RFK Jr. has ‘some very interesting views,’ Thune tells South Dakota audience

RAPID CITY — When John Thune disagrees with people, he tries to do it “in a respectful way,” he said Friday.

So his description of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be as close as Thune gets to a put-down.

“He’s got some very interesting views,” Thune said.

The Republican U.S. Senate majority leader from South Dakota made the comments in response to an audience member at the Black Hills Forum and Press Club. The question came from Sherry Bea Smith, who identified herself as a nurse from Nemo, a small Black Hills community.

Smith said “Americans have been placed in harm’s way” by Kennedy, the secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Smith asked Thune — who voted for Kennedy’s confirmation — if he has a plan to “provide oversight and take action to ensure the health