The Associated Press

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MICHELLE R. SMITH

Investigative reporter

Smith reports for AP’s global investigations team. She is based in Providence, Rhode Island.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services testifies during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing for his pending confirmation on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Pro-RFK Jr. letter to the Senate includes names of doctors whose licenses were revoked or suspended
A letter submitted to the U.S. Senate that states it was sent by physicians in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services includes the names of doctors who have had their licenses revoked, suspended or faced other discipline.
 
Police officers stand near the scene where a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon streets, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
New Orleans attack and Vegas explosion highlight extremist violence by active military and veterans
The military ties of the man who carried out an attack in New Orleans on New Year’s and another who died in an explosion in Las Vegas highlight the increased role of people with military experience in ideologically driven attacks, especially those that seek mass casualties.
 
FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump gather outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar, File)
Takeaways from AP’s report on a study into extremism in the military that used old data
Early this year, Pete Hegseth told a Fox News audience a new, Pentagon-funded study proved that the number of military service members and veterans involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection did not indicate a wider problem in the armed forces.
 
A photo illustration highlighting a Pentagon-funded study that used old data to conclude incorrectly that extremism is not a problem in the military.
AP finds that a Pentagon-funded study on extremism in the military relied on old data
Early this year, Pete Hegseth told a Fox News audience a new, Pentagon-funded study proved that the number of military service members and veterans involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection did not indicate a wider problem in the armed forces.
 
FILE - Pete Hegseth walks to an elevator for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Trump Pentagon pick had been flagged by fellow service member as possible ‘Insider Threat’
Pete Hegseth, the Army National Guard veteran and Fox News host nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Defense, was flagged as a possible “Insider Threat” by a fellow service member due to a tattoo on his bicep that’s associated with white supremacist groups.
 
FILE - Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event Nov. 1, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long record of promoting anti-vaccine views
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was building up a following with his anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, and became one of the world’s most influential spreaders of fear and distrust around vaccines.
 
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
RFK Jr. wants federal health data so he can show vaccines are unsafe, Trump transition co-chair says
A co-chair of Donald Trump’s transition team says Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants access to federal health data so he can show vaccines are unsafe and lead to them being pulled from the market in a second Trump administration.
 
FILE - Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, arrives at Trenton-Mercer Airport, in Mercer County, New Jersey, Oct. 16, 2024, en route to a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, file)
What’s a ‘Jezebel spirit’? Some Christians use the term to paint Kamala Harris with a demonic brush
Christian nationalist leaders are telling followers that Vice President Kamala Harris is under the influence of a “Jezebel spirit.”
 
This image used as evidence by federal prosecutors shows a weapon confiscated from the home of Chris Arthur in Mount Olive, N.C. (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina via AP)
Takeaways from The Associated Press’ reporting on extremism in the military
The number of U.S. service members and veterans who radicalize make up a tiny fraction of a percentage point of the millions and millions who have honorably served their country.
 
This image from a YouTube video posted by Chris Arthur on March 20, 2018, shows him with a handgun during a training video. Arthur was a member of the North Carolina National Guard at the time he posted the video. (AP Photo)
His country trained him to fight. Then he turned against it. More like him are doing the same
The number of U.S. service members and veterans who radicalize make up a tiny fraction of a percentage point of the millions and millions who have honorably served their country.
 
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Walker, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
RFK Jr. suggests he’ll have a significant role on agriculture and health policy if Trump is elected
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suggesting he will have significant influence on American agriculture policy if Donald Trump is elected president.
 
FILE - Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives at a campaign rally at North Carolina Aviation Museum, Aug. 21, 2024, in Asheboro, N.C. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)
Takeaways from AP’s report on JD Vance and the Catholic postliberals in his circle of influence
Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s 2019 conversion to Catholicism put him in close touch with a Catholic intellectual movement known as postliberalism. Vance calls himself postliberal and echoes some of the movement’s ideas.
 
FILE - Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event in Erie, Pa., Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
JD Vance’s Catholicism helped shape his views. So did this little-known group of Catholic thinkers
Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s 2019 conversion to Catholicism helped shape his political worldview. It also put him in close touch with a Catholic intellectual movement known as postliberalism.
 
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio speaks at a campaign event, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Byron Center, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
VP nominee JD Vance to dissolve last vestige of mothballed charity, give its $11K to Appalachia
The Trump-Vance campaign says Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance is preparing to dissolve what’s left of the modest charitable effort he launched to help people in Appalachia after writing “Hillbilly Elegy.”
 
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks during a campaign event Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
Vance praises a key leader behind Project 2025, a conservative effort Trump has disavowed
JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, has praised the vision of Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts in the foreword of a forthcoming book.
 
FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Commit to Caucus rally, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, in Ankeny, Iowa. Experts in political messaging say former President Donald Trump’s remarks that his supporters must “guard the vote” in 2024 are potentially dangerous and could lead to confrontations at polling place. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney, File)
Trump tells supporters, ‘Guard the vote.’ Here’s the phrase’s backstory and why it’s raising concern
Former President Donald Trump is urging supporters to “guard the vote” during next year’s election, a phrase that set off alarm bells among pro-democracy advocates who say it signals permission to his followers to take extreme measures.
 
