Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired back at Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) in the early moments of what turned out to be a very contentious Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday, exclaiming at one point, “Do I get a reply?”
Throughout the Senate Finance Committee hearing, Kennedy fielded a number of pointed questions about recent shake-ups at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and his complete overhaul of the panel meant to make recommendations on vaccines — and numerous senators used their time to effectively offer their own testimony in place of his, routinely leaving him barely enough time to answer yes-or-no questions.
Wyden, after using some of his time to complain that Kennedy was “politicizing” the committee that recommends vaccines, accused him of compromising children’s health.
“[You’re] enacting an agenda that I think is fundamentally cruel and defies common sense,” Wyden claimed, before ceding the floor back to the committee chair.
WATCH:
🚨 HOLY CRAP! RFK Jr. just absolutely EVISCERATED Democrat Senator Ron Wyden
“Senator, you’ve sat in that chair for how long? 20, 25 years? While the chronic disease in our children went up to 76%. And you said NOTHING. You never ASKED the question why it’s happening!”
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 4, 2025
“Do I get a reply?” Kennedy asked then, and after apparently getting the go-ahead to respond, he directed his comments at Wyden. “Senator, you’ve sat in that chair for how long? 20, 25 years? While the chronic disease in our children went up to 76%. And you said nothing. You never asked the question why it’s happening, why is this happening?”
“Today, for the first time in 20 years, we learned that infant mortality has increased in our country,” Kennedy continued. “It’s not because I came in here. It’s because of what happened during the Biden administration that we’re going to end.”
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