on your social media presence. I've followed you as you stood up and you've spoken for women, you've spoken for athletes, you've spoken for fairness and what is true, you've spoken for what is beautiful and good, And so I appreciate that. So it really is an honor to be here with you. Yeah, I am the Assistant Secretary for Health of the Department of Health and Human Services. So I am the upgrade by President Trump from Rachel Levine, Richard Levine, Rachel Levine from the last administration who was the Assistant Secretary for Health. And I think President Trump has certainly made an upgrade there. I am a physician. I'm a urologist, a urologic surgeon. By training, I went to medical school at Emory University in Atlanta. And then I made my way over to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which is the medical arm of the University of Alabama system. Made my way to Birmingham for my residency in urology. I then joined a urology practice in Birmingham and practiced there for over 20 years with a real emphasis on men's health. That was kind of my area of subspecialization. And a little over a year ago, I expressed interest into wanting to serve the president and to serve the country at the Department of Health and Human Services and was able to get an interview and send my resume. Ultimately, I interviewed with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That went very well. I interviewed then with the personnel office through the White House. President Trump nominated me in this position, and then I was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and actually took my position in October of last year. It has been an amazing experience thus far. And I want to give a real shout out and really give accolades to President Trump for everything he's doing for this country, everything he's doing to make America greater than she's ever been. And I want to give also a shout out to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is working so hard to make this country healthy again, to make us healthier than we've ever been. Both of those men really love this country. It is truly an honor to serve them and to serve the people of the country. Praise God. Most people listening to this or watching this, they only get to see what the media shows of President Trump and of RFK Jr., the HHS secretary. Behind the scenes, are they the same? Is it what you expected, your position that you're in now, or is it totally different than anything you imagined? No, it is. That's a great question. It is pretty much, you know, what I expected. It's even more than I expected because I knew it was going to be a very busy position. I knew we have so much work to do in this country to make America healthier, to make America greater. But I didn't realize the level of effort it would be. Working harder now than I think I probably ever worked in my surgical practice. You know, you get here early in the morning and before you know it, it's 6, 7, 8, 9 o'clock at night and you're still working away. But the hours go by. They're full of really opportunities, again, to make the country better. So that's a privilege. Secretary Kennedy, you know, he's part of that amazing family, the Kennedys. I mean, literally his uncle and his father literally laid down their life for the republic, for our country. And I have no doubt that RFK Jr. would do the same. Let's face it. Does he have to be here doing this? The only reason he's here doing this is because he truly loves the country. He truly loves every man, woman and child and wants us to be healthier and wants us to be better. So it's been a great ride so far and I'm enjoying it, working hard, but enjoying it. and even still of course uh it seems as if there's an entire political party at least in terms of elected representation who opposes what you all are doing at hhs to make america healthy again and i want to get to the new dietary guidelines but before you talk about president trump and what he has done specifically in collaboration with hhs in collaboration with uh pete hexath the Secretary of War. In your professional role, are you at all concerned about the previous or maybe even the current fitness standards or trends among new U.S. military recruits? What is, I guess, these new guidelines that we've seen from President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, what does that mean for force readiness? Yeah, I think that's a great question. because if you look at, you know, about over 75%, I think the statistic is 77% of young men and women in this country cannot meet the physical requirements to serve in the United States Armed Forces. Most of that is because obesity. So that is a real concern for readiness, for defending this country and protecting us from our enemies. So when you have 75% of our young men and women who aren't fit to serve, that's a problem. And I think that the dietary guidelines then are not only about making America healthier, which they are, but they're also about making America better able to defend itself. Because if we can eliminate the scourge of obesity in this country, think how much better off our war fighters are going to be, how much better we will be positioned to bring young men and women into the services who are fit and ready to go. So the dietary guidelines are incredibly important to keep this country fit and ready, to make this country healthier, and to make this country safer. Yeah, 100%. We've seen increases of chronic illness, obesity rates, fertility issues, etc., etc., etc. Being there when the new dietary guidelines were unveiled, it was one of the most amazing experiences. And I will tell you, as someone who takes my health and my fitness very seriously, I had no idea that the previous guidelines were as faulty as they have now shown themselves to be. I can remember very vividly being in fifth grade, sitting in our PE class. We talked about the guidelines, the food pyramid. Can you walk us through the changes from the old food pyramid to now the new and improved one? And I think highlighting explicitly what was wrong with the old food pyramid. No, I appreciate