Episode 4229: The Hearing Of RFK Jr.
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 14 minutes
Words per Minute
163.62242
Summary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrives on Capitol Hill for his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Democratic Sen. Rand Paul and Republican Sen. Cory Booker join him on the Senate floor to give their perspective on the hearing. The hearing is expected to last a few hours.
Transcript
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of New Jersey. Tell us who you're with. I'm with New Jersey Public Health Innovation
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Political Action Committee in New Jersey. And why are you here? I'm here to support Bobby
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because he supported New Jersey for almost a decade and I wouldn't be any other place because
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he's always come to New Jersey when we've called him. And as everyone knows in 2019, 2020, we
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preserve the religious exemption and we're forever indebted to him as well as all the
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advocates have shown up. Thank you so much, Melanie. So I'm here with Jill Perez and Amy
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Lozeski, also from New Jersey. So why are you here today? Support Bobby. He was very supportive
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of us in Trenton in 2019. I feel like he's done so much good for the environment and I just
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think he will hopefully make some major changes in a very good direction. Well, tell us a little
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bit about the Battle of Trenton. What was that about? So the Battle of Trenton, December
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2019. Many of us remember it so well. We were there every Monday and Thursday as the legislators
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met. We were there in January. We really were quite frightened we would lose our religious
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exemption. I sat in the assembly as I watched us lose in the assembly and then we just continued
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to show up and pray and know that we weren't going away and that we have this right and it
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should never be taken away. And why is the religious exemption, why was that important to you?
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Well, we've had it. So why should it be taken away? The timing was also quite
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suspicious. But, you know, I'm actually an educator and my own children would have been
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threatened with the potential of being kicked out of school, right? So we should always know
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what's going on in our bodies and we should always have that choice. And we have it now.
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Okay. Wednesday, 29 January in the year of our Lord, 2025, you're in the war room.
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Today, ladies and gentlemen, history on Capitol Hill. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the
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slain Bobby Kennedy, the brother of Jack Kennedy, is there for his confirmation hearing. And it's
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going to be a wild one, as we've told you and prepped you. We're going to need people at
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the ramparts today. 202-224-3121 is the Senate main switchboard. Also, Grace Chung, the queen
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of the trolls, is going to be putting out Bill Blaster. We want to get to those local
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offices. Also, you're going to have to stiffen some spines here. There's no doubt about that.
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And today, so for the next, I don't know, 48, 72 hours, we're going to have Bobby Kennedy
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today. And then tomorrow, doubleheader, Tulsi Gabbard, Cash Patel. So it's manned the ramparts.
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And all three of these, Cash probably being the safest, but we can't take anything for granted.
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Pam Bondi just came at a committee, voted at a committee 12 to 10 at a judiciary. They're
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trying to expedite this. Thune and Senator Thune, we got to get on this. So folks, you
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might want to call John Thune to start off with. There's a backlog because Democrats are
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playing games. And quite frankly, we're not forcing the issue. We need to get these people
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up, up, up to the floor, through committee, up to the floor. We need our team. Russ, vote
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OMB. You see this situation yesterday with the funding. Federal judge stepped in right
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now. And we're going to cut live, obviously, to the Senate hearing when Robert F. Kennedy
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begins his opening statement. The rest of it would kind of be, maybe I'll tell you when
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the minority, if I ask my crack production team here, when we look at the Democrat, when
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they start reading, they're going to start reading Bobby Kennedy, the riot act. So the co-head,
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the ranking member on the Democratic side, let me go, and we'll cut right to that. Not
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the Republican. So today's a work day. Natalie Winters is at the White House. We're going to
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get her this afternoon when we have more to report on how the White House is driving the
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Kennedy nomination. Senator Rand Paul is scheduled to join us here momentarily. We wanted him.
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We thought he was the perfect pick to talk about this. We also, Senator Tommy Teverville will
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be in the 11 o'clock hour, even maybe if we can get time. Senator Rand Paul joins us right
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now. Senator Rand Paul, thank you for coming to the war room today of all days. First off,
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sir, could you give him perspective, since you're a doctor, walk through Bobby Kennedy's
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credentials? I mean, he's getting lit up overnight. These Democrats are coming in from every different
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direction. I think people look to you on the Republican side as a safe pair of hands of what's
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right. You're the guy that led the fight against Fauci, which we'll get to in a minute.
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Give us your perspective, sir, of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of HHS.
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You know, I think he's a disruptor, but I think it's necessary to disrupt things.
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We've got it wrong in public health for so long. I mean, we've actually recommended the wrong kind
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of food to eat. The pyramid's been upside down, the food pyramid. So much about public health has
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been wrong, and I think we need somebody new to come in. I think when people meet Bobby Kennedy and
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have a conversation with him, and I've heard this from other senators, they're impressed with his
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breadth of knowledge, his ability to discuss the specifics. But ultimately, the things he's for are
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really not, shouldn't be that controversial. Transparency, open discussion of risks and
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benefits. Look, everything has risks and benefits, and some of it depends on your age, some of it depends
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on your weight, some of it depends on your lifestyle. There are all kinds of things that go into deciding
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whether to take a medication, to take a vaccine, to take chemotherapy. I mean, there are all kinds of
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questions that should be answered. This is what you want from your doctor and from your government
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is objectivity. And I think what's happened over the last few years is that the government has been
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dishonest with us, and it has led to a great deal of distrust of government. The only way they get back
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is to have a truth teller who believes in transparency. I think Bobby Kennedy is that.
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I think people are pretty shocked when someone like you says the government's been dishonest.
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So let's leave Fauci aside. Where have you seen and experienced actually the health apparatus,
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the big pharma health industrial complex in sworn testimony or in things where they in the government
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where they should be, they should be honest and straightforward and transparent to the American
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people? Where have you seen them be dishonest in the past? And what should people be looking for?
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Well, particularly with the COVID vaccine, I think that they were dishonest in the sense that there's
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a difference depending on how old you are, whether or not the risks exceed the benefits. So for example,
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if this was March of 2020 and people were dying, a significant amount of people were dying in March of
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2020, my advice would be if you were in the risk category, I'd take your chances with the vaccine.
