Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparred sharply with CNN’s Dana Bash in a contentious exchange centered on the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines and autism.
The confrontation began to build after Bash pointed out that Kennedy, the prominent political heir, has placed significant blame for the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment while testifying before a Senate panel last week.
The interview grew even more heated when Kennedy shifted into outlining how he would approach the next potential pandemic.
“We need to protect our constitutional rights. That is the primary obligation,” Kennedy said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked how he would respond to a future public health emergency. “One of the mistakes we made in the last time was suppressing those rights so people weren’t being heard.”
Bash pushed back, dismissing the response by noting that Kennedy was “talking about rights, and I’m asking about a potential public health crisis,” before trying to steer the conversation to another subject.
Kennedy shot back: “Because you were part of the problem.”
“It was absolute press malpractice…your job is furious skepticism of authority, and you weren’t doing that,” he said, escalating the criticism of media coverage during the pandemic.
Bash insisted she would not allow Kennedy to make claims she described as “entirely untrue,” emphasizing that it is “factually true that the COVID vaccine worked.”
“Do you want to sit here and attack me, or do you want to have conversations?” Bashed vented.
An angry Kennedy fired back, “You’ve been sitting here and attacking me.”
Bash then attempted to pivot to the measles outbreak, but she quickly suggested that the COVID-19 vaccines worked, including on children.
Kennedy demanded she cite one study proving that to be true, and Bash claimed that there was research indicating that vaccine misinformation led to 100,000 to 200,000 more deaths in the US than what otherwise could’ve been.
“You are saying nonsense. You are saying something that you cannot [prove]” the HHS boss fumed
“I am not saying nonsense,” Bash interjected during some crosstalk. “Excuse me.”
Once they jumped into the measles discussion, Kennedy argued that it was an “international outbreak” and that the US is “doing better at handling it than any country in the world.”
The HHS boss also blamed the measles outbreak in the US on the COVID-19 pandemic and a segment of the population that refuses to get vaccinated due to religious reasons.
“What I want you to do is please use your bully pulpit to right now, as we’re getting close to back to school, say … to parents who have not vaccinated their kids that they should vaccinate their kids for measles because it is safe and it will help them save their children’s lives?” Bash said,
She pressed him to look into the camera and do that. Kennedy obliged.
Next, Bash grilled Kennedy on autism. He confirmed that President Trump “certainly does” want him to probe whether there are links between autism and vaccines.
“You are wrong when you say that this issue has been studied,” Kennedy said.
At one point, he said, “I know you’re flustered now.”
“Do you see your job as ending vaccine hesitancy or telling the truth to the American people?” he later added, before bashing her for repeating her lines “like a parrot.”
Bash decided to wrap up the interview on a somewhat conciliatory note after keeping him on for the full segment — in sharp contrast to other CNN anchors who have historically cut off guests that questioned them on air.
“I’m sorry that this turned into a very contentious conversation and my job is to try to get the best information out there, and it concerns me when you come in and say things [that are wrong]” Bash concluded before ending the interview, which lasted over 20 minutes.
