Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday for the first time since September, defending a proposed cut of more than 12% to the Department of Health and Human Services budget while clashing repeatedly with Democrats over vaccine policy and remarks he made during his 2024 presidential campaign.
The session opened a planned sprint of seven budget hearings Kennedy is scheduled to attend across congressional committees and subcommittees over the following week. Republicans on the committee praised Kennedy, with one describing him as a “breath of fresh air,” while Democrats challenged him on vaccine messaging, proposed program cuts, and what they characterized as administration hypocrisy on fraud.
The hearing exposed deep tension between Kennedy and members of his former party, centering on the Trump administration’s rollback of CDC vaccine messaging and statements Kennedy made in 2024 about Black children and psychiatric medication — comments Kennedy denied making at the hearing, contradicting a recording of the podcast on which they appeared.
Standoff over measles
Rep. Linda Sanchez, a Democrat from California, confronted Kennedy over the CDC’s withdrawal of public health messaging in support of vaccination, citing measles outbreaks in several parts of the country.
“As a mother, this horrifies me,” Sanchez said. “Did President Trump approve your decision to end CDC’s pro-vaccine public messaging campaign?”
Kennedy repeatedly declined to answer directly. He said he first wanted to respond to what he called Sanchez’s misstatements and praised the administration’s record on preventing measles, though vaccination rates have declined in some regions.
“That’s not answering my question,” Sanchez said as the two spoke over each other.
Sanchez also pressed Kennedy on the 2025 death of a 6-year-old from measles in West Texas, asking whether the measles vaccine could have saved the child’s life.
“Do you agree with the majority of doctors that the measles vaccine could have saved that child’s life in Texas?” she asked.
“It’s possible, certainly,” Kennedy said.
Denial contradicted by recording
Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, raised remarks Kennedy made in 2024 while running for president, on a podcast called “High Level Conversations.” Her staff displayed a poster with an abbreviated version of the quote.
On that podcast, Kennedy had said: “Psychiatric drugs — which every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens, you’ll actually have to talk to people.”
Sewell asked Kennedy: “Have you ever re-parented, or parented, I should say, a Black child?”
Kennedy denied making the remarks. “I don’t even know what that phrase means,” he said. “I’m not going to answer something I didn’t say.”
“You’re making stuff up,” he later said.
A recording of the podcast confirms Kennedy made the statements. HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy had been referring to spaces where young people facing alienation and mental health challenges could receive support, describing “re-parenting” as a psychotherapy term for “developing the emotional regulation, discipline, boundaries, and self-worth that may not have been established in childhood.”
Fraying bonds
Kennedy spent most of his life as a Democrat and comes from one of the country’s most prominent political families. Both Republicans and Democrats opened their remarks by expressing admiration for his relatives, including former President John F. Kennedy, but exchanges turned adversarial throughout the session.
Kennedy grew visibly agitated and repeatedly complained that Democratic lawmakers were not allowing him to respond.
“They’ve all shut me up,” he said at one point. “They give a little speech that they can go and market, you know, for fundraising, and they don’t allow me to answer the question.”
Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin offered a moment of levity. “I promise to give you easy, comfortable questions if you don’t yell at me and hurt my feelings,” she told Kennedy. He promised he would not.