President Trump on Thursday expressed his support for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following a contentious Senate hearing.
Kennedy faced withering criticism from Democrats, and even some Republicans expressed unhappiness with the chaos Kennedy is causing by meddling in the country’s vaccine policies.
Trump, during a dinner with some of the nation’s leading tech CEOs, said Kennedy “means very well” and that his anti-vaccine views are merely a different perspective on health care.
Kennedy’s “got a different take, and we want to listen to all of those takes,” Trump said. “But it’s not your standard talk, I would say. And that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health, and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.”
During roughly three hours of testimony Thursday, the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary repeated vaccine misinformation, attacked the CDC, and offered differing explanations on his vision for remaking the agency.
Three GOP senators on the committee indicated some unease over Kennedy’s actions, specifically about funding and access to vaccines.
But through shouting matches with lawmakers, Kennedy made clear his work to upend the health establishment isn’t slowing down.
The White House has showed support for Kennedy throughout his tenure, including Thursday during and after the hearing.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on the criticism of Kennedy’s leadership in a social media post Thursday afternoon.
“Secretary @RobertKennedyJr is taking flak because he’s over the target,” she posted on social platform X. “The Trump Administration is addressing root causes of chronic disease, embracing transparency in government and championing gold-standard science. Only the Democrats could attack that commonsense effort.”
