RFK Jr visibly startled by protesters amid angry confrontations over funding and staff cuts and vaccines at health hearing
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced angry protesters and aggressive questioning from Democrats about everything from his record of sowing mistrust in vaccines to massive staff cuts at the department.
Kennedy testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee about the Trump administration’s budget request for the 2026 fiscal year.
Almost as soon as the hearing began, protesters began to interrupt the hearing. Some held up signs as they yelled “RFK kills people with AIDS” while Ben Cohen, the co-founder of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, blasted US support for the Israeli military onslaught in Gaza. At one point Kennedy seemed visibly startled by an outburst from spectators behind him, although he quickly regained his composure and smiled before continuing.
Kennedy has come under criticism for slashing the services at the department. Under his leadership, Health and Human Services has slashed multiple research grants. In March, Kennedy slashed numerous employees at various agencies at the department and began to eliminate the Administration for Community Living, which helps people with disabilities and elderly people stay in their communities rather than nursing homes.
Earlier in the day, Kennedy testified before the House appropriations subcommittee that focuses on funding HHS.
But protesters were not the only ones who pushed Kennedy, who has spent years promoting the long-debunked theory that vaccines cause autism.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who leads the Democratic minority on the HELP Committee, criticized the Trump administration’s support for potential cuts to Medicaid in congressional Republicans’ massive bill which they hope to pass on a party-line vote by the end of the year.
“The cuts are not true cuts,” Kennedy said. “The cuts are elimination of waste, abuse and fraud.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut had a fiery exchange with Kennedy about his comments on vaccines. Murphy, one of the most outspoken Democrats, criticized how the HHS Department canceled $12bn worth of vaccine grants.
“You also said specific to the measles vaccine that you support the measles vaccine, but you have consistently been undermining the measles vaccine,” he said. Murphy referred to Kennedy’s remarks that the vaccine wanes quickly, that it was never fully tested for safety and that it contained fetal debris.
“All true,” Kennedy said. “Do you want me to lie to the public?”
Kennedy’s comments come despite the fact that he had said amid a measles outbreak that the measles vaccine is “the most effective way to prevent the spread,” which had come after Kennedy spread doubts about vaccinations for years.
Throughout the hearing, the presiding chairman of the committee had to hit the gavel after senators and Kennedy went over their time or interrupted each other.
Other senators criticized cuts to the department led by Kennedy as well as by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin said how the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention fired its entire lead poisoning staff, which meant a request from Milwaukee schools to investigate lead poisoning was denied.
