‘You’re a charlatan’: WA Senator confronts RFK Jr. over ‘perpetrating hoaxes,’ CDC chaos

Washington Senator Maria Cantwell raked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the coals when the controversial Health and Human Services secretary appeared on Capitol Hill to defend his policies.

Kennedy was before a congressional committee Thursday, where he faces questions about the turmoil at federal health agencies. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee called Kennedy to a hearing about his plans to “Make America Healthy Again.” But the health secretary is being grilled over layoffs and planned budget cuts that detractors say are wrecking the nation’s ability to prevent disease.

Cantwell used the hearing to challenge Kennedy over cutting funding for mRNA vaccine research.

“The mRNA technology is about continuing the research to be ready for the next flu, influenza, the next pandemic,” Cantwell said. And you have to do—”

“I’m happy to have a detailed discussion with you,” Kennedy interjected. “You’re so wrong.”

“You’re interrupting me and, sir, you’re a charlatan. That’s what you are,” Cantwell said. “You’re the ones who conflate chronic disease with the need for vaccines. The history on vaccines is very clear.”

Kennedy recently fired Susan Monarez, a longtime government scientist he installed as the CDC director for less than a month, and has sought to reshape the nation’s vaccine policies to match his long-standing suspicions about the safety and effectiveness of long-established shots.

He told the committee that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) leaders who left the agency last week deserved to be fired and criticized CDC recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic tied to lockdowns and masking policies, claiming — wrongly — that they “failed to do anything about the disease itself.”

“What I’m saying is you are perpetrating hoaxes,” Cantwell continued. “You, as the secretary of health. You’re undermining the whole health care delivery system, and you keep trying to point to chronic disease. But you’re not putting solutions on the table to cover more Americans, and you’re taking away the science and technology that has made us the leader, that has saved, according to the first Trump Administration Surgeon General, millions of lives! And you don’t want to keep that going.”

Kennedy faces heated questions over limits to updated COVID shots

He deflected questions from Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan about recent changes limiting access to COVID-19 shots for healthy children and adults.

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved updated COVID shots, but only for seniors or younger people with underlying health risks. That’s sparked confusion and frustration from some Americans, including parents interested in vaccinating healthy children against the virus.

Many pharmacies are unwilling or legally barred from giving vaccines outside the uses endorsed by the FDA and other federal authorities.

Kennedy said drugmakers did not provide the FDA with studies showing their vaccines significantly benefited healthy children and adults. People can still get a shot with a prescription from their doctor, Kennedy added.

Memos released by the FDA last week show the agency’s top vaccine regulator, a Kennedy ally, overruled his staff in placing limits on COVID vaccines.

While opposed by many U.S. medical groups, the narrower criteria for seasonal shots mirror many countries in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

Bennet and Kennedy engage in yelling match over upcoming vaccine recommendation review

Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, a Democrat, called attention to Kennedy’s appointments to a CDC vaccine advisory panel, many of whom have criticized vaccines and spread misinformation. The panel is scheduled for an upcoming review of recommendations for a series of common childhood vaccines.

“Should parents and schools in Colorado be prepared for more measles outbreaks as a result of that? How about more mumps outbreaks?” Bennet asked.

Kennedy said he didn’t anticipate a change to recommendations for the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, but said he thinks parents should be able to “make their own choices.”

The back-and-forth soon escalated into verbal warfare, with Kennedy and Bennet screaming questions at each other and accusing the other of failing to answer.

“I’m asking the questions,” Bennet screamed. “This is not a podcast. It is the American people’s health that is on the line here.”

Congresswoman Schrier calls on Kennedy to resign over undermining of CDC and vaccine science

Washington Congresswoman Kim Schrier, alongside her colleagues in the Democratic Doctors Caucus, wrote a letter calling for Kennedy to resign, citing repeated actions that have undermined evidence-based public health guidance and jeopardized the health and safety of the American people.

“During your confirmation hearings, you pledged to follow the science on vaccines,” the letter stated. “Yet in the months since, your actions have repeatedly contradicted that pledge despite opposition from the scientific and medical community. The culmination of this reckless behavior was last week’s firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez for defending evidence-based vaccine standards. These decisions threaten American lives and public trust.”

Republican senator and surgeon: ‘I’ve grown deeply concerned’

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon, said he has “grown deeply concerned” that trust in vaccines could be in jeopardy under Kennedy’s leadership.

“If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined,” he told Kennedy. “I’m a doctor. Vaccines work.”

Kennedy told Barrasso that Americans have lost faith in the CDC and pledged to make health recommendations “clear, evidence-based, and trustworthy.”

Kennedy’s past association with Jeffrey Epstein questioned

Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell asked Kennedy, who’s said he flew on the now-disgraced financier’s plane, what he thought about victims of Epstein who appeared on the steps of the Capitol this week to call for greater transparency into Epstein’s operation and demise.

“I don’t know about any women on the steps,” Kennedy told Cantwell, who tied critiques of the health secretary’s decision-making to his ties to Epstein, and called Kennedy a “charlatan.”

Earlier in the hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon criticized Kennedy for claiming he was “a protector of children” even though the secretary had said he had flown on Epstein’s plane “on multiple occasions.”

Contributing: The Associated Press