Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was grilled on Thursday by Senate Republicans and Democrats over his controversial views on vaccines and the firing Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The hearing ended after nearly three hours. Kennedy was grilled on everything from vaccine availability to his staffing shakeups at the CDC.
Several Republicans on the panel expressed concern on vaccines, while Democrats accused Kennedy of breaking pledges he made during his confirmation hearing back in January.
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith slammed Kennedy over his comments following last week’s deadly school shooting.
Kennedy said he was interested in looking at “the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.”
“You have no knowledge of that because you have no evidence of a connection,” Smith said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called out Kennedy for casting doubt on the integrity of major medical organizations.
“You’re telling the American people that the American Medical Association, representing hundreds of thousands of people, have been coopted and that they should not trust their doctors? And the American Academy of Pediatrics? And by the way, just for the record, every single Republican — I don’t mean to be political here, Mr. Chairman — has received PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. Are they all corrupt as well?” Sanders asked.
“I’m telling you, the American Heart Association has been corrupted by the pharma industry,” Kennedy replied.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren pointed to an op-ed Monarez wrote for The Wall Street Journal on Thursday saying she wouldn’t prematurely sign off on recommendations from the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee.
“I told her that she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said, ‘No,’” Kennedy replied. “If you had an employee who told you they weren’t trustworthy, would you ask them to resign, senator?”
“Are you telling us that the former head of CDC, you asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said, ‘No, I am not a trustworthy person,’” Sanders asked.
