HHS Secretary Kennedy bitten by snakes at Dr Oz home

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was repeatedly bitten while handling two wild snakes at a private residence on Tuesday, an incident captured in a video he posted to social media. The footage shows the cabinet official grabbing the non-venomous black racer snakes with his bare hands as his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, pleaded with him to stop.

The event occurred on the patio of a property belonging to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In the video, Kennedy is seen cornering and then lunging to grasp the two snakes by their tails. As he held the writhing reptiles aloft, they bit his hands multiple times. Hines is heard exclaiming, “Honey, honey… why?” and later telling him, “You are nuts.” Kennedy appeared amused throughout the encounter, smiling as he displayed the snakes.

Kennedy described the event on social media by writing that Hines was “cheerleading the removal” of the snakes. The black racer is a non-venomous species native to North America that will bite in self-defense but is considered harmless to humans.

This incident adds to a well-documented history of the secretary’s unconventional...