Senators Defend Kennedy's Right and Duty to Question the 'Science'

Report from Day 2 of the Kennedy HHS Confirmation Hearings

By Jennifer Galardi, Special to The Kennedy Beacon

Day two of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmation hearing, this one with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), felt like deja vu with Kennedy repeatedly defending himself against baseless claims and trying to convince Democrats and Republicans alike that what he says is what he means: he is not anti-vax, he is pro safety and pro good science.

Kennedy again told what I now fondly refer to as his “fish tale.” “I worked for 40 years to raise awareness about mercury and other toxins in fish,” Kennedy stated, “and nobody called me anti-fish.”

It was exhausting to hear Democratic senators rant about misinterpreted and out of context statements from Kennedy. As Senator Roger Marshall (R-OK) said at one point in the hearing, “I’ve never seen a person whose words, written and spoken, have been so misattributed, exaggerated, sensationalized and taken out of context.”

Yet the scare tactics continued, particularly around vaccines. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a former doctor, took on a surprisingly antagonist role, appearing to be struggling with supporting Kennedy. “You have the power to help public institutions rebuild the trust of the American people,” he said, while expressing concern over “any false notes” about vaccines on Kennedy’s part — like Democrats, mistruing Kennedy’s fervent belief in following the science as a sign that he is anti-vaccine.

Earlier in the morning, Cassidy told a story of how he had to provide an emergency liver transplant to an 18-year-old woman as a result of Hepatitis B. Her surgery left her with a lifetime of medical bills. It was an inflection point in his career. “$50 of vaccines could have prevented this all,,” he said. It’s worth noting that the moment was so consequential that Cassidy had to pause because the pages he was reading from, to tell this most memorable story, were out of order.

And while many of the same tired talking points from the first day were repeated by members from both sides of the aisle, the overarching theme for day two came down to everyone’s favorite topic since 2020: “the” science.

Trust Whose Science?

Democrats in particular hammered away at whether or not Kennedy would, in short, “follow the science,” yet none seemed to question how that science is funded or the corporate interests that have captured the scientific community at the NIH, CDC, FDA, and other three letter agencies.

Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) won the day by addressing the elephant in the room. Why can’t we question science?

Rather than ask any questions of Kennedy, Paul directed all of his allotted five minutes to his fellow committee members. “I don’t understand why my colleagues are saying ‘don't question science’ . . . Science is a dispute and ten years from now we could all be wrong.”

He expressed what every person who supports Kennedy has wanted to scream at the top of their lungs for the past two days if not several years. “I think all the discussion over vaccines is so oversimplified and dumbed down that we never really get to real truths and it’s why people up here are so separated from people at home,” Paul said.

Paul addressed both the MRNA technology and Hepatitis B vaccines on which the committee wasted exorbitant amounts of time. He discussed the depth of the debate that should occur on vaccines and crushed the simplistic arguments made by many Democrats on the committee.

“On Covid vaccine — and on the Covid illness — there was a thousand fold more difference between the elderly and children,” Paul said. “If you don’t want to acknowledge that, you’re committing malpractice, you’re showing your ignorance. The science shows that no healthy kid died from Covid. Look it up.”

Continued Paul, “The reason you have distrust from people at home and why they don’t believe government at all is you’re telling my kid to take a Hepatitis B vaccine when he’s one day old. You get it through drug use and [it’s] sexually transmitted that’s not science.” He lambasted the notion of facile submission to government, and for the public to simply do what they’re told.

“There ought to be a debate,” he said. “You’re not going to let him [Kennedy] have the debate because … you’re just going to say ‘admit this or we’re not going to appoint you’ . . . . It’s more complicated than that,” Paul argued, continuing with, “this is why parents don’t trust government.”

Although Paul didn’t get around to asking Kennedy any questions, his time was well spent and served to discredit almost every argument from Democrats over the two-day hearings. It is worth listening to Paul’s statements in full as he chastised his fellow Senators.

Mullin echoed many of Paul’s arguments, at one point asking,“My God if we don’t question science where would we be today?” As many have contested, particularly over the past five years, science is not static and is “always evolving, always changing,” said Mullin. Senators Rand and Mullin offered multiple examples where this is the case not only with medicine such as aspirin, but also with food and drink such as chocolate and wine.

“Have a glass of wine a day, it’s healthy for you. Don’t have a glass of wine a day,” Mullin said to make his point.

However, Senator Margaret Hassan (D-NH) called the science around vaccinations and their link to autism “settled.” Others, like Paul and Mullin asked why those on the committee would not want to investigate every possible cause of the skyrocketing cases of autism in the past decades.

According to Kennedy, one in 36 children has autism. “If that’s not a pandemic, I don’t know what is,” Senator Mullin stated. “That scares the living daylights out of me.”

This is the cry of so many of the “MAHA Moms” who showed up from all over the country to support Kennedy the past two days. Mothers who, as Senator Paul stated, “saw their kids developing completely normal, maybe speaking 100 words, go to no words at about fifteen months of age.”

Senator Paul accused his colleagues of “presupposition” when it came to the cause of autism. “You’ve already concluded, it’s absolute that autism isn’t caused by [a vaccine],” he said. He closed with “we don't know what causes autism so we should be more humble in what we say.”

When Kennedy tried to explain why science should be questioned, Senator Murkowski (D-MD) promptly cut him off, using the tired excuse of the past two days: limited time. When he was able to speak, Kennedy got to state what many believe to be true –– that many of the scientists in the three letter agencies have been corrupted by corporate interests to create fraudulent studies like those concerning amyloid plaque, as noted in The New York Times.

Chronic health disease, chemicals in food, and more

Senator Marshall returned sanity to the room, shifting the incessant fear-mongering over vaccines to the chronic health disease epidemic. Kennedy had the opportunity to list the shocking statistics about the rise of autism, diabetes, and obesity that have been widely reported since the MAHA movement began its efforts to raise awareness of chronic disease.

Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) allowed him to address some of the causes: chemicals in food, another major concern for voters.

Kennedy also cited the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) standard employed by the FDA, which sets the “innocent until proven guilty” guideline to food additives and chemicals. He outlined the disparity between the ingredients of foods such as french fries and cereals in this country and European countries which use more natural ingredients rather than chemical food dyes and seed oils. “We are allowing these companies, because of their influence over this body … over our regulatory agencies, to mass poison American children and that’s wrong,” Kennedy said. “It needs to end, and I believe I’m the one person who’s able to end it.”

There was also more discussion on the critical role of the food supply and farmers who want to change the way they grow food, without pesticides and toxic chemicals.

One topic that didn’t make the cut on the first day was today highlighted by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO): (so-called) gender affirming education and care for minor children. Hawley brought to light the Biden’s administration rule which forced doctors to treat children that desired such procedures even if it went against their morals and personally held beliefs. Kennedy confirmed he would rescind that decision and support President Trump’s mandate to halt all transgender surgeries and treatment for minors, although the mandate will likely be challenged. Nevertheless, Kennedy told the committee, “Sometimes love means saying ‘no’ to people.”

He also confirmed that no federal tax dollars would be used to conduct research on fetal tissue and no Title X funding would go toward services supporting abortions. On the topic of Mifepristone, Kennedy stated he would follow President Trump’s agenda.

Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Jim Banks (R-IN) shifted focus to national security, where obesity in the U.S. challenges military recruitment and dependence on foreign countries for medical supplies and medicines weakens our economic prowess. America imports one third of our medicines from China and more than that for our generic medicine supply. In accordance with President Trump's agenda, Kennedy committed to restoring drug and medical manufacturing to the U.S.

And just for good measure, as every good Democrat must, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) threw in a sexual assault accusation which never found enough oxygen to spark a flame. When Kennedy easily disputed her charge, Murray’s retort was simply “that’s not my understanding.”

Mostly, Thursday’s hearing highlighted the imbalance of resources between infectious and chronic disease, which needs to change if we are going to, as Kennedy said, “save this country.”

Democrats are hyper-focused on the former, almost obsessively, overlooking the fact that the threat from infectious diseases increases when chronic disease conditions are present. Approximately 90% of America’s health care costs (which are 20% of overall GDP) go toward managing chronic disease, according to Kennedy. With their myopic vision, many in Congress continue to line their pockets with payouts and donations from pharmaceutical, agriculture, and chemical corporations, offering no incentive for reform.

Trump, Kennedy, and the entire MAHA movement hope to rectify that imbalance of power, not only in our healthcare system, but in our entire government.