Republican senator refuses to face reality about RFK Jr. after being lied to
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) appeared to avoid placing blame directly on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., even after CNN’s Jake Tapper mentioned that the well-known anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist may not have been forthright with him as he tried to gain Cassidy’s support to take the helm as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, the Louisiana senator, who chairs the Senate health committee and is also a doctor, avoided responding to Tapper, who flatly said RFK Jr. “lied” to him after ordering the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change your website ILanguage about autism and vaccines.
The CDC “vaccine safetyTheir website page was updated on Nov. 19 to state that the claim “vaccines do not cause autism” is not evidence-based because it does not rule out the possibility that childhood vaccines are linked to the disorder.
After Tapper played a clip of Kennedy promising Cassidy during his confirmation process that he would not go against the CDC guidelines that vaccines do not cause autism, the CNN anchor bluntly told Cassidy that Kennedy “lied” to him.
Despite Kennedy’s adaptation to the site that challenges the widespread and long-standing scientific consensus on vaccine safety, Cassidy called Americans will get vaccinated regardless of the CDC website update.
“Well, first let me say that what is most important to the American people, speaking as a doctor, is that the vaccines are safe,” Cassidy told Tapper. “As noted, it’s not really in doubt; it’s actually pretty well established that vaccines are not associated with autism.”
Without directly naming RFK Jr., Cassidy noted that there is “a marginal sector that thinks like that, but they are quite marginal.”
“President Trump agrees that vaccines are safe, and if you look at the consequences of not getting vaccinated… There are two children dead in West Texas from not getting the measles vaccine,” he said. “There is a pregnant woman who lost her child because she was exposed to someone who didn’t have the measles vaccine…”
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Cassidy, who helped secure Kennedy’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, added: “So talk to your doctor about this. Vaccines are safe. That’s the most important message.”
Tapper went on to point out that Tatiana Schlossberg wrote an essay published by The New Yorker on Saturday that attacked her cousin, RFK Jr., while also revealing her terminal cancer diagnosis. In the essay, she criticized her cousin for his controversial agenda as health secretary and the negative impact it had on the treatment he received.
“RFK Jr., according to his own family, is causing real harm to the health of the United States of America. You don’t seem willing to call him out by name at all, unlike his family members,” Tapper told Cassidy.
Cassidy responded, accusing the journalist of wanting to go on record saying something negative.
“Of course, it’s news if Republicans fight each other,” he added.
Tapper later took issue with Cassidy’s comment, noting that he is not sure if Kennedy even identifies as a Republican. Kennedy previously ran as an independent before dropping out of his presidential campaign last year.
“Whatever,” Cassidy replied. “What I’m interested in is how can we make America healthy?”
Elsewhere in the interview, Cassidy told Tapper, “I know it’s exciting, but I think we need to move beyond excitement.”
Arguing that “it’s not about titillation,” Tapper added: “It’s about the fact that you are the chair of the health committee and you voted to confirm someone who, by all indications… is actually making America less healthy when it comes to vaccines and studies.”
Kennedy, who was appointed by Trump, has a long history of spreading misleading and false health claims. The unscientific public health advice from Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, has generated significant controversy among medical and public health experts.