At a Thursday Senate Finance Committee hearing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came under fire for his mismanagement of the Department of Health and Human Services—and the criticism didn’t just come from the Democratic side of the aisle.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of Florida delivered a series of withering remarks and questions to the man he—like all but one of his GOP colleagues—voted to confirm in February.
First, Tillis skewered RFK Jr.’s decision to fire Susan Monarez as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just weeks after her Senate confirmation. The senator quoted Kennedy’s prior praise of the official whom he’s since ousted and cast aspersions on.
“I don’t see how you go, over four weeks, from ‘a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials,’ ‘a longtime champion of MAHA values,’ ‘caring’ and ‘compassionate’ and ‘a brilliant microbiologist,’ and four weeks later fire her because, at least the public reports say, because she refused to fire people that work for her,” Tillis said.
“So, as somebody who advised executives on hiring strategies, number one, I would suggest, in the interview, you ask them if they’re truthful, rather than four weeks after we took the time of the U.S. Senate to confirm the person,” the senator continued.
But he wasn’t done using Kennedy’s words against him. Whereas Kennedy vowed to “empower the scientists at HHS to do their job,” Tillis said, “I’d just like to see evidence where you’ve done that.” Whereas Kennedy promised to do nothing “that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines,” Tillis noted, “there seem to be several reports that would seem to refute that.”
And whereas Kennedy said he would not “impose my belief over any” HHS employees, Tillis observed this was contradicted by “the firing of a CDC director, the canceling of mRNA research contracts, firing advisory board members, attempting to stall [National Institutes of Health] funding, eliminating funding for, I think, a half a billion dollars for further mRNA research.”
The Florida Republican was not the lone GOP senator and Kennedy-confirmer to grill the health secretary on Thursday.
Republican Senator John Barrasso, a physician, told Kennedy, “In your confirmation hearing, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, also a doctor, questioned how Kennedy could both be staunchly anti-vaccine and sing the praises of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, which developed and distributed Covid-19 vaccines.
The post GOP Senator Grills RFK Jr. on How He’s Destroying Health Department appeared first on New Republic.
