WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continued testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday and failed to clean up past comments opposing vaccines.
One Democratic Senator is drawing a stark comparison between Kennedy and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In the case of Kennedy, the environmental lawyer may have spent decades claiming vaccines cause autism, but when speaking before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, he was forced to answer questions from actual medical experts.
ALSO READ: RFK Jr. botched his financial reports — omitting $500,000 in anti-vax and law income
“I do believe that autism comes from vaccines,” Kennedy told Fox News in 2023.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician, hammered Kennedy for refusing to believe scientific studies and evidence that don't confirm his beliefs.
“Will you reassure mothers unequivocally and without qualification that the measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism?” Cassidy asked.
“If the data is there, I will absolutely do that,” RFK Jr. responded.
"I think he was cleaver in answering questions," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Raw Story at the Capitol. "But shame on us if we let these people show up to these hearings and lie to us."
"It's stunning," Murphy continued, "he spent his entire career dedicated to undermining vaccines and he can come in these hearings and say, 'Don't pay attention to my entire career. Don't pay any attention to everything I believe, just listen to what I'm telling you right now.' Shame on us if we wave him through, but that's what they did to Kavanaugh..."
The reference was a back-handed comment to Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who voted to confirm Kavanaugh despite her pro-choice pledge.
"There has also been considerable focus on the future of abortion rights based on the concern that Judge Kavanaugh would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade. Protecting this right is important to me," Collins said in a statement in 2018. "To my knowledge, Judge Kavanaugh is the first Supreme Court nominee to express the view that precedent is not merely a practice and tradition, but rooted in Article III of our Constitution itself. He believes that precedent 'is not just a judicial policy … it is constitutionally dictated to pay attention and pay heed to rules of precedent.' In other words, precedent isn’t a goal or an aspiration; it is a constitutional tenet that has to be followed except in the most extraordinary circumstances."
Kavanaugh then voted to eliminate the landmark Roe ruling, which removed reproductive rights from U.S. women.