RETRANMISSION TO CORRECT LOCATION - Toni Asselin, who was at the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley with her mother, Tammy Asselin, during the recent mass shooting, listens to her mother speak during an interview in Lewiston, Maine, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
When a man began shooting in Maine, some froze while others ran. Now they’re left with questions
A billiard ball being hit, a dropped bowling ball and a popping balloon. Those are some of the noises that witnesses in Lewiston, Maine, thought they heard when a gunman opened fire at a bowling alley Wednesday.
 
Law enforcement officers maintain their presence at Schemengees Bar and Grille in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. The suspect, Robert Card, a firearms instructor who grew up in the area, was found dead in nearby Lisbon Falls, Gov. Janet Mills said at a Friday night news conference. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Maine mass killing suspect found dead, ending search that put entire state on edge
The man wanted in the mass shooting at a bowling alley and bar that killed 18 people and wounded 13 has been found dead, bringing an end to a search that put the entire state of Maine on edge for the last two days.
 
FILE - Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. A study released on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, has found that people convicted of crimes related to domestic extremism face far shorter prison terms than those convicted in international terrorism cases, even when the crimes are similar. Prosecutors had requested 25 years in prison for Rhodes in a Jan. 6 case. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced him to 18 years in May 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
International terror defendants face longer prison terms than domestic counterparts, new study finds
A new study has found that people convicted of crimes related to domestic extremism face far shorter prison terms than those convicted in international terrorism cases, even when the crimes are similar.
 
Padrig and Gina Fahey hold a photo of their son, Braden, 12, as they stand for a portrait in California on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. Braden collapsed at football practice in August 2022 and died of a malformed blood vessel in the brain. The Faheys couldn’t understand how Braden’s face appeared on the cover of the book “Cause Unknown,” which was co-published by an anti-vaccine group led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or why his name appeared inside it. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Takeaways from AP’s reporting on who gets hurt by RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine work
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent years disseminating false information about vaccines in a time when spreading conspiracy theories has become a powerful way to grow a constituency.
 
Padrig and Gina Fahey hold a photo of their son, Braden, 12, as they stand for a portrait in California on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. Braden collapsed at football practice in August 2022 and died of a malformed blood vessel in the brain. The Faheys couldn’t understand how Braden’s face appeared on the cover of the book “Cause Unknown,” which was co-published by an anti-vaccine group led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or why his name appeared inside it. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
RFK Jr. spent years stoking fear and mistrust of vaccines. These people were hurt by his work
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent years disseminating false information about vaccines in a time when spreading conspiracy theories has become a powerful way to grow a constituency.
 
FILE - Robert Kennedy Jr., left, stands at a rally held in opposition to a proposed bill that would remove parents' ability to claim a philosophical exemption to opt their school-age children out of the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Rising to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic due to his strident opposition to vaccines, now Democratic presidential candidate Kennedy Jr. portrays himself as a true Democrat inheriting the mantle of the Kennedy family. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Takeaways from AP’s reporting on inconsistencies in RFK Jr.'s record
As Democratic presidential primary candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenges President Joe Biden, the stories he tells on the campaign trail about himself, his life’s work and what he stands for are often the opposite of what his record shows.
 
FILE - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., testifies before a House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 20, 2023. Rising to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic due to his strident opposition to vaccines, Democratic presidential candidate Kennedy Jr. portrays himself as a true Democrat inheriting the mantle of the Kennedy family. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
RFK Jr. says he’s not anti-vaccine. His record shows the opposite. It’s one of many inconsistencies
As Democratic presidential primary candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenges President Joe Biden, the stories he tells on the campaign trail about himself, his life’s work and what he stands for are often the opposite of what his record shows.
 
Hollowed out public health system faces more cuts amid virus
The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and it lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century.
 
Rhode Island governor backs Michael Bloomberg for president
Billionaire presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has snagged his first gubernatorial endorsement. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo called him the right leader to take on President Donald Trump.
 
‘A serious-minded kid:’ Pete Buttigieg aimed high early
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — It was a running joke in his AP U.S. history class at Saint Joseph High School: Would Peter Buttigieg — the smartest kid in class, language whiz and devotee of John F.
 
Congregants at oldest US synagogue ask high court to step in
The congregants at the oldest synagogue in the United States are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision giving a New York congregation control of Rhode Island’s Touro Synagogue and a set of bells valued in the millions.
 
Some states place limits on secret harassment settlements
Confidential settlements that have been blamed during the #MeToo movement for allowing serial sexual harassers to continue their bad behavior are facing new limits.
 
Brown University cancels Rosa Parks house display in dispute
Brown University has canceled plans to display the house where Rosa Parks lived for a time after she left the south and moved to Detroit.
 
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s great fear: Courts viewed as partisan
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says one of her great fears is that the federal judiciary will start to be seen as just another political branch of government.
 
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