It was a fiery scene on Capitol Hill Thursday, September 4, 2025, as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a barrage of pointed questions from both Democratic and Republican senators over his handling of vaccine policy and the recent shake-ups at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The hearing, held by the Senate Finance Committee, stretched for three hours and was marked by heated exchanges, sharp accusations, and a rare bipartisan grilling of the embattled secretary.
Kennedy, who has long been a controversial figure for his outspoken views on vaccines, arrived at the hearing just a week after the abrupt firing of CDC director Susan Monarez and the subsequent resignation of four senior officials. The shake-up followed Monarez’s refusal to fire top CDC staff and sign off on Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes, according to sources cited by ABC News. Monarez, who had only held the position for a month, published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal the morning of the hearing, stating she was ousted for declining to prematurely approve recommendations from the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee.
The hearing quickly turned combative. Early on, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon and the committee’s ranking member, pressed Kennedy on Monarez’s claims. “Did you, in fact, do what Director Monarez has said you did, which is tell her, ‘Just go along with vaccine recommendations, even if you didn’t think such recommendations aligned with scientific evidence?’” Wyden asked. Kennedy flatly denied the allegation. “No, I did not,” he replied, before being pressed further. Wyden shot back, “So, she’s lying today to the American people in The Wall Street Journal?” Kennedy responded, “Yes, sir.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, highlighted Kennedy’s earlier praise of Monarez as “unimpeachable” and questioned why he was now labeling her dishonest. Kennedy claimed, “I told her that she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said, ‘No.’ If you had an employee who told you they weren’t trustworthy, would you ask them to resign, Senator?” When Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, pressed for clarification, Kennedy conceded, “She didn’t say, ‘No, I’m not a trustworthy person.’ She said, ‘No.’”
Monarez, for her part, stood by her account. In a statement from her attorneys, she called Kennedy’s narrative “false” and “patently ridiculous.” Her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, insisted, “Dr. Monarez stands by what she said in her op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, would repeat it all under oath and continues to support the vision she outlined at her confirmation hearing that science will control her decisions.” Sanders indicated he would seek Monarez’s testimony before the committee in the coming weeks.
Kennedy insisted that the CDC shake-ups were “absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world’s gold standard public health agency.” He argued that “new blood” was needed and that it was “imperative that we remove officials with conflicts of interest and catastrophically bad judgment and political agendas.” Yet, according to ABC News, several of the new appointees to the CDC have expressed vaccine-skeptical views and have previously earned income testifying against vaccine manufacturers.
The hearing’s tension ratcheted up further as senators from both parties pressed Kennedy on the administration’s recent changes to COVID-19 vaccine access. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) narrowed vaccine approvals, making them largely available only to older, higher-risk Americans. This move has led to widespread confusion, as rules now vary between states and even among pharmacies. Kennedy maintained, “everybody can get access” to the shots, but under questioning from Warren, he acknowledged that access now depends on state policies and individual pharmacies. “Most Americans” would be able to get the shot, Kennedy said, but “it depends on the state.”
The reality, as reported by ABC News, is more complicated. CVS, the country’s largest pharmacy chain, will continue to offer COVID vaccines in 34 states under the new FDA authorizations. However, in 13 states, a prescription is now required, and in three others—New Mexico, Nevada, and Massachusetts—CVS has paused COVID shots entirely due to the “current regulatory environment.” Walgreens has said it will provide shots where legally permitted but has not specified which states are affected. Insurance coverage for the new vaccines remains unclear, and for the next several weeks, access may be disrupted even for those in high-risk groups.
Republican senators, who had previously supported Kennedy’s confirmation, joined Democrats in expressing alarm over the direction of vaccine policy. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician and chair of the Senate HELP Committee, questioned Kennedy’s support for Operation Warp Speed—the Trump-era push that accelerated mRNA vaccine development—while highlighting Kennedy’s subsequent moves to cut $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccines and restrict their use. Cassidy warned, “I would say, effectively, we’re denying people vaccines.”
Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and Thom Tillis of North Carolina echoed these concerns. Barrasso, also a physician, stated, “Over the last 50 years, vaccines are estimated to have saved 154 million lives worldwide. I support vaccines. I’m a doctor. Vaccines work.” Tillis, referencing Kennedy’s earlier praise of Monarez, questioned how she could be fired after just four weeks. “I don’t see how you go over four weeks from, ‘public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials…’ and four weeks later, fire her,” he said, quoting Kennedy’s own words.
Top Republicans outside the committee also weighed in. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Kennedy had to “take responsibility” for Monarez’s firing, while Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she saw no “justification” for the termination. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana called the CDC a “multiple vehicle pileup.”
Democratic senators did not hold back either. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington dubbed Kennedy a “charlatan,” and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia described his approach as a “giant step backward.” Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado confronted Kennedy about his dismissal of the CDC’s independent vaccine advisory panel. Kennedy insisted he was not appointing “anti-vaxxers” but said the previous panel had failed to meet his standards for transparency and scientific rigor.
The hearing also touched on Kennedy’s controversial comments linking antidepressants to school shootings—a claim he denied making, despite having told Fox News that federal health officials are launching studies into whether some psychiatric drugs might contribute to violence. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota criticized Kennedy for “blaming school shootings on antidepressants,” a connection that experts say is unsupported by scientific evidence.
Throughout, Kennedy’s combative posture was on full display. He accused Senator Maggie Hassan of “making stuff up to scare people” and told Senator Ben Ray Lujan he was “speaking gibberish.” At one point, Kennedy refused to confirm that over one million Americans have died from COVID-19 or that vaccines have saved millions of lives, as documented by CDC data and independent analyses.
Despite the bipartisan criticism, the White House stood by Kennedy. Spokesperson Kush Desai praised his testimony, saying, “Today’s hearing showed exactly why President Trump put Secretary Kennedy in charge of HHS: to fix this broken system that has overseen America’s unprecedented chronic disease crisis.” The administration, Desai said, is committed to “evidence-based Gold Standard Science to truly Make America Healthy Again.”
As the dust settles from this contentious hearing, questions about the future of U.S. public health policy, vaccine access, and CDC leadership remain unresolved. With both parties demanding answers and oversight, the coming weeks promise further scrutiny—and perhaps more fireworks—on Capitol Hill.
