RFK Jr. defends vaccine views, autism comments during House committee hearing

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endured another grueling hearing on Capitol Hill focused on his decisions that lawmakers claim have impacted children's health, including his views on vaccines and previous comments about autism.

Following the hearing before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Friday, Kennedy ignored questions from reporters on President Donald Trump's new nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Erica Schwartz, and Kennedy's upcoming hearings with Senators next week.

Views on vaccines

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., suggested Kennedy's history of vaccine-skeptic rhetoric is correlated to an uptick in measles cases.

"Does exposing infants and children to measles enhance their health and well-being?" Bonamici asked.

Kennedy told Bonamici he is "not anti-vaccine."

"I've never been anti-vaccine," Kennedy said. "I've always said I'm not anti-vaccine."

"Mr. Secretary, you have been a longtime voice against vaccination," she pressed Kennedy.

Kennedy has long sown doubt in the safety and effectiveness of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. Despite being a required vaccine in all states to attend public school, rates have been steadily decreasing over the last decade, CDC data shows.

It comes as vaccine exemptions have risen sharply, with at least 138,000 kindergarteners exempt from one or more vaccines during the most recent school year, according to CDC data.

"No, I haven't," he reiterated. "I'm not anti-vax. I'm pro science. What I've said is vaccines should be adequately safety tested so we know both about the risk and the benefits," he added.

Two unvaccinated school-aged children died last year from measles -- the first U.S. deaths from measles in a decade. However, Kennedy said the measles deaths in a Texas Mennonite community should not be linked to him.

"I went to the funeral of one of those little girls, and I spent a day with the family of the other, and both of them told me that when they took their children to the hospital, they were treated as pariahs," Kennedy said.

"They were not given proper treatments. Both families believe their daughters and their own doctors believe their daughters could have been saved if the hospital gave them proper treatment," he continued..

Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock, which treated at least one of the two children who died, said in a statement last year that there were "misleading and inaccurate claims" circulating online about care provided at the hospital.

"What we can say is that our physicians and care teams follow evidence-based protocols and make clinical decisions based on a patient's evolving condition, diagnostic findings, and the best available medical knowledge," the hospital said.

The hospital did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment on Friday.

Medical organizations and public health experts have been critical of the federal government's response to ongoing measles outbreak, including Kennedy's delayed public acknowledgment that the measles vaccine helps prevent infection.

Past comments on autism

Much of the nearly three-hour hearing seized on Kennedy's previous comments about autism that Democrats believe are harmful to the community.

Lucy McBath, D-Ga., asked Kennedy to apologize for saying that "autism destroys families" at a presser last year.

"I was talking about people with profound autism," Kennedy told McBath. "People ... who have lowering impact autism. I'm talking about people who are nonverbal, non-toilet trained, head banging."

"I find that very, very sad. It should be very easy for you to apologize if that's not, in fact, what you meant," McBath said.

"Those are crocodile tears, Congresswoman," Kennedy replied.

Kennedy had a rare exchange with a Republican lawmaker over largely unfounded claims about the link between Tylenol use among pregnant mothers and the increased risk of their unborn children being diagnosed with autism and other health disorders.

Virginia Foxx, R-N. Car., asked Kennedy about a recent study suggesting there's "no connection" between Tylenol usage in pregnancy and autism in babies.

"The study is a garbage study," Kennedy told Foxx. "It should be retracted."

The study analyzed 1.5 million children in Denmark and found no link between Tylenol during pregnancy and autism later in life.

Kennedy claimed the study needed to be retracted because it determined whether women took Tylenol during pregnancy by prescription, and Tylenol is a well-known over-the-counter medication.

Trump's mental fitness

In the hearing focused on Americans' health and health care costs, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., used Trump's social media posts to question Kennedy about the president's mental fitness and stability.

Takano alleged the president's Easter post featuring the f-word and a separate post featuring an AI-generated image of the president seemingly as Jesus was evidence of Trump being mentally "unstable."

"Millions of Americans are now wondering if this President is delusional and thinks he is Jesus Christ," Takano said. "Mr. Secretary, given everything that I've shown you today, will you insist that President Trump undergo an assessment of his mental fitness and his emotional stability?"

"Absolutely not," Kennedy replied.

The moment devolved into a shouting match about the 25th Amendment, which establishes procedures for replacing the president in the event of removal, resignation or incapacitation.

"Secretary, would you invoke the 25th Amendment if he were to fail an assessment of his mental stability or emotional stability?" Takano asked.

"There hasn't been a president who is more sane," Kennedy started before he was cut off by Takano.

On Monday, Trump denied that the deleted post had any connection to Jesus at all, and was, in fact, supposed to depict him as a doctor.

Gender-affirming surgeries

Several Republicans discussed gender-affirming care for minors with Kennedy, claiming the outcomes are detrimental to children.

"The outcomes in children are catastrophic in terms of depression, suicide, all kinds of illnesses. It's condemnation to a life of misery, and there is no scientific justification," Kennedy said.

"What can we do to protect children in the future from the medical associations, and particularly the mental health medical associations, from harming our kids? How can we prevent them from doing that?" Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wisc., asked.

"We have ended all federal funding for those kinds of puberty blockers and gender mutilation surgeries," Kennedy replied. "We have instructed hospitals and medical centers around the country that if they do host those kind of interventions, that they will lose all their Medicaid and Medicare funding."

HHS released a final version of a report on pediatric gender-affirming care in November, claiming it found "medical dangers" posed to children and calling for a broader use of psychotherapy.

Some major medical groups pushed back, stating that psychotherapy first is the standard approach in gender-affirming care and that additional care, such as hormonal therapies, only occurs after in-depth evaluations between patients and doctors.

Some experts in the gender-affirming care space said studies have found gender-affirming care is generally safe and that youth with gender dysphoria are typically evaluated, diagnosed and treated based on an individual assessment by qualified providers.

Special education services

Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich. -- who is chairman of the committee -- and others asked Kennedy about the Department of Education's strategy to move programs to other agencies, including HHS, in order to dismantle the department completely.

Kennedy said the special education programming should return to HHS.

"Some of these programs should have always been under HHS purview," Kennedy said. "It just makes more sense. They're health-related programs rather than particularly [educational] programs, and we have many parallel programs at HHS that can benefit from synergies from each other," he said.

He said the final decision is under the purview of Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

"She has power to contract out these functions at other agencies, and it's a broad power, and she's operating under that power," Kennedy concluded.

-ABC News' Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.