House Democrats aggressively questioned Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for nearly three hours on Friday during an explosive budget hearing.
Kennedy testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee to defend President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget request to Congress, but Democrats on the committee used the rare opportunity to press the secretary on a host of issues.
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The explosive hearing came after Kennedy testified for nearly eight hours before two other House committees the day before.
Many GOP committee members used their questioning period to allow Kennedy to respond to the heated moments from Democrats, whom many Republicans said were using the hearing to generate viral soundbites as campaign materials for the upcoming midterm elections.
Here are some of the highlights from the hearing.
‘Absolutely not’ on the 25th Amendment
Kennedy argued early in the hearing with Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) over whether Trump’s recent string of controversial posts on Truth Social are indicative of a mental health decline for the Commander-in-Chief.
Takano referenced the president’s social media post on Easter Sunday, which called for Iran to “open the f***ing Strait [of Hormuz],” and his post saying a “whole civilization will die.” He also referenced the controversial post of an AI-generated image of the president in religious garb healing the sick.
“Mr. Secretary, given everything that I’ve shown you today, will you insist that President Trump undergo an assessment of his mental fitness and his emotional stability?” Takano asked.
“Absolutely not,” Kennedy replied.
Kennedy also refused when he was asked if he would support invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office due to mental instability.
“He is very, very sane,” Kennedy said later in the hearing.
New Tylenol autism study is ‘garbage’
Kennedy lambasted a study published earlier this month that found evidence against the claim that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen, the generic name for Tylenol, causes autism.
In September, Trump and Kennedy announced from the White House that acetaminophen use during pregnancy is likely a contributing factor to the rising incidence of autism diagnoses since the 1980s, sparking panic, as the drug is the only painkiller women can take safely during pregnancy.
The study found no statistical difference in autism rates among children born to women in Denmark who took Tylenol during pregnancy than those who did not.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) asked Kennedy about the study after the topic came up in Thursday’s hearing before the Ways and Means Committee.
Kennedy called the study a “garbage in, garbage out” exercise because it did not measure over-the-counter use.
“The study is a garbage study. It should be retracted,” Kennedy said.
“The industry has the capacity to generate these studies all the time, and it’s fraudulent,” he added. “It should be retracted.”
The Washington Examiner contacted the publisher of the study with a request for comment.
Kennedy also defended the controversial comments he made last year that individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are not able to engage in a variety of activities, from writing poetry to using the restroom independently.
“I was talking about people with profound autism, not people who are, you know, who have lower-impact autism,” Kennedy said. “I’m talking about people who are nonverbal, non-toilet-trained, head-banging, stimming, toe-walking.”
The secretary added that he has been thanked by “thousands of people” for his comments, as parents with nonverbal autistic children struggle for self-advocacy.
Kennedy: Texas hospital discriminated against unvaccinated Mennonites
Kennedy said that physicians treating the two Mennonite children who died in Texas from measles infections did not provide proper care.
Chairman Tim Walberg (R-IL) gave the secretary an opportunity to respond to questions about the more than 2,000 measles cases across the country last year.
Kennedy said that the families of the two children who died were “treated as pariahs,” shamed for their decision to not vaccinate, and “were not given proper treatments.”
“Both families believe their daughters — and their own doctors believed their daughters — could have been saved if the hospital gave them proper treatment,” Kennedy said.
The Washington Examiner contacted the University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, where the two children were treated, with a request for comment on the secretary’s remarks.
Kennedy also blamed his department for being “so focused on a single intervention that it does not advise doctors about how to treat people who are actually sick.”
He said that Mennonite communities “have not vaccinated since 1796,” referring to smallpox inoculation mandates established under President George Washington. He added that there are many Americans who choose not to vaccinate.
“There’s a lot of people in this country who, for religious reasons or other reasons, are not going to vaccinate,” Kennedy said, “and I believe that we need to treat them with compassion and understanding and empathy and get them the treatments that they would get anywhere else in the world except for this country.”
The Washington Examiner contacted HHS for further clarification on what guidance the agency provides hospitals for measles treatment and whether or not it is pursuing a discrimination case.
Firearm deaths as a public health issue
Kennedy fielded questions from two Democrats on whether firearm deaths, the leading cause of death for American children, ought to be classified as a public health epidemic.
Gun violence and firearm deaths have been controversial issues for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Surgeon General’s office, with Republicans arguing that the issue is too far afield for HHS jurisdiction.
Kennedy told Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) that he believed curbing gun violence was an issue for the Department of Justice rather than HHS.
“I would say it’s an epidemic,” Kennedy said. “I think it’s a law enforcement issue and not public health.”
Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) focused her question for Kennedy on school shootings, citing her experience as a school teacher in Connecticut at the time of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
Kennedy told Hayes that HHS is “almost near completion” on a study to examine “what school shooters have in common.”
TAKEAWAYS: RFK JR. NAVIGATES TOUGH DAY OF HEARINGS IN HOUSE
He highlighted that the study focuses on mental health medications that school shooters had been prescribed, including SSRI antidepressants and benzodiazepines, or “benzos” for anxiety.
“We’re doing more studies on the etiology and cause of gun violence, the first that have ever been done in years,” Kennedy said.
