5 takeaways dari rfk jr yang tegang | Politik berita

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Follow US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.

testified Thursday in perhaps the most combative congressional hearing of 2025.

He appeared in front of the Senate Finance Committee amid a growing storm engulfing his department — including the recent firing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director who had been confirmed less than a month earlier, a series of moves that could limit vaccine access and the canceling of $500 million in research into mRNA vaccines.

It’s all led even some Republicans to raise alarms about what’s happening at HHS.

And on Thursday, some of those Republicans and many Democrats had a chance to register their concerns and try and adjust Kennedy’s course.

Here are five takeaways from the hearing.

1.

Senators tried to pit Kennedy against Trump Republican politicians often speak to the “audience of one” – i.e.

subtly gearing their comments toward Trump.

On Thursday, it was both Republican and Democrats employing this tactic.

A series of senators seemed to try to pit Kennedy against the president, suggesting Kennedy was undermining Trump and the successes of Operation Warp Speed, the Covid-19 vaccine program Trump launched late in his first term.

It was as if they were trying to get Trump to intervene.

It started with GOP Sen.

Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who was crucial to Kennedy winning confirmation early this year but has grown alarmed at his moves on vaccines.

Sen.

Bill Casssidy questions Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images The Louisiana Republican, who’s facing a primary threat from the right, began by asking Kennedy whether Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed, and Kennedy agreed that Trump did.

(Saying Trump deserves Nobel Prizes has become common among those seeking to curry favor with him.) “Absolutely, senator,” Kennedy said, adding: “It’s phenomenal.” But then Cassidy pointed to Kennedy’s comments critical of the vaccines that Warp Speed produced, his work to strip access to them, and his recent canceling of $500 million in contracts for development of mRNA vaccines, like the ones produced by Warp Speed.

“So, this just seems inconsistent that you would agree with me” about Trump’s Nobel Prize, Cassidy said.

“The president deserves tremendous amount of credit for this.” After Cassidy planted that seed, a series of Democrats returned to the point.

Sen.

Maria Cantwell of Washington even allowed that it was a “monumental achievement” for Trump, which Kennedy endorsed even though he generally talked around the issue.

Sen.

Maria Cantwell during the hearing.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images By the end, the HHS secretary’s critics might have landed one a key blow.

Trump has repeatedly built up the success of Warp Speed, claiming it saved millions of lives.

He at one point suggested the number could stretch into the tens of millions.

But Kennedy declined to attach a number to the lives saved.

He wouldn’t even agree it was 1 million.

“I don’t know if it saved a million lives,” he said, only allowing that it saved “quite a few.” “Unfortunately, you are undermining one of the president’s biggest achievements,” said Democratic Sen.

Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, “which, as the president said, saved millions of American lives.” Trump had turned heads on Monday with a social media post that some interpreted as critical of what’s happening under Kennedy’s leadership.

The president complained the CDC was “being ripped apart” by debate over the success of the Covid vaccines, though he didn’t explicitly blame Kennedy.

The message to Trump from senators, who have limited tools to rein in Kennedy, seemed to be: Maybe this guy isn’t on your side.

2.

Other Republicans deliver brushbacks to Kennedy While Cassidy was perhaps the most-anticipated Republican questioner on the panel, he wasn’t the only one to raise concerns about Kennedy’s vaccine moves.

Others did so more gently, but in ways that suggested Kennedy should be careful.

Perhaps most surprising was Sen.

John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No.

2 Republican in the chamber.

“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” he said.

“Since then, I have grown deeply concerned.” The four-term senator, who was also an orthopedic surgeon, added: “There are real concerns that safe, proven vaccines like measles, like hepatitis B and others, could be in jeopardy.

And that would put Americans at risk and reverse decades of progress.” Sen.

John Barrasso arrives for the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday.

Francis Chung/Politico/AP Barrasso cited recent measles outbreaks in communities with low vaccination rates.

