Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his tenure as the nation’s top health official during a contentious Senate hearing Thursday, snapping back at lawmakers who pressed him on the recent upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and changes to vaccine policy.
During roughly three hours of testimony, the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary repeated vaccine misinformation, attacked the CDC, and offered differing explanations on his vision for remaking the agency.
Through shouting matches with lawmakers, Kennedy made clear his work to upend the health establishment isn’t slowing down.
Here are the key takeaways.
Key Republicans question his vaccine moves
Republican senators have largely been deferential to Kennedy, as they have with almost all of President Trump’s Cabinet.
Even as he’s unilaterally changed recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines, cut funding for mRNA research, purged influential members of then CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and hinted at major changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, Republicans have stood by him.
But there were several signs of cracks on Thursday.
In a surprisingly barbed back-and-forth, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) questioned Kennedy about mRNA vaccines and conflicts of interest among Kennedy’s handpicked panel of vaccine advisers.
Cassidy, a physician, was initially reluctant to support Kennedy but ultimately cast the deciding vote for his nomination to advance out of committee after receiving assurances about vaccine policy.
Cassidy said he was approaching his questions “as a doctor, not as a senator.” The exchange marked the strongest pushback and most contentious public exchange between the two since Kennedy’s term began.
Framing his statements as supportive of Trump, Cassidy pressed Kennedy about Trump’s Operation Warp Speed effort in his first term to bring COVID-19 shots to market in record time.
Kennedy, who once called COVID shots the “deadliest vaccine ever made,” struggled to explain the contradiction.
Cassidy also accused the HHS of “effectively” denying Americans the coronavirus vaccine due to confusion among physicians and patients about who can get the shot. But Kennedy said he’s not taking away any vaccines and “any confusion” about access is not his fault.
Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) also had pointed issues with Kennedy’s moves.
“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Barrasso said. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”
When asked after the hearing if he thinks Kennedy is an impediment to Trump’s agenda, and if he still supports the secretary, Barrasso did not answer directly.
“I support the president,” Barrasso said, adding he would not second-guess Trump’s choices.
Tillis questioned Kennedy about COVID shots as well as his ousting of former CDC Director Susan Monarez.
“I don’t see how you go over four weeks from a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a long-time champion of MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] values … and four weeks later, fire her because, at least the public reports say, because she refused to fire people that work for her,” Tillis said.
Doubles down on upheaval at CDC
Kennedy’s testimony came a little more than a week after he ousted Monarez, which prompted three other top officials to resign in protest.
Kennedy addressed the controversy head-on in his opening statement. He said the agency shake-up was “absolutely necessary” to restore the agency to its “gold standard” of protecting Americans from infectious diseases.
“We are the sickest country in the world. That’s why we have to fire people at the CDC. They did not do their job,” Kennedy said. “I need to fire some of those people to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Kennedy repeated his criticism that the CDC “failed miserably” during the height of the COVID pandemic.
“The people at CDC who … put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving.”
Competing narratives about Monarez
Kennedy was asked several times to recount his ousting of Monarez and whether he demanded she fire senior staff without cause and would commit to rubber stamping efforts to weaken vaccine protections.
She served as the agency’s director for just 29 days
Earlier Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed from Monarez where she said Kennedy pressured her to “preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric.”
But Kennedy disputed her claims and replied “yes” when asked if Monarez was lying.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked Kennedy about claims that Monarez was asked to resign for refusing to sign off on changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
“No, I told her that she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said, ‘no,’” Kennedy responded. “If you had an employee who told you they weren’t trustworthy, would you ask them to resign, senator?”
Warren, who voted against Monarez’s confirmation, pointed out that a month earlier Kennedy praised her as “unimpeachable.”
“And in a month, she became a liar?” Warren asked.
In a later exchange with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Kennedy acknowledged he pressured Monarez to fire senior staff.
But Kennedy also said he never had a one-on-one meeting with Monarez.
Explosive exchanges with Democrats
Kennedy shouted his way through several exchanges with Democrats.
The first occurred when the normally mild-mannered Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) questioned Kennedy on the reduced access to COVID-19 vaccines that has been carried out by the HHS.
Bennet accused Kennedy of creating “confusion” for the sake of his “ideology.”
Kennedy fell back on his long-held retort that Bennet is in the pocket of Big Pharma.
“You were never there complaining when the pharmaceutical companies were picking those people and then running their products through with no safety nets.”
Kennedy then asked if Bennet was saying COVID-19 vaccines were never associated with myocarditis or pericarditis, demanding that he answer the question as Bennet sought to reclaim his time.
“I’m asking the questions for Mr. Kennedy, on behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America who deserve so much better than your leadership,” Bennet shouted back.
Soon after, Kennedy got into antagonistic back-and-forth with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) who called the secretary a “charlatan.” She blasted him for the cancellation of funds for mRNA research.
“You’re so wrong about the facts,” Kennedy shot back.
“You’re interrupting me and sir, you’re a charlatan. That’s what you are,” Cantwell responded.
Warren also went after Kennedy for the reduction in COVID-19 vaccine access under his reign. She further called him out for his seemingly sudden change in opinion of Monarez, noting how he praised during the nomination process and yet called her liar during the hearing.
“I was afraid she was going to bend the knee to you and Donald Trump, and it looks like she didn’t bend the knee. So, you fired her,” Warren quipped.
Continues attacks on COVID shots
Kennedy repeatedly attacked COVID-19 vaccines, even as he tried to say he was supportive of Trump and Operation Warp Speed.
Kennedy said he agreed with Retsef Levi, one of the new members of CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, that mRNA vaccines cause serious harm, including death, particularly among young people.
Kennedy said he did not know how many people died of COVID-19 and cast doubt on how many lives the vaccines saved.
He cited cases of young boys developing myocarditis from the COVID vaccine, but did not mention how rare the cases were. Kennedy also suggested health officials covered up safety data about the shots.
“We were lied to about everything,” Kennedy said.
