Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) faced fury Thursday after he claimed he would have needed to be clairvoyant to predict Health department Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would work to undermine vaccines.
The Louisiana Republican – a physician – told a CNBC host that he did not regret voting to confirm Kennedy to lead Health and Human Services despite his discomfort with the MAHA head's efforts to reduce the number of childhood vaccines.
"If you want to tell me that somebody didn't tell me the truth, and I should've seen in the future they were not going to tell the truth, you can say, 'Bill, you should've seen into the future,'" Cassidy said.
Kennedy's well-established vaccine skepticism was widely known — and cited at the time as a reason why Cassidy should not have confirm his nomination, critics were quick to point out Thursday.
"It was hard to anticipate that the guy who had spent the last several decades monomaniacally focused on promoting lies about vaccines would, given authority over them, try to curtail access and cut off research," said Media Matters' Matt Gertz. "Send a wallet inspector to the Senate Republican Caucus."
"'Oh so I was supposed to know that King Midas was going to turn things into gold???'" quipped journalist Philip Bump.
“'How was I supposed to know that was his thumb and he hadn’t actually gotten my nose? I’m not a doctor!'" cracked actor Mike Billips.
"You should have seen into the recent past when he not only frequently lied but most passionately said the opposite of what he told you, indicating he was either lying on the campaign trail to get votes or lying to you, both bad," posted influencer Chris Fredda.
"Somehow our system has elevated the weakest men possible into leadership roles in the Republican Party. It needs to be rebooted," sighed widely followed X user Bruce Crossing.
"EVERYONE knew that RFK Jr. would do this," thundered The Independent's Eric Michael Garcia. "Anyone who paid attention to what he said for the past two decades knew he would do this."
"As a US Senator you shouldn’t be so easily duped!" yelped popular X user The Red Menace. "After having been duped once, you allowed it again with Blanche Sit down and shut up - this is ALL your fault."
"BILL CASSIDY: If you want to tell me that somebody didn't tell me the truth, and I should've seen in the future they were not gonna tell the truth, you can say, 'Bill you should exercise reasonably good judgment and pay at least a little attention to the world around you,'" wrote novelist Scott Stein.