HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden were involved in a tense exchange on Capitol Hill where Kennedy accused the senator of intentionally misrepresenting his past comments.
Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee which held a confirmation hearing for Kennedy on Wednesday, pressed the nominee on comments made on podcasts in recent years.
During a podcast interview in July of 2023, you said, quote, no vaccine is safe and effective, in your testimony today in order to prove you’re not anti-vax, you note that all your kids are vaccinated, but in a podcast in 2020, you said, and I quote, you would do anything pay anything to go back in time and not vaccinate your kids,’ Wyden said to Kennedy.
‘Mr. Kennedy, all of these things cannot be true. So are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine or did you lie on all those podcasts? We have all of this on tape, by the way.’
Kennedy took issue with Wyden’s comments and pointed out that the comment about ‘no vaccine’ being safe and effective was said before he was cut off in the interview, with podcaster Lex Fridman, before he could finish.
Yeah, Senator, as you know, because it’s been repeatedly debunked, that the statements that I made on the Lex Fridman podcast was a fragment of the statement,’ Kennedy responded.
‘He asked me, and anybody who actually goes and looks at that podcast and will see that he asked me, are there vaccines that are safe and effective? And I said to him, some of the live virus vaccines. And I said, there are no vaccines that are safe and effective and I was going to continue for, every person. Every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines.’
Kennedy continued, ‘He interrupted me at that point. I’ve corrected it many times, including on national TV. You know about this, Sen. Wyden, so bringing this up right now is dishonest.’
A transcript from the interview with Fridman shows Kennedy saying, ‘I think some of the live virus vaccines are probably averting more problems than they’re causing. There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective. In fact.’
Kennedy is then cut off and the conversation goes elsewhere.
Kennedy has corrected the record on subsequent shows, including in an interview with HBO’s Bill Maher, where he explained he was interrupted and assured the public, ‘I would never say that.’
Fox News Digital reached out to Wyden’s office but did not immediately receive a response.
Opposition to Kennedy’s nomination has been fierce, with advocacy groups running ad campaigns urging senators to vote against his confirmation.
‘I want to make sure the Committee is clear about a few things. News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. Well, I am neither; I am pro-safety,’ Kennedy said in his opening statement in front of the Senate Finance Committee.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report