Takeaways from RFK Jr.'s fiery Senate appearance
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Kennedy testifying at the Senate Finance Committee. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. showed no signs of backing down on his controversial policies even as some Republican senators used a Thursday hearing to send signs they're ready to tighten oversight.
Why it matters: Kennedy has had relatively free rein to limit COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, fire personnel and challenge current evidence-based science. But pressure from administration allies on the Hill could eventually change the calculus.
- Over about three hours, an unflinching Kennedy repeatedly talked over members of the Senate Finance Committee and accused several of lying or making things up — even when presented with past statements he made.
Here's what stood out to us:
Kennedy is defiant on CDC firings
Kennedy defended last week's firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Susan Monarez after only a month on the job, which threw the agency into turmoil and was accompanied by the resignations of other top officials.
- He accused Monarez of lying in a Thursday Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which she wrote that Kennedy terminated her for refusing to rubber stamp the vaccine recommendations of his handpicked advisory committee.
- "We are the sickest country in the world, that's why we have to fire people at CDC," Kennedy said.
- Pressed about his June purge of 17 members of the CDC's vaccine advisory panel, known as ACIP, he responded, "I didn't politicize ACIP, I depoliticized it."
- He said without providing evidence that leading medical organizations that have challenged him, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, are tainted because they accept pharmaceutical industry funds.
- That prompted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to reply that "everybody but you" is corrupt in Kennedy's eyes.
Warning shot from a key Republican
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, raised eyebrows when he suggested some of Kennedy's vaccine views were jeopardizing public safety and eroding medical progress.
- "I've grown deeply concerned," Barrasso said, citing measles outbreaks and the CDC director firing.
- "There are real concerns that safe, proven vaccines like measles, hepatitis B and others could be in jeopardy, and that would put Americans at risk and reverse decades of progress," he said.
- Barrasso does not usually break from his party, and as a leadership member, could be reflecting broader concerns within the GOP caucus.
Senators look to drive a wedge between Trump and Kennedy
Some GOP senators cited President Trump's past praise of Operation Warp Speed and vaccines, in an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between Kennedy and his boss.
- Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), asserted that Trump deserved the Nobel Prize for taking steps to rapidly scale up vaccine production in response to COVID-19 and then contrasted that with actions from Kennedy, such as canceling $500 million in grants for developing new mRNA vaccines.
- Canceling those contracts "seems like a commentary upon what the president did in Operation Warp Speed," Cassidy said.
- "I would say effectively we're denying people the vaccine," Cassidy added, highlighting stories of people unable to get the COVID-19 booster shot at pharmacies amid confusion about Health and Human Services' new limited vaccine recommendations.
- Several senators were concerned about a forthcoming CDC vaccine advisory meeting this month, saying it could further limit vaccine recommendations for other diseases. Kennedy did not shed much light on that, though he did say he does not "anticipate" a change in measles vaccine recommendations.
