It Sure Seems Like One Key GOP Vote Regrets Appointing RFK Jr.
Senator Bill Cassidy promised the American people that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would not make any changes to the CDC's vaccine advisory committee when he cast his decisive confirmation vote for the HHS secretary. But on Monday RFK Jr. scrapped the board entirely, leaving Cassidy scrambling to explain himself and his vote.
'Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,' Cassidy posted on X after Kennedy explained his rationale in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. 'I've just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I'll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.'
When asked what he said specifically to Kennedy to 'ensure' that the immunization advisory committee wouldn't be run by anti-vaxers, Cassidy went mum.
'I'd rather just characterize it as: we had a conversation,' he told Semafor's Burgess Everett on Tuesday. When Burgess asked if Cassidy was 'still comfortable' with voting to confirm RFK Jr. in February, Cassidy replied 'I'd rather not comment on that.'
During the confirmation process Cassidy explicitly guaranteed that 'If confirmed, [RFK Jr.] will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.' Either Cassidy was lying, or RFK Jr. was lying to Cassidy.
Now all of the other promises that Cassidy made on RFK's behalf—like not making false claims about vaccines causing autism, or even appearing before Congress on a quarterly basis—are moot. Cassidy claimed that he studied his decision to confirm Kennedy 'exhaustively' and took it 'very seriously.' It's clear that Cassidy's words meant nothing as Kennedy guts a key institution of our national health apparatus.
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