from the 4-alarm-fire dept

Effectively, that was actually a factor. We mentioned yesterday that RFK Jr. was scheduled to go earlier than the Senate Finance committee to reply every kind of questions as to simply what within the holy hell is going on at HHS. As we stated, this was at all times going to be a contentious listening to, on condition that the Democrat Senators are aligned, and actually demanded his resignation earlier than the listening to, whereas even GOP members reminiscent of Invoice Cassidy have begun signaling wavering assist for Kennedy.

However this wasn’t simply contentious; it was a catastrophe. USA Right now has considered one of many live update pages the place you’ll be able to return and relive the timeline, however the topline abstract is that Kennedy shouted over the Senators questions, usually requested them questions as an alternative of answering the questions he was requested, dissembled in all places when requested direct and trustworthy questions, and in any other case spouted conspiracy theories and not using a scintilla of proof to again them up. And whereas it’s actually true that questions from Democracts have been carried out in a extra hostile tone than these from the GOP, the open disdain, or not less than concern, about Kennedy’s actions as of current was totally bipartisan.

I’ll provide you with some highlights, for lack of a greater time period, together with a abstract of the important thing factor we realized in every spotlight.

Mark Warner (D):

  1. Kennedy claims neither he, nor anybody else, has any thought what number of People died from COVID-19
  2. Kennedy is unwilling to state that COVID vaccines did “something” to forestall deaths from COVID-19
  3. Kennedy was unaware of some particular implications of the most recent finances invoice on American healthcare

John Barrasso (R):

  1. Barrasso factors out all of the chaos and failure that has occurred beneath Kennedy, together with the most important measles outbreak in many years.
  2. Kennedy claims that CDC vaccine steering has by no means earlier than, within the historical past of the company, been “clear, proof based mostly, and reliable.” He claims his management is the primary time this can ever have occurred.

This, by the way in which, is exactly the way you get conditions like unhinged individuals capturing up the CDC’s Atlanta campus. The CDC was born in 1946, initially to fight malaria. However, in response to Kennedy, it has by no means in its whole historical past been reliable on the subject of vaccines. It’s a lie, in fact, however those who consider it could logically be very, very pissed off.

Thom Tillis (R):

  1. Tillis begins off by saying he’s going to make an announcement and basically begs Kennedy to not reply within the second, however to go and collect his solutions after the listening to and current them. Kennedy repeatedly makes an attempt to reply these questions anyway.
  2. Tillis factors out that based mostly on the myriad of conflicting statements Kennedy made inside the listening to, he has no thought whether or not Kennedy thinks Operation Warp Velocity was a great factor or not. On the one hand, Kennedy agrees with Tillis and others that Trump ought to be a Nobel prize for the federal government’s efforts in creating the mRNA vaccines. On the opposite, Kennedy claims the vaccines have been lethal and might’t account for them being efficient in any respect.
  3. Tillis asks how a CDC Director could be lauded a month in the past and fired 4 weeks later.
  4. Tillis asks for proof that Kennedy has saved any of the guarantees he’s made to Congress up to now.
  5. Tillis factors out that each one he can get out of Kennedy’s HHS to a query concerning the financial affect of the finances invoice that was handed quantity to “phrase salad.”
  6. Kennedy affirms his place that the COVID vaccines trigger “critical hurt” and “dying”.

People, that’s as well mannered a method for a GOP Senator to state publicly that they don’t belief Kennedy as is feasible.

Bernie Sanders (I):

This one takes a quick little bit of preamble. When Senator Warren was questioning Kennedy about his determination to fireplace Dr. Susan Monarez as Director of CDC, she requested Kennedy about Monarez’s public claim in a WSJ editorial that he demanded she log out on what ACIP would suggest previous to them even assembly and insisted she hearth a slew of senior staffers at CDC for who is aware of what motive. Kennedy advised Warren that was not true and, when she requested what was the rationale he fired her, received this in response.

That’s clearly not a plausible story. I imply, to make gentle of it, why would an untrustworthy individual inform their boss they weren’t reliable as an alternative of mendacity?

In any case, with that context, we transfer on to the takeaways from the backwards and forwards with Bernie Sanders.

  1. Kennedy reiterates his declare that Monarez lied about why she was fired and that, once more, he did so as a result of she advised him she was not reliable.
  2. Kennedy calls a web -$100 million funding in rural healthcare “the most important infusion of public cash” into rural healthcare.
  3. Kennedy affirms the COVID vaccines are the deadliest vaccines in historical past and that Trump ought to get a Nobel prize for serving to develop them.
  4. Kennedy launches right into a conspiracy principle during which the most important NGOs and others that disagree with him have all been corrupted by the pharma business.

Invoice Cassidy (R):

Cassidy is the one many people have been ready to see on this listening to, for a number of causes. He’s a physician, for example. He was a pivotal vote in Kennedy’s affirmation hearings and extracted a number of guarantees about vaccines and coverage throughout these hearings. And, lastly, a number of different Republican Senators have pointed to him because the one they belief on healthcare and medication points.

  1. Kennedy once more affirms that Trump deserves a Nobel prize for Operation Warp Velocity, regardless of saying these vaccines killed individuals. Cassidy then factors out that Kennedy sued to restrict entry to COVID vaccines earlier than his time in authorities.
  2. Cassidy factors out that the ACIP conflicts of pursuits knowledge that Kennedy has claimed was wildly inaccurate. Kennedy makes an attempt to argue the purpose, however fails.
  3. Cassidy factors out that a number of present ACIP members, which Kennedy hand-picked, function paid witnesses in vaccine damage trials and asks Kennedy if that may be a battle of pursuits. Kennedy responds it could be a bias, however not a monetary battle of curiosity, which makes zero sense.
  4. Stick round for the top during which Cassidy shares some private interactions he’s had with constituents demonstrating exactly how Kennedy’s coverage actions have launched a limitation of vaccine entry and chaos and confusion amongst docs as to what they’ll prescribe or not, which is precisely what we indicated would occur.

There was a lot, rather more. Extra dissembling. Extra conspiracy theories. Extra lies. By any trustworthy viewing of the listening to, it was a bipartisan verbal indication of no confidence in Kennedy, with some Senators selecting to be extra well mannered about it than others. This was a extra pointed and thorough takedown of Kennedy from each side of the aisle than even I had hoped for.

So in fact the White Home is pretending that is all a partisan hitjob as a result of Kennedy is so superior.

White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Kennedy after he confronted tense questioning by each Democratic and Republican senators.

The Well being secretary “is taking flak as a result of he’s over the goal,” she stated on X a number of hours after the listening to concluded. “The Trump Administration is addressing root causes of power illness, embracing transparency in authorities, and championing gold-standard science.”

Though she blamed Democrats for attacking “that commonsense effort,” Republican senators reminiscent of Cassidy and Barrasso had additionally expressed disapproval in the course of the listening to with a few of Kennedy’s most up-to-date actions regarding vaccines.

As I stated in a earlier publish, that is certainly not the top of Kennedy’s tenure at HHS. But it surely simply is perhaps the start of that finish. No quantity of White Home gaslighting goes to have the ability to counter rising diseases, full hospitals, or explosive development within the casket manufacturing enterprise.

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