He also suggestively cited how George Washington once reversed himself to support the smallpox vaccine for soldiers – seemingly suggesting maybe Kennedy should take a page out of that book.

GOP Sen.

Thom Tillis of North Carolina also repeatedly suggested that Kennedy had violated his promises on vaccines.

“I do also believe that some of your statements seem to contradict what you said in the prior hearing,” said Tillis, whose decision not to run for reelection next year frees him from some of the primary fears that often haunt GOP lawmakers.

Neither senator pressed the secretary to respond, but they seemed to be laying markers.

Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism was hardly a secret when he was confirmed.

But the subject didn’t seem to interest many Republicans besides Cassidy back then.

It clearly does now.

3.

Kennedy was hugely combative It’s difficult to overstate how combative Kennedy was during this hearing.

Whether that’s because of the pressure he’s under or because he deduced that’s what Trump likes to see, it was striking.

After Cassidy pressed him on Operation Warp Speed, Kennedy responded, “Is this a question, Senator Cassidy, or is this a speech that you don’t want me to answer?” After the Louisiana Republican claimed that Kennedy’s moves mean “effectively we’re denying people vaccines,” the HHS secretary shot back: “You’re wrong.” Kennedy accused Democrats on the committee of “making stuff up.” He told one, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He accused another of “talking gibberish.” 4.

Kennedy struggled to account for his promise on vaccine access Perhaps the most significant policy question looming over the hearing – and the future of Kennedy and the CDC – is the one Cassidy concluded with: how much Kennedy’s actions are actually going to restrict access to vaccines.

During his confirmation hearings in January, Kennedy made a very broad promise: “I will do nothing as HHS Secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.” But HHS’s moves have clearly jeopardized access to Covid vaccines.

By narrowing their approval, the agency has added barriers for people – if they can even get them at all.

Kennedy repeatedly walked a fine line.

Rather than hewing to his previous message about not making vaccine access difficult, he suggested people would still be able to access vaccines, at least somehow.

Cassidy showed him a social media post from conservative commentator Erick Erickson, who said HHS’s moves have prevented his wife, who has Stage IV lung cancer, from getting the Covid vaccine.

Kennedy said it was “wrong” that people were effectively being denied the vaccine.

(Erickson stood by his post on Thursday, writing, “my wife literally went to get the vaccine and CVS could not give it to her.”) Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.

arrives to testify before the Senate Finance Committee.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Ultimately, under intense questioning from Democratic Massachusetts Sen.

Elizabeth Warren, Kennedy suggested it was good enough that vaccines were still available, at least in some form.

“I’m not taking vaccines away from anybody,” Kennedy said, adding: “You can still get Covid vaccines, senator.” But Kennedy tacitly admitted that narrowing approval made it harder to access.

He acknowledged, for example, that “it depends on the state” when it comes to whether people can easily access the vaccine at a pharmacy.

He also said HHS is not going to “recommend every product in the world.” But Tillis clearly wasn’t impressed.

“There seem to be several reports that would seem to refute” Kennedy’s promise, Tillis said.

5.

What to watch next One exchange early in the hearing will surely be revisited.

Kennedy was asked to respond to the recently ousted CDC Director Dr.

Susan Monarez’s claims about him.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday, she wrote that during a meeting in late August with Kennedy, she “was told to preapprove the recommendations” of a vaccine advisory committee to which Kennedy has recently appointed some vaccine skeptics.

Kennedy not only flatly denied it but accused Monarez of lying.

“I did not say that to her,” Kennedy said repeatedly.

Often in such circumstances, witnesses will talk around the issue and suggest that maybe there was a misunderstanding.

But Kennedy didn’t do that.

Monarez’s attorneys responded Thursday by saying Monarez “stands by” her account and “would repeat it all under oath.” It will be interesting to see if another committee – such as Cassidy’s Senate health committee – probes further.

Not only could Monarez be called to testify, but so could another top HHS official, Jim O’Neill, who was in the meeting Monarez wrote about and has since replaced her as acting director.

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