Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” where he defended the Presidential Fitness Test and praised the spirit of American ruggedness that helped conquer the Western frontier. “The purpose of this is to make sure that kids get outdoors, make sure the kids have physical activity,” Kennedy said. Everybody wants our kids to get up… the sedentary lifestyle is contributing to the malaise, the spiritual malaise that we have in this country. The emotional and depressive state that so many of our kids are in, you need to get out, do competitive sports, work with teamwork, work with other kids, try to make it exciting for everybody and try to make it enjoyable.” “We need our kids up. Move a muscle, change a thought. If you want to get out of a bad mood, go out and do something physical,” Kennedy advised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We were part of the Council on Physical Fitness when were kids. And you had to do sit ups, you had to pull ups, you had to do shuttle runs, you had to do one mile runs. And they awarded the top 15 percent with a patch and with recognition, and with certificates. And for me, it was a huge item of pride when I was growing up. And we need to re-instill a spirit of competition, and that spirit and that commitment to nutrition and physical fitness. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: The order that I’ll sign today in a few moments, directs the council to develop strategies to improve America’s physical fitness and renew the American spirit, excellence, competitiveness and sportsmanship. From the late 1950s until the 2013, graduate scholars all across our country competed against each other in the Presidential Fitness Test. And it was a big deal. (END VIDEO CLIP) MACCALLUM: President Trump putting a Magus Seal of approval on the Presidential Fitness Test in public school. It was phased out in 2013 under the Obama administration to “minimize comparisons between children.” A majority of kids ages 6 to 17 are failing to get the recommended hour or more of physical activity that their bodies really require every single day. Look at that D minus on the scale in terms of how much our kids are moving out there. Earlier, I spoke with the HHS Secretary, RFK Jr. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MACCALLUM: So I want to read this quote from Sports Illustrated from a piece that your uncle, President John Kennedy, wrote in 1960. And I think it’s very revealing. It says, of course, modern advances and increasing leisure can add greatly to the comfort and enjoyment of life, but they must not be confused with indolence, with — in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “slothful ease” with an increasing deterioration of our physical strength. So obviously, it was a big concern to the President back then, and it’s a big concern to this President and you as secretary as well. Tell us about this choice. KENNEDY: Well, yes, that article was published in December of 1960, so about a month before my uncle took the oath office. And he was signaling to the country that physical fitness of Americans was going to be one of the primary priorities of his administration. He watched what was happening. There was all kinds of studies that had come out at the time that showed that were falling behind Europeans in terms of our physical fitness. My uncle and my father believed strongly that American democracy and the taming of the American wilderness and the achievements of our country were related to the strength, both the physical strength and the moral strength of America. That we had this kind of beef jerky toughness that allowed us to conquer the frontier. And that we were losing that advantage, that we were coming soft. And that’s what happened in ancient Rome prior to the collapse of the Roman Empire. MACCALLUM: Yes. KENNEDY: And so, they had all of these sort of warning signs. And he launched the Presidential Council on Physical Fitness. I grew up with that. I was 10 years old at the time they launched it. And I grew up with it in school. You’re way too young to remember any of that, but it was, you know, we had to do push ups, sit ups, shuttle runs, one mile run and a bunch of other activities. MACCALLUM: Yes. Secretary, I remember it very well. In fact, I failed it, I think the first time in fourth grade. And it became the absolute core of my existence to get it the following year, and to make sure that I didn’t fail, because these tests were tough. And I just want to ask you know, President Obama pulled back from this, and there’s this philosophy out there that this kind of competition is not good for kids. This is the Washington Post yesterday. It says there have been long concerns that the test can involve public shaming of children in front of their peers, often described as embarrassing, humiliating and traumatizing by those who had to take it. What do you say to that? KENNEDY: Well, you know, I think competition is part of life. And, you know, we have to — I think parents have to be sensitive about how their children process experience, but they can’t tell them at life is not going to be hard and that life is not a competition. It is a competition. And if we want to prepare children for a future, if we want to prepare — if we want a country that is strong in the world, we need kids who are willing to compete. And a lot of times that involves failure and it may sometimes involve embarrassment. That’s part of life. MACCALLUM: Yes. KENNEDY: Life is, you know, is not — MACCALLUM: Embarrassment can sometimes be a motivator. It was — it was for me, I wanted that patch on my arm and I still have it somewhere. It meant a lot to me. But, you know, it’s interesting that even during that period, from 1960 through the early 2000, obesity rates were climbing all when we had this test. And they continue to climb today. And we have numbers on childhood obesity. So one of my questions for you is, what will the test look like now? I mean, we all remember, you know, the sit and reach and the pull ups and all of it, but we’ve learned a lot since then. So can you tell us what the test will look like now? KENNEDY: I can’t because we don’t know exactly what the tests are going to look like. That’s why we have a commission which the President launched this week. But we’re going to, you know, we’re going to make sure. Listen, right now the average American kid is spending seven hours in front of his screen a day. And the purpose of this is to make sure that kids get outdoors, make sure the kids have physical activity. It’s absolutely critical. And, you know, I’m not sure exactly what the path is for achieving that, but we know what our objective is. Everybody wants our kids to get up. And, you know, it contributes. The sedentary lifestyle is contributing to the malaise, the spiritual malaise that we have in this country. The emotional and depressive state that so many of our kids are in, you need to get out, do competitive sports, work with teamwork, work with other kids, try to make it exciting for everybody and try to make it enjoyable. We need our kids up. Move a muscle, change a thought. If you want to get out of a bad mood, go out and do something physical. MACCALLUM: It’s so true. I mean, I said that to my kids. From the time they were little, it’s like if you need to shake something off to get outside and go for a walk, go for a run, get into nature, feel the sunshine on your face. I mean, this is the kind of thing that we have too many kids, you know, sort of in a dark corner, staring into a phone all the time. But give me a sense of when you hope this will be implemented. Are you going to be personally involved with deciding? I know you love to do pull ups and push ups, and all that stuff. Are you going to be personally involved with deciding what these measures will be and when do you hope to roll it out? And will it be mandatory for public schools to do this? KENNEDY: I mean, I’m on the commission. I’m not — we don’t know exactly what the protocols are going to be. We know, as I said, what our objective is, which is to get kids moving again and to get them playing competitive sports, and team sports and achieving individual competitions. I don’t know exactly how we’re going to incentivize that nationally and what percentage. Whether it’s going to be mandatory or whether we’re going to, you know, make it — incentivize it in some other ways, but we’re going to try to get all the kids involved. MACCALLUM: OK. Well, it can’t be everybody gets a trophy. It’s got to be a big deal to get to get a patch, to figure out, you know, if you won or you lost, right? Not everyone’s going to get one. KENNEDY: It was, you know, we got a certificate, we got a commendation, we got the patch to wear. And those were all — those were all emblems of honor. MACCALLUM: Secretary, thank you very much. Secretary RFK Jr., good to see you, from HHS, of course. Thank you very much. Good to have you here. KENNEDY: Thank you, Martha.

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