Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-M.A., has started spreading conspiracy theories about Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his ties to vaccine-related lawsuits — and has started claiming that Kennedy could ban vaccines completely from the United States.
“In the past two years, you’ve raked in $2.5 million from a law firm called Wisner Baum,” Warren said during Kennedy’s contentious Senate Finance Committee hearing. “You go online, you do commercials to encourage people to sign up with Wisner Baum to join lawsuits against vaccine makers.”
Federal financial records show Kennedy earned $856,559 from Wisner Baum in 2024 and $1,589,829 in 2023. The law firm made these payments for Roundup herbicide and California wildfire cases, not vaccine injury litigation.
“Senator, you’re asking me not to sue vaccine companies,” Kennedy responded when Warren demanded he forgo future lawsuit compensation.
“No, I am not!” Warren replied, before claiming without evidence that his confirmation will end vaccines in the United States.
“Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it. Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in,” she said.
The Democratic senator later went on The View to repeat her conspiracy theory that Kennedy will leave the country with “no vaccines at all.”
Warren claimed that “if somebody sues one of the vaccine companies, gets $10 million in the lawsuit, Robert Kennedy makes a cool one million.”
Kennedy defended his position: “I support vaccines. I support the childhood schedule. I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish. And nobody called me anti-fish.”
Kennedy’s ethics agreement states he would resign from Wisner Baum if confirmed but continue receiving 10% of fees from referred cases not involving the U.S. government.
“I am not trying these cases, I am not an attorney of record for the cases, and I will not provide representational services in connection with the cases during my appointment,” Kennedy explained.
The nominee faces additional questioning Thursday before the Senate Health Committee, where Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-L.A., expressed doubts about confirmation. Kennedy needs all but one Republican vote to advance from committee.
“In my advocacy, I have disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions. Well, I won’t apologize for that,” Kennedy told senators. “We have massive health problems in this country that we must face honestly.”