Not surprisingly, Republicans did not seem bothered by any of this, seeking to focus only on the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d initiatives from the secretary such as promoting eating healthy food and fitness. <\/p>\n
But throughout the remarks of many of the senior Democratic Ways and Means members, they rehashed fond memories of when Kennedy\u2019s uncle, the late John F. Kennedy, was president.<\/p>\n
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Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before Congress this week, where he faced questions about the ways he has gutted public health. (Reuters)<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in that audience the day before the presidential election in 1960 as Sen. Jack Kennedy finished his campaign in Waterbury, Connecticut, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and that night in Boston, Massachusetts,\u201d said Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the committee who is 77. <\/p>\n
The seeming moment of nostalgia quickly turned to a sharp rebuke of RFK. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need people not to be preyed upon by demagoguery, and there should not be a politicization of these very issues,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The same could be said for Rep. John Larson, another 77-year-old Irish Catholic politician from New England.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn’t a house door I didn’t knock on where there wasn\u2019t a picture of Pope John the XXIII and John F Kennedy,\u201d the Connecticut Democrat said in beginning his remarks. Only then did he express his dismay at the secretary over his attacks on vaccinations and public health. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think you can appreciate how deeply concerned people are about this and how the contrast between what your uncle and the President of the United States said in his beliefs and yours with respect to vaccinations,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The whole thing had a feeling of sort of an intervention of their wayward Irish Catholic cousin, even though Kennedy long strayed from his family\u2019s heritage as he promoted misinformation about vaccines and autism before he delved deeper into conspiracy theories and endorsed Donald Trump in 2024.<\/p>\n
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Ways and Means Committee Ranking member Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) reminisced about the Kennedy family before tearing into HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Getty)<\/p>\n
Democrats probably hoped they could invoke the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, who famously told Dan Quayle during their 1988 vice presidential debate, where the neophyte Quayle compared himself to the future President Kennedy, \u201cI served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.\u201d <\/p>\n
It\u2019s incredibly telling that Democrats sought to invoke the spirit of Bentsen, who was part of a losing presidential ticket. Compared to Republicans \u2014 who cap the amount of time a member can lead a committee to four consecutive years, thus cycling through new talent \u2014 Democrats rely on a seniority system. <\/p>\n
That \u201crespect for elders\u201d line of succession means that their leaders are rehashing stories from when many Americans were not alive \u2014 such as when John F. Kennedy was assassinated and his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr., ran for president and was himself killed on the campaign trail in 1963.<\/p>\n
It took the younger Democrats to push back against Kennedy\u2019s disinformation with specificity.<\/p>\n
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), who is 61, rightly pointed out the harm in Kennedy\u2019s claims that, \u201cEvery Black kid is now, just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence\u201d and that \u201cthose kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kennedy defiantly denied making such remarks, even though he said just that in 2024 when he was running for president.<\/p>\n