Bannon's War Room


Episode 4230： The Hearing Of RFK Jr. Cont.


Episode Stats

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary

Sen. Lankford meets with Lankford to discuss abortion, rural health care, and other issues. Senator Lankford is a Republican from Oklahoma and served as Governor of Oklahoma from 1987-1993. He is a former U.S. Senator and current member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.


Transcript

00:00:00.960 Will you freeze federal funds for community health centers the way the current administration does?
00:00:07.820 The White House has made clear that no funds are going to be denied to any American for benefits.
00:00:15.600 Listen, any program.
00:00:16.720 Do you know what happens at community health centers?
00:00:18.740 Are you talking about the Indian health centers?
00:00:21.200 No, I'm talking about community health centers across the country.
00:00:24.440 I understand that.
00:00:25.480 So you're going to excuse Indian health centers, which is good, but others are not?
00:00:30.560 They're going to get their funds frozen?
00:00:32.020 I strongly support community health centers, as does the president.
00:00:36.000 So does that mean you're not going to freeze the funding that is currently frozen?
00:00:39.240 The White House has made clear that none of that funding is supposed to be frozen.
00:00:44.200 Sir, the direct payments are different than how the government operates.
00:00:49.040 We fund the federal government down to community health centers.
00:00:52.680 As a former governor, there's lots and lots of state programs that are related to health care that come from the federal government.
00:01:00.700 They come down to the state.
00:01:01.880 Then it goes to local programs.
00:01:03.760 All of those don't directly pay out a dollar at a time, but they come from federal funding.
00:01:10.300 They are all, you know, even though they keep changing the guidance on a minute-by-minute basis,
00:01:15.540 based upon 9.45 or 10.30 or 10.45, whatever time it is today, those funds are still frozen.
00:01:22.660 Sir, I just honestly, I want to give you a fair shot.
00:01:26.260 But I don't feel like you approach this job with the knowledge and, candidly, your willingness not to commit,
00:01:39.240 try to recommend to the president to make sure these funds are unfrozen and that people's lives were at stake is a very disappointing answer.
00:01:46.040 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:01:47.960 Senator Lankford.
00:01:49.840 Mr. Chairman, thank you.
00:01:51.440 Mr. Kennedy, it's good to see you again.
00:01:52.800 We had some great visits in my office.
00:01:54.300 We've done some follow-up calls to be able to go through.
00:01:56.220 You and I have talked about a hundred different issues and backgrounds and things.
00:02:00.020 You've been able to address a lot of them today and just different questions to be able to clear up social media rumors
00:02:04.540 and the things that are out there on it.
00:02:06.220 So I do appreciate that.
00:02:07.060 We've talked about pharmacy benefit managers.
00:02:09.000 We've talked about the nursing home rule the Biden administration put down.
00:02:11.760 We've talked about your views on agriculture and commercial and row crop agriculture.
00:02:15.880 We've talked about food issues, and you've made it very, very clear you're not going to tell Americans what to eat,
00:02:21.940 but you do want Americans to know what they're eating, and I think that's a pretty fair perspective on that.
00:02:27.600 I do want to talk to you about some areas that you and I have talked about as well.
00:02:30.720 We have some disagreements, you and I, on the issue of life, and when life begins on that,
00:02:34.680 you've been very outspoken on that, and we've had some good opportunities to be able to talk about that.
00:02:39.480 Title X is specifically in the HHS area.
00:02:42.480 This has been an area that has been interpreted for a long time, and President Trump in the first administration
00:02:47.940 interpreted that rule to say that his administration will prohibit the performance referral for
00:02:53.080 or promotion of abortion as a part of the Title X program.
00:02:56.720 He made that very clear in the first administration.
00:02:59.240 Obviously, that's his decision to make again on that, on how he wants to handle that,
00:03:02.940 and he's made a lot of public statements on that.
00:03:05.100 The Biden administration not only reversed that, not only rescinded that rule,
00:03:08.720 but they went one step the other direction.
00:03:11.520 In my state in Oklahoma, as you and I have talked about,
00:03:14.300 the Biden administration cut off funding to the state of Oklahoma for AIDS testing,
00:03:20.340 for breast cancer screening, and for other areas of poverty, health care,
00:03:24.920 because my state didn't promote abortion.
00:03:27.880 It wouldn't provide.
00:03:29.240 If my state wouldn't promote abortion in the state,
00:03:32.160 we got cut off for federal funds, for AIDS testing, and for other things.
00:03:37.880 My simple question to you is, how are you going to handle Title X on that?
00:03:41.220 I saw how President Biden handled that in the punitive measures that came on my state
00:03:45.480 for those that are in rural health care.
00:03:47.480 How are you going to handle Title X?
00:03:48.500 I'm going to support President Trump's policies on Title X.
00:03:51.500 I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy.
00:03:56.640 I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year.
00:04:03.160 I agree with him that the states should control abortion.
00:04:08.400 President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions,
00:04:14.140 that he wants to protect conscious exemptions,
00:04:16.860 and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions here or abroad.
00:04:21.740 That's Title X.
00:04:23.040 I serve at the pleasure of the president.
00:04:25.960 I'm going to implement his policies.
00:04:27.580 Thank you for that.
00:04:28.580 President Biden, when he came in,
00:04:30.000 immediately closed down the Office of Civil Rights and Conscience Protections within HHS.
00:04:34.920 There's a statement that's come out recently that he's going to reopen that office again
00:04:38.860 to be able to protect the civil rights of Americans.
00:04:41.460 One of the things that Javier Becerra did immediately when he came into HHS
00:04:44.960 was conscience protections for medical professionals that were being compelled
00:04:49.400 against their conscience to perform medical procedures that violated their conscience.
00:04:54.980 Javier Becerra stepped in immediately into HHS and withdrew that
00:04:58.000 and said, no, the federal government will tell you what you believe about these issues.
00:05:02.400 You don't have conscience protections anymore.
00:05:04.280 Okay.
00:05:04.600 Okay.
00:05:05.280 I'm here with Senator Tommy.
00:05:06.420 Tuverville's in the neighborhood, dropped by.
00:05:08.480 Are you feeling any better, Coach?
00:05:09.740 Yeah.
00:05:10.120 Yeah, a lot better.
00:05:11.000 It's been seven days.
00:05:12.000 You know, I think everybody got it.
00:05:13.380 This bug going around is bad.
00:05:14.680 Bad, bad, bad, bad.
00:05:15.820 Yeah.
00:05:16.620 I don't want to say it's a Chinese bioweapon, but maybe I'll ask Kennedy that question.
00:05:20.620 First off, your assessment, Bobby Kennedy, they've been coming after him pretty hard this morning.
00:05:24.460 Yeah.
00:05:25.120 He got a little angry early, and he probably should have,
00:05:27.920 and let the Democrats know he's going to fight back because he needs to fight back.
00:05:32.640 What do you mean by that?
00:05:33.480 Well, you know, they're just trying to upset him about things that's not true about the vaccine.
00:05:38.120 And, you know, he's made his statements all clear.
00:05:41.400 It's not that.
00:05:41.980 He came by and visited you one-on-one.
00:05:43.920 Oh, yeah.
00:05:44.720 What was your takeaway?
00:05:46.740 Awesome.
00:05:47.520 And he's doing it for the right reasons.
