Washington — Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy on Sunday sharply criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing him of a “series of failures” in leading the agency.
“This has been a failure. If I were president, I would choose someone else because there needs to be accountability for higher health care costs, more measles deaths, losing elimination status and no progress on processed foods,” Cassidy said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Cassidy, a physician who will leave the Senate early next year after losing his reelection bid, has been engaged in a months-long dispute with Kennedy over vaccine policy and other health positions. Kennedy’s confirmation last year depended in part on Cassidy’s support. The Louisiana Republican ultimately backed the nomination after receiving what he described as “serious commitments” from the administration. However, the “collaborative working relationship” Cassidy said he was promised has failed to materialize.
Last week, Kennedy suggested that Republicans had obstructed his Make America Healthy Again agenda. With Senate Republicans expected to lose their majority in the new year, Kennedy said the party would no longer have leverage over him. He also pointed to a “friend of our movement” in President Trump’s new chief of staff, Stephen Miller.
“The Senate no longer has any leverage over me. And that’s a big deal,” Kennedy said on Nov. 9. “I don’t think anything is going to get in our way now.”
Asked about those remarks, Cassidy said Kennedy was “obviously trying to provide cover for failure as secretary of Health and Human Services.”
“He was supposed to be doing something positive on ultra-processed foods — that’s what MAHA moms wanted. There’s been minimal progress, and now we’ve lost our measles elimination status, and we have infants dying from measles,” Cassidy said. “So if you’re a MAHA mom hoping for something better — and hundreds of them contacted me during the debate over whether to support the HHS secretary, because that’s what they wanted — they have every right to be disappointed.”
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Cassidy rejected the argument that Kennedy would have an easier time advancing his agenda with Democrats in control, saying, “There is no logic. This is about covering a series of failures.”
Some Democrats have raised the possibility of impeaching Kennedy. Asked about that prospect, Cassidy said, “You can impeach, I guess, over a ham sandwich, so they’ll have to decide what to do on that.” He added that the focus should instead be on “the president’s decision.”
The Louisiana senator said rising health care costs, the loss of measles elimination status and limited progress in tackling ultra-processed foods, among other issues, could “taint the president’s legacy.”
“If the president wants actually something positive, he should change,” Cassidy said. “And that’s just speaking politically. The American voters signaled at the midterm they don’t like the status quo, particularly in health care, and I think it’s time for something different.”
Cassidy also addressed the U.S. losing its measles elimination status, warning that unvaccinated adults could spread the disease to vulnerable people. “You could be the person that brings death to another,” he said, citing the risks to young children, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems. Cassidy urged the president to emphasize that while individuals can make their own choices, they may also introduce measles or another infectious disease into the life of a child too young to be vaccinated. That message, he said, should be “pounded, pounded, pounded.”
The comments came as the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which Cassidy chairs, prepares to vote this week on Heidi Overton’s nomination to serve as FDA commissioner. Asked whether he expected the nomination to clear the committee, Cassidy said he was uncertain.
“I’ve been working the phones all week, both speaking with Dr. Overton and speaking with others. I still have questions, and so I cannot tell you the outcome of that vote right now,” Cassidy said. “But I spoke to four or five of my Republican colleagues, while continuing to discuss the matter with my advisers. So I can’t give you that answer yet.”
