Senators are renewing calls for anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy to step down or be ousted—and at least one is calling for a criminal investigation—amid the release of documents they say prove Kennedy lied to them during his confirmation hearings last year. Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement.
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a social media post Friday that the documents were “Proof we got RFK lying on the record during his confirmation hearing (a crime).” He called for the matter to be referred to the US Department of Justice for a criminal investigation. In a separate statement to The Guardian, Wyden added that “RFK’s platform is built on lies and grifts that leave a trail of dead children in their wake. There are consequences for lying to Congress.” During Kennedy’s reality-bending confirmation hearings in January 2025, multiple senators raised concern about a trip Kennedy took to Samoa in 2019.
At the time, Kennedy was a prominent anti-vaccine activist leading the rabidly anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense (CHD). Just months after he visited the island nation, Samoa suffered a massive measles outbreak in which 83 people died, mostly children under the age of 5. The outbreak was largely fueled by a swell of vaccine hesitancy, drummed up by anti-vaccine activists.
Vaccination rates had cratered to as low as 31 percent.
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