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Washington D.C. – During his acrimonious testimony today before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. did himself no favors in quelling grave concerns about his commitment to public health amid plummeting public support and demands for his resignation or outright firing from numerous Senators, over 60 advocacy organizations, and over 1000 current and former HHS staff. Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) made the case for RFK Jr.’s resignation or firing in a damning new report chronicling the first 200+ days. The notoriously anti-vaccine, junk science proponent lashed out at Republican and Democratic Senators alike rather than offer a factually supported explanation how Americans are ‘healthy again’ under his efforts to cripple the CDC, carry out the Trump ‘Big Ugly’ budget cuts that rob millions of Americans of health care, stymie medical research, restrict vaccine access, and spread life-threatening misinformation based on unproven pseudoscience.  Kennedy also made no acknowledgment of his family’s continued financial conflicts of interest involving legal fees in anti-HPV vaccine lawsuits.  

“Today, HHS Secretary Kennedy continued to exhibit poor temperament and even worse judgement as his contempt for peer-reviewed science has put Americans lives at risk,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “No American should have to deal with severe health consequences or worse based on gross misinformation and interference against medical research and vaccine access from the Trump administration’s top health official. Adding insult to injury, the Secretary has ensured his family can continue profiting off his efforts to undermine HPV vaccines – consistent with many in the Trump administration’s swampy schemes to get rich off their office. The growing chorus of advocacy groups, lawmakers and HHS staff are absolutely right: the sooner the Secretary is removed from his position, the more lives will be saved.” 

HEARING HIGHTLIGHTS: 

  • VIDEO: Senator Hassan warns many won’t be able to get it this fall because of RFK Jr.’s efforts to block access. RFK Jr. throws fit in response.

  • VIDEO: Senator Sanders to Sec. Kennedy: “You’re cutting $150 billion for rural hospitals. You’re putting $50 billion back. That’s not an infusion. That’s a loss of $100 billion.”

  • VIDEO:  Senator Warren calls out RFK Jr. for firing the CDC director because she didn’t “bend the knee,” saying he’s putting “every American’s health at risk” and should resign.  Warren: “You had full confidence in her scientific credentials — and in a month, she became a liar?”

  • VIDEO: Senator Wyden: “I hope [RFK Jr.] will tell the American people how many preventable child deaths are an acceptable sacrifice for enacting an agenda that I think is fundamentally cruel and defies common sense.”

  • VIDEO: Senator Wyden calls out RFK Jr.’s damage to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee — including firing all 17 members in June — and how it’s now being “politicized at the expense of children’s health.”

  • VIDEO: Senator Wyden says RFK Jr. needs to step down as HHS secretary — and “if he doesn’t, Donald Trump should fire him before more people are hurt by his reckless disregard for science and the truth.”

  • VIDEO: Senator Wyden: Over RFK Jr.’s 203 days in office, “every single day, there’s been an action that endangers the health and wellness of American families.”

PREVIOUSLY FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US:

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