Republicans and Democrats scrutinized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for more than three hours Thursday morning on Capitol Hill.
The hearing was scheduled as a review of President Donald Trump’s healthcare agenda, but it quickly became a referendum on Kennedy’s leadership of the sprawling department, with the heated conversation ranging from abortion to COVID-19 policy, to the recent firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez.
Here are some of the highlights from the more than three hours of Kennedy’s testimony, which at times veered into confrontation and personal accusations.
Fired CDC director was not ‘trustworthy’
Kennedy lambasted Monarez’s credibility when asked repeatedly by Democrats and Republicans about the cause for her termination last week.
He flatly said that Monarez lied when she wrote in her Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning that Kennedy told her to “preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel,” whose members were handpicked by the secretary.
“No, I did not say that to her, and I never had a private meeting with her other witnesses to every meeting that we have, and all those witnesses will say I never said that,” Kennedy said.
Later in the hearing, Kennedy said he fired her because she admitted that she was untrustworthy.
“I told her that she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said, ‘No,’” Kennedy said.
Monarez’s lawyers told the Washington Examiner that they dismiss Kennedy’s claims “as false and, at times, patently ridiculous” and that she stands by what she wrote in her op-ed.
Republicans criticize RFK Jr. on COVID-19 vaccines
A handful of Republicans criticized Kennedy’s move to restrict approvals for COVID-19 vaccines to only those with comorbidities that put them at risk for severe disease, including seniors over age 65.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and John Barrasso (R-WY), both physicians, said their professional colleagues have expressed concern that Kennedy’s administration is limiting access to COVID-19 vaccines, because HHS approval is essential for insurance coverage of the shots.
RFK Jr. praises Operation Warp Speed
Cassidy tripped up Kennedy about whether to praise Operation Warp Speed, the initiative that fast-tracked mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 during the first Trump administration.
Kennedy said Trump “absolutely” deserved a Nobel Prize for the effort, but Cassidy then quickly noted that Kennedy has, on record, said the COVID-19 vaccine killed more people than the disease itself.
Kennedy defended his record by saying that he supported Operation Warp Speed itself but that he opposed the top-down mandates for the vaccine during the Biden administration.
Abortion pill under review by FDA
Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Steve Daines (R-MT) questioned Kennedy on the timing of the promised safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone.
The secretary said he spoke with Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary about the matter in advance of the hearing, who said that the review of mifepristone is “progressing apace.”
“We’re getting data, and all the time new data that we’re reviewing,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy referenced a study published by the anti-abortion Ethics and Public Policy Center this summer using insurance data that concluded that the complication rate of mifepristone is roughly 11%. This includes hemorrhaging and severe infections due to incomplete abortions.
ACA premium tax credits
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questioned Kennedy about whether he supported letting the extended premium tax credits for Obamacare exchange insurance plans lapse by the end of the year.
The tax credits, which Democrats passed as part of COVID-19 relief efforts in 2021 and 2022, are likely to be a main focus of both chambers of Congress before the Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a government shutdown.
Kennedy declined to give a direct answer. Instead, he said Democrats “had two chances to make them permanent, and they didn’t.”
“I want to fix the system, and that’s what we’re doing, fixing systematically to make premiums lower,” Kennedy said. “That’s what President Trump wants.”
A clash with Warren
Kennedy clashed with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) over the availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
Warren argued that Kennedy curbed access to the vaccines by limiting the recommendation for shots only to people with comorbidities that put them at risk for severe disease. Because the shots are not recommended, she said, they are not available at many pharmacies or covered by insurance.
Kennedy said the vaccines were not intended for healthy people. As the exchange became heated, he attacked Warren as having received funding from the industry.
RFK JR. GRILLED BY REPUBLICANS OVER COVID-19 VACCINES IN HEATED HEARING
“I know you’ve taken $855,000 from pharmaceutical companies,” he said.
“I’m not taking them away,” he later said. “Everyone can get access to them.”
