Lawmakers in a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday engaged in a back-and-forth over whether a recording was made of a key meeting including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the fired director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez.
At first, Senator Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, suggested that a recording of the meeting showed Dr. Monarez was being dishonest in her testimony before the Senate health committee. He repeatedly pushed her about the exact wording of an exchange with Mr. Kennedy about her trustworthiness.
Mr. Kennedy has said he pushed Dr. Monarez out for refusing to say she was “trustworthy,” but Dr. Monarez disputed his account. She testified that Mr. Kennedy had said he could not trust her, and she shot back that “if he could not trust me, he could fire me.”
Mr. Mullin suggested the exchange was not as she described it. “Ma’am, it was a recorded meeting,” he said.
Senator Bill Cassidy, the committee’s chairman, reacted with alarm: Why would Mr. Mullin have a recording that was not made available to other lawmakers, he asked. If it was, other lawmakers should have access, he said. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, concurred.
“If H.H.S. has a recording, I ask them to release the recording,” Mr. Cassidy said. “I’d also like to know why it was recorded.”
Soon, though, Mr. Mullin backtracked, telling a PBS NewsHour reporter that he was mistaken. Mr. Cassidy said the matter still needed to be cleared up: “But in case he’s mistaken that he was mistaken — if there is a recording, it should be released.”
Christina Jewett covers the Food and Drug Administration, which means keeping a close eye on drugs, medical devices, food safety and tobacco policy.
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