ROBERT F Kennedy Jr. and Senator Elizabeth Warren reignited their feud in a fiery clash over Covid-19 vaccines at a congressional hearing on Thursday.
The Health and Human Services secretary fired off damning allegations at the Democrat politician after she accused him of restricting vaccine access.
Secretary of Health and Human Services RFK Jr got into a blowout fight with Senator Elizabeth Warren at a testimony on Thursday[/caption]
Warren accused Kennedy of making vaccines more difficult to obtain[/caption]
The testimony came one day after over 1,000 current and former HHS employees signed a letter calling for Kennedy’s resignation[/caption]
Kennedy testified before the Senate Finance Committee one day after over 1,000 current and former HHS employees signed a letter calling for his resignation.
This came after the Trump administration fired Susan Monarez as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after she held the position for just 29 days.
Monarez claimed that she was let go after clashing with Kennedy over vaccines.
At one point during the testimony, Warren started grilling the environmental lawyer about his stances on immunizations.
She claimed that Americans could have issues getting free Covid-19 booster shots if the HHS doesn’t recommend them.
However, the secretary said that Americans should have no issues getting the shots, but clarified that “recommended for healthy people.”
“If you don’t recommend the consequence of that in many states is that you can’t walk into a pharmacy and get one,” Warren fumed, claiming the shots could cost Americans up to $200.
Meanwhile, Kennedy said, “I can’t recommend a product for which there’s no clinical data for that indication. Is that what I should be doing?”
Warren accused Kennedy of walking back his promises to keep vaccines readily available when he was confirmed earlier this year, but the secretary said most Americans can still get the booster for free.
The senator then launched into a shrieking tirade about Kennedy’s remarks at hearings earlier in the year before the political scion accused her of taking “$855,000 from pharmaceutical companies.”
Kennedy appeared to be referencing a report from the nonprofit Open Secrets, which stated that Warren accepted a hefty amount of campaign donations from “pharmaceuticals / health products.”
However, according to STAT News, this number could be misleading, as “donations from individual, low-ranking employees are counted the same as official contributions from corporate PACs.”
OpenSecrets clarified on its website that the cash given to Warren’s campaign in 2020 ” comes from employees or PACs affiliated with the industry, not from the companies themselves.”
Kennedy and Warren went on to shout over each other, as the secretary insisted that “anybody” in America can get Covid-19 booster shots.
“You clearly are taking away vaccines,” the senator hit back.
Donald Trump’s Cabinet Picks
In the days following his dominant Election Day victory, President-elect Donald Trump has begun carving out his future administation.
Here’s a list of Trump’s confirmed cabinet picks:
- Susie Wiles – White House Chief of Staff
- Dr. Mehmet Oz – Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Stephen Miller – Deputy Chief of Staff
- Bill McGinley – White House counsel
- Tom Homan – “Border Czar”
- Elise Stefanik – Ambassador to the United Nations
- Lee Zeldin – Environmental Protection Agency administrator
- Marco Rubio – Secretary of State
- Kristi Noem – Homeland Security Secretary
- Mike Huckabee – Ambassador to Israel
- John Ratcliffe – CIA director
- Pete Hegseth – Secretary of Defense
- Mike Waltz – National Security Advisor
- Steven Witkoff – Middle East envoy
- Elon Musk – Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
- Tim Scott – Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
- Tulsi Gabbard – Director of National Intelligence
- Pam Bondi – nominated for Attorney general just hours after Gaetz’s withdrawal
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Jay Clayton – US Attorney for the Southern District of New York
- Doug Burgum – Department of Interior
- Todd Blanche – Deputy Attorney General
- Karoline Leavitt – White House Press Secretary
- Chris Wright – Energy Secretary
- Doug Collins – Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs
- William McGinley – White House Counsel
- Steven Cheung – White House Communications Director
- William Owen Scharf – Assistant to the President and White House Staff Secretary
- Dean John Sauer – Solicitor General of the US
- Commissioner Brendan Carr – Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
- Linda McMahon: Education Secretary
- Matthew Whitaker – NATO ambassador
- Scott Bessent – Treasury Secretary
- Keith Kellogg – Special envoy to Russia, Ukraine
- Warren Stephens – Ambassador to the UK
‘HARM’S WAY’
At another point in the hearing, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, accused Kennedy of putting children’s health at risk with his policies.
“This is about kids being pushed into harm’s way by reckless and repeated decisions to get scientists and doctors out of the way and allow conspiracy theories to dictate this country’s health policy,” he said.
“I don’t see any evidence that you have any regrets about anything you’ve done or plans to change it.”
Wyden went on to urge Kennedy to “tell the American people how many preventable child deaths are an acceptable sacrifice” for his agenda.
The secretary fired back, saying that Wyden “sat in that chair” for over 20 years “while the chronic disease of our children went up to 76%.”
“And you said nothing,” Kennedy told the committee.
“You never asked the question why it’s happening. What is this happening?
“Today, for the first time in 20 years, we’ve learned that infant mortality has increased in our country.
“It’s not because I came in here. It’s because of what happened during the Biden administration that we’re going to end.”
