Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) raised her voice to yell back at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his confirmation hearing on Wednesday as the Health and Human Services nominee tried to twist her question in knots.
Warren pointed out that Kennedy has made over $2 million from a law firm that is searching for plaintiffs to sue over vaccines. Warren asked if Kennedy would agree that he would not accept any cash payments while serving as secretary of HHS.
Kennedy twisted the comment into Warren asking if he won't sue drug companies, putting the words in her mouth.
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"You're asking me to not sue drug companies. And I'm not going to agree to that," Kennedy said.
Warren shouted over him, "No, I am not!"
"So, let's do a quick count here of how, as secretary of HHS, if you get confirmed, you could influence every one of those lawsuits," Warren, a former Harvard professor and lawyer, continued. "Well, let me start the list. You could publish your anti-vaccine conspiracies, but this time on U.S. government letterhead, something a jury might be impressed by."
"I don't understand," Kennedy fumbled.
"You could appoint that vaccine panel who share your anti-vax views and let them do your dirty work," Warren continued. "You could tell the CDC vaccine panel to remove a particular vaccine from the vaccine schedule. You could remove vaccines from special compensation programs, which would open up manufacturers to mass torts. You could make more injuries eligible for compensation, even if there is no causal evidence. You could change vaccine court processes to make it easier to bring junk lawsuits. You could turn over FDA data to your friends at the law firm and they could use it however it benefited them. You could change vaccine labeling. You could change vaccine information rules. You could change which claims are compensated in the vaccine injury compensation program."
She demanded to know if he would refrain from taking a financial cut from those lawsuits while at HHS and in the four years after.
All Kennedy would commit to is to follow current ethical guidelines.
See the clip below or at the link here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
