Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t need a heckler, protest sign, or pointed question to interrupt his own press briefing this week. As the Health and Human Services secretary stood at the podium outlining the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda on Jan. 7, his cellphone suddenly rang — not with a standard chime, but with the unmistakable sound of ducks quacking. RFK Jr.’s press briefing briefly went off-script when his phone rang with a duck-quacking ringtone, turning a serious policy moment into instant viral fodder online. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) ‘Am I Counting Six Toes on Each Foot?’ Newsom Shatters Sean Duffy’s Lecture with a Single Gross Photo of RFK Jr. Off the Clock, Triggering a Wave of Horrified Zoom-Ins Kennedy paused mid-sentence as the ringtone continued to play. He held his head down, appearing to send a text message, before he apologized and silenced the phone to resume the briefing. Standing nearby, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins followed up with a quick aside, joking, “Duck is also high in protein. Duck is a good thing to eat, everybody,” drawing laughter before Kennedy continued. The interruption lasted only seconds, but the clip quickly moved beyond the room once it surfaced online. After the Daily Mail posted the video on Instagram, commenters seized on the moment. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daily Mail (@dailymail) One person wrote, “Funny how he has his actual voice as a ringtone.” Another added, “To whom did assign a quacking duck ring? What is Cheryl’s ring tone?” A third joked, “That’s prolly the ringtone he has for Trump.” It’s unclear whether the brief mishap was an accident but someone else couldn’t help but speculate, “So funny!!! I hope a staffer did that!!!” One social media user laughed, claiming the ringtone sounded like “Donald duck.” Another commenter wrote, “The irony … a Quack for a Quack.” One person chimed in, “He sounds like a duck…So, what’s the difference?” While the internet focused on the ringtone, the briefing itself was meant to highlight proposed dietary changes aimed at reducing Americans’ consumption of ultra-processed foods and promoting what officials described as “real foods,” according to Fox News. Kennedy argued that nutrition plays a central role in long-term health outcomes and framed the guidance as a necessary shift in how Americans eat. He later warned that widespread reliance on heavily processed food weakens public health and drives up costs. He also argued that if a foreign adversary wanted to undermine the country, encouraging poor dietary habits would be an effective strategy. After the laughter subsided, he continued outlining the administration’s priorities without returning to the interruption. The reaction online echoed long-standing criticism Kennedy has faced within the medical and scientific community over his anti-vaccine views. Last year linguist and science writer Steven Pinker shared commentary from Harvard-affiliated physician Jeff Flier, writing, “RFK Jr. Must Go. An assessment of this dangerous quack by my colleague Jeff Flier @jflier, former Dean of Harvard Medical School and current Co-President of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard.” The criticism has mounted as Kennedy has begun to reshape his department — which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health — and his agencies’ public health directives. More recently, Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health and interim chief of infectious diseases at Northwestern Medicine, delivered a similarly blunt assessment. “Nobody thought the reality would be as bad as it is,” Murphy said in a WTTW interview. “He’s not a public health expert. He’s a quack.” Murphy has expressed concern about changes to vaccination schedule guidelines for young children and the broader implications for disease prevention. Kennedy has rejected those criticisms, saying federal health agencies have struggled for years and require significant reform. “Anyone that lived through the COVID pandemic saw all of these bizarre recommendations that were not science-based,” he said, adding that changing institutional culture would take time and difficult decisions. Public scrutiny has also extended to Kennedy’s personal life, including comments from his wife, actor Cheryl Hines. The couple met in 2006 and married in 2014, forming a blended family of seven children. Hines recently defended her husband during a heated exchange on “The View,” acknowledging disagreements while pushing back on claims that he lacks the background for his role. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cheryl Hines (@_cherylhines) “I always share all of my concerns with my husband,” Hines said, describing the period surrounding Kennedy’s 2024 presidential run and subsequent endorsement of Donald Trump. She also noted that many past Health and Human Services secretaries were not doctors, arguing that the role has historically drawn from varied professional backgrounds. By the time the ducks were silenced and the briefing moved on, the moment had already taken on a second life online. What was intended as a policy rollout became a viral clip, with a ringtone doing what critics and supporters alike have long done — turning Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into a conversation far larger than the words he was trying to deliver. ‘A Quack for a Quack’: RFK Jr. Thrown Off Mid-Briefing by Bizarre Sound, Puts His Head Down In Panic Over What Everyone in the Room Heard ...read more read less