Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was on Capitol Hill Wednesday for his first confirmation hearing to be the next Health and Human Services secretary. As expected, his nomination was one of the more controversial ones Trump made, and Democrats are terrified of the idea of Kennedy leading the agency.
While Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) questioned him, Kennedy explained that “President Trump has asked me to end the chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again,” yet for some reason, that wasn’t a good enough answer for her. “Is the only reason why you're at HHS? To address that one issue?”
Kennedy’s response was epic. “President Trump has asked me because I'm in a unique position to end that, and that is what I'm doing. And if we don't solve that problem, Senator, all of the other disputes we have about who's paying and whether it's insurance companies, whether it's providers, whether it's HMOs, whether it's patients or families, all of those are moving deck chairs around on the Titanic. Our ship is sinking.”
He continued, “Our 60% increase in Medicaid over the past four years is the biggest budget line now, and it's growing faster than any other. And no other nation in the world has what we have here.”
Related: Nicole Shanahan Declares War on Senators Who Oppose RFK Jr.‘s Confirmation
Kennedy continued:
We have the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world. During COVID we had 16% of the COVID deaths in a country. We only have 4.2% of the world's population. We had a higher death count than any country in the world. And when CDC was asked why, they said it's because Americans are the sickest people on Earth. The average person who died from COVID American had 3.8 chronic diseases. This is an existential threat, economically, to our military or health, to our sense of well being, and it is a priority for President Trump. That's why he asked me run the agency. And if I'm privileged be confirmed, that's exactly what I'll do.
🔥 RFK Jr: “President Trump has asked me to end the chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again… That is what I am doing.” pic.twitter.com/DrQZygVJ7c
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 29, 2025
During a particularly pointed exchange, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) challenged Kennedy's consistency on vaccine statements, referencing previous statements he made. "All of these things cannot be true. So are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine, or did you lie on all those podcasts?" Wyden pressed, noting they had recordings.
Kennedy defended himself, claimed that his statement on the Lex Fridman podcast was taken out of context, and called out the senator for being dishonest.
“Senator, as you know because it's been repeatedly debunked,” Kennedy began.
“That statement that I made on the Lex Fridman podcast was a fragment of the statement. He asked me — and anybody who actually goes and looks at that podcast will see this — he asked me, 'Are there vaccines that are safe and effective?' And I said to him some of the live virus vaccines are. And I said, ‘There are no vaccines that are safe and effective' and I was going to continue ‘for every person.’”
Kennedy continued to explain: “Every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines. He interrupted me at that point. I've corrected it many times including on national TV. You know about this, Senator Wyden. So bringing this up right now is dishonest."
🚨BOOM🚨
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 29, 2025
RFK Jr. just completely dismantled Senator Ron Wyden's DISHONEST opening line of questioning:
"I‘ve corrected it MANY TIMES, including on national TV. You know about this, Senator Wyden, so bringing this up right now is dishonest." pic.twitter.com/L3MAxp3MTb
In another exchange, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) wanted Kennedy to commit to not firing federal employees.
“But if you are in this position, will you pledge that you will not fire federal employees who work on food safety, work on trying to preventing [sic] things like salmonella?”
“Senator, there are 91,000 employees,” Kennedy began to respond.
Warner didn’t like that and promptly started talking over Kennedy, insisting he would take that response as a “no.”
“We talked about protecting Americans from cybercriminals — something we need to do a lot more on.” Warner continued. “Will you commit not to fire anyone in the health arena who currently works on protecting Americans from cyber attacks in their health care files?”
“I will commit to not firing anybody who's doing their job,” Kennedy responded.
Bam!
Sen. Warner: Do you pledge to not fire federal employees who work on food safety?
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) January 29, 2025
RFK Jr: There are 91,000 employees
Sen. Warner: I take that as a no. What about people who work on preventing cyber attacks?
RFK Jr: I will commit to not firing anybody who is doing their job pic.twitter.com/XTbYyCjoVw
At one point, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) went on such an insane rant that RFK Jr. couldn't help but laugh:
Senator Bernie Sanders, screaming:
— Dr Manhattva (@Manhattva) January 29, 2025
“Are you supportive of the onesies!”
We live in clown world. pic.twitter.com/pQjoRZuISq
There's no doubt Big Pharma-funded Democrats are afraid of RFK Jr. leading the Health and Human Services Department.
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