00:05:49.000 What do you mean?
00:05:49.860 Well, I mean, he's doing it to help.
00:05:51.540 And he understands the whole picture.
00:05:54.040 You know, he's not going to run the show, Steve, by himself.
00:05:55.980 He's got four or five people, the CDC director, NIH, all those people.
00:05:59.260 But he'll set the scenario.
00:06:01.660 Now, I've told my colleagues on the right, the worst mistake we would ever make is not confirm this guy because he brought millions of young people to the table for us as Republicans that weren't going to vote for us early.
00:06:17.420 And they believe in health and the future of the country and better food and all those kind of things.
00:06:25.380 And so –
00:06:25.980 Make America healthy in the whole movement.
00:06:27.360 Yeah, exactly.
00:06:27.980 The whole thing.
00:06:29.020 And look at the guy they had the last four years.
00:06:31.700 Most people, 99% of the people in the country don't know – didn't know who the HHS director was for Biden.
00:06:37.900 And he was a damn lawyer.
00:06:39.100 Right.
00:06:39.360 Okay.
00:06:39.600 That lived in California.
00:06:40.680 From California.
00:06:40.980 Terrible.
00:06:41.080 Yeah, that lived there.
00:06:41.820 He didn't even work here.
00:06:42.560 Yeah.
00:06:43.420 Didn't even come back.
00:06:44.600 Yeah.
00:06:45.500 It's unbelievable.
00:06:46.120 He just took a paycheck.
00:06:47.040 Right.
00:06:47.480 So didn't make one decision.
00:06:49.840 You know, me being on the health committee, I think he came one time to a hearing and it just got awful.
00:06:56.440 You know, it just – there was –
00:06:57.580 Tell the audience, why is the health committee not the organizing committee for HHS?
00:07:03.140 Why is he at finance?
00:07:04.660 Well, he's at finance.
00:07:05.900 No, it comes to us tomorrow.
00:07:06.880 Okay.
00:07:07.100 But they will bring him out of committee for some reason.
00:07:09.600 Now, I've asked that same question.
00:07:10.940 Why is it not start health day one and then finance –
00:07:13.400 It should be that.
00:07:14.520 It should be that.
00:07:15.160 You're with me on that.
00:07:15.860 But for some reason, it was passed in the rules in the Senate years ago that the finance would bring out because –
00:07:22.940 I think there's so much money involved in HHS.
00:07:25.460 Yes.
00:07:25.700 So they wanted the finance committee to have the final say.
00:07:28.420 Okay.
00:07:28.620 Is tomorrow going to be – because tomorrow we've got day two of Bobby.
00:07:31.540 We also have Tulsi and Cash.
00:07:33.340 Tomorrow is game day.
00:07:34.280 Yeah.
00:07:34.580 It'll be nonstop tomorrow.
00:07:37.500 And, of course, you'll have the same crazies after RFK.
00:07:43.220 But, of course, they're after Patel and Tulsi big time.
00:07:46.360 I mean, they're looking for blood.
00:07:48.560 Before I get to that, I want to go back to – how does a senator from the great state of Alabama, I would argue the railhead of MAGA, be supportive of RFK Jr., who a lot of people would say is a screaming left-wing Democrat?
00:08:03.140 Well, because of his policies of what I told you earlier.
00:08:07.300 I've got a 30- and a 28-year-old, two boys.
00:08:10.300 And this time last year, they were on RFK's side.
00:08:13.600 He was still running for president.
00:08:15.420 They were on his side for president.
00:08:16.980 Because of podcasts.
00:08:18.760 Dad, you have to listen to this podcast.
00:08:21.300 You know, quit getting your news from some of these newspapers that you read or Fox News or CNN.
00:08:27.900 You can see it then.
00:08:28.680 Your sons can see it.
00:08:29.440 You have to start listening to podcasts where people actually lay their soul on the line to tell exactly what they believe.
00:08:36.280 Who's the – Senator?
00:08:37.940 Let's cut in for a second.
00:08:39.340 Sorry, Whitehouse.
00:08:40.220 Let's cut in on Senator Whitehouse, the question.
00:08:42.880 I want to cut in on a recantation of what you have said on vaccinations, including a promise from you never to say vaccines aren't medically safe when they, in fact, are.
00:08:58.700 And making indisputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases where that will keep people safe.
00:09:12.160 You're in that hole pretty deep.
00:09:15.680 We've just had a measles case in Rhode Island, the first since 2013.
00:09:20.480 And frankly, you frighten people.
00:09:25.260 Two, I want to air harms that Rhode Island has experienced from a remorseless, senseless CMS bureaucracy.
00:09:36.520 CMS has, for years, maintained a reimbursement system that the bureaucracy could never explain, never justify that persistently pays Rhode Island providers less than neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut providers.
00:09:57.260 A differential of 23 and 26 percent in our regional health care market.
00:10:06.760 The pending ahead program can begin to remedy this, at least for value-based care, and it must.
00:10:15.080 There has to be payment parity in the region.
00:10:18.120 Listen, Rhode Island's health care system is bleeding out because we aren't paid what neighboring hospitals and doctors are paid, and the one act CMS took on this years ago was to make it worse.
00:10:35.840 The CMS bureaucracy has also attacked one of the best accountable care organizations in the country, Rhode Island's Integra family doctors.
00:10:45.240 Tried to throw them off the shared savings program because they said Integra, years ago, briefly, fell 137 patients short of the 5,000 patients that ACOs need.
00:11:00.060 We're going to come back with Senator Toto.
00:11:01.400 CMS wouldn't listen.
00:11:02.400 As soon as Bobby Kennedy responds, let me know.
00:11:04.660 We're going to go right back to it.
00:11:06.320 Don't you just love these dissertations?
00:11:08.400 It's a damn hearing.
00:11:09.960 Ask him a question and let him answer it.
00:11:11.860 They're giving the question and the answer.
00:11:13.480 It's really unfair.
00:11:16.200 But they have seven minutes, I think, of this round, and we've been clocking.
00:11:19.760 The Democrats take about three and a half or four minutes on the speech, the mini-speech, and positioning themselves and don't give Kennedy any time to answer.
00:11:27.860 They have.
00:11:28.220 They're talking points from Big Pharma, and so they've got to get that in.
00:11:31.420 In the old days, it was the liberals that were against Big Pharma.
00:11:35.260 This shift, you've seen it here.
00:11:36.620 I keep saying MSNBC, 80% of the ads in prime time are Big Pharma.
00:11:40.700 There would be a test pattern.
00:11:42.860 How big does Big Pharma own the Democratic Party?
00:11:46.180 Well, first of all, if we would ban drug advertisements on television, probably like we should, there would be an uprising because you'd have a lot of—
00:11:55.620 Well, first of all, you'd have 70 Republican Senate seats.
00:11:58.460 Exactly.
00:11:58.700 If they didn't have—how far down the road were we to get in that past?
00:12:02.480 I'm a huge advocate.
00:12:03.440 Bobby Kennedy's an advocate of that.
00:12:04.940 It's been talked about, but at the end of the day, you've got several on the right that are taking a lot of money from Big Pharma.
00:12:13.040 Big Pharma, they own the lobbyists, the law firms.
00:12:15.940 How powerful are they in this city?
00:12:17.860 Doctors, hospitals.
00:12:18.380 In this city, how powerful are they?
