{"id":207954,"date":"2026-04-17T07:51:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/rfk-jr-accused-of-dangerous-conspiracy-theories-at-heated-budget-hearing-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T07:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:51:26","slug":"rfk-jr-accused-of-dangerous-conspiracy-theories-at-heated-budget-hearing-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/rfk-jr-accused-of-dangerous-conspiracy-theories-at-heated-budget-hearing-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr accused of \u2018dangerous conspiracy theories\u2019 at heated budget hearing – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump ally grilled by lawmakers over \u2018terrible decisions\u2019 on vaccines, public health and funding cuts to key programs
US politics \u2013 latest updates<\/a>
Vaccines and public health dominated a frequently contentious hearing with Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a> on Thursday before the US House ways and means committee.
Kennedy, the health secretary and a longtime vaccine opponent, has overseen sweeping changes to routine vaccination recommendations and has promoted misinformation even amid the biggest measles outbreak in decades.
\u201cWe stand at a generational turning point. Our children are the sickest generation in modern history,\u201d Kennedy said at the start of his testimony. While a common refrain from Kennedy, child mortality has fallen<\/a> dramatically in recent decades, and Americans enjoy longer lives than ever before with record-setting life expectancy<\/a>.
Food dyes, menopause treatments, and cuts to gender-affirming care were featured prominently in Kennedy\u2019s opening remarks, but he did not mention any of the administration\u2019s actions on vaccines \u2013 apparently under pressure<\/a> from the administration not to bring up unprecedented cuts to vaccine recommendations and access, unpopular moves among voters.
Still, lawmakers mentioned vaccines and the hearing quickly became acrimonious.
\u201cDid President Trump approve your decision to end CDC\u2019s pro-vaccine public messaging campaign?\u201d asked Linda S\u00e1nchez, a Democrat from California, referring to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
\u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot of misinformation,\u201d Kennedy said. A tense exchange followed, with S\u00e1nchez repeating the question several times and Kennedy saying he wanted to address her misinformation, pointing to other global outbreaks (though the US outbreak has circulated domestically and even spilled into other countries, such as Mexico).
\u201cI think you don\u2019t want to answer the question, because I think you know the terrible, terrible decisions that impact very, very real lives, especially the lives of children,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said.
Kennedy does not have a degree in medicine or public health, yet he is \u201coverruling doctors, scientists and public health experts across our country\u201d, said Mike Thompson, a Democrat from California. \u201cYour dangerous conspiracy theories are undermining safe and effective vaccines.\u201d
Thompson also highlighted the measles outbreak in the US. \u201cUnder just one year of President Trump, there are nearly 2,300 cases,\u201d he said. \u201cKids have died because measles is running rampant under your watch.\u201d
Kennedy also promoted misinformation within the hearing itself. Judy Chu, a Democrat from California, said it was \u201cincredibly harmful\u201d for the administration to stop universally recommending the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Hepatitis B is extremely dangerous for children and can lead to long-term complications.
\u201cBabies are not at risk unless \u2013 essentially at zero risk \u2013 unless their mother is infected. For all mothers are tested when they go into the hospital to have a baby,\u201d Kennedy said. But as many as 500,000 pregnant patients (about 14%) are never tested<\/a> in pregnancy for hepatitis B, and the test also has a high rate of false negatives. Babies may also get sick from caregivers, since hepatitis B is highly contagious and can persist on items such as nail clippers, for a week.
Kennedy also claimed, incorrectly, that the hepatitis B vaccine has not been studied properly and that \u201cwe don\u2019t know what the risk profile is\u201d despite decades of research on the safety and effectiveness of the widely distributed shots.
Republicans also objected to misinformation promulgated by Kennedy and other officials. When the Trump administration wrongly<\/a> said Tylenol use in pregnancy causes autism, \u201cMy wife was hurt,\u201d said Blake Moore, a Republican from Utah. She felt responsible for their 10-year-old\u2019s autism diagnosis, Moore said. \u201cThat was a hurtful moment for her.\u201d
An important public health taskforce is in Kennedy\u2019s crosshairs. He is \u201creforming\u201d the US Preventive Services Task Force, which makes recommendations on preventative health care such as mammograms and colonoscopies, which he said has been \u201clackadaisical and negligent for 20 years\u201d.
Lawmakers also pushed Kennedy on cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Some 850 agents and brokers suspected of fraud were reinstated under the Trump administration<\/a>, Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, pointed out. \u201cYour administration was the one that let them all go back to work.\u201d
Kennedy spoke over Doggett several times. \u201cIt\u2019s not a credible story,\u201d he said. Instead, Kennedy focused on alleged fraud by home health aides, including family members, who may receive payment from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for taking care of elderly and disabled people.
\u201cThese are family members getting paid to do things that they used to do as family members for free, and this is rife with fraud,\u201d Kennedy said, claiming that the US is \u201cpaying for fraud now as much as for medicine\u201d.
Previous racist comments Kennedy made about Black children resurfaced in the hearing. \u201cEvery Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, on SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented, to live in a community where there\u2019ll be no cellphones, no screens,\u201d Kennedy reportedly said<\/a> on the 19Keys podcast in June 2024.
\u201cHave you ever re-parented \u2013 or parented, I should say \u2013 a Black child?\u201d Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, asked in the hearing. Kennedy responded that he did not \u201ceven know what that phrase means\u201d, before doubting that he said it and refused to answer. When Sewell said Kennedy was \u201csuggesting that the federal government should take Black children away from their families and re-parent them and send them off to some wellness farm\u201d, Kennedy interrupted and said the congresswoman was \u201cjust making stuff up\u201d.
Sewell pushed back: \u201cI am absolutely not making this up, Mr Secretary. Even today, Black children are removed from their homes at higher rates than white children, not because of their greater harm but because of longstanding bias and built-in institutionalism. For you to suggest that Black families are not capable of raising their own children is deeply offensive, sir.\u201d She later added the transcript of his 2024 remarks into the record.
Another explosive moment came when Steven Horsford, a Democrat from Nevada, spoke about his constituents\u2019 struggle to access healthcare. \u201cCalm down, congressman,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me to calm down. Healthcare is personal to me,\u201d Horsford said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t answer basic questions, then maybe come prepared next time.\u201d But Kennedy countered that Horsford had \u201cstarted screaming\u201d at him, adding, \u201cPeople scream when they don\u2019t have much to say.\u201d
The next speaker, Rudy Yakym, a Republican from Indiana, quipped: \u201cIt\u2019s getting hot in here.\u201d
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source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump ally grilled by lawmakers over \u2018terrible decisions\u2019 on vaccines, public health and funding cuts to key programsUS politics \u2013 latest updatesVaccines and public health dominated a frequently contentious hearing with Robert F Kennedy Jr on Thursday before the US House ways and means committee.Kennedy, the health secretary and a longtime vaccine opponent, has overseen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-207954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}