MAGA Sen. Roger Marshall was caught between a rock and a hard place defending Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
During an appearance on Face the Nation Sunday, the Kansas lawmaker pledged his support for Kennedy’s vaccine-skeptic policies, chaotic overhaul of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and sweeping condemnation of the government’s COVID-19 response.
He said Kennedy was helping bring back confidence in the CDC, which he blamed vaccine mandates for eroding.
“Right now, Americans don’t trust the CDC,” Marshall said. “This whole issue today … is about vaccines. In my humble opinion, not every person needs every vaccine.”
Sen. Roger Marshall: “Look, President Trump picked Robert F Kennedy Jr to be a disrupter to the CDC, and that’s exactly what he’s doing … in my humble opinion not every person needs every vaccine” pic.twitter.com/zlacdKqCFf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 7, 2025
Host Margaret Brennan then pointed out that during President Donald Trump’s first term, the president worked alongside the CDC to launch the record-breaking coronavirus vaccine rollout known as Operation Warp Speed.
“Some of your fellow Republicans say he deserves the Nobel Prize for [Operation Warp Speed] because it stopped the pandemic,” Brennan began. “So did you trust the CDC and Operation Warp Speed under President Trump, or are you saying you don’t think the president deserves the prize for that shot?”
Marshall quickly asserted that Trump “absolutely” deserves the Nobel Prize.
“That vaccine saved millions of lives,” the Kansas lawmaker added.
Brennan interjected, “Okay, but you just said something very contradictory to that.”
After an awkward pause, Marshall fired back, “I disagree with you, I think it’s such a different time today than it was five years ago.”
Marshall is the latest in a growing list of GOP lawmakers struggling to back Kennedy’s criticism of the CDC while trying not to contradict Trump, who has touted Operation Warp Speed as a signature achievement.
Kennedy himself has been caught in the crossfire. During an appearance on Fox & Friends Sunday, he claimed America’s public health agencies “haven’t accomplished anything in decades”—despite saying days earlier during a Senate hearing that Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed.
Trump also seemingly cast doubt on his secretary’s policies on vaccines on Friday, telling reporters, “You have some vaccines that are very amazing … I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated. It’s a very tough position.”
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