00:12:20.140 Oh, huge.
00:12:21.100 If you had to rank order Defense Industrial Complex, Big Tech Industrial Complex from Silicon Valley, and Big Pharma, rank them.
00:12:28.320 What's the most powerful, the second, and the third?
00:12:30.560 Big Pharma.
00:12:31.220 Big Pharma's number one?
00:12:32.380 There's no doubt, because it touches so many people.
00:12:35.760 You know, Big Tech is just—now, 10 years from now, we probably have a different attitude toward that.
00:12:41.400 But, you know, Big Pharma touches everything in almost every committee, you know, that's going to have something to do with either drugs or medical care.
00:12:52.320 You know, I was in a VA hearing yesterday about, you know, our veterans and health care.
00:12:57.660 We spend billions and billions, and it's getting worse.
00:13:00.240 But, you know—
00:13:01.840 Do your colleagues ever get on you or leadership ever get on you for being so plain-spoken?
00:13:07.080 I wouldn't listen to them anyway.
00:13:10.260 You know, it is what it is.
00:13:12.940 I mean, I just tell what I see and what I hear, so.
00:13:17.780 What—talk to me about—we're going to go back to Bobby Kennedy as soon as he's answering when the dissertation—
00:13:23.240 He's not going to have a time to answer.
00:13:25.260 He's still asking the question?
00:13:27.340 He's still going?
00:13:28.420 Okay.
00:13:28.680 Yeah, he's still going.
00:13:29.560 White House?
00:13:30.160 Yeah.
00:13:30.380 Yeah, we'll go right to—Tulsi and Cash, they're obsessed with both of these.
00:13:36.340 And Tulsi's supposedly on the bubble, right?
00:13:39.780 Your thoughts?
00:13:40.540 Yeah, they're—
00:13:40.840 Okay, let's go to Bobby Kennedy, his answer.
00:13:44.740 Tyrannical, insensate bureaucracies and stupid roles.
00:13:51.860 And I will work with you to make CMS responsive to the needs of Rhode Island and to remedy those disparities that you talk about.
00:14:01.640 I am familiar with the Integra Health Plan, and it is a template for what we ought to be doing.
00:14:11.300 It's a value-based plan.
00:14:13.240 And I look forward to you to making sure that we create pilot programs like this.
00:14:19.780 Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman—
00:14:22.220 I can see that reproduced around the country.
00:14:23.500 Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, one of the things I've learned in my tenure in the Senate is that a nominee saying that they're willing to work with me amounts to exactly zero.
00:14:32.020 We need to get this fixed.
00:14:33.740 Thank you.
00:14:34.900 Big victory on 5 November.
00:14:37.200 Now the work can finally start on the big issues facing the country.
00:14:40.620 One of the biggest is the national debt and the deficits that drive it.
00:14:45.820 Hey, you think the country's broke?
00:14:47.360 The country is broke.
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00:18:25.520 Well, I guess at that point, then, we will move on to Senator Daines.
00:18:32.140 Mr. Chairman, thank you.
00:18:33.700 Mr. Kennedy, I'm glad to see you here this morning.
00:18:36.200 Right there.
00:18:36.880 White House was so long, he never got the vaccine answer.
00:18:40.840 No.
00:18:41.320 No, exactly.
00:18:41.760 He just wanted to make the statement.
00:18:42.940 He's getting his narrative over.
00:18:44.340 And, you know, he's told pretty much what to say.
00:18:47.400 And it's pretty much scripted.
00:18:49.040 And the whole side of the Democrats, we don't get together as Republicans and say, okay, what direction do we want to take here?
00:18:57.300 Oh, you guys don't.
00:18:58.080 You don't sit down.
00:18:58.800 The staffs don't sit down.
00:18:59.860 It's all independent.
00:19:01.060 All independent.
00:19:02.140 Talk about your state and what you believe in.
00:19:04.840 Ask the questions pertaining to your state.
00:19:07.420 But you can tell Pete Hexeth, all orchestrated.
00:19:11.180 Let's talk about that.
00:19:12.020 Well, they talk, you know, Hexeth, Rubio, others came out with kind of, in their opening statements and what they had was substance.
00:19:21.060 Pete's revolutionary military affairs and instilling the warrior ethos back into the Pentagon.
00:19:27.160 Rubio at the end of the post-war international rules-based order.
00:19:30.400 On Hexeth, the Heritans didn't ask any questions about that.
00:19:33.840 They're tacking him on the personal foibles all day long.
00:19:36.940 Was that coordinated and organized?
00:19:38.540 A hundred percent, and it was mostly the ladies on the armed services that went after him personally.
00:19:45.000 And it was—
00:19:45.560 Why does the Democrats have nine women, it seemed like, on—why do they have all the women on armed services?
00:19:52.460 What is that about?
00:19:54.020 I couldn't tell you, but they do.
00:19:55.800 They've got a lot more than we have.
00:19:56.920 Does that strike you as a little odd?
00:19:58.660 Well, yeah, but if you look at all them, Duckworth was military.
00:20:03.080 Gillibrand was military.
00:20:05.940 Rosen, I don't know about her.
00:20:07.400 I remember the young lady from Michigan that just got in.
00:20:10.420 CIA.
00:20:11.140 Yeah, Slotkin.
00:20:11.940 Yeah.
00:20:12.300 So, I don't know.
00:20:15.140 You know, it's hard to keep up with our side.
00:20:16.660 What did you think about their questions?
00:20:20.840 Well, it was just a personal attack.
00:20:22.780 You know, they wanted to make a point of, can he do this job with all the personal problems that he has?
00:20:29.560 And it was great that his wife stood up with him.
00:20:32.360 It was just unfortunate that, you know, late in the day before the vote, you know, this sister-in-law comes out with some—
00:20:40.160 Right.
00:20:40.480 And then the sister said, I don't know what she's talking about.
00:20:43.480 And we had one senator, I think, that was a Republican senator, was involved in some of that.
00:20:50.880 And so, but—
00:20:53.080 No, we worked the—our audience worked the phones on that Friday afternoon because it looked like it could be on the bubble right there, right?
00:20:58.420 It kind of came out.
00:20:59.200 It wasn't on the last vote.
00:21:01.860 But you asked about Patel and—
00:21:04.120 But before we get—I'll go back to Hexer for a second.
00:21:06.940 You have been the leader in the Senate of saying, hey, this DEI thing's out of control.
00:21:12.460 The war fighting's out of control.
00:21:14.000 We don't know how to fight anymore.
00:21:15.680 You stood in the breach for 18 months and took in—
00:21:18.640 We have you in here, man.
00:21:19.800 And the people were coming after you hard, the left, right?
00:21:22.760 You held up everything.
00:21:23.800 Well, that's a travel abortion.
00:21:25.240 Right.
00:21:25.560 Until they were—well, it was straight—to be straightforward.
00:21:27.880 You were also—your observation is that you were not totally impressed with the quality of what you were seeing coming up at field-grade officers.
00:21:35.320 Tell me about Hexer.
00:21:36.900 Is Hexer going to get the job done here?
00:21:38.900 Are you confident of that?
00:21:40.040 That was my first question.
00:21:41.720 We have to have somebody closer to the age of the warfighter, somebody that has recently been in the warfighting,
00:21:48.420 not somebody that's been out of it as a general,
00:21:50.360 has been out of any kind of contact with the recruiting in the last 30 years.