you asking that question, and I certainly will. And you point this out, the old guidelines. For instance in the last administration the advisory committee that was advising on these kind of things you know nine of the 20 members I believe had really deep interest in either pharma or medical industry You had individuals who weren disclosing their financial relationships And so, yes, I think certainly in the past and certainly in the last administration, anything related to health and food and dietary guidance was really co-opted by big industry and big pharma and big ag interests, doing not what was best for the American people, but what fulfilled an agenda, believe it or not, even an equity and diversity, some kind of agenda in those food recommendations. And so we've limited all of those things. What we have now, Riley, we have dietary guidelines whose sole purpose, whose sole function is to help guide us and make dietary recommendations to make this country healthier than she's ever been. How do we do that? If you look at our new guidelines and look at our new food pyramid. What we've done, we've flipped the pyramid on its head. And so now what we're emphasizing is nutrient-dense, whole food, real food, not processed, sugary, ultra-processed food. We realize that healthy meat and fish and eggs and whole fat dairy is really what our bodies need. It's what our bodies have always needed. We are simply saying that, and we're saying it clearly. We're saying it with emphasis, and we're saying to the American people, follow these guidelines. And the guidelines do have flexibility because perhaps what an athlete needs versus me as a 62-year-old man is probably going to be different, but the guidelines give us those recommendations. They point out what's right, the right way for us to eat, certainly a shift from guidelines in the past and absolutely a new paradigm to make America healthier. you mentioned big pharma and big ag and big food uh i think a lot of us those who maybe weren't necessarily overly inclined in paying attention in that realm i think a lot of us had the veil lifted during covid at least i'll speak personally for myself to how big pharma operates how they manipulate and how they fear-mongered to get so many of us to comply with what i would deem their pretty autocratic mandates. As it pertains to food and what you've seen in your professional role now at HHS, what are some of those, I guess, big corporations, big businesses, how are they able to profit and to benefit from what we've seen? Well, I think, for instance, if you can get a whole country hooked on ultra-processed sugary foods, sugary cereals, ultra processed cereals. If you can have a bunch of people eating that for breakfast every morning, that's going to be a huge financial win for the company. It's not a health win for the country, but it was a huge financial win for these companies. Again, these dietary guidelines, their purpose is not to put money in the pockets of industry. The purpose is to put health back into the people, to make our lives better, to make our lives healthier. So we can support our military, so we can be out there with our kids doing the things we need to do, so that we can have healthy, active, vibrant children, so we can make America healthier and make America greater. And the guidelines certainly feed into this. And I really have to say that the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Kennedy, the Department of Agriculture under Secretary Rollins worked so hard to make these guidelines a reality. And it's really amazing. They're great for the country. For years, surgeons like myself have known, if I took an obese patient to the operating room, there's going to be a higher risk of death or a higher risk of complications. And we knew that that obesity was caused at least in part by dietary guidance that have come previously. So we have been waiting. We have been really praying for new guidelines, new dietary guidance. And under Secretary Kennedy and Secretary Rollins, we have that now. Yeah, Secretary Rollins, she's a dear friend of mine. She's awesome. I'm so happy for her and her role. We saw President Trump just sign a bill putting whole milk back in schools. That's fantastic. One other thing I wanted to ask you about that we've seen roll out from HHS recently is the newborn vaccine schedule. Of course, this is something that, whether I wanted to or not, came to my husband and myself, our attention as we welcomed our daughter into the world just a few months ago. Can you talk about some of the changes that were made? There's been a graphic going around online that, I mean, it's when you see it visually, it's like this little cartoon baby. And I think there was like 72 vaccines by the time they're 12 to now that number has been reduced to, I think, 11. Can you can you highlight some of that? One of the things that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary Kennedy, has always said, he has always said this, is that he will never be afraid to lead where gold standard science guides. And so that's been a mantra of Secretary Kennedy's. He, like myself, understands that vaccines can save lives. We also understand that not every vaccine is the same, have to be individualized. Science is leading this Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Kennedy, gold standard science. And so ultimately what our job is, is to provide guidance and recommendations. But ultimately the choice for a parent, for instance, for their children is going to be the parent's choice. What we want is parents and people in this country to be well-educated, to have good information so they can make decisions about what is right for themselves. They can make decisions about what's going to be right for their children or for themselves. And that's one of the things that drives us forward at the Department of Health and Human Services. The best science there is and the freedom for people to make those decisions themselves. Science is, I like to say that science is dynamic, not static. Things change over time. What was right a decade ago may not be right now because