Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasted Sen. Elizabeth Warren during a heated Senate exchange Thursday, accusing her of being compromised by $855,000 in Big Pharma contributions while she questioned his financial ties to vaccine lawsuits.
Warren had grilled Kennedy about his $2.5 million earnings from law firm Wisner Baum, which pays him 10% of successful judgments against vaccine makers.
“You’re making me sound like a shill,” Kennedy responded, before launching his counterattack on Warren’s pharmaceutical company connections.
Warren has received $855,000 in donations from Big Pharma companies throughout her career.
“You’re asking me to not sue drug companies,” Kennedy said.
“No I am not!” Warren shouted over him.
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The exchange highlighted the broader tensions surrounding Kennedy’s tenure as HHS Secretary. He has fired CDC Director Susan Monarez and removed all 17 members of the agency’s vaccine advisory committee, angering establishment politicians on Capitol Hill.
“I told her she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ and she said no,” Kennedy said about Monarez’s dismissal.
Republicans who voted for Kennedy’s confirmation also questioned him during the hearing. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician, confronted Kennedy over vaccine access issues.
“I would say, effectively, we’re denying people vaccines,” Cassidy said, reading emails from people unable to get vaccinations.
“You’re wrong,” Kennedy responded.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson, whose wife has Stage 4 lung cancer, said on social media that CVS could not provide her with vaccines due to new restrictions.
Kennedy defended his changes, saying he “depoliticized” the vaccine advisory panel by replacing all members.
“I didn’t politicize ACIP — I depoliticized it,” he said about the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He argued the CDC overhaul was necessary because “we are the sickest country in the world” despite being the most wealthy, and previous officials “did not do their job.”
Kennedy promised that “people who at CDC who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving.”
The HHS recently announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, a change that followed RFK, Jr.’s firing of top CDC officials.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina questioned Kennedy’s positions on Operation Warp Speed, noting he praised President Donald Trump’s vaccine development while previously suing to restrict vaccine access for otherwise healthy adults.
Kennedy called major medical organizations compromised, and said the American Academy of Pediatrics was “greatly conflicted” and the American Heart Association “has been corrupted by the pharma industry.”
Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho defended Kennedy, noting he has undergone rigorous ethics reviews and disclosed his financial interests to the Office of Government Ethics.