00:21:54.620 We have to have new blood, new ideas, and he was perfect for that.
00:21:59.300 And he is—he will speak his piece, and he'll tell you what he believes in.
00:22:06.360 He's not going to change his mind.
00:22:08.020 And I've liked the way he went about going to the other senators.
00:22:12.600 Now, he didn't go to a lot of Democrats because, as he'll tell you, a lot of them weren't going to meet with him anyway.
00:22:18.120 You know the difficulty in stepping into a football program and changing your culture and turning around.
00:22:24.080 And as monumental as that is for us at Love College Football, when you compare it to the Pentagon, it's relatively—you know, it's at a certain scale.
00:22:32.400 You're asking Pete Hegseth, right, with a lack of organizational ability, you know, training, to step into the biggest bureaucracy in the world that is adamantly opposed to America First,
00:22:45.840 adamantly opposed to getting any control of cost, and you're asking Pete to step in and really change around the biggest industrial complex in the world to get back to America First policies and warfighters.
00:22:58.200 Can he do that?
00:22:59.120 Well, my example was exactly what you said, Pete.
00:23:02.240 You're going—you're taking over a huge football team.
00:23:05.260 And right now, the Democrats have created such division within ranks, transgenders, gays, women.
00:23:13.180 You've made some points about that.
00:23:15.020 You're going to have to—you're going to have to talk your way into people trusting you if you're going to get this job.
00:23:21.200 But he understood that he's got to take out the DEI, the woke, the social justice, and bring people together,
00:23:28.140 that it's not about black, white, gays, lesbians.
00:23:32.480 It's not about that.
00:23:33.540 It's about building a war machine that's going to fight for our country.
00:23:36.840 And he's doing that as we speak.
00:23:40.560 He's trying to pull that all together.
00:23:41.860 Because if he went in and didn't change any of that scenario, he'd be out of there in a year.
00:23:47.260 You mean change the culture?
00:23:48.420 You've got to change the culture and how people think.
00:23:50.540 But the warfighter is actually on his side.
00:23:53.980 You know, as I've told you before, generals had told me, you know, Coach, we're spending more money on transgender restrooms
00:23:59.840 than we are covering up our $100 million airplanes.
00:24:02.460 Okay, you just told this audience that in the three big industrial complexes in this country,
00:24:07.320 that Big Pharma controls this more of the next—is the second one the military industrial complex or big tech?
00:24:13.320 I think you can put those hand in hand.
00:24:15.040 Hand in hand.
00:24:15.420 Their industry could be linked?
00:24:16.440 Yeah, they're linked.
00:24:17.600 This is why Amazon and all those guys are all over Pentagon City right across the street?
00:24:21.560 They're all moving into the military complex.
00:24:23.920 We've got to—let's go back to a Democrat.
00:24:25.940 We'll turn to Senator Tuberville in a moment.
00:24:28.280 Concerns I have, and just briefly, on Medicaid, states share in the funding of Medicaid.
00:24:35.800 Millions of disabled children in this country are alive because of Medicaid.
00:24:39.760 Millions of people with addiction in this country are in recovery because of the services provided to them by Medicaid.
00:24:47.160 And millions of chronically ill people who, until Medicaid expansion was enacted,
00:24:52.400 who couldn't get health care and therefore couldn't work because they were too sick,
00:24:56.700 got health care through Medicaid expansion, then went back to work, and now they're on private insurance.
00:25:01.680 So those are some facts about Medicaid that you might want to brush up on.
00:25:05.800 Now, I'm also extremely concerned about your endorsement of radical fringe conspiracies that have implemented at HSS.
00:25:14.080 Doge and—there's a $900 billion—so Pete's got two.
00:25:18.480 He's got the cultural issues of turning people to warfighters from all the politically correct DEI.
00:25:23.660 He's driving that.
00:25:24.600 But then you have this massive bureaucracy of the arms makers and one of the most profitable businesses in the country.
00:25:31.320 You just approved a $900 billion NDAA, which I still don't think gets to the heart of the Chinese Communist Party taking down the CCP effort.
00:25:42.380 With $900 billion, has the Doge guys come to see you and walk through what—because if you don't touch defense,
00:25:50.060 you're not going to get any social programs and you'll never get to the ability to talk to the American people about entitlements years from now.
00:25:56.640 Now, somebody has to—and I realize President Trump does all this stuff about a rearmament program,
00:26:02.100 but it's $900 billion with nobody around the world pitching in.
00:26:05.420 President Trump just said the other day, you've got to pay 5% GDP.
00:26:08.200 These guys all passed out, right?
00:26:10.120 They don't pay the 2% they committed to.
00:26:12.640 I say the 2%—it's all lies.
00:26:14.160 When you look at it, it's all women's health care and Green New Deal and, you know, green scams, etc.
00:26:18.960 They're not paying for combat, and they're not paying for interoperability, and they're not paying for joint maneuvers, none of it.
00:26:24.920 So, as the second part of the culture of defense, could you see Elon or those working with your committee to actually say,
00:26:31.820 we've got to look at this, and we have to change the mentality of the arms manufacturers, sir?
00:26:36.760 Yeah, well, the only way they're going to be able to get anything done, especially with the armed services,
00:26:39.980 is they have to go through committee.
00:26:42.380 Doge has to—once they get everybody in place.
00:26:45.260 Now, there's a lot of people, you know, the deputy, DexF, all those people have to be put into place.
00:26:50.920 Haven't been confirmed.
00:26:51.860 They're not confirmed.
00:26:52.500 I mean, we're probably a month away before anything like that happens, but, you know—
00:26:57.800 We say a month away, but memory serves me that on March 20th of this year, the United States government runs out of money again.
00:27:05.580 Oh, yeah.
00:27:05.820 So are we going to do—and I saw the thing—is it going to be a year CR?
00:27:09.680 I saw Josh Hawley, you know, he was on here last night.
00:27:11.580 Is it a year CR?
00:27:13.040 Are we going to have appropriations bills?
00:27:15.320 Is—what's the heads-up for the American people?
00:27:17.820 What's going to happen?
00:27:18.320 Well, I heard yesterday for the first time they were talking about that.
00:27:20.780 Susan Collins, who's appropriations chair, they were starting to talk about a year CR.
00:27:25.900 I can't imagine us doing that.
00:27:27.200 You mean a year CR?
00:27:28.040 Yeah.
00:27:28.160 They're running that up the flagpole and see if Tommy Tuberville salutes right now and see if you're on board with that?
00:27:32.820 Steve, we haven't done a budget for 25 yet.
00:27:35.240 We haven't—we need to be working on a budget for 26.
00:27:38.540 We've got two or one reconciliation bills to do.
00:27:41.180 I actually had this conversation with a senior member of the administration this morning, say, the 25 budget, like, we haven't done that yet.
00:27:50.440 And it's like that train's left the station because we're hurtling down towards—here's my point.
00:27:54.280 One or two reconciliations bills, a CR that you have to—the government runs out of money on the 20th.
00:28:01.440 We don't have the individual appropriations bills running out.
00:28:03.780 You've got the Doge guys here, the OMB guys here.
00:28:06.620 When is somebody going to put the whip hand to this and say, we've got to get organized and look, this has to be a critical path.