we learn more. There are more studies. We learn more things. We have to be able to be nimble and to pivot in terms of our recommendations and to understand what's best. So, again, our goal under Secretary Kennedy and certainly under President Trump is the best science there can be, the best recommendations, and let people make the decision that's right for them having real access to the best information. Yeah, and the My Body, My Choice people are really quiet when it comes to that. Now, of course, gender dysphoria, I mean, you mentioned the person who filled your role before you took over. Gender dysphoria has become a major topic in both civilian and military health care. And so from a medical readiness standpoint, how should the military in particular be approaching this? Again, we've seen some some guidelines from Secretary Hegshef, from President Trump. What's kind of the latest there? Well, I think that, you know, the important message here is that boys are boys. Girls are girls. that doesn't ever change. Gender doesn't change. And so Secretary Hegseth has been clear that he wants to have the strongest, the most capable warfighting force that we can in this country. And I think his guidance has been critical. I think his leadership has been amazing, and certainly the leadership of our commander in chief, Donald Trump. You know, gender dysphoria, particularly in minors, because that's what we focused on here at the Department of Health and Human Services, to tell little boys that they can be little girls or to tell little girls they can be little boys and to say, oh, you know what we're going to do? We're going to give you castrating chemicals or cross-sex hormones or we are going to do surgery that will remove body parts that you can never have back again. That's horrific. That is an agenda that's absolutely terrible. That is not the agenda of this administration. This agenda is we believe and we know and science has shown, we have proven this, that the best way to treat these children is with compassionate, competent mental health care and support. It is not to simply tell them we're going to cut off your body parts or we're going to throw castrating chemicals at you and that's going to make everything better because it doesn't. So we stand very firmly and I stand very firmly to protect children in this country Our minors with gender dysphoria they deserve love they deserve compassion they deserve competent counseling What they do not deserve is surgery and these horrible chemicals that cause irreversible harm. There's no question about that. It is such an evil lie, gender ideology, an evil lie from the and discouragement and destruction. I've got a video I want to play for you here of a detransitioner. So a beautiful young woman who believed the lie that she was born in the wrong body, transitioned to a man, began to detransition. Let's watch it here. They told you what was going to happen before you started testosterone. So really it's your fault. You should have been paying more attention. See, but they didn't though. They told me the outwardly observable effect that I would immediately notice, like that my voice was going to draw, not that my vocal cords were going to dramatically thicken, and that a lot of women's larynxes aren't big enough to accommodate that thickness, meaning that my voice just always hurts. It also means that I can't scream or raise my voice above a certain volume. I used to do theater. They knew that. That was something very important to me, and I've lost that ability because I can't project my voice anymore. They told me that I might experience vaginal dryness, not that the cells in my gynecological and urological anatomy are highly estrogen-dependent, and that depleting them of that estrogen by going on testosterone is almost certainly going to cause them to irreversibly atrophy, which causes a slew of issues ranging from, yes, vaginal dryness and pain and bleeding upon penetration to losing the ability to give vaginal birth to urinary incontinence and pelvic floor dysfunction. I mean, goodness gracious, what happened to informed consent? Exactly. No, exactly. And Riley, when I saw that online, I did make a comment about that for that particular individual. I'm so sorry that individual has suffered the way they have. You know, one thing that we're not going to do, and I believe I said this in my post or something to this effect, we are going to stand with children. We are going to stand with their parents. We are not going to lie to them. We are not going to try to push them down some road driven not by concern for their true health, mental health condition, because gender dysphoria is a real condition. These children do suffer, but we're not going to push them down a road where you castrate them with chemicals or with surgery, or you remove their womb, or you do things that cause irreversible, lifelong damage and harm. We're not going to do that to them. We stand with these kids. We stand with these parents. With Secretary Kennedy and President Trump and me as the Assistant Secretary for Hope, what we offer is truth. We offer hope, and we offer the truth of science, which is that the best way to treat these children is not the way my predecessor tried to treat these kids and the prior administration did. My predecessor, Levine, actually pushed to have age requirements lowered to let these kids have surgery and these terrible chemicals. Can you believe that? No, we stand for life. We stand for respect. We stand for, we believe in the dignity, the inherent dignity, and every man, woman, and child given by the Creator, we stand for that dignity. We respect that dignity, and we are never going to harm kids in this way, not in this administration. Yeah, these detransitioners, their voices are so powerful because they're able to, I mean, so horrifically speak to the practices that they had firsthand experience in dealing with, whether it's their bones and the chronic and consistent and lasting pain that they're in. I mean, just horrible things across the board. So praise God. Thank you. So we've seen it's become more common now