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I still think that the disease was worse than the vaccine for people probably over 60, over 65,
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particularly if you're overweight. But for people under 40 or under 30 in particular,
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or even under 20 who are thin and healthy, the risks of the vaccine actually exceed the benefits
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of the vaccine. And this is absolutely true. And when the government said that everybody should be
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taking not just one, not just two, but also three COVID vaccines for six month olds, people don't
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believe that. And it's interesting if you look at the statistics, I think people are smarter than
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you give them credit for them. Over age 65 in our country, 97% of people chose to get the vaccine
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in 2020 or 2021 when it came out. If you look at under age 20 today, it's about maybe five or 10%
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are giving their five and 10 year olds this vaccine because people are smart enough to know their kids
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aren't dying from COVID. Their kids aren't going to the hospital. They can't even tell when their kids
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get COVID and the virus is actually much less dangerous now. So it's really not about being
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anti-vaccine or pro-vaccine. It's a nuanced position that I'm pro-freedom. The government
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should give you honest information and then you can decide. If you're a worrywart and you want to
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vaccinate your five-year-old with COVID vaccine, the harm is not real common, but there's about four
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to six chances in 10,000 they could get a significant enough heart inflammation that they would present to
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the emergency room with chest pain and elevated heart enzymes. If you're okay with those risks,
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do it. But that's what happens in a free country. We give you the information. And I think because
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of the dishonesty over the COVID vaccine, because of the mandates, because of this area, because of
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them being wrong on six foot of distance, being wrong on the mask, everything they told us was
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actually incorrect and actually led to more danger for us. I think because of that, people are now
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distrusting virtually anything the government says. And while I think a healthy dose of distrust
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is good, I think we also need transparency to bring back some trust. But Senator, I just want
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to go back to that. Were they wrong or they actually knew and they lied to us? I think it's the latter,
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but I'd like to hear your opinion. I remember you drilling and we covered, remember here at War Room,
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we covered those hearings wall to wall. It turns out, I think they had facts and they thought the
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American people were too stupid. And so they lie, did they lie to us? Did they get it wrong? Or they
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knew what they were doing and they lied to us? What was, well, what did they do? Well, let's take
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masks. If you take masks, for example, we studied masks for probably 20 years preceding this. And we
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knew for the 20 years preceding this, and it was accepted by almost everybody, even in governmental
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pandemic circles, all the people always wringing their hands and wanting to be prepared. They
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acknowledged that masks didn't work. When they came on, initially, the only time Anthony Fauci was
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honest is actually in private. He told his co-workers, you know, they don't work and you don't need to
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wear them. But within a couple of months, he was wearing two and three masks. But where it's a real
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disservice is by telling people that cloth masks work, let's say you're 75 years old and you go into
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your spouse's bedroom and they have COVID and you're going to feed them and you really don't want to get
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COVID from them. Wearing a cloth mask is a disservice to tell you that that's safe. So he actually told
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you things that were unsafe to do and led to unsafe behavior. The same way with six foot of
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distance. You would say, well, I'm at risk. I'm overweight. I have diabetes and my spouse has COVID. I'll
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just stay six feet away from him. No, if you sit in the same room with them and it's a small room for 30
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minutes, it travels across the entire room and throughout the house. So if you really were at risk, he gave you
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bad advice there too. But did they know the truth? I think for the most part, they did know
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the truth. In fact, some people point to this as sort of a platonic lie or a noble lie in the sense
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that Anthony Fauci felt that the hoi polloi, that people are too stupid to make decisions for
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themselves. So he would make the decisions even if it weren't true. He thought, well, maybe there might
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be some net benefit for society, even though what I'm telling them isn't true. And I think that's a
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terrible approach to take and why he should be harshly judged. And I think will be by history.
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As a Roman Catholic, he's got a little bit too much Jesuit training. Senator Paul,
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Bobby Kennedy is a disruptor. You're the strongest voice, the strongest pro-freedom kind of libertarian
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voice in the United States Senate. Together, what can you two do together? What would be your
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recommendation to him to do one or two big things against the pharma medical industrial complex?
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Because quite frankly, let's be blunt, it owns this town. MSNBC would be a test pattern if you took
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big pharma's advertising off there every night. The big pharma and big medical own this town. They
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own the lobbyists. They own big law firms. They've got the media on their side. They particularly got the
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left media. That's been a flip. The left media, MSNBC is cheering this on, cheered it on during a
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pandemic. And you see, you know, 80% of their ads in prime time are related to big pharma. So what can
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the disruptor, Bobby Kennedy, and the pro-freedom libertarian, Dr. Rand Paul, do to take on big pharma
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medical industrial complex, sir? I think we need to try to separate pharmacy companies from writing
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their own regulations and funding their own regulations. And that's been a real problem.
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In recent years, it's gotten even worse. So for example, the patent on the mRNA vaccine for COVID
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is shared by Moderna, Pfizer, and the government. Through lawsuits, the government has said, oh, we
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own a portion of this patent. So Moderna gave them $450 million at the behest of the court. And then
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Pfizer, I think, gave them $800 million. And you say, well, that's only fair. The government scientists
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helped develop this. Yes and no. The problem with so much money going directly back to them,
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is do you think that in the future decisions about Pfizer or Moderna drugs will be objective
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or based on the fact that they bring in over a trillion dollars to the FDA and to the NIH? So I
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think what has to happen is that money, if it is appropriate to go to the government or back to the
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government scientists, shouldn't go directly into the NIH's pool of funds. It should go back to the
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treasury and then the people's representatives should decide how to disperse it. But if you give people
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the incentive to gain more money from a certain company by having better behavior, you will get
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that kind of crony behavior, that crony capitalism, which is really what's been going on for decades.
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So I think he will be very good on this. What I'm surprised is, is that there are people on the left
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who are somewhat skeptical of big corporate influence in government like Bernie Sanders.
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I would think he would leap at the chance to support Bobby Kennedy. And we haven't heard that.
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I'm still hopeful that some of these people who have been critics from the left would support Bobby
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Kennedy. If he can get a few Democrats, it'll make his journey to the nomination a lot easier.