00:28:12.140 Instead of piecemeal Susan Collins saying something and somebody else leaking something, this is a massively complex.
00:28:18.480 And if we're going to get our arms around spending and cuts, it has to have some organization to it.
00:28:23.760 Do you think that's going to happen or we're just going to stumble through this?
00:28:26.220 Well, most of us are going to have to come from the White House.
00:28:27.980 This is how we're going to do it.
00:28:29.040 And then President Trump, in his credit, he's been meeting with the House.
00:28:33.040 He's meeting with us next week as senators.
00:28:35.880 Bring us all together.
00:28:36.720 But hang on.
00:28:37.340 But we just had him live.
00:28:38.780 And look, we are hammering on this every day, two reconciliations bills.
00:28:43.760 If you have one big—it's going to be an omnibus.
00:28:45.520 It won't be until August.
00:28:46.660 It'll be—we think the process will be a disaster.
00:28:49.300 President Trump, who hasn't backed our play on this, he wants one beautiful bill.
00:28:53.020 He goes to Doral and gives a great talk.
00:28:55.620 And he's in details on policy but never mentions.
00:28:58.820 And I hear he tells these guys, he says, you figure it out.
00:29:02.780 So the White House, at least right now, is saying it's back to the Senate and back to the House.
00:29:07.160 And we hear guys in the Senate are saying, Lindsey Graham and these guys commit that they could actually have a draft of the one for immigration, for the border, for energy sometime in mid-March.
00:29:18.780 But I think the White House has essentially said, guys, you tell us what you want to do.
00:29:22.980 Well, a lot of what's happening right now with all these nominations, they're dragging it out where we can't really get anything done.
00:29:30.200 We have got to get more people confirmed.
00:29:32.800 But the Democrats—
00:29:33.260 No OMB.
00:29:34.140 We just got Treasury last night.
00:29:35.620 So Russ Votes not there.
00:29:36.820 And I hear Russ Votes and the vote may not come to Sunday or Monday.
00:29:40.760 And none of the deputy secretaries at Treasury, at Defense, there are dozens and dozens of people that have to be confirmed besides the top guy, right?
00:29:48.960 Yeah, because they've got to be in on the conversation.
00:29:52.360 It is a massive undertaking.
00:29:54.000 The Democrats left this country in such a mess because of debt limit, you know, obviously no 25 budget.
00:30:02.660 They wanted to do an omnibus.
00:30:03.780 And they said, well, if y'all don't want to do that, fine.
00:30:05.140 We'll just do a CR to March and just put President Trump in a bind.
00:30:09.540 The biggest hawks that we have on deficit is the House Freedom Caucus, right?
00:30:14.260 And we know those guys very closely.
00:30:16.280 They put out a proposal to the president.
00:30:17.660 They sent a memo last week, and they say in the memo they've got all these cuts they want to do.
00:30:22.460 And I keep telling guys, don't give me 10 years.
00:30:24.060 I want to see this year.
00:30:25.160 I want to see next year.
00:30:26.140 This is a turnaround.
00:30:27.580 They give a proposal to the debt ceiling that says they will agree to the president, kick it past the 26th midterm, which we hate, but kick it into January of 27th, and lift $4 trillion.
00:30:40.080 So I do the math and go, gosh, that's $2 trillion deficit this year and $2 trillion deficit next year.
00:30:44.880 And CBO just said the other day $2 trillion.
00:30:47.780 So just to have a frank conversation with the American people, and those are the biggest deficit hawks we've got.
00:30:52.220 Everybody else wants to do unlimited.
00:30:53.940 Are we telling the American people that essentially we can't get control of this thing and that we're going to have $2 trillion minimum deficits for the foreseeable future, and we're just going to figure out – Scott Besson is going to have to figure out some way to finance $38 trillion, $40 trillion, $42 trillion.
00:31:13.640 Is that where we are?
00:31:15.560 Yeah, the people driving the car right now are the ones you just talked about in the House, the Freedom Caucus.
00:31:20.660 They're going to decide what's going to happen in the next couple of years, whether we're going to cut or we're going to have a deficit of $50 trillion here in about 10 years.
00:31:28.640 Why do you say that?
00:31:29.400 Why do you tell the audience that?
00:31:30.440 I believe that.
00:31:31.180 Because they're not going to change their mind.
00:31:32.660 I mean, there's a lot of people in the Senate, and some people in the House will change their mind.
00:31:37.160 These guys are set.
00:31:38.640 I mean, they're going to fight.
00:31:40.920 And they're in districts that the people will back them in this fight.
00:31:43.820 Yeah, people are going to back them, and most of them are in the South.
00:31:47.980 What about if President Trump says, hey, I need more leeway.
00:31:52.500 I need more on the debt ceiling, and I want to – look, President Trump strategically is talking about a hemispheric defense from the Panama Canal, which we're taking back.
00:32:05.620 The Chinese are actually leaving right now all the way to Greenland and the Arctic.
00:32:09.480 The hemispheric defense, he also talked and mentioned the other day, an iron dome.
00:32:12.760 Now, let's assume that that can technically work.
00:32:16.360 That's another $2 or $3 trillion.
00:32:17.920 He also says he wants a stronger military, and a military that's up-leveled from weapons.
00:32:23.580 We're at $900 billion.
00:32:25.320 That doesn't include the $2.5 trillion to build iron dome if we can build it.
00:32:29.940 Where does it stop on defense spending?
00:32:31.860 And we're spending $2 trillion upgrading our Minuteman missiles.
00:32:35.940 So you can throw that in.
00:32:37.880 Exactly.
00:32:38.640 They're 50 years old.
00:32:39.600 50 years old.
00:32:40.380 Yeah.
00:32:40.860 Where does it stop?
00:32:41.840 And people look to you as kind of the – your credentials as a hawk are unquestioned and common sense.
00:32:48.380 Your dad was a D-Day.
00:32:49.500 Your dad was a – or came up shortly after was a tank guy for Patton.
00:32:54.060 People know where you are, but you're also prudent about the budget.
00:32:59.140 What do we got to do?
00:33:00.180 Because if we don't get our hands around defense, you're never going to cut discretionary, and you're never going to eventually have a conversation with the American people about entitlement because they're going to sit there and go, screw you.
00:33:08.940 You're out of control right now.
00:33:10.240 When can we have a rational conversation with people who want the defense of this country and are patriots and have served in the military and are coming from families to say, this is what we have to do?
00:33:22.260 And you didn't bring it up that I live in a state that we're almost all military.
00:33:26.300 We have 1,000 defense contractors in Huntsville, Alabama, Redstone, Arsenal, and we employ a lot of people.
00:33:34.840 But we all also understand that as we cut – Steve, there's not going to be a lot of wars like you're seeing right now in Ukraine.
00:33:44.300 I mean, it's going to be missile wars.
00:33:45.860 It's going to be – it's not going to be landfought.
00:33:47.960 AI and with missiles and drones and cyber warfare.
00:33:52.420 We're behind on ships, but ships aren't going to last too long with all these long-range missiles that are being invented as we speak.
00:33:59.580 We're into drones now.
00:34:01.240 And so –
00:34:01.600 Well, Pete, this is the revolution in military affairs.
00:34:04.100 This is what actually Rumsfeld wanted to try to do 20 years ago before he got taken away to the war on terror.
00:34:09.600 Is that something serious that people are thinking?