where political opinions and biases are affecting health care, which, of course, that is the one place where those things really should not matter. Sports, I believe, is another place. But health care. I mean, we're talking about people's lives. I've got two more videos I want to show you here. Let's play the first one. Sure. For today's resistance tip, I vote. anybody got any poison ivy, poison oak in their yard? Get some of that up with gloves, obviously. Get it in some water. Like a gallon of water. Get the poison ivy oak water. And I'm going to put it into a water gun. Aim for faces, hands. I don't know if you could hear that well, but this is a healthcare terror, I'm using that in air quotes, professional who is openly encouraging. There's more videos of her talking about the poisoning and the drugging and the incapacitating of ICE agents. That's a concern. One more quick video. Let's watch it here. As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Caroline Levitt a fourth degree, terror. I hope that you fucking rip from, bow to stern, and never shit normally again, you cunt. I honestly feel uncomfortable as a fully grown adult, even hearing that kind of language. Again, nevermind coming from someone who is entrusted with people's lives, their healthcare. I believe that's gravely concerning. What's your take? It's just disgusting. I mean, addressing that second video first. So here you have a nurse. First of all, using that incredibly foul language. I would never use that kind of language referring to a patient. It's unbelievable. Really foul, disgusting language. But this individual wishing that someone, in this case, Caroline Levitt, who is a patriot, right, who is out there, does she have to be doing what she's doing? No, she's doing it because she loves the country. She wants to serve this country. She wants to serve our amazing president. And so what does this woman say? hopes that she has a fourth degree tear. Now, for those who don't know, that's talking about during labor, vaginal delivery, a woman could have a tear of the tissue of the vagina and those tissues because of the baby coming out. But a fourth degree tear is a very, very serious situation. And she's wishing that upon Caroline Levitt. The fact that she's wishing it upon anybody, that's not what a healthcare professional should be. I can't even use the term healthcare professional for that woman. That is a hate-filled woman. Let me tell you, I've taken care of many patients who have different political opinions than I do. And do I take care of them differently because of different politics? No. You love your patient. You take care of your patient. You treat that patient as the good Samaritan would act. This is disgusting what she said. That woman should have her license revoked. She should never be able to work again. And if that doesn't happen, that is a travesty. For the first video, again— I totally agree. Yeah. I mean, Riley, you've gone through labor. I honestly don't know if you labor had a C-section. Regardless, you've gone through the birth process. And so think about wishing that on someone. Because not only are you talking about wishing them to have horrible pain and complications, but that provides complications down the road, that kind of injury during a vaginal delivery. So it's just disgusting. The first video talking about how you're going to harm ICE agents. ICE agents are there doing what they're doing, trying to help the country, doing what the president has commanded them to do. It's unbelievable that these kind of things are going on. It really is. And this is why we have to fight even harder. People like you, people like me, people like our president, like Secretary Hegseth, Secretary Rollins, Secretary Kennedy. We have to fight even harder to bring this country forward, to heal this country, and to always do the right thing. And I truly believe in this administration, we always do the right thing. We always do what we believe is best for the country, best for our kids, for our moms and our dads, men and women. We never gonna back away from that But those videos are disgusting They disgusting Yeah And they say this I don know if they genuinely believe that they justified in saying it or that they're the morally superior ones. But I'm right there with you. It's horrific is what it is. I've said it time and time again that the MAGA-Maha collab, I believe, was one of the most consequential things that could have happened leading up to November of 2024. Of course, the Maha messaging, it resonated with a lot of voters across many different demographics, young, old, black, white, gay, straight, doesn't really matter. I mean, I would imagine most people care about their health, their longevity. Do you think that these issues, again, what Maha, what HHS is pushing for, advocating for, what you guys are doing, do you think that will play role in midterms as well? I think so. And it's so important to remember that the victories that we've had, and we've had so many victories in this country under President Trump and under Secretary Kennedy, victories with the dietary guidelines, truly important. Victories with our declarations on gender dysphoria, the things that we're doing to protect our children, the victories that we've had even through my office, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for health. So we had recently, believe it or not, Riley, we had $2.3 million of grants that had been accepted previously by Planned Parenthood. They returned those grants because of our oversight of Planned Parenthood. $2.3 million that is no longer going to go to killing children. $2.3 million that will no longer go to harming women. That was returned because of our oversight. So we've had so many victories under Secretary Kennedy, so many victories under President Trump, but it only takes one election cycle to start to reverse those wins. So November is so critically important. People like you and me, men and women like you and me, who really care about this country, who care about the children in the womb, who care about our kids with gender dysphoria, who care about