"We're denying people vaccines," Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy told Kennedy.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a grilling before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
Over nearly three hours of questioning, he defended his controversial views on vaccines and the ouster of Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The hearing has ended after nearly three hours. At many times contentious, Kennedy was grilled on everything from vaccine availability to his staffing shakeups at the CDC. Several Republicans on the panel expressed concern on vaccines, while Democrats accused Kennedy of breaking pledges he made during his confirmation hearing back in January.
Kennedy is currently not testifying under oath after Sen. Crapo denied a request to do so.
At the beginning of the hearing, Sen. Wyden asked that Kennedy be formally sworn in as a witness.
"I will personally object and will reject your request," Crapo said. "We will treat this witness as we treat all of the other administration witnesses who come before us."
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith slammed Kennedy over his comments following last week's deadly school shooting.
During a Fox News interview following the shooting, Kennedy said he was interested in looking at "the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence."
The investigation into the shooting is still ongoing and there is no evidence that SSRI drugs were a factor in the shooting.
"You have no knowledge of that because you have no evidence of a connection," Smith said.
Kennedy claimed that she was making it up.
Sen. Bernie Sanders took aim at Kennedy's statements casting doubt on the integrity of major medical organizations. Kennedy argued they've been corrupted by the pharmaceutical industry.
"You're telling the American people that the American Medical Association, representing hundreds of thousands of people, have been coopted and that they should not trust their doctors? And the American Academy of Pediatrics? And by the way, just for the record, every single Republican -- I don't mean to be political here, Mr. Chairman -- has received PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. Are they all corrupt as well?" Sanders asked.
Kennedy doubled down, telling Sanders: "I'm telling you, the American Heart Association has been corrupted by the pharma industry."
Sanders later fired back, "To suggest that every institution, the AMA, the pediatrics people, is 'corrupt' because they disagree is an insult."