00:34:11.740 Because you don't see it in the defense budget.
00:34:13.400 I love the Navy.
00:34:14.320 I'm a naval guy.
00:34:15.000 And Trump's strategy is a naval strategy.
00:34:17.540 Very Mahanian.
00:34:18.740 They're talking about another $2 trillion upgrade to the surface warfare and fast attack submarines.
00:34:25.260 Yeah, because of China.
00:34:26.700 And, you know, because they're building and we think we have to build.
00:34:29.900 And we probably do.
00:34:30.640 I've listened to these Indo-Pacific commanders for the last four years.
00:34:34.100 And, you know, they're very, very understanding how far we're behind in China.
00:34:42.380 We fought these 20-year wars.
00:34:44.240 We didn't do anything with the Navy.
00:34:46.020 Terrible.
00:34:46.380 Yeah.
00:34:46.860 Terrible.
00:34:47.100 We put them in the back burner.
00:34:48.460 Put the Navy back burner.
00:34:49.360 Put them in the lamp.
00:34:50.360 So we're going to have to upgrade the Navy.
00:34:52.100 And President Trump's exactly right.
00:34:54.000 Okay.
00:34:54.300 This is a deeper conversation.
00:34:55.200 I know you've got to bounce.
00:34:56.140 Your staff's giving a stink eye right now.
00:34:57.760 Thank you for doing this.
00:34:58.520 Thank you, staff, for setting it up.
00:34:59.820 Real quickly.
00:35:00.760 Tulsi Gabbard in cash tomorrow.
00:35:03.560 What are you looking for?
00:35:04.480 And how can this audience help support the president's nominees?
00:35:07.640 Well, call your senators.
00:35:10.160 I'm telling you, that helps.
00:35:11.820 You know, light those phones up to your senators.
00:35:14.160 Both of them are two in each state.
00:35:15.400 I don't care if you think that they're going to get a vote or not.
00:35:17.480 And the local office is important, too, right?
00:35:19.180 Not just here at the thing.
00:35:20.380 When you get a call in the local office, they pay particular attention.
00:35:23.960 Yeah.
00:35:24.540 Yeah.
00:35:24.880 And here's the deal about these three.
00:35:27.160 They're out of the box.
00:35:28.680 Okay.
00:35:29.280 And I think that the people across the country want this.
00:35:32.660 They want people that have a different idea of how this country should run.
00:35:38.860 RFK Jr., Cash Patel.
00:35:41.780 I mean, here's a guy that, you know, our FBI is out of control.
00:35:46.340 It's almost extinct in terms of doing their job.
00:35:49.320 People in Alabama would support a major restructuring.
00:35:51.860 Oh, yeah.
00:35:52.380 So you've got the patrons in Alabama say, I'm all in.
00:35:54.820 You've got to remember, half of the FBI is in Huntsville, Alabama now.
00:35:58.080 We've spent $3 billion building new buildings for cyber, of FBI, and all those things, you know, over the last, what, five years.
00:36:07.200 So, yeah, Tulsi Gabbard is perfect because she's out of the box.
00:36:12.880 They don't like her because she went to Syria and some of these things.
00:36:15.820 Come on, folks.
00:36:16.440 Is she on top of the – they're leaking that she's not on top of the material.
00:36:20.120 Do you find that she's on top of the material?
00:36:22.120 Oh, yeah.
00:36:22.640 We talked to her several times, talked to her on the phone.
00:36:25.800 She has your stamp of approval.
00:36:29.820 Oh, yeah, 100%.
00:36:31.020 Because all the audience needs.
00:36:32.280 Yeah, because you look at the people that she's following.
00:36:35.120 She's following people that are totally different than she is.
00:36:41.040 I mean, and she is very opinionated, and I like that from somebody that's going to be over at intelligence age.
00:36:48.380 She's not going to be quiet.
00:36:49.720 She's going to speak out of what she thinks is good or bad.
00:36:54.000 Perfect.
00:36:54.720 Senator Toverill.
00:36:55.800 By the way, your social media is at Sen Tuverville.
00:37:00.660 We'll put this up.
00:37:01.300 S-E-N, your name, Tuverville.
00:37:03.220 That's on Twitter.
00:37:04.400 Every time I come on your show, it just explodes.
00:37:07.340 So, we appreciate that, Steve.
00:37:08.740 We thank you.
00:37:09.160 You're a big favorite of this audience.
00:37:12.020 They love you.
00:37:13.000 Be straightforward with them.
00:37:14.440 Thank you very much, Senator.
00:37:15.180 Thank you.
00:37:15.660 I appreciate you.
00:37:16.180 Let's go back to the hearing right now.
00:37:17.620 Let's go ahead and cut right back to Bobby Kennedy.
00:37:19.380 Sure.
00:37:20.040 Yes, thank you.
00:37:20.700 Our 60% increase in Medicaid over the past four years is the biggest budget line now, and it's growing faster than any other.
00:37:32.740 And no other nation in the world has what we have here.
00:37:35.900 No other nation has a chronic disease.
00:37:37.760 We have the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world.
00:37:43.280 We had, during COVID, we had 16% of the COVID deaths in a country.
00:37:48.120 We only have 4.2% of the world's population.
00:37:50.740 We had a higher death count than any country in the world.
00:37:53.440 And when CDC was asked why, they said it's because Americans are the sickest people on earth.
00:38:00.240 The average person who died from COVID, American, had 3.8 chronic diseases.
00:38:06.620 This is an existential threat economically to our military, to our health, to our sense of well-being.
00:38:13.100 And it is a priority for President Trump.
00:38:15.680 And that's why he asked me to run the agency.
00:38:19.280 And if I'm privileged to be confirmed, that's exactly what I'll do.
00:38:23.440 Senator Barazzo.
00:38:28.360 Thanks so much, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Kennedy.
00:38:30.400 Thank you for taking time to visit with me in my office prior to today's hearing to talk about a lot of the important issues affecting health care in my home state of Wyoming as well as the nation.
00:38:39.860 And I appreciate your willingness to serve our country.
00:38:42.800 During our meeting, we discussed the challenges that health care providers and patients are facing in rural America.
00:38:48.160 Financial obstacles facing rural hospitals, workforce shortages, issues of OBGYN, and then new regulations that are painful that have come out of the Biden administration, hurting our ability to provide nursing home staffing.
00:39:01.640 So let me start, if I could, with rural hospitals and the closures of hospitals like that.
00:39:06.240 There are a lot of challenges facing hospitals in rural communities and frontier areas.
00:39:12.860 We have 33 hospitals in Wyoming.
00:39:15.320 26 are really located in various locations, often hard to get to.
00:39:20.280 Weather impacts them.
00:39:21.280 Six of the hospitals are at risk of closing.
00:39:24.580 Two are at immediate risk of closing in the next two years.
00:39:27.940 Ten have had to cut available services.
00:39:32.060 And this is a concern of rural hospitals, both Republican and Democrat states, either way, bipartisan.
00:39:37.520 Critical that the workforce challenges, financial challenges that we're facing are addressed.
00:39:43.320 Can you commit to working with us on a plan to address the critical nationwide issue of rural health care?
00:39:49.280 Yes, Senator.
00:39:51.020 And I would say that during my visits, I visited almost 60 senators so far.
00:39:57.980 And the most common unifying, I would say, issue among both Democrats and Republicans, there were two.
