Washington- Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on Sunday criticized Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for what he called a “series of failures” as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“It has been a failure. If I were president, I would choose someone else because there needs to be accountability for higher health care costs, increased deaths from measles, loss of elimination status, and lack of progress on processed foods.” Cassidy said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan“.
Cassidy, a doctor who will leave the Senate early next year after losing his reelection bid, has been locked in a bitter disagreement with the HHS secretary for months over his vaccine policy and other positions. Kennedy’s confirmation Last year, it hinged on Cassidy’s support, and the Louisiana Republican ultimately backed the nomination after receiving what he called “serious commitments” from the administration. But the “collaborative working relationship” Cassidy promised her doesn’t seem to have borne fruit.
Last week, Kennedy suggested that Republicans had delayed his Make America Healthy Again agenda. And with the Republican Senate poised to lose its majority in the new year, he said Republicans would no longer have influence over him, while also naming a “friend of our movement” in President Trump’s new chief of staffStephen Miller.
“The Senate no longer has any influence over me. And that’s a big problem,” Kennedy said on November 9. “I don’t think anything will get in our way now.”
Asked about the comments, Cassidy said Kennedy was “obviously trying to cover up his failure as Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
“It was supposed to do something positive about ultra-processed foods — that’s what MAHA moms wanted. There was minimal progress, and now we’ve lost our measles elimination status, and we have infants dying from measles,” Cassidy said. “So if you’re a MAHA mom and you’re hoping for something better — and hundreds of them contacted me during this debate about whether to support the HHS secretary’s secretary, that’s what they wanted — they have every right to be disappointed.”
Cassidy questioned the logic that with Democrats in charge things would be easier for Kennedy, saying: “There’s no logic. It’s covering up a series of failures.”
Asked about the possibility of impeachment, which some Democrats have raised, Cassidy said: “You can impeach, I guess, over a ham sandwich, so they’ll have to decide what to do about that.” But Cassidy said the focus should be on “the president’s decision.”
The Louisiana Republican argued that rising health care costs, the loss of measles elimination status and little progress in combating ultra-processed foods, among other things, would “taint the president’s legacy.”
“If the president really wants something positive, he should change,” Cassidy said. “And it’s just a political issue. American voters signaled in the midterms that they don’t like the status quo, especially in health care, and I think it’s time for something different.”
Cassidy also responded to The United States loses its measles elimination status, saying that for unvaccinated adults, “you could be the person who causes the death of another”, with implications for young children, pregnant women and immunocompromised people. He encouraged the president to speak out about how individuals can do what they want, “but you can bring measles or another disease into the health space of a child who is not old enough to be vaccinated,” saying the message should be “pounded, pounded, pounded.”
The comments come as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Cassidy leads, prepares to vote this week on the nomination of Heidi Overton to be FDA commissioner. Asked if he expected Overton’s nomination to make it out of committee, Cassidy said he wasn’t sure.
“I’ve been working the phone all week, speaking with Dr. Overton and others. I still have questions so I can’t tell you the outcome of this vote at this time,” Cassidy said. “But I’ve spoken to four or five of my most disadvantaged Republican members, as well as continuing to talk with my advisors. So I can’t give you that answer yet.”
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