In a test exchange turned epic during his Wednesday, January 29, hearing before the United States Senate over his being appointed by President Donald Trump to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. obliterated far-left Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).
That moment came when Sen. Masto asked if Mr. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAGA) agenda was the only reason he aims to head HHS. Mr. Kennedy shut down Mastro’s attack and did so in such epic fashion that the crowd watching the confirmation hearings started applauding him.
Broaching the subject to attack Mr. Kennedy, Sen. Mastro snapped at him for supporting President Trump and other administration officials, saying, “You keep citing the Trump administration, and you’re just going to follow what they say? Is that what you’re doing? You’re just a rubber stamp for them in this position?”
Still not done, the woke senator continued, asking if he is leaving his beliefs behind to agree with Trump, and how he could address issues if he does ditch those ideas. She snapped, “So it doesn’t matter that you’re before us, it could be anybody coming before us, as long as they’re a rubber stamp for this administration and disregarding your beliefs and what you think?”
Mr. Kennedy didn’t bend under the weight of the senator’s attacks. Standing up for his agenda and for his role in the Trump Administration, Mr. Kennedy said that he will use his position to fight chronic disease and its causes to make Americans healthy. He said, “President Trump has asked me, end chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again.” The audience let loose with applause for his response. Watch the applause here:
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Sen. Mastro then, bizarrely, tried turning that commentary from Mr. Kennedy on making Americans healthy again into a negative, berating him for making it his measure of mission success. She snapped, “So is that the only reason why you’re at HHS? Is that the only reason why then you’re at the HHS, to address that one issue?”
Again Mr. Kennedy didn’t back down. Instead, standing her and her bizarre attacks down, Mr. Kennedy noted that he is in a “unique position” to deal with these issues and thus it is what the president asked him to do and what he will be doing. He said, “Trump has asked me, because I’m in a unique position to end that, and that is what I’m doing.”
Then, emphasizing the scale and danger of the problem, he said, “And if we don’t solve that problem, senator, all of the other disputes we have about who’s paying and whether it’s insurance companies, whether it’s providers, whether it’s HMOs, whether it’s patients or families, all of those are moving deck chairs around on the Titanic. Our ship is sinking.” Watch him here:
Building on that, Mr. Kennedy said, “Our 60 percent increase in Medicaid over the past four years is the biggest budget line now, and it’s growing faster than any other, and no other nation the world has what we have here. No other nation has a chronic disease. We have the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world.”
He added, “We had a higher death count than any country in the world. And when CDC was asked why, they said it’s because Americans are the sickest people on Earth. The average person who died from COVID, American, had 3.8 chronic diseases.” He then said it is an “existential threat, economically, to our military, to our health, to our sense of well-being.” He concluded, “And it is a priority for President Trump, and that’s why he asked me to run the agency, and if I’m privileged to be confirmed, that’s exactly what I’ll do.” Watch that here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video