Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) accused Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of misleading him in order to get his confirmation vote — particularly on vaccinations, despite Kennedy's history of skepticism — saying Sunday that "the American people have been poorly served" by the secretary.
A physician, Cassidy has been a fierce criticof the Trump administration's position on vaccines, calling the most recent executive order on spacing out childhood immunizations and breaking up the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine a "stupid policy" not rooted in science.
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"Right now, there is not three different vaccines. There's only these three combined. And why did they combine them? To make it more convenient for the parent, to make fewer jabs for the child," he told Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week," just hours after President Donald Trump on Truth Social shared an article written by his science adviser titled, "The case for overhauling American science."
"This is why the president's poll numbers are down, because you've lost sight of affordability for the parent," he continued. "You've lost sight of the convenience for the American family. You've lost sight of that which is driving higher costs in healthcare — for example, more doctor's visits."
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Raddatz confronted Cassidy about his decision to still vote to confirm Kennedy, a known vaccine conspiracy theorist, to be the nation's top health official. The senator said his choice partly came from a place of believing Kennedy and the White House's guarantees to not touch science-backed vaccine guidance.
"There are guarantees that were given to me and guarantees that were supposedly going to be enforced by the White House. Among those were not to affect the [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] schedule," Cassidy said.
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"People can draw their own conclusions, but it's pretty evident that that was the White House and the RFK pledge — RFK may say, technically this is the president, not him, and technically he's right," he continued. "But the point is, the American people have been poorly served."
"Was he lying to you?" Raddatz asked about Kennedy.
"Again, it speaks for itself," the senator answered. "So it's pretty evident."
A spokesperson for HHS did not immediately respond to HuffPost's request for comment.
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Kennedy's position on vaccines is nothing new. The secretary has spent years sowing doubt over immunization practices and linking childhood vaccines with autism despite longtime scientific consensus concluding no link between the two. Cassidy has denounced Kennedy's attempt to link vaccines with autism.
When asked why he thought he would magically change course as secretary, Cassidy pivoted to saying he was interested at the time in Kennedy's plan to address constituents' concerns regarding ultra-processed foods — though he admitted the administration has yet to do anything about them.
"The point is that when you're making the decision process, you're taking in everything at once," he said. "And you just make the best decision that presents at the time."
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