Watch ‘Fire RFK Jr.’ Event Recording Here
Washington D.C. – As Trump health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. begins a gauntlet of seven Congressional appearances after dodging all committees for seven months, today Democratic Congressional Doctors Caucus members Ami Bera, M.D. (CA-06) and Kelly Morrison, M.D. (MN-03) joined 314 Action, Protect Our Care, and autism advocates to demand real Congressional accountability — not excuses — for Kennedy’s dangerous actions that have left Americans sicker as health care costs skyrocket. Ahead of the event, 314 Action released a new poll finding RFK Jr. is a political liability for the GOP, and Protect Our Care released a report on Kennedy’s most harmful actions to date, ‘RFK Jr. vs. Public Health’.
With health care affordability as Americans’ #1 economic worry, Donald Trump and RFK Jr. have turned their back on our nation’s health to pay for an unconstitutional war and tax breaks for billionaires. On behalf of the administration, RFK Jr. must finally answer for overseeing $1 trillion in cuts from Medicaid and Medicare, ripping health care coverage from millions; halting medical research and clinical trials into diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s by gutting NIH grant funding; overseeing the worst measles outbreak in 25 years; undermining confidence in childhood vaccines; and giving immunity for companies producing harmful weedkiller linked to cancer.
EXCERPTS FROM TODAY’S ‘FIRE RFK JR.’ EVENT:
U.S. Rep. Ami Bera, M.D. (CA-06): “Before I get started: President Trump, I did go to medical school. I did a residency. This is what a doctor looks like. Don’t try to fake it. We’ve got to stop politicizing science. This is about the facts. We’ve got to start funding science, funding the NIH doing what we’ve done throughout our history as the United States. This was never a partisan issue, but RFK Jr is muddying the waters. He is making parents confused and unsure about vaccinating their children, and he has blood on his hands. We’ve got the worst measles outbreak that we have had in a long time. But we’re going to see more. We’re starting to see polio and other diseases that really did not exist for a long time that we were starting to eliminate. We are going backwards because of RFK Jr.’s unscientific, uninformed, conspiracy theories. We’ve got to stop it right now. We’ve got to put the scientists out front. We’ve got to do what we’ve always done, and we’ve got to reinvest in our health. If Donald Trump’s asking us for a billion dollars or more a day to fight a war that nobody wants, let’s give a billion dollars a day to give people health care, to promote science, to invest in research.”
U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison, M.D. (MN-03): “Over the past year, RFK Jr. has failed on every front, in every sense. Our country is sicker, less safe and worse off. He has led the single largest attack on public health in American history. He is part of the Trump administration making the single largest cut to healthcare in our nation’s history. He told Americans he would stand up to big pharma, to big polluters, to big oil, but he’s done nothing to hold them accountable. Health care costs are rising. Millions of Americans are losing their insurance. One in three Americans are having to skip meals, cut back on utilities, drive less or put out things like buying homes or having children just to be able to afford health care hospitals people depend on for care and employment are closing. Deadly, preventable diseases we had previously eliminated are surging back to record highs. Cancer rates among our young people are increasing, and the Trump administration is gutting clean air and clean water protections. If RFK Jr was truly going to make Americans healthier, he wouldn’t be slashing funding for health care, gutting life saving medical research and promoting dangerous vaccine skepticism.”
Brad Woodhouse, President, Protect Our Care: “Ever since Donald Trump even thought about nominating RFK Jr., we have raised the alarm about him, about what he would do. We told Bill Cassidy what he would do. We told Republican Senators that he’d roll back public health, roll back health care, harm people, increase measles, and he’s done it all. He’s the secretary of unhealth and unhuman services, not the Secretary of Health and Human Services. A show of hands for everyone here: who here has snorted cocaine off a toilet seat? No one. How many of you cut the penis off of a dead raccoon? No one. That’s the joke here, right? This is the guy that’s going to present a budget and an appropriations plan for how he’s going to protect public health? RFK Jr is a grifter. He’s a conspiracy theorist. We’re probably going to lose measles elimination status this year. Every time he projects vaccine skepticism, guess what? Fewer people get vaccinated. Just look at what they’ve done to health care. Public health, the child vaccine schedule, CDC, NIH, investments in cures – all devastated. Then they just said, the billionaires, they ain’t doing that well. They just slash Medicaid, slash the Affordable Care Act. Now they want to cut more health care for more wars, more ICE, more tax breaks for billionaires.The White House is seeing the polls. They’re concerned about the vaccine skepticism and how it might hurt them, so they’ve told RFK Jr to keep it quiet. I’ve got a good way for Donald Trump to keep RFK Jr. quiet on vaccines. Fire him.”
