RFK faces bipartisan pressure at fractious hearing
In a three-hour hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Democrats – and a surprising number of Republicans – took HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to task over broken promises around vaccines.
The Secretary, when he was given the opportunity to answer at all, gave answers that were in turns evasive, confusing, or clear falsehoods.
Accusations of lying abound
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), the ranking Democrat on the committee, set the tone for his party in his opening remarks, when he said that chaos, corruption, and higher costs were the hallmarks of Kennedy’s “disastrous tenure” at HHS. He called for Kennedy to step down or the President to remove him if he wouldn’t.
Wyden also took the unusual step of asking Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) if Kennedy could be sworn in, which is not normally done in this type of hearing.
“It's unfortunate that I have to say this, but this is a witness who has lied under oath to this committee,” Wyden said. “He said, and I quote, that he would do nothing as HHS Secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines. That was clearly not true. He has taken unprecedented unilateral action to restrict access to the COVID vaccine.”
When Crapo denied his request, Wyden pulled no punches.
“I'll only say, Mr Chairman, that this committee's unwillingness to swear this witness is a message that it is acceptable to lie to the Senate Finance Committee about hugely important issues like vaccines.”
Throughout the hearing, Senators on both sides of the aisle drew attention to various discrepancies between Kennedy’s actions and words, from his quick turnaround on recently departed CDC Director Susan Monarez to his inconsistent stance on the efficacy of the COVID vaccine. Kennedy, for his part, accused Monarez, various Senate Democrats, and the CDC under Biden of lying, and came close to accusing medical organisations like the American Academy of Pediatrics of the same, though ultimately he said they were “conflicted” because of an alleged relationship with pharmaceutical companies.
The access question
Democrats pressed the Secretary on his public assertions, and promises, that the COVID-19 vaccine would remain available to people who wanted it for themselves or their children.
“You said 'If vaccines are working for someone, I'm not going to take them away’,” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said. “Then last week you announced that the COVID-19 vaccine is no longer approved for healthy people under the age of 65. In announcing the change, you said the vaccine would be available for anyone who wants it. Obviously both things cannot be true at the same time.”
RFK disputed the assertion that the vaccine is not, as a matter of practicality, currently available to most Americans, repeating “Anyone can get the booster” and “Most Americans will be able to get it from their pharmacy for free”.
When Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) said that people who want access to vaccines are being denied it, Kennedy replied, “You’re making things up to scare people and it’s a lie.”
No new clarity about Monarez’s ouster
Over the course of the hearing, Kennedy gave conflicting accounts on why he dismissed Monarez. In his opening statement, he seemed to suggest it was cleaning house due to what he characterised as the CDC’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These changes were absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world's gold standard public health agency, with the central mission of protecting Americas from infectious disease. CDC failed that responsibility miserably during COVID,” he said. “And the people at CDC who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving. And that's why we need bold, confident, creative new leadership at the CDC.”
However, as the hearing went on, he denied Monarez’s claim that she was fired for refusing to pre-approve ACIP’s vaccine recommendations, but not that she was fired for refusing to fire people under her.
He also said, bizarrely, “I told her she had to resign because I asked her if she was a trustworthy person and she said no.”
“In the future I would advise you ask someone whether they're trustworthy during the interview instead of after a lengthy Senate confirmation process,” Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) quipped.
Signs of GOP fracture
While no Republican called on Kennedy to resign, three GOP Senators seemed highly concerned about Kennedy’s actions as Secretary and posed difficult questions.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who cast the deciding vote in Kennedy’s confirmation hearing after extracting promises from him about vaccine policy, pressed Kennedy on whether President Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for Operation Warp Speed in a manoeuvre seemingly designed to back him into a corner where he couldn’t criticise the COVID vaccine without criticising the President.
Kennedy responded that the vaccine was good and necessary at the time, because Americans had not yet developed natural immunity, but that doesn’t mean it should still be recommended to every American today.
Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) gave a full-throated defence of vaccines and cited public opinion polls to support broad access.
“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've become deeply concerned,” he said. “The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership at the NIH questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of the CDC fired. Americans don't know who to rely on. Recent polls said 89% of voters, 81% of Trump voters, believe that vaccine recommendations should come from trained physicians, scientists, public health experts. If we're going to make America healthy again, we can't allow public health to be undermined.”
Finally, Tillis asked Kennedy a series of pointed questions about his stance on Operation Warp Speed and his firing of Monarez, directing him to respond in writing after the hearing.
“I don't see how you go, over four weeks, from 'a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a longtime champion of MAHA values, a caring and compassionate brilliant microbiologist’ and 4 weeks later fire her because she refused to fire people who worked for her,” Tillis said.
