Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got into a fiery clash with CNN host Dana Bash over the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines, and autism.
Tensions began to flare after Bash noted how the Kennedy scion has pinned a lot of the blame for the COVID-19 pandemic fallout on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during questioning before a Senate panel last week.
But after Kennedy started describing his plan to respond to a future pandemic, the two really began taking the gloves off.
“We need to protect our constitutional rights. That is the primary obligation,” Kennedy said during CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday when asked about how he would deal with a pandemic in the future. “One of the mistakes we made in the last time was suppressing those rights so people weren’t being heard.”
Bash scoffed at his answer, saying that he was “talking about rights, and I’m asking about a potential public health crisis,” then attempted to move on to the next topic.
“Because you were part of the problem,” he fired back.
“It was absolute press malpractice…your job is furious skepticism of authority, and you weren’t doing that.”
The CNN anchor stressed that she didn’t want to let Kennedy get away with saying “things that are entirely untrue” and stressed that it is “factually true that the COVID vaccine worked.”
“Do you want to sit here and attack me, or do you want to have conversations?” Bashed vