The co-chair of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s transition team promoted the discredited Theory that vaccines cause autism in a Interview on CNN Wednesday.

Howard Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a old friend of trumptold the network’s Kaitlan Collins that the vaccines “have not been proven” to be safe. Lutnick said he had recently been educated about vaccines by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent, anti-vaccine former presidential candidate who has endorsed Triumph.

Kennedy has said he would have significant influence over public health policy if Trump wins the White House.

“So I spent two and a half hours this week with Bobby Kennedy Jr. and it was extraordinary. Because, let’s face it, we’ve all heard all kinds of snide comments about him on the news,” Lutnick told Collins.

In recounting his conversation with Kennedy, Lutnick linked autism to the growth of vaccines, a discredited idea that goes back to a retracted study 1998, before Collins interrupted to remind viewers that Lutnick is not a scientist.

“Wait,” the host said. “It’s okay, none of us are doctors. “Vaccines are safe.”

“Why do you think vaccines are safe? There is no longer any responsibility for the product. “They are unproven,” Lutnick said.

“Because they are proven. The kids get them and they are fine,” Collins said.

“Why do you think they’re okay?” Lutnick responded.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond Thursday morning when asked if the campaign supported Lutnick’s comments.

Lutnick went on to say that Kennedy wants the vaccines taken off the market and that Kennedy hopes the Trump administration can get him the data to do so.

“You want the data so you can say, ‘These things are not safe,’” Lutnick said. “He says, ‘If you give me the data, all I want is the data, and I’ll take it and prove it’s not safe.’ And if we eliminate product liability, companies will immediately remove these vaccines from the market.” So that’s his point.”

The former president himself has long expressed skepticism about vaccines and has promised to cut funding for schools that require them, playing into anti-vaccine conspiracy theories that have became conventional in the Republican Party. (All states They have variations in laws that require certain vaccines.)

Trump also engaged in some anti-vaccine banter with Kennedy during a July phone call captured on a leaked video.

“When you give a baby, Bobby, a vaccine that’s 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s right for a horse, not a 10- or 20-pound baby, it seems like you should give this to a horse. ”Trump said on the call.

After Kennedy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, the former president gave him a place on his transition team.

Kennedy told supporters earlier this week that Trump had promised give him “control” over key public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The key thing that I think, you know, that President Trump has promised me, is control of public health agencies,” Kennedy said in a live broadcast, video of which was obtained by CNN. It cited the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, among others.

Trump was scheduled to appear with Kennedy at a campaign event in the swing state of Arizona on Thursday.