Trump was asked Friday during an Oval Office meeting about Kennedy’s vaccine mandate changes, which include limiting which children are eligible for vaccines.
“I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated,” Trump said of Kennedy’s vaccine mandates for children.
“They’re just, pure and simple — they work,” he added. “They’re not controversial at all. And I think those vaccines should be used.”
Hmmm. Why would he do this?
Republican senators are sending clear signs of disapproval and unhappiness with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making it plain to President Trump that they want the administration to address the chaos Kennedy has caused by trying to rewrite the nation’s vaccine policies.
GOP senators have stopped short of calling on Kennedy to resign and haven’t yet said they regret voting for him in February, but they want him to back off efforts to change vaccine policy recommendations without sound scientific backing as the administration faces a growing public backlash.
Kennedy received an unusual admonishment from Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), an orthopedic surgeon, when he testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. “I support vaccines. I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” said Barrasso, the Senate’s No. 2-ranking Republican leader.
“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” he said. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.” Barrasso pointed to a national measles outbreak, the sudden ouster of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, and questions raised by the leadership of the National Institutes of Health over mRNA vaccines as raising troubling questions.
“Americans don’t know who to rely on,” he said. “If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined.” Barrasso said there “are real concerns” that safe, proven vaccines for serious diseases such as measles and hepatitis B could now be in jeopardy.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who attended the hearing, said Kennedy’s policy changes have made it tougher for people to get vaccines. He read aloud a social media post by conservative commentator Erick Erickson, who said his wife, who was diagnosed with cancer, couldn’t get a vaccine at CVS.
“I would say, effectively, we’re denying people vaccines,” Cassidy bluntly told Kennedy.
Who knew that Republican Senators actually have some agency after all? Their opinions matter and Trump actually responds if they make them known. Imagine if they used this power for other purposes.