Cameron Lynch, Policy Analyst, Autistic Self Advocacy Network: “For the last year, Secretary Kennedy has spent his time saying lies about autism, just like he has for decades. There have always been autistic people, and autistic people are part of every community. If RFK Jr. cared about autistic people, he wouldn’t be overseeing the nearly $1 trillion cuts to Medicaid, decreasing access to support that so many autistic people use and wasting government resources to suggest autism is caused by vaccines or any other medicine. The broad range of home and community-based services provided through Medicaid, such as personal care, attendant services, supported employment and housing transitions are a matter of life, death and dignity for millions of people with disabilities. These services and supports are what allow people with disabilities to not only live in the community but thrive. HHS Secretary Kennedy is responsible for shrinking access to home and community-based services, allowing people to lose support systems under his watch. RFK Jr. staffed HHS with anti-vaccine advocates and peddlers of dangerous autism treatments. The administration will have you believe that they’ve put an end to its controversial vaccine policies, but that’s untrue. They’re just doing it quietly. They are moving to change who can be appointed to key committees and what that committee is supporting. Anti-vaccine advocates are still listed as employees in the Office of the Secretary or at CDC, working behind the scenes to push conspiracy theories about the Autistic community. The Interagency Autism Coordinating committee’s public membership is chock full of skeptics and even practitioners of quack autism therapies that have harmed autistic people. Secretary Kennedy has failed autistic people by pushing narratives that villainize autistic people. He pursues his pet interest instead of meeting community need. He is currently overseeing the largest cut to public health services ever. RFK is unfit for the role of Secretary. He is a danger to public health of this country and the well-being of disabled people.”
Erik Poylak, Executive Director, 314 Action: “RFK Jr will sit in front of Congress and defend cutting $15 billion from agencies that keep Americans safe: the CDC, the NIH, mental health programs and disease prevention. He’s proposing to shrink HHS by 12 and a half percent to help pay for Donald Trump’s illegal war and tax break for billionaires. That’s a tradeoff no American wants to make. And let’s be clear about the downstream impact. These cuts come on top of over a trillion dollars being ripped off from Medicaid and Medicare. That means millions of Americans losing coverage while the cost of getting sick keeps going up. This isn’t hypothetical. We’re already living with the consequences of RFK Jr’s leadership. On his watch, we’ve seen the worst measles outbreak in 25 years. Children are getting sick from diseases we’ve effectively eliminated because he spent years undermining confidence in childhood vaccines and now leads HHS medical research has stalled. Clinical trials into cancer and Alzheimer’s have been halted. Life Saving work has stopped, and when he gets in front of Congress today, he’s going to lie about all of it, just like he has every time he’s testified under oath. He lied about vaccines, he lied about his involvement in the Samoa measles outbreak, and he lied about his financial ties to vaccines lawsuits. This will be no different, and here’s what makes this indefensible. This week, we released new polling with data for progress that found RFK Jr has publicly opposed the two most popular public health policies in America, funding research for cures. 88% of Americans support it and requiring childhood vaccines. 79% support it. Nine in 10 Americans want this research funded, and RFK Jr is asking Congress to defund it. That’s not a policy disagreement. That’s political malpractice, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican, Democrat or Independent. Cancer doesn’t check your voter registration. Every member of Congress sitting from RFK, constituents who depend on NIH funded research, on Medicaid, on the CDC, their job is to hold him accountable for what he’s done and what he’s proposing to do next.”
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