The Senate Finance Committee hearing with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday was always going to be explosive, but it delivered even more fireworks than expected. With the recent shake-up at the CDC still reverberating—firing Director Susan Monarez, her defiance of that dismissal, and resignations in solidarity—the atmosphere was electric before the first gavel fell.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member, wasted no time in framing Kennedy as a dangerous figure. He accused him of mounting an “unceasing crusade against vaccines,” elevating “crackpots and grifters,” and lying to the Senate during his confirmation process. Wyden even made the extraordinary request to have Kennedy sworn in as a witness, citing “unprecedented” behavior. Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) refused, setting the stage for Kennedy’s own defense.
He opened by acknowledging the murder of Officer David Rose at CDC headquarters, a somber note that contrasted with Wyden’s partisan tirade. From there, Kennedy launched into a broad defense of his tenure, framing his work as part of President Trump’s effort to shift from a “sick care” system to true preventative health care. He pointed to the MAHA Report on childhood chronic disease, outlining causes like ultra-processed foods and chemical exposures, and promised solutions coming this month.
Sen. Lujan tries to lecture RFK Jr. about not listening to Dr. Daskalakis—the satanist gay-orgy-loving trans-activist who resigned from CDC.
Bobby shut him down: “Senator, you’re ridiculous.”
He then reveals an insubordinate Daskalakis refused to hand over vaccine safety data… pic.twitter.com/x5DUspYnVM
— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) September 4, 2025
Kennedy rattled off a laundry list of initiatives under his watch: tackling food dye contamination, ending gain-of-function research, cracking down on “gas station heroin,” addressing child screen time, reforming Title X to focus on vulnerable families rather than DEI quotas, and saving taxpayers $14 billion by cutting duplicative CMS enrollments. He stressed that efficiency and compassion can coexist, citing expanded Head Start funding and aid to Tribal communities.
Then came the red meat. Kennedy zeroed in on two issues largely ignored by the legacy press: the staggering 476,000 unaccompanied minors lost during Biden’s border crisis and the abysmal health conditions on Native American reservations. He revealed that HHS has located 22,000 children by “knocking on 82,000 doors” and pledged to continue that work. He also touted Trump’s Rural Health Transformation Fund as “the greatest investment in rural healthcare in history.”
Finally, Kennedy tackled the CDC upheaval head-on. He accused the agency of catastrophic failures during COVID—school closures, mask mandates on children, crushing small businesses—none of which stopped the virus but all of which inflicted generational harm. The CDC, Kennedy argued, presided over the worst pandemic response in the developed world. “And the people at CDC who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools,” Kennedy said, “are the people who will be leaving.” He framed the dismissals as necessary housecleaning to restore the CDC to “the world’s gold standard” in infectious disease, free of politics and conflicts of interest.
The hearing quickly descended into partisan rancor, with Democrats painting Kennedy as reckless and Republicans largely defending his reforms. But Kennedy held his ground. His performance underscored why he has become both a lightning rod and a force inside the Trump administration: unapologetically blunt, willing to swing at entrenched institutions, and determined to reframe HHS as a department for ordinary Americans, not bureaucrats or corporate interests.