women athletes being given a fair chance to compete, we have to vote in November. So I make a plea now for everybody who's watching your podcast, and there are so many, to get out there and vote in November. Vote to preserve this country, to make it better. Vote for those candidates who are lined up with President Trump. Get out there and do it. So yeah, it's incredibly important, and these things will affect what happens in November, no question about it. We've got to vote. We've got to get out there. We've got to continue to win. Amen. So what's next for you guys? What are some other initiatives that you're working on, policies that you're advancing? Yeah, exactly. So a couple of things coming up very big. One thing is really important. In March, there's going to be a National Women's Health Conference that is being run by the Department of Health and Human Services. It's going to be incredibly important. We want people to understand that we focus on the health of all Americans. Secretary Kennedy and President Trump are incredibly, incredibly committed to advancing the health of women in this country. So this conference will be in March. It's going to be amazing. Great speakers lined up, great content, great content for America and for the health of women. For my office, we're going to continue to amplify and help America understand just how important the dietary guidelines are, what a huge win this has been for the country. We're going to continue to bring forth information. about gender dysphoria and how we protect our children, because this gender theory and treating kids the way my predecessor and the last administration treated kids, minors with gender dysphoria, that attitude is like a vampire. If you don't stake it through the heart and kill it, it'll come back when an administration changes. We're going to continue to hammer away on that. We're never taking our foot off the accelerator on that. We're going to continue to work to make America healthier, to make America greater. One of my roles is as the senior flag officer, in other words, the senior admiral in the commission corps of the public health service. The commission corps of the public health service is about 5,300, 5,400 physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, therapists, and we are the secretary of health and human services. We are Secretary Kennedy's strike force. We are the tip of the spear, really the sharp edge on the blade when it comes to leading initiatives to improve public health in America. We're going to continue to work to make America healthier by carrying out what Secretary Kennedy wants us to do. We are out in the communities. We are teaching people about dietary guidelines. We're advancing health. We're doing exactly what the president and the secretary want to make America healthier and greater than she's ever been. Amazing. You mentioned the women's conference. Anything coming up for men? Yeah, thank you for asking that. So as a urologist, and I think I said that my practice was particularly focused on men's health. I have a real passion for that. Men have a, we have a shorter life expectancy than women in this country. We have higher suicide rates. We have higher obesity rates. We have higher rates of mental health illnesses. So men really, we need a health awakening for men and a national men's health initiative in this country. And understand, that doesn't mean we take anything away from advancing women's health. No, these things run parallel to each other. About two months ago at the Food and Drug Administration, at the FDA, we had an expert panel on testosterone I organized with Commissioner McCary, where we brought in experts to talk about testosterone in men. We talked about falling fertility rates. We talked about falling testosterone rates and the implications on men's health. That to me was the start of a national men's health initiative. I'm very interested in pursuing that. I believe Secretary Kennedy is very sympathetic to that. I think President Trump would be very sympathetic to that. This is in the early stages, but I really want to push for that because we've got to have strong, healthy men right along, strong, healthy women to make this country healthier than she's ever been and to make America great again. I mean, you know that. I look at you as a strong woman, as a strong mom. I'm sure you have a, I know you do, a strong husband. That's what this country needs to become great again. And so one of my passions is to really advocate for men's health in this country. Again, taking nothing away from women's health. But we've got to have strong, healthy men along strong, healthy women to have strong, healthy families. You know, you mentioned President Trump being behind this initiative, and I saw a clip online of Secretary Kennedy the other day. Actually, I believe it was Dr. Oz is who it was, who was talking about the president's testosterone level. And he said he has the highest testosterone level of any man over 70 that I've ever seen in my entire life. So all that to say, I can imagine that the president would get behind this. And so, Admiral, we are so grateful for you. We are grateful for your service. We are grateful for your dedication to making America a safer, a prosperous, a healthier nation. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. No, Riley, you're so welcome. Thank you for the privilege of being on this show. do me a favor, please. I know you're a person of faith. Pray for us in this administration. Pray for us at the Department of Health and Human Services. Pray that we will continue to be strong and to do the right thing because we certainly have enemies on the left, as you know, individuals who want us to fail, but we have many more people who want us to succeed. Pray for us. I promise I'll pray for you and for your young family, but pray for me, pray for us, and absolutely God bless President Trump, God bless Vice President Vance, and God bless Secretary Bobby Kennedy. Again, these men are amazing. Our country is amazing. God bless our republic. You heard it. Prayer sent your way. Thank you, Admiral. Thank you.