Bill Cassidy Clashes With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Over Vaccines, Abortion Medications in Senate Hearing

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., clashed with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a Senate hearing Wednesday afternoon, criticizing Kennedy’s vaccine policy and abortion medications and debunking an interpretation of a scientific study.

Cassidy said the public’s trust in vaccines has worsened over the last year due to false statements, adding, “I am a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine-preventable diseases, and when I see outbreaks numbered in the thousands, and people dying once more from vaccine-preventable diseases, particularly children, it seems more than tragic,” in the hearing.

ABC News

The afternoon hearing was before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Cassidy chairs, and it marked Kennedy’s first appearance before the committee in nearly a year.

Cassidy’s confrontation came after an earlier Finance Committee hearing that day, where he had limited his questions for Kennedy to fraud and health care costs.

The hearings also returned to measles, with Kennedy insisting that the U.S. has done better than any other country at limiting the spread of measles and denying responsibility for the outbreak that started in a religious community in West Texas in late January 2025.

Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., pressed Kennedy, saying, “Do you take any responsibility in your role for the situation that we are in with this measles epidemic?” and Kennedy replied, “As I said, the measles epidemic began before I came into office.”

Cassidy also grilled Kennedy on political interference at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, demanding to know whether President Donald Trump’s next pick for CDC director would be able to make decisions “independently,” without pushback from Kennedy.

Cassidy’s vaccine pressure included a detailed challenge to how Kennedy framed scientific evidence, with the Hill describing Cassidy fact-checking Kennedy multiple times Wednesday about Kennedy’s insistence that vaccines have not helped improve mortality.

The Hill reported that Kennedy cited a December 2000 paper published in the journal Pediatrics by a Johns Hopkins researcher, and Cassidy looked up the paper during the hearing and interjected that Kennedy wasn’t giving the full context.

Agence Science-Presse

The Hill quoted Cassidy telling Kennedy, “So that’s the full context,” and Cassidy later said, “We are a first-world country, and speaking as a physician that knows this can be prevented, it grieves me,” in response to children dying from vaccine-preventable diseases.

FactCheck.org said Kennedy refused to reassure mothers “unequivocally and without reservation” that measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism, quoting Cassidy’s question: “Will you reassure mothers, unequivocally and without reservation, that the measles and the hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism?”

FactCheck.org also quoted Kennedy’s response: “If the data are there, I will do it without hesitation,” and added that Cassidy assured him, “If you show me the data”, Kennedy continued, “I will be the first person to assure the American people… that they need to take those vaccines.”

The same NBC News account said Cassidy pressed Kennedy on abortion pills, asking for an update on how the Trump administration plans to address access to the medications, and Cassidy said Kennedy declined to answer citing ongoing litigation.

In the NBC News report, Cassidy called that refusal “frustrating,” and the article tied the abortion line of questioning to Cassidy’s push for the Food and Drug Administration to put limits on abortion pills, including reinstating in-person dispensing requirements.

The hearings also focused on whether CDC decisions would be independent of political appointees, with Cassidy demanding to know whether President Donald Trump’s next pick for CDC director would be able to make decisions “independently,” without pushback from Kennedy.

NBC News said the agency’s last director, Susan Monarez, was in the role for just 29 days and was pushed out after refusing to sign off on vaccine policy changes from Kennedy and his handpicked vaccine advisory panel.

In the same NBC News account, Kennedy said Dr. Erica Schwartz, the new CDC pick, would be able to operate independently, while NBC News added that at a House hearing Tuesday Kennedy would not commit to implementing the CDC director’s vaccine guidance without interference.

Radio-Canada described the Monarez episode as a broader institutional conflict, saying the firing of CDC director Dr. Susan Monarez “has shaken researchers and health workers in the United States as well as in Canada,” and framing it as unease over misinformation spread by Kennedy.

Radio-Canada reported that on Monday, RFK Jr. summoned Dr. Monarez to ask her to resign, that she reportedly refused to approve changes to vaccine recommendations proposed by the expert panel selected by Mr. Kennedy, and that she then called in reinforcements Senator Bill Cassidy.

Radio-Canada quoted lawyers for Monarez saying, “The attack on Dr. Monarez is a warning to all Americans that our data‑based systems are being attacked from within,” and also quoted the lawyers’ description that Kennedy “uses public health as a weapon for political ends, endangering the lives of millions of Americans.”

The Radio-Canada account also said Monarez’s candidacy had been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 29 and described a wave of resignations by senior CDC officials including Dr. Debra Houry, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, and Dr. Jennifer Layden.

Multiple outlets tied Cassidy’s hearing strategy to his reelection fight and to the political dynamics around President Donald Trump’s endorsements.

PBS described Cassidy as a “Republican senator juggling three roles — lawmaker, doctor and political candidate seeking reelection,” and said he walked a fine line Wednesday as he questioned Kennedy about affordability, fraud, abortion drugs and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.

Bloomberg Government News

PBS reported that Cassidy took a tough but measured posture in two high-stakes hearings Wednesday, noting that he chairs one committee that oversees Kennedy’s department and sits on another, and that the hearings were at 10 a.m. EDT and 2 p.m. EDT.

PBS also said experts warned his handling could affect his chances in next month’s primary in Louisiana, where President Donald Trump endorsed one of his opponents in an unusual attempt to oust a sitting senator from his own party.

PBS quoted Claire Leavitt saying, “He’s taken a risk showing any sort of resistance to RFK,” and added, “He may pay an electoral price for that.”

PBS described Cassidy’s medical background, saying he is a liver doctor and that as a physician he advocated for babies to receive hepatitis B vaccines shortly after birth, a step that could have prevented the disease in his patients.

The Washington Post added another layer by describing “two top GOP senators who are physicians” pressing Kennedy, with John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) grilling Kennedy on vaccines and a key panel focused on preventive screening recommendations.

While the hearings centered on vaccines, outlets differed in how they framed Kennedy’s record and the meaning of Cassidy’s confrontations.

NBC News emphasized Cassidy’s shift in tone and described Cassidy as having limited his questions earlier in the day to fraud and health care costs, then escalating to vaccines and abortion medications in the afternoon hearing.

FactCheck.org

NBC News also described Kennedy’s stance on measles, including that Kennedy insisted the U.S. has done better than any other country at limiting the spread of measles and denied responsibility for the outbreak that started in a religious community in West Texas in late January 2025.

The Washington Post, by contrast, framed the session as “tense Senate hearings” and described Kennedy as the founder of an anti-vaccine group with a long history of disparaging vaccinations, adding that Cassidy told reporters after the hearing that Kennedy’s remarks on vaccines were “illuminating.”

The Washington Post also highlighted Cassidy’s earlier decision to steer clear of vaccines in an earlier hearing, then return to them during Wednesday’s session, and it quoted Cassidy saying, “We are a First World country, and speaking as a physician that knows this can be prevented, it grieves me. It grieves me.”

FactCheck.org focused on Kennedy’s refusal to deny a vaccine-autism link, quoting Cassidy’s question about measles and hepatitis B vaccines and Kennedy’s conditional response about “the data.”

Voz de América framed the hearing through a partisan lens, quoting Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden’s opening remarks that “The records show that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, charlatans, and healers,” and that he “made it his life’s work to sow doubt and dissuade parents from vaccinating their children with life-saving vaccines.”