00:40:06.140 One was PBM reform.
00:40:08.080 And the others were rural hospitals.
00:40:10.440 And, you know, our nation made a commitment over 100 years ago to put a hospital within 30 miles of every American.
00:40:18.360 And we generally succeeded in doing that.
00:40:22.380 It's absolutely critical.
00:40:23.940 It's life-saving.
00:40:26.120 And rural hospitals are closing at an extraordinary rate right now.
00:40:32.300 They not only provide important health care for the localities, but also they're economic drivers for localities all over this country.
00:40:40.840 Well, President Trump is determined to end the hemorrhage of rural hospitals.
00:40:47.860 And he's asked me to do that through the use of AI, through telemedicine, which these are innovations that I saw the other day.
00:41:00.240 A Cleveland Clinic has developed an AI nurse that you cannot distinguish from a human being that has diagnostics as good as any doctor.
00:41:11.080 And we can provide concierge care to every American in this country, even those in the remote parts of Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, et cetera.
00:41:22.900 We also have opportunities at HRSA and at the GME to finally live up to GME's mission of providing personnel to rural hospitals.
00:41:39.280 And I intend to use all of my power because I've seen the priority that is given by both Democrats and Republicans on this committee.
00:41:49.480 I intend to make that a priority if I'm privileged to be confirmed.
00:41:54.580 Well, I appreciate it because often with financial strains on a local hospital, one of the common services to be cut in rural hospitals is maternity services.
00:42:03.020 And now we have women in Wyoming having to drive over 100 miles to access care.
00:42:08.240 13 counties in Wyoming don't have access to OB.
00:42:12.100 And we're talking counties larger than the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, counties larger than those whole states.
00:42:20.000 So will you commit to working with my office to find solutions to help address these specific maternal health challenges in rural America?
00:42:26.180 Yes, I look forward to it.
00:42:27.960 Another issue we specifically spoke about with this harmful Biden administration rule that have really been bad for our rural nursing homes.
00:42:36.860 And it's a rule that would triple the registered nurse requirements in nursing homes.
00:42:42.660 This is going to lead.
00:42:43.600 There just aren't enough registered nurses in our state to be able to comply with this.
00:42:47.720 This would lead to nursing home closures across our state.
00:42:50.440 Will you commit to working with me to fix this serious problem that it was a result of a rule that came out by the Biden administration who clearly doesn't understand rural America?
00:42:59.540 Yes, Senator, I think the rule was well-intentioned.
00:43:03.920 But as you've said, and I've heard from many rural senators, it will be a disaster for their states.
00:43:10.800 Some of the nursing homes, these are staffing rules that require 24-hour staffing by medical professionals.
00:43:16.480 Some of the nursing homes in rural areas simply do not have the available personnel or the economics to be able to do that.
00:43:25.800 It will mean the closure of nursing homes in rural areas across our country, which means the parents, elderly parent, will be moved a great distance from the local community and their family.
00:43:39.100 And we know that the single greatest driver of high-quality nursing home care is the involvement, the proximity of family members.
00:43:50.200 When you move that nursing facility away from the community where the kids live, you're going to get much worse care.
00:43:59.240 So the intention, although it was noble, was in reality, for rural areas at least, it is going to be a disaster.
00:44:07.280 Thank you.
00:44:07.920 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:44:10.000 Thank you.
00:44:11.020 Senator Johnson.
00:44:13.520 Mr. Kennedy, welcome.
00:44:16.280 Thank you for being here.
00:44:18.800 Thank you for your decades-long advocacy for a clean environment, for children's health.
00:44:27.960 I can't say as I'm surprised by the hostility on the other side.
00:44:32.740 I'm highly disappointed in it.
00:44:34.260 I don't know if you remember when you called me up and you were contemplating setting your political differences aside,
00:44:44.100 joining forces with President Trump in an area of agreement, addressing chronic illness,
00:44:49.840 trying to find the root cause of all these problems facing this nation.
00:44:54.740 And my first response was, Bobby, this is an answer to my prayers.
00:44:59.360 We need to get to the answers of this, but even more, we need to heal and unify this divided nation.
00:45:07.460 I'm not necessarily the most optimistic guy because we've got enormous challenges facing this nation.
00:45:13.860 But I thought, wow.
00:45:14.860 Here's somebody from the left.
00:45:17.200 Somebody I don't agree with on many issues politically.
00:45:21.360 Coming together with President Trump and focusing on an area of agreement, something that the American people desperately want.
00:45:32.180 Finding out the answers, finding out the answers, what has caused autism?
00:45:38.720 What is causing chronic illness?
00:45:42.600 Ms. Kennedy, I know, I think I've come to know what's in your heart.
00:45:47.880 I think I know the personal and political price you've paid for this decision.
00:45:54.000 I want to say publicly, I thank you for that.
00:45:56.800 I truly appreciate what you're doing here.
00:46:02.180 Can't we come together as a nation and do this?
00:46:12.580 Can we do that?
00:46:13.500 Aren't you getting tired of this?
00:46:15.820 I'm getting tired of this.
00:46:17.740 So again, Ms. Kennedy, I need to enter in the record.
00:46:23.900 These are just 11 letters of support signed by 63,000 people, thousands of doctors.
00:46:30.600 From the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Independent Medical Alliance, the North Carolina Physicians and Freedom Group, Governor Jeff Landry from Louisiana.
00:46:42.200 These are Americans, nonpartisan.
00:46:46.040 A lot of these people I know because I've advocated with you.
00:46:50.400 A lot of them are Democrats.
00:46:51.420 They put their political differences aside.
00:46:54.340 So, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to enter this in the record.
00:46:56.420 Without objection.
00:46:57.460 I also do want to, Mr. Kennedy, as long as I have you here.
00:47:02.240 I've written over 70 oversight letters to the federal health agencies under the Biden administration.
00:47:07.780 I've virtually gotten squat out of them.
00:47:10.760 What I get is we get, for example, 50 pages of Anthony Fauci's emails redacted.
00:47:23.520 By the way, the latest one was 17 pages.
00:47:26.760 Instead of issuing a health alert on the myocarditis they knew was impacting young men,
00:47:34.260 early in 2021, instead of issuing an alert on the health alert network,
00:47:40.760 they developed 17 pages of talking points.
00:47:45.800 This was given to the public under a FOIA request.
00:47:50.460 They had to go to court.
00:47:51.700 They've got a new way of redacting.
00:47:53.420 They don't black things out.
00:47:54.560 They just give you white pages.
00:47:55.780 So you don't even know what they have redacted.
00:47:57.420 So, again, I've issued a subpoena now to cover the information I've requested in 70 oversight letters.
00:48:05.420 My question to you is, as Secretary of HHS, will you honor these requests from Congress,
00:48:13.700 and will you make HHS transparent?
00:48:17.800 Yeah, my approach to HHS, as I said before, Senator, is radical transparency.
00:48:23.800 Democrats and Republicans ought to be able to come in and get information that was generated at taxpayer expense
00:48:31.060 that is owned by the American taxpayer.
00:48:34.160 They shouldn't get redacted documents.
00:48:36.080 Public health agencies should be transparent.
00:48:39.500 And if we want Americans to restore trust in the public health agencies, we need transparency.
00:48:49.660 I want to say something about what you first said.
00:48:53.800 When I launched my campaign, it was about uniting Americans, Democrats, and Republicans.
