WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming will not join a leading Democrat’s call to oust the country’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a spokeswoman for the Senate’s second-ranking Republican said Friday.
At a hearing Thursday, Barrasso, a medical doctor and vaccine advocate, pointedly questioned the Health and Human Services secretary on vaccines and the recent shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an HHS agency.
Cowboy State Daily asked Barrasso’s office Friday whether he regretted his vote to confirm RFK Jr. in February and whether he now believes the secretary should be fired.
Laura Mengelkamp, a Barrasso spokeswoman, replied that the senator trusts President Donald Trump’s judgment in picking his cabinet.
Barrasso “has full confidence in what President Trump is doing and will not second-guess the president,” Mengelkamp said.
Barrasso did not express full confidence Thursday in RFK Jr., who in June replaced all 17 members of a vaccine advisory panel and last week shook up the top CDC staff.
“In your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Barrasso said at the Finance Committee hearing. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”
Colbert Calls It Out
The clash between the Wyoming Republican and the secretary didn’t fly under the radar, including with late-night pundits.
“The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert took shots at Barrasso.
“It wasn’t just Democrats going after Bobby today, this is Wyoming Republican Senator — and physician — John Barrasso, who this year voted to confirm Kennedy,” Colbert said.
He then played a clip of Barrasso saying in the hearing: “I support vaccines. I’m a doctor. Vaccines work.”
“Then why’d you vote for the anti-vax guy?” Colbert rhetorically asked.
He then made another joke at the senator’s expense.
“I’m no doctor, but your results are in,” Colbert said. “And you just tested positive for bulls***."
Staff And Advisory Panel
All Senate Democrats voted against RFK Jr.’s nomination in February, and the lone Republican to join them was U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
The Senate Finance Committee’s top Democrat, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, said at Thursday’s hearing that RFK Jr. should step down or be fired.
Last week, Kennedy fired CDC Director Susan Monarez less than a month after the Senate confirmed her for the job. Kennedy and Monarez have offered conflicting versions of the circumstances.
Monarez wrote her side of the story in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday, which Wyden quoted at the hearing.
She wrote that Kennedy had asked her to “pre-approve” vaccine recommendations made by the advisory panel that Kennedy handpicked after firing the whole prior slate in June.
Monarez wrote that the new members have “publicly expressed anti-vaccine rhetoric.” She wrote she was fired for not going along with Kennedy on the panel’s recommendations.
At the hearing, though, Kennedy denied asking Monarez to “pre-approve” the recommendations.
“I did not say that to her,” Kennedy said under questioning from Wyden. “And I never had a private meeting with her. There are witnesses to every meeting that we have, and all of those witnesses will say I never said that.”
Many other top CDC members either quit or were fired at roughly the same time as Monarez’s exit.
Barrasso Worries Trust ‘Undermined’
At the hearing, Barrasso expressed some disappointment over the direction of public health policy under RFK Jr.
“The public has seen measles outbreaks; leadership at the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines; the recently confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired,” Barrasso said.
“In a recent poll, 89% of voters — 81% of Trump voters — agree vaccine recommendations should come from trained physicians, scientists, public health experts,” Barrasso said.
Wyden called the new members of the advisory panel “conspiracy theorists, crackpots and grifters.”
Barrasso referenced the Make America Healthy Again movement, or MAHA, led by Kennedy.
“If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined,” Barrasso said.
Kennedy: No Propaganda
Barrasso asked Kennedy to explain “what steps you’re going to be taking to ensure vaccine guidance is clear, evidence-based and trustworthy.”
Kennedy replied: “We’re going to make it clear, evidence-based, and trustworthy for the first time in history.
“Right now, there’s only 10% of children complying with the CDC’s recommendation on COVID boosters, and only 15 percent of health care workers,” he added. “So, Americans have lost faith in CDC, and we need to restore that faith, and we’re going to do that by telling the truth, and not through propaganda.”
Tackling Root Causes
Kennedy promised more rigorous vetting of proposed vaccines and a hard look at the existing ones to see if they are tied to diseases.
The MAHA edict is to tackle the root causes of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and cancer through healthy lifestyle choices — such as a good diet and exercise — as well as preventative exams.
“We’re going to go back and do observational studies on the existing vaccines to see if they’re linked to any of these chronic disease epidemics, so people can understand the risk profile of those products and make good assessments for their own health,” Kennedy told the panel in response to Barrasso’s questioning.
‘Public Trust Can Be Lost’
Barrasso, who maintained an orthopedics practice in Casper for 24 years, said he has been hearing concerns from many in the medical community as the CDC plans to formalize new vaccine recommendations soon.
“There are real concerns that safe, proven vaccines like measles, like hepatitis B and others could be in jeopardy. And that would put Americans at risk and reverse decades of progress,” Barrasso said.
“As we’ve seen over the past four years, the previous administration … when recommendations became politicized or swayed by bias … the public trust can be lost,” he added.
Later in the hearing, after the five-minute exchange with Barrasso, Kennedy listed what he called a series of lies the CDC told about the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.
Kennedy has previously argued — and continued to some extent Thursday — that the health care sector is built mostly around making money from sickness rather than preventing it, and he said the cost to taxpayers as a result is astronomical.
Kennedy added Thursday that the country has a “sick care system” that he is changing to a “true health care system.”
Lummis An RFK Jr. Ally
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, does not serve on the Senate Finance panel but weighed in when asked for comment by Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
“President Trump nominated RFK Jr., and the Senate confirmed him to make America healthy again, something the previous administration completely failed to do,” said Lummis, a member of the informal Senate MAHA Caucus.
“While I support vaccines, I'm sick of the media and establishment shutting down any legitimate debate,” she said. “The arrogant, ‘We've always done it this way’ attitude from health bureaucrats who supported harmful COVID policies isn’t the advice I’m willing to blindly follow without question.”
Added Lummis: “The Democrats on yesterday's panel behaved in an embarrassing manner, turning what should have been serious policy discussions into political theater.
"I welcome Wyoming parents to be involved in this discussion by asking their own doctors informed questions and making the best decisions to protect their children.”
Sean Barry can be reached at sean@cowboystatedaily.com.