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So I know he's talking to Democrats. I'm hoping some of them will come on board. But many of the
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things he says are consistent with that. On food, I think the number one thing we can do with food is
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the government should quit subsidizing bad food. So for example, we have hundreds of millions of
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dollars every year, hundreds of billions of dollars, well, millions, I guess, each year spent on food
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stamps. We shouldn't have full strength Pepsi, Coke. We shouldn't have chips. We shouldn't have
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Twinkies and Ding Dongs. All these bad foods shouldn't be provided by the taxpayer because the
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biggest problem we have among the poor is actually overweight, obesity and diabetes. And we certainly
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shouldn't be subsidizing that. That's something I've talked to all the nominees about, including
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agriculture, because food stamps come out of agriculture. And I'm hoping the Trump administration
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can do something dramatic on what kind of food the government subsidizes.
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Senator Paul, you've been the tip of the spear about Anthony Fauci. We are banned on all platforms,
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not just for the election, our correct call on the election of President Trump won in 2020, but also
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because of us going after Dr. Anthony Fauci. We're banned on every major platform, although we're still
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the second biggest podcast for politics in the country. Fauci, the pardon. Tom Fitton's recommending
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from Judicial Watch is recommending to the president that the Justice Department do not
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effectuate those pardons. What are your thoughts about Fauci? You've been the biggest voice and the
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most reasonable voice, the most knowledgeable voice, let me say, going after Fauci, exposing his lies to
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the public. And quite frankly, you caught him in, I don't know, two or 300 perjury traps during your
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testimony. What is your recommendation about Anthony Fauci? You know, I can say that we're not done
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with him or the investigation. There's something very specific that I'm looking for. Anthony Fauci
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said that his people told him it was not gain-of-function research that happened in Wuhan,
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wasn't dangerous, and didn't need to go to the safety committee. For three, four years, I've been
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asking for the deliberations. I want to see the arguments that happened on why they skipped the safety
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committee. I want to know who was in the meetings, and I want to know if the notes or the meeting was
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approved by Anthony Fauci or Francis Collins. But interestingly, I haven't gotten one piece of paper
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in four years that indicates any of the deliberations that went on on this research,
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which makes me think that there is something there. If Anthony Fauci or Francis Collins is
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connected to this approval process, they ultimately will come back in. Now, whether or not he goes to jail or
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not, I think he's tainted for all time now. I think history is going to judge him harshly.
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And by accepting this open-ended pardon for what have you, we're going to fill in the blank of what
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have you. And filling in the blank is basically he is culpable for, you know, the millions of deaths
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through the pandemic. And he won't escape that in history because he will now have been pardoned
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basically for that. But he's not done in the sense that people who are pardoned also cannot take the
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Fifth Amendment when asked about those particular issues. So we will bring him back in, and I don't
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believe he'll be able to plead the Fifth Amendment to us. So we'll see what happens. But we're moving
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rapidly on this. I issued 14 subpoenas in the last week. We are rapidly going after this information.
00:17:08.760
Are you talking to John Ratcliffe at CIA? You've had two big leaks come out of the CIA, or not even leaks,
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statements. Number one, the lab leak theory, which remember, we shifted to war room pandemic in mid-January
00:17:21.260
of 2020 off of war room impeachment. We were the first ones to break this story. We were the first ones to
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talk about Wuhan because I'd been to Wuhan. Is Ratcliffe saying now the CIA believes it was a lab leak
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theory, and they withheld that information. And now the second shoe to drop, they actually think
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the Chinese Communist Party may have on purposely released the gain of function, the powered up
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virus into the population. Or are you coordinating with him? Are you sitting down with intelligence?
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Are you going to get the intelligence brief to see how deep this goes into the U.S. government and
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the Chinese Communist Party and the PLA? Yes, I've subpoenaed documents from the CIA. We've gotten
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a production in the last couple of days from them. I've talked this over with Ratcliffe in his nomination
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process. The interesting thing is, is we had a whistleblower six months, nine months ago, come to us from the CIA
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and say that the scientists there had met internally and voted that they believed that the source of the
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virus, the source of the pandemic, was the lab. And then they were overruled by superiors. We're still gaining
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information on that debate. But in the process of asking for that information, surprisingly,
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the previous CIA director instituted a reevaluation two months ago. And the conclusions came out
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actually under the Biden administration, but then were released by Ratcliffe. So transparency is what
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we're really looking for. We voted unanimously in both the House and the Senate to declassify all of
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this material. And so I think Ratcliffe is going to help us to put shine light on it. But we now have
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the Department of Energy, FBI, and CIA all saying it came from the lab. So what we need to make sure
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Yep. Senator Paul, we're going to jump to Bobby Kennedy's live testimony. We appreciate it.
00:19:10.800
Where's your social media? Now that Sergio's in the White House and not with you, we've got to make
00:19:15.040
sure that people can track you down and catch you all the time on social media.
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Paul.senate.gov is good. We're on Facebook. We're on X. We're on Instagram.
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We're on wherever people go on the Internet. You can find us.
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Senator Rand Paul, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Appreciate you.
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Let's go live to Bobby Kennedy's confirmation hearing.
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Chairman Grapeau, ranking member Wyden, and members of this distinguished committee.
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I'm humbled to be sitting here today as President Trump's nominee to oversee the U.S. Department
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I want to thank President Trump for entrusting me to deliver on his promise to make America
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I also want to thank Cheryl and Kick and Bobby and all of my other children who are here today
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and all the many members of my large extended family for the love that they have so generously
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Ours has always been a family that has been involved in public service, and I look forward
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My journey into the issue of health began with my career as an environmental attorney,
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working with hunters and fishermen and mothers in a small town in the Hudson Valley and along
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the Hudson River, I learned very early on that human health and environmental injuries are
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The same chemicals that kill fish make people sick also.
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Today, Americans' overall health is in grievous condition.
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Over 70% of adults and a third of children are overweight or obese.
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diabetes is 10 times more prevalent than it was during the 1960s.
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Cancer among young people is rising by 1% or 2% a year.
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Autoimmune diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders, Alzheimer's, asthma, ADHD, depression, addiction,
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and a host of other physical and mental health conditions are all on the rise, some of them
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The United States has worse health than any other developed nation, yet we spend more on
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health care, at least double, and in some cases triple, as other countries.
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Last year, we spent $4.8 trillion, not counting the indirect costs of missed work.
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It's tantamount to a 20% tax on the entire economy.
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No wonder America has trouble competing with countries that pay a third of what we do for
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health and have better outcomes and a healthier workforce.
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But I don't want to make this too much about money.
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President Trump has promised to restore America's global strength and to restore the American dream,
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but he understands we can't be a strong nation when our people are so sick.