00:48:59.380 There's no issue that you unite us more than this chronic health epidemic.
00:49:04.540 There's no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children.
00:49:08.440 These are our kids.
00:49:10.460 66% of them are damaged.
00:49:13.100 I know what a healthy kid looks like because I had so many of them in my family.
00:49:18.320 I didn't know anybody with a food allergy growing up, peanut allergy.
00:49:22.200 Why do five of my kids have allergies?
00:49:26.320 Why are we seeing these explosions in diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, neurological diseases, depression?
00:49:33.300 All these things that are related to toxins in the environment.
00:49:38.360 Why can't we just agree with each other to put differences about so many issues, intractable issues aside, and say, we're going to end this.
00:49:49.200 I don't think anybody is going to be able to do this like I have because of my peculiar experience, because I've litigated against these agencies.
00:50:00.520 When you litigate against them, you get a PhD in corporate capture and how to unravel it.
00:50:05.180 I've written six books about these agencies.
00:50:09.300 I know a lot about them, and I know how to fix it.
00:50:12.380 And there's nobody who will fix it the way that I do because I'm not scared of vested interests.
00:50:18.760 I don't care.
00:50:20.100 I'm not here because I want a position or a job.
00:50:22.960 I have a very good life and a happy family.
00:50:26.100 This is something I don't need.
00:50:28.280 I want to do this because we're going to fix it.
00:50:31.320 And the other thing is we are attracting now a caliber of people to HHS like never before in history.
00:50:39.620 And they're entrepreneurs.
00:50:41.140 They're disruptors.
00:50:43.260 They're innovators of immense talents that are walking away, many of them, from growing concerns.
00:50:47.900 They're not coming there or positioned.
00:50:50.500 They're coming there because they want to save our country.
00:50:53.820 And they're from across the political spectrum.
00:50:56.980 And all these Democrats are opposed to me for partisan issues.
00:51:00.240 They used to be my friends, agreed with me on all the environmental issues that I've been working on for my whole career.
00:51:07.260 Now they're against me because anything that President Trump does, any decision he makes,
00:51:12.180 has to be lampooned, derided, discredited, marginalized, vilified.
00:51:21.580 We need to move on.
00:51:23.300 Senator Warren.
00:51:25.100 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:51:26.440 So, Mr. Kennedy, I want to start with something that I think you and I agree on.
00:51:29.940 And that is that big pharma has too much power in Washington.
00:51:35.040 You said that President Trump asked you to, quote, clean up corruption and conflicts.
00:51:42.200 Sounds great.
00:51:43.320 You've said that you will, quote, slam shut the revolving door between government agencies and the companies they regulate.
00:51:52.060 That also sounds great.
00:51:54.160 So, here's an easy question.
00:51:56.240 Will you commit that when you leave this job, you will not accept compensation from a drug company,
00:52:01.500 a medical device company, a hospital system, or a health insurer for at least four years,
00:52:07.960 including as a lobbyist or a board member?
00:52:10.140 Can you just repeat the last part of the question?
00:52:13.620 Can I commit to that?
00:52:14.320 You're not going to take money from drug companies in any way, shape, or form.
00:52:17.480 Who?
00:52:18.280 Me?
00:52:19.120 Yes, you.
00:52:19.840 Oh.
00:52:20.860 Yeah, I'm happy to commit to that.
00:52:23.140 Okay, good.
00:52:23.620 That's what I figured.
00:52:24.520 I said it's an easy question to start with.
00:52:27.700 And I think you're right on this question.
00:52:30.000 I don't think any of them want to give me money, by the way.
00:52:33.260 Let's keep going.
00:52:35.280 You're right to say yes, because every American has the right to know that every decision you make
00:52:42.040 as our number one health officer is to help them and not to make money for yourself in the future.
00:52:49.760 So I want to talk more about money.
00:52:52.460 I'm looking at your paperwork right now.
00:52:54.600 In the past two years, you've raked in $2.5 million from a law firm called Wisner Bomb.
00:53:01.620 You go online, you do commercials to encourage people to sign up with Wisner Bomb, to join
00:53:08.240 lawsuits against vaccine makers.
00:53:11.140 And for everyone who signs up, you personally get paid.
00:53:15.200 And if they win their case, you get 10% of what they win.
00:53:19.700 So if you bring in somebody who gets $10 million, you walk away with $1 million.
00:53:26.520 Now, you just said that you want the American people to know you can't be bought.
00:53:31.160 Your decisions won't depend on how much money you could make in the future.
00:53:35.500 You won't go to work for a drug company after you leave HHS.
00:53:39.540 But you and I both know there's another way to make money.
00:53:42.960 So, Mr. Kennedy, will you also agree that you won't take any compensation from any lawsuits
00:53:50.720 against drug companies while you are secretary and for four years afterwards?
00:53:57.440 Well, I'll certainly commit to that while I'm secretary.
00:54:03.280 But I do want to clarify something because you're making me sound like a shill.
00:54:08.960 I put together that case.
00:54:12.780 I did the Science Day presentation of the judge on that case to get it into court.
00:54:18.780 Mr. Kennedy, it's just a really simple question.
00:54:22.920 You've taken in $2.5 million.
00:54:25.460 I want to know if you will commit right now that not only will you not go to work for drug companies,
00:54:30.660 you won't go to work suing the drug companies and taking your rake out of that while you're a secretary and for four years after.
00:54:39.680 It's just I'll commit to not take any fees from drug companies while I'm secretary.
00:54:45.300 I'm I'm asking about fees from suing drug companies.
00:54:51.180 Will you agree not to do that?
00:54:52.940 You're asking me to not sue drug companies.
00:54:56.420 And I'm not going to agree to that, Senator.
00:54:58.060 You can sue drug companies as much as you want.
00:55:00.900 I'm not going to agree to not sue drug companies or anybody.
00:55:04.460 So let's do a quick count here of how, as secretary of HHS, if you get confirmed, you could influence every one of those lawsuits.
00:55:16.600 Well, let me start the list.
00:55:18.360 You can publish your anti-vaccine conspiracies, but this time on U.S. government letterhead, something a jury might be impressed by.
00:55:26.440 You could appoint people to this CDC vaccine panel who share your anti-vax views and let them do your dirty work.
00:55:34.460 You could tell the CDC vaccine panel to remove a particular vaccine from the vaccine schedule.
00:55:40.800 You could remove vaccines from special compensation programs, which would open up manufacturers to mask torts.
00:55:47.860 You could make more injuries eligible for compensation, even if there is no causal evidence.
00:55:53.600 You could change vaccine court processes to make it easier to bring junk lawsuits.
00:55:58.560 You could turn over FDA data to your friends at the law firm, and they could use it however it benefited them.
00:56:05.300 You could change vaccine labeling.
00:56:07.120 You could change vaccine information rules.
00:56:09.920 You could change which claims are compensated in the vaccine injury.
00:56:15.300 OK, Stephen K. Bannon, War Room.
00:56:17.220 We're going to shift over to Charlie Kirk.
00:56:18.480 They're going to be watching this at 5 o'clock tonight.
00:56:20.160 We've scheduled Megan Kelly, Natalie Winters from the White House, Carrie Lake.
00:56:26.240 We're going to be packed this afternoon.
00:56:27.840 We'll see you back here live, 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
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