It wasn’t only Democrats confronting President Trump’s health secretary during a heated hearing in the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.
Three Republican senators — Bill Cassidy (La.), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and John Barrasso (Wyo.) — also harshly questioned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his opinion on Trump’s COVID-19 response, changes to vaccine oversight and approval, and the upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Here are highlights from the sometimes-heated exchanges:
Cassidy asks if Trump should get Nobel Prize
Cassidy, a physician, reluctantly supported Kennedy’s confirmation, raising concerns about his past comments expressing vaccine skepticism. During Thursday’s hearing, Cassidy interrogated Kennedy again about his beliefs on vaccines, specifically about his opposition to mRNA vaccine technology.
At first, Cassidy asked Kennedy if he believed Trump should be awarded a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed, the project launched during his first term that sped up the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.
Kennedy replied that he did believe the president deserved the award. Cassidy then questioned how the secretary could support Operation Warp Speed while also reducing access to COVID-19 vaccines.
“As lead attorney for the Children’s Health Defense, you engaged in multiple lawsuits attempting to restrict access to the COVID vaccine,” Cassidy said. “It surprises me that you think so highly of Operation Warp Speed when as an attorney, you attempted to restrict access to the COVID vaccine.”
Cassidy then asked Kennedy why the HHS recently cut more than $500 million in contracts for mRNA development and continued to grill him about his statements that members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel had conflicts of interest.
“It just seems inconsistent that you would agree with me,” he said.
Tillis calls out Kennedy’s apparent contradictions
Tillis, who is not running for reelection, questioned Kennedy about COVID-19 shots as well as his ousting of 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.
He argued that Kennedy’s actions in office have gone against what he said he would do during his confirmation hearings.
“I do also believe that some of your statements seem to contradict what you said in the prior hearing,” Tillis said.
Citing Kennedy’s own words, Tillis asked for written answers.
“You said you’re going to empower the scientists at HHS to do their job. I’d just like to see evidence where you’ve done that, and I’m sure that you will have some,” Tillis continued.
“You will do nothing that makes it difficult or discourages people taking vaccines. There seem to be several reports that would seem to refute that,” Tillis said. “’I’m not going to come here and impose my belief over any of yours.’ That, again, seems to be contradictory to the firing of a CDC director, the canceling of mRNA research contracts, firing advisory board members attempting to stall NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding.”
Barrasso ‘deeply concerned’ about vaccines
Barrasso, the second-ranking Senate Republican, also praised Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling Operation Warp Speed a “model of American ingenuity and public-private partnership.”
“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” he said. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership of the National Institute of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don’t know who to rely on.”
“If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined,” Barrasso said.
Barrasso asked Kennedy to explain the steps he would take to “ensure vaccine guidance is clear, evidence based and trustworthy.”
Kennedy pointed to a controversial policy to conduct placebo-controlled studies on all “new” vaccines, while also implying a link between vaccines and chronic disease.
Barrasso asked Kennedy about an upcoming meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and whether there was a risk that “safe, proven vaccines like measles, like hepatitis B and others, could be in jeopardy.”
Kennedy did not directly answer and instead doubled down on his repeated criticism of the CDC.
“Americans have lost faith in CDC, and we need to restore that faith, and we’re going to do that by telling the truth, and not through propaganda,” he said.