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Today, over half of our countrymen and women are chronically ill.
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When I met with President Trump last summer, I discovered that he has more than just concern for this tragic situation, but genuine care.
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President Trump is committed to restoring the American dream, and 77 million Americans delivered a mandate to him to do just that,
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due in part to the embrace and elevation of the Make America Healthy Again movement.
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This movement, led largely by Maha Moms from every state, and you can see many of them behind us today,
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and in the hallways and in the lobbies, is one of the most transcendent and powerful movements I've ever seen.
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I promised President Trump that if confirmed, I will do everything in my power to put the health of Americans back on track.
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And I've been greatly heartened to discover a deep level of care among members of this committee, too, both Democrats and Republicans.
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I came away from our conversations confident that we can put aside our divisions for the sake of a healthier America.
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For a long time, the nation has been locked in a divisive health care debate about who pays.
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Well, when health care costs reach 20%, there are no good options, only bad ones.
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Shifting the burden around between government and corporations and insurers and providers and families
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is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
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Our country will sink beneath a sea of desperation and debt if we don't change the course and ask,
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why are health care costs so high in the first place?
00:24:32.120
The CDC says 90% of health care spending goes toward managing chronic disease,
00:24:41.020
The President's pledge is not to make some Americans happy again, healthy again,
00:24:51.240
There is no single culprit in chronic disease, much as I have criticized certain industries and agencies.
00:24:58.960
President Trump and I understand that most of their scientists and experts genuinely care about American health.
00:25:05.220
Therefore, we will bring together all stakeholders in pursuit of this unifying goal.
00:25:12.960
Before I conclude, I want to make sure the committee is clear about a few things.
00:25:18.000
News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry.
00:25:44.280
I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish,
00:25:52.420
And I believe that vaccines play a critical role in health care.
00:26:05.220
My first book in 2014, the first line of it is,
00:26:17.200
American farms are the bedrock of our culture, of our politics, of our national security.
00:26:23.500
I was a 4-H kid, and I spent my summer working on ranches.
00:26:28.260
I want to work with our farmers and food producers
00:26:32.840
to remove burdensome regulations and unleash American ingenuity.
00:26:38.360
Maha simply cannot succeed without a partnership, a full partnership of American farmers.
00:26:48.140
In my advocacy, I've often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions.
00:26:58.860
We have massive health problems in this country that we must face, honestly.
00:27:03.240
And the first thing I've done every morning for the past 20 years
00:27:08.120
is to get on my knees and pray to God that he would put me in a position
00:27:13.620
to end the chronic disease epidemic and to help America's children.
00:27:26.200
and seek your support and partnership in this endeavor.
00:27:33.520
The members of this committee, to the President,
00:27:36.460
and to all the tens of millions of parents across America,
00:27:40.420
especially the moms who have propelled this issue to center stage.
00:27:48.820
we will make sure our tax dollars support healthy foods.
00:27:52.500
We will scrutinize the chemical additives in our food supply.
00:27:56.580
We will remove financial conflicts of interest from our agencies.
00:28:01.440
We will create an honest, unbiased, gold standard science at HHS,
00:28:07.400
accountable to the President, to Congress, and to the American people.
00:28:15.260
and put the nation back on the road to good health.
00:28:24.780
Now the work can finally start on the big issues facing the country.
00:28:28.620
One of the biggest is the national debt and the deficits that drive it.
00:28:36.220
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00:29:55.380
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00:30:00.140
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In fact, some of the guests I've had on The War Room believe that the government
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If we say the wrong things on social media, donate to the wrong causes,
00:30:28.340
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00:30:32.620
I can't say for sure if this will happen, but it's an interesting and dire warning.
00:30:38.160
Fortunately, Jim Rickards, an American patriot and friend of mine,
00:30:41.140
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00:30:44.880
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00:30:58.260
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Each of us will have five minutes to ask you questions.
00:32:27.280
And then at the conclusion of the hearing, if there are further questions.
00:32:34.560
The Republicans are going to ask him, I don't want to say softballs,
00:32:39.740
It's the Democrats are going to come after him.
00:32:45.300
One of the things we're focused on here is the established order
00:32:50.280
and how the established order runs the deal in the United States.
00:32:54.220
There's not really a difference between Republicans and Democrats.
00:32:57.460
The two sides are the same neoliberal, neocon coin.
00:33:01.820
To wit, the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch.
00:33:07.920
Paul Gijo has a person he hates more than Steve Bannon,
00:33:11.980
The Murdoch apparatus is all in on a takedown of Bobby Kennedy.
00:33:24.700
From the, from the, from the, from the, from, just give me a heads up.
00:33:28.000
We'll go back to Bobby live as soon as he gets asked a cheap shot question.
00:33:35.940
And Scott Besson did what we recommend to everybody.
00:33:38.320
When a guy like Wyden asked a wise guy a question, take a deep breath,
00:33:42.240
Scott adjusted his glasses, very professorial, and that's a tell with him.
00:33:47.180
And then in a very calm manner, he went, he just lit up Wyden about what a moron he was
00:33:56.360
You never saw really a tough question coming from any of the Democrats the rest of the day.
00:34:02.300
Because Scott showed him right there that he knows 10 times more about the topic than they do.
00:34:06.820
And if you want to be made a fool on global television, we're right here to do it.
00:34:30.280
In your testimony today under oath, you denied that you were anti-vaccine.
00:34:34.780
But during a podcast interview in July of 2023, you said, quote,
00:34:42.220
In your testimony today, in order to prove you're not anti-vax, you note that all your
00:34:51.220
But in a podcast in 2020, you said, and I quote, you would do anything, pay anything to go back
00:35:03.360
Mr. Kennedy, all of these things cannot be true.
00:35:08.780
So, so are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine or did you lie
00:35:20.800
Yeah, Senator, as you know, because it's been repeatedly debunked, that statement that I
00:35:27.540
made on the Lex Friedman podcast was a fragment of the statement.
00:35:31.860
He asked me, and anybody who actually goes and looks at that podcast, and we'll see
00:35:39.000
He asked me, are there vaccines that are safe and effective?
00:35:41.840
And I said to him, some of the live virus vaccines are.
00:35:45.920
And I said, there are no vaccines that are safe and effective.
