Senator Bill Cassidy has buyer’s remorse: he realizes that Robert Kennedy, Jr. is the modern incarnation of Pinocchio. Promises RFK, Jr. steadfastly made to the now-outgoing Senator were broken.
Sen. Bill Cassidy strongly criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his vaccine skepticism and handling of the nation’s public health, despite having delivered the key vote to advance Kennedy’s nomination last year.
Cassidy, a medical doctor who chairs the Senate health committee, said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that it’s “easy to surmise” that Kennedy made promises to him to win his vote, and since then, the commitments that the HHS secretary made to him and the country “have been violated.”
I.e.: Kennedy lied. And Cassidy now uses the word:
“If you build public health upon a foundation of lies, then you’re going to have the absence of adequate public health,” he said. Brennan’s interview with Cassidy was conducted on June 25.
Cassidy explained that he cast the vote to help confirm Kennedy because the alternate scenario was having him installed in a czar-type role without any congressional oversight.
“Bobby Kennedy was going to have the ear of the President. The President seems to be fascinated with the Kennedys,” Cassidy remarked.
“Either he was going to be in a position where there were guardrails, and I did have commitments made as to kind of guardrails. Or he was going to be appointed White House health czar, in which case he would have the president’s ear without the guardrails,” Cassidy said. “You can criticize it, but I chose to have the one with the guardrails.”
Asked whether Kennedy has restored trust in public health, as Cassidy thought he might do, the senator declared, “He has not restored trust in public health” and pointed to reports of the Trump administration trying to rein in Kennedy.
“Polling shows that the American people understand that vaccines are important, and for someone to be out there saying that they’re not goes against their experience,” he said.
Asked if the president is aware of the public perception around some of Kennedy’s agenda, Cassidy said, “The administration clearly has gotten off the anti-vaccine message into something more positive.”
In a speech on the Senate floor on Feb. 4, 2025, Cassidy said that Kennedy had made a number of promises to him including a pledge that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would keep statements on its website noting there is no established link between vaccines and autism.
The current CDC web page has a heading stating “Vaccines do not cause Autism,” but it appears with an asterisk and says at the bottom of the page that the phrase remains on the site due to an agreement with Cassidy.
Immediately below the heading, the page reads, “this webpage has been updated because the statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.” The page goes on to raise questions about the statement, arguing that “there are still no studies that support the specific claim that infant vaccines DTaP, HepB, Hib, IPV, and PCV, do not cause autism.”
Research has found no evidence of increased rates of autism among those who are vaccinated compared to those who are not.
More information on Kennedy’s broken promises can be found HERE and HERE and HERE. In fact, there are many pages documenting how he has been….at variance with the truth.
Google’s Gemini gives this summary:
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has faced mounting criticism for failing to keep key guarantees he made to the U.S. Senate to secure his confirmation. Lawmakers like Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and advocacy groups point to his decisions to alter national vaccine recommendations, cancel major vaccine research funding, and alter language on CDC websites regarding the link between vaccines and autism.
Broken Promises on Vaccines and Research
To secure the votes needed to lead HHS, Kennedy made specific commitments to senators about preserving America’s public health infrastructure. However, medical and public policy groups have tracked a series of broken pledges,
Canceling Vaccine Research: He canceled over a half-billion dollars in mRNA vaccine research.
Disbanding Expert Panels: He fired members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Altering CDC Website Guidelines: Statements were added to the CDC website that cast doubt on whether infant vaccines cause autism, directly contradicting promises not to remove or alter established findings.
Defunding Vaccine Programs: The CDC pulled back billions in Covid-era grants that local health departments used for vaccination programs, after he initially promised not to restrict Congressionally-appropriated vaccine funds.
Fallout and Criticisms
Leading lawmakers have publicly accused Kennedy of breaking his oath to Congress. Health organizations have even pursued legal action, citing that his changes have dangerously undermined the national immunization schedule. A recent editorial from The Lancet and reviews by policy groups like Families USA and the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) have condemned his first year as secretary for drastically reducing public trust in federal health institutions.
Caricature: DonkeyHotey/Flickr
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.