00:35:52.460
Every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines.
00:36:01.020
I've corrected it many times, including on national TV.
00:36:08.920
Let's be clear about what you've actually done then, since you want to deny your statements.
00:36:15.300
For example, you have a history of trying to take vaccines away from people.
00:36:21.560
In May of 2021, you petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to not only block Americans
00:36:28.520
from having access to the COVID vaccine, but to prevent any future access to the life-saving
00:36:39.920
We brought that petition after CDC recommended the COVID vaccine without any scientific basis
00:36:54.200
Most experts agree today, even the people who did it back then, that COVID vaccines are
00:37:01.000
inappropriate for six-year-old children who basically have a zero risk from COVID.
00:37:33.740
Comments from the audience are inappropriate and out of order.
00:37:36.820
And if there are any further disruptions, the committee will recess until the police can
00:37:48.620
I also want to point out that your recitation of what happened in Samoa is absolutely wrong.
00:38:00.660
Right now, we're talking about the petition that you filed to block Americans from having
00:38:06.000
access to the vaccine and to prevent any future access to the vaccine.
00:38:13.080
My third question to you is, you made almost $5 million from book deals, mostly promoting
00:38:21.640
In 2021, in a book called The Measles Book, you wrote that parents had been, quote, misled
00:38:26.880
into believing that measles is a deadly disease and that measles vaccines are necessary, safe,
00:38:33.120
The reality is measles are, in fact, deadly and highly contagious, something that you should
00:38:38.960
have learned after your lives contributed to the deaths of 83 people, most of them children,
00:38:47.400
So my question here is, Mr. Kennedy, is measles deadly, yes or no?
00:38:52.760
Now, the death rate from measles historically in this country in 1963, the year before the
00:39:07.580
In Samoa, in 2017 or 2015, there were two kids who died following the MMR vaccine.
00:39:16.160
And the vaccination rates in Samoa dropped precipitously from about 63% to the mid-30s, so they'd never
00:39:26.660
And in 2018, two more kids died following the MMR vaccine, and the government in Samoa banned
00:39:34.460
I arrived a year later when vaccination rates were already below any previous level.
00:39:45.800
I went there to introduce a medical informatics system with digitalized records in Samoa and
00:39:55.080
I never gave any public statement about vaccines.
00:39:58.580
You cannot find a single Samoan who will say, I didn't get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy.
00:40:11.380
Oh, clearly, I had nothing to do with the measles.
00:40:13.580
Not only that, Senator, not only that, if you let me finish, Senator.
00:40:17.580
You have had some time, and I'm going to respond.
00:40:25.820
When the tissue samples were sent to New Zealand, most of those people did not have measles.
00:40:33.760
The same outbreak occurred in Tonga and Fiji, and no extra people died.
00:40:39.380
There were seven measles outbreaks in the 13 years prior to my arrival.
00:40:45.760
The nominee wrote a book saying that people had been misled into believing that measles is a deadly disease.
00:40:53.320
He's trying now to play down his role in Samoa.
00:40:59.300
It's time to make sure that we blow the whistle on actually what your views are.
00:41:13.620
That makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.
00:41:17.340
Anybody who believes that ought to look at the measles book you wrote saying parents have been misled into believing that measles is a deadly disease.
00:41:41.040
Wyden is providing air cover right now for big pharma.
00:41:45.140
This is why I think in this town, as I say, Republicans and Democrats, the labels mean nothing.
00:41:51.820
You're either a populist nationalist or you're a globalist elite.
00:41:55.900
You either believe in America first, American citizens first, or you're a neoliberal neocon.
00:42:03.960
Who's coming after Bobby Kennedy today in defending big pharma is the Murdoch enterprise, particularly the Wall Street Journal.
00:42:12.660
And Paul Jujo and these guys are off the chain and coming after Bobby Kennedy.
00:42:18.580
Now, you just see right there, Wyden was softballing his kind of opening.
00:42:23.700
Still on social media, he's getting lit up as a defender of, and this is a Democrat.
00:42:28.460
He's getting lit up as a defender of big pharma.
00:42:31.600
And Bobby Kennedy, and this is one of the things we want to make sure that everybody understands.
00:42:38.520
Because these hearings provide two things if you want to do a blocking.
00:42:49.420
And because of your efforts, that's not going to happen.
00:42:53.760
Or you can get them off the one or two things, this is what we asked Rand Paul, the one or two big things that you want to accomplish.
00:43:07.380
Remember the day that Matt Gaetz went to Capitol Hill with J.D. Vance and they walked around and met certain senators.
00:43:14.320
And then, later in the day, it was leaked that Matt Gaetz had to promise, what, not to go after MSNBC, not to go after Fauci, not to go after the people who came up with the president.
00:43:26.700
Now, I didn't believe it, but you could see what's already happening.
00:43:31.080
If they can't defeat a Trump nominee, they want to box it in.
00:43:37.160
The force Bobby Kennedy to say, I support the polio vaccine.
00:43:41.440
I'm not making, I'm not impining whether that's right or wrong or not.
00:43:45.120
I'm telling you the kind of statics and dynamics of how these things work.
00:43:49.800
They actually believe, ladies and gentlemen, that they can defeat Bobby Kennedy.
00:43:54.520
There was a time they thought some Democrats might vote for him, but I think right now they think the momentum has shifted back.
00:44:00.640
They think it's shifted back to actually this thing could be a coin flip.
00:44:06.840
And so this is all about performance of Bobby Kennedy today and going through this.
00:44:13.560
Of course, a lot of the war, some of the war room posse is already in the room.
00:44:20.220
And Clara Dooley, the great filmmaker, was out there doing interviews.
00:44:26.980
Mary Holland, who's the president, they were out doing interviews of people in the crowd, in the line.
00:44:32.240
But you can tell there's some non-supporters also in there.
00:44:36.560
I think some people maybe even a little, even farther and more of a disruptor than Kennedy.
00:44:45.800
Like I said, we will go back to all the Democrat questions because that's where the meat and the sustenance is going to be.
00:44:50.660
Just to put it in perspective, we might try to get Senator Tuberville in here momentarily.
00:44:57.340
Don't know if we're going to be able to pull that off in our particular where the hearing is going.
00:45:00.100
Kerry Lake, I think we're going to bump her this afternoon.
00:45:02.660
We're going to go to the White House live for Natalie.
00:45:06.820
Overnight, so two memos came out yesterday in the deconstruction of the administrative state.
00:45:13.760
Number one was this, hey, we're stopping all funds flow until we get a handle around it.
00:45:18.100
I believe this came because if you saw the executive orders or executive actions President Trump's taken the last 48, 72 hours about USAID, about WHO, things that are very high in the war room posse's agenda, right, of shutting down and making sure are gone.
00:45:40.120
There would be reports afterwards of things like EPA and the Green New Deal.
00:45:45.440
And we showed you that headline from the Financial Times last week to talk about $300 billion.
00:45:50.140
Remember that, quote-unquote, carved back by President Trump or impounded.
00:45:56.040
Write that one down because that's going to be a major issue.
00:45:59.340
This is where Congress has authorized it, right, appropriated it.
00:46:05.540
They've appropriated money, but the theory of the case is that's the ceiling, not the floor.
00:46:11.380
That's the ceiling and not even a hard target that you can – the president by executive action can carve back on that.
00:46:18.860
I think that that might actually go to the Supreme Court if the opposition can find – can get standing.
00:46:25.020
So what happens over the last 72 hours is two things.
00:46:27.460
Number one, they put out basically an OMB directive to say full stop, no transfers, no grants, and essentially how everything in the government is essentially financed except stuff that's direct.
00:46:44.140
I believe this exercise was to show where the money's going but also with the feedback you saw last night, particularly on MSNBC.
00:46:51.300
They go through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of programs, and people start asking the question, we fund all this?
00:46:58.800
Because remember, to deconstruct the administrative state and particularly to cut spending, which does – has to do with OMB, you're going to have a fight, and you're going to have to have an unpleasant conversation.
00:47:09.260
You're not going to – this discretionary spending and even the Medicaid spending hasn't gotten where it's gotten without both parties being cool with it.
00:47:20.300
This is the controlled opposition of the Republican Party.
00:47:23.740
So this will – part of it was, I think, to expose that.
00:47:27.240
A federal judge, an Obama appointee, one of the most radical judges in the D.C. circuit, and you know how bad they are given J6.
00:47:36.080
She's put a temporary restraining or a stay on this until Monday when both sides are going to get in there and argue it.
00:47:42.880
Although, I think she even said, hey, I've got to see some specific damages from potential plaintiffs to see if this is just not government action.
00:47:53.220
Now, the case that other people are making is saying, hey, Johnson, this is all in the CR that you just kicked the can down the road.
00:48:06.620
You're telling it doesn't know where the money's going.
00:48:11.920
This also gets back to this theory of the unified executive.
00:48:19.880
He's also, wait for it, the chief magistrate and the chief law enforcement officer.
00:48:24.680
So you'll give me a heads up when Bobby's back with a Democrat.
00:48:28.240
So the question with Trump is, hey, I see where that – yes, I see where the appropriations bill is.
00:48:38.420
It doesn't mean that we're not going to think through how we cut this from the executive branch point of view.
00:48:45.220
That's why – and remember, please, this is why Russ' vote is so important.
00:49:01.880
Allow his staff to know that it's quite important that we expedite – we expedite the hearings and the votes at a committee.
00:49:17.380
We don't want to wait for Cash Patel or Tulsi Gabbard, particularly Bobby Kennedy.
00:49:22.160
But it's only a handful of people have been – only a handful of people have been approved.
00:49:32.260
Make sure you call Thune and be polite but firm.
00:49:38.440
I don't know why they're knocking off over there.
00:49:40.520
I don't know why they're not working all weekends.
00:49:42.940
You know, this was committed to the president where you get these – and, you know, Trump right now is all gas, no brake.
00:50:00.220
There's – like I said, there's a dozen major things every day.
00:50:04.440
You don't want the enemy – the people, the mainstream media cannot get a grip on this.
00:50:09.300
I said yesterday, a half a dozen to ten things every day, they get a blip in – they get a blip on the Associated Press.
00:50:17.900
But nobody even does any in-depth research because it's just too much.
00:50:23.880
The – of course, the other thing big, they – besides the 17 inspector generals and the 160 detailees getting sent home, all types of structural things.
00:50:36.480
Then last night, another bomb, and I believe this is coming from the – so one was OMB, right, working with Stephen Miller.
00:50:44.280
And what I will do, Bobby's still filibustering.
00:50:47.220
We haven't gotten to the – we haven't gotten to a Democrat.
00:50:49.620
I'd love – Bobby's going to filibuster the hell out of this thing, right?
00:50:59.340
Cornyn's going to have a big issue in this reelect.
00:51:01.340
The grassroots down there, they got Cornyn target.
00:51:14.760
I think the president's shocked about every program, every funding, all the NGOs.
00:51:25.220
There's an amazing, like, infographic of the thousands and thousands of NGOs that are all supported by this.
00:51:38.960
Number two, the other big one – and this came, I think, from the Doge guys.
00:51:44.480
They kind of put the – they put the administrative state on notice.
00:51:47.960
They said, hey, you've got a date to return to the office to come back, number one.
00:51:52.300
Number two, we're going to give every employee an option by – I think it's February 8th.
00:51:59.020
By February 8th, we need you to make a decision.
00:52:00.780
If you want to stick around, there's a new sheriff in town.
00:52:06.460
You've got to work from office, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
00:52:10.620
Now, a buyout – people in media companies know this.
00:52:13.040
Buyout, particularly in restructurings or turnarounds or, like, in a failing company like most media companies today, mainstream media,
00:52:19.380
they offer buyouts, which really they give a – okay, I'm going to get back to this.
00:52:24.760
Bobby Kennedy, take another incoming from a Democrat.
00:52:27.060
This morning here in the U.S. Senate, and this committee is being asked to fulfill a really important responsibility,
00:52:36.940
which is to decide whether to confirm Mr. Kennedy to one of the most important health care jobs in America.
00:52:44.240
And the reason I think it's so important is for many of the reasons you said in your opening statement,
00:52:49.460
which is that we live in the richest country in the world,
00:52:53.040
and we have some of the worst health outcomes of any industrialized country in the world.
00:52:58.420
We live in the richest country in the world, and we have some of the lowest life expectancy rates of anybody in the industrialized world.
00:53:09.980
I was a school superintendent before I was in this job, Mr. Chairman,
00:53:15.140
and I can tell you that Mr. Kennedy's right, you know, that when I look at the kids in the Denver public schools,
00:53:21.680
if we don't change the way we eat in this country, 40 percent of them are going to suffer adult diabetes as a result of their diet.
00:53:34.180
These are, and we're, as I said, spending more than any other country in the world,
00:53:39.280
and our families, every single person's constituents in this Senate are facing chronic shortages when it comes to health care.
00:53:47.880
My friend from Texas, Senator Cornyn, has been a champion on mental health care.
00:53:52.600
We have an epidemic, as he knows, across this country in mental health care,
00:53:58.700
partly because of what the massive social media platforms that were sitting behind the president of the United States
00:54:09.020
have inflicted on our children for their profit in the last decade or so.
00:54:13.940
So we have no shortage of challenges to confront, and I even agree with some of the diagnosis of Mr. Kennedy.
00:54:24.700
What is so disturbing to me is that out of 330 million Americans,
00:54:30.580
we're being asked to put somebody in this job who has spent 50 years of his life
00:54:36.220
not honoring the tradition that he talked about at the beginning of this conversation,
00:54:41.280
but peddling in half-truths, peddling in false statements,
00:54:46.880
peddling in theories that, you know, create doubt about whether or not things that we know are safe are unsafe.
00:54:56.780
Not that every vaccine in America is unsafe, not that you can't possibly have an adverse reaction,
00:55:04.200
but that parents and children in my old school district and school districts all over this country
00:55:09.020
would be better off not getting vaccinated than getting vaccinated.
00:55:14.420
Unlike his own children who were vaccinated, unlike the people he invited to his house in Los Angeles
00:55:20.780
for their party who were vaccinated, for everybody else, it's about peddling these half-truths.
00:55:27.200
And he says it with such conviction that you want to believe him.
00:55:30.540
And Mr. Kennedy, I just have some, there are many, many things in the record,
00:55:36.820
but I hope that you could answer these questions, yes or no.
00:55:40.400
I've tried to ask these in a manner that's faithful to what you actually said,
00:55:45.480
because I didn't want to have a debate about whether you actually said them.
00:55:50.900
Did you say that COVID-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets black and white people
00:56:05.640
I just quoted an NIH-funded, an NIH-published study.
00:56:13.880
Did you say that it targets black and white people but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?
00:56:18.060
I quoted a study, Your Honor, I quoted an NIH study that showed that certain reasons are disproportionately.
00:56:26.500
Did you say that Lyme disease is highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon?
00:56:37.220
Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon?
00:56:46.280
And that's what the developer of the government said.
00:56:47.920
I want all of our colleagues to hear it, Mr. Kennedy.
00:56:53.780
Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender?
00:57:01.120
Okay, I have the record that I'll give to the chairman, and he can make his judgment about what you said.
00:57:06.160
Did you write in your book, and it's undeniable that African AIDS is an entirely different disease from Western AIDS.
00:57:19.980
Okay, I'll give it to the chairman, Mr. Kennedy.
00:57:24.300
Did you say on a podcast, and I quote, I wouldn't leave it, abortion, to the states.
00:57:34.120
We shouldn't have the government involved, even if it's full term.
00:57:40.040
Senator, I believe that every abortion is a tragedy.
00:57:47.180
It doesn't matter what you come here and say that isn't true, that's not reflective of what you really believe,
00:57:54.500
that you haven't said over decade after decade after decade, because unlike other jobs we're confirming around this place,
00:58:00.940
this is a job where it is life and death for the kids that I used to work for in the Denver public schools
00:58:07.740
and for families all over this country that are suffering from living in the richest country of the world
00:58:14.160
that can't deliver basic health care and basic mental health care to them.
00:58:20.040
It's too important for the games that you're playing, Mr. Kennedy.
00:58:24.580
And I hope my colleagues will say to the president, I have no influence over him.
00:58:29.880
I hope my colleagues will say to the president, out of 330 million Americans, we can do better than this.
00:58:44.280
Mr. Kennedy, President Trump has sworn to protect Medicare.
00:58:50.200
Republicans are exploring reforms to Medicaid that could help pay for Trump administration priorities.
00:58:56.660
With this context, what will you do about dual eligibles?
00:59:03.240
Well, dual eligibles are not, right now, served very well under the system.
00:59:10.280
Those are people who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare.
00:59:16.600
And, you know, I suppose my answer to that is to make sure that the programs are consolidated,
00:59:27.000
that they're integrated, and the care is integrated.
00:59:29.700
I look forward to working with you, Dr. Cassidy, on making sure that we take good care of people who are dual eligibles.
00:59:37.480
And how would we, how do you propose that we integrate those programs?
00:59:46.700
Well, the, I, I'm not exactly sure because I'm not in there.
00:59:52.980
I mean, it is difficult to integrate them because Medicaid is, Medicare is under a fee for service.
01:00:03.660
Medicaid is a, has a, is fully paid for by the federal government, and it's not fee for service.
01:00:12.220
So, it's, I, I don't, I do not know the answer to that.
01:00:23.620
Republicans, again, are looking at ways to potentially reform Medicaid to help, you know, pay for President Trump's priorities, but to improve outcomes.
01:00:32.980
What thoughts do you have regarding Medicaid reform?
01:00:36.260
Well, Medicaid is not working for Americans, and it's specifically not working for the target population.
01:00:45.940
Most Americans, like myself, I'm on Medicare Advantage, and I'm very happy with it.
01:00:59.440
The best doctors will not accept it, and the best hospitals.
01:01:03.520
And, particularly, Medicaid was originally designed for a target population of the poorest Americans.
01:01:11.660
It's now been dramatically expanded, and the irony of the expansion is that the poorest Americans are now being robbed.
01:01:20.900
Their services have dramatically decreased, even though we've increased the price of Medicare by 60% over the last four years.
01:01:34.000
With that said, obviously, you've thought about that, and I appreciate that.
01:01:39.240
What reforms do you recommend, again, that would improve services, I suppose, but also make it more cost-efficient?
01:01:47.940
Well, President Trump has given me the charge of improving quality of care and lowering the price of care for all Americans.
01:02:00.660
I mean, what we want to, the ultimate outcome, I think, is to increase transparency, to increase accountability,
01:02:10.300
and to transition to a value-based system rather than a fee-based system, rather than a service-based system.
01:02:17.500
On Medicaid in particular, can you just kind of take those kind of general principles and apply it to the Medicaid program?
01:02:24.580
You know, listen, I think that there are many, many options with telemedicine, with AI right now.
01:02:33.240
And, you know, there's a, including direct primary care systems, we're seeing that movement grow across the country.
01:02:45.920
So, knowing, so going back to Medicaid, though, and speaking of these specific advances, how would you, what reforms are you proposing with these ideas vis-a-vis Medicaid?
01:02:58.600
Well, I don't have a broad proposal for dismantling the program.
01:03:06.260
I think what we need to do is we need to experiment with pilot programs in each state.
01:03:11.360
We need to keep our eye on the ultimate goal, which is value-based care, which is transparency, accountability, access.
01:03:23.740
You mentioned earlier the Medicare fee-for-service.
01:03:25.920
Do you have any kind of thoughts as to whether or not patients on fee-for-service should move into MA, or how should we handle that?
01:03:36.120
Whether patients who are on Medicare fee-for-service.
01:03:44.400
Well, I mean, we have, I think, 32 million Americans, or 30 million Americans on Medicare, on traditional Medicare, and then another 34, or, yeah, 34 on Medicare Advantage.
01:04:03.000
And I think more people would rather be on Medicare Advantage because it offers very good services, but people can't afford it.
01:04:15.700
Oh, in answer to your first question, there are all kinds of exciting things that we can be doing, including cooperatives, which President Trump has supported, including health savings accounts, which President Trump has supported.
01:04:31.240
All of these things to make people more accountable for their own health.
01:04:34.940
And so we'd bring the cooperatives and the health savings accounts into Medicare and Medicaid?
01:04:40.040
We try to increase those, the use of those, and to direct primary care, to continue to transition into a value-based program that is private.
01:04:57.560
Americans don't, by and large, do not like the Affordable Care Act.
01:05:10.700
We need to listen to what people, they would prefer to be on private insurance.
01:05:15.200
Most Americans, if they can afford to be, will be on private insurance.
01:05:20.280
We need to figure out ways to improve care, particularly for elderly, for veterans, for the poor in this country.
01:05:29.660
And Medicaid, the current model, is not doing that.
01:05:32.200
I would ask, you know, any of the Democrats who were chuckling just now, do you think all that money, the $900 billion that we're sending to Medicaid every year, has made Americans healthy?
01:05:54.840
Well, I've got to tell you, for literally hundreds of thousands of Virginians, Medicaid is what prevents them from health crises on a daily and weekly basis.
01:06:10.680
And if there was a new plan that would be the basis of what Trump was going to do in repealing Obamacare, I would have thought by now we'd have seen it.
01:06:31.880
I voted for four of President Trump's nominees already.
01:06:36.960
But I've got to tell you, I saw an email that you put out Monday night, or you campaigned it.
01:06:43.020
In a fundraising email, your presidential campaign celebrated that the freeze on all new regulations, guidance, and announcements is a way to protect unelected bureaucrats from further undermining our health freedom.
01:06:58.440
Then you ask your donors to help pay for your campaign debt.
01:07:13.740
So the fact that you celebrate this freeze, do you think that was a good idea to put all of this on hold for 90 days, funding, and any kind of further work?
01:07:35.400
As he pointed out, Senator, the portals that were closed were not closed as a result of the Trump administration.
01:07:41.760
Let me just tell you, I'd like you to explain, excuse me, sir.
01:07:45.080
I'd like you to explain to a domestic violence center in Richmond that's saying because this freeze they may have to close down.
01:07:53.160
Or a rural nonprofit I've got in the Shenandoah Valley who's saying that freeze is going to potentially shut down their ability to operate.
01:08:02.620
So I guess if you deny or don't know what your campaign's sending on, you don't know if you raised a lot of money Monday night.
01:08:08.920
I'm saying that the Trump administration has made clear that it does not want to freeze benefits for any Americans under Medicaid or Medicare.
01:08:22.060
And I do not want to freeze is affecting beyond Medicare and Social Security.
01:08:29.280
I would hope you would have known that to be able to answer some of this.
01:08:33.560
Now, you've said publicly you want to immediately get rid of 600 NIH workers on job one, on day one.
01:08:43.000
When we had our meeting, you said you'd actually like to get rid of 2,200 people from HHS.
01:08:48.160
Which offices are you going to start cutting and riffing these 2,200 workers from?
01:08:55.120
Senator, there's 200 political appointees that are changed during every administration.
01:09:00.700
So if you got rid of those 200 political appointees, you're not going to replace them with your political appointees?
01:09:04.860
Well, President Biden this year changed 3,000 employees at HHS.
01:09:14.360
What departments are you going to pick them from?
01:09:16.580
Well, the same as President Biden did when he changed 3,000 out.
01:09:24.380
The chairman's been generous with colleagues on both sides and may have to go a couple minutes over.
01:09:28.840
But let me just say, so let's just answer, this would be, I hope, since you're asking to become the top healthcare official in the United States in terms of HHS.
01:09:41.680
And part of this job is to be the senior advisor to the president on health issues.
01:09:45.640
So when we're looking at this purge and we're looking at laying off workers, when we're looking at potentially the president's illegal offer to try to buy out federal employees, which I would say to any federal employees, think twice.
01:09:59.600
Has this individual in his business world ever fulfilled his contracts or obligations to any workers in the past?
01:10:07.500
But if you are in this position, will you pledge that you will not fire federal employees who work on food safety, work on trying to prevent things like Salomino?
01:10:22.620
So I take that as a simple yes, and I'm going to take that as a no.
01:10:26.140
Do you think I can run that agency without any credits?
01:10:28.920
Actually, we talked about protecting Americans from cyber criminals, something we need to do a lot more on.
01:10:35.700
Will you commit not to fire anyone in the health arena who currently works on protecting Americans from cyber attacks in their health care files?
01:10:45.820
I will commit to not firing anybody who's doing their job.
01:10:54.160
Based upon your opinion or your political agenda or Mr. Trump's political agenda?
01:11:00.800
I guess that means a lot of the folks who've had any type of views on vaccines will be out of work.
01:11:08.540
Will you freeze grant funding for community health centers?
01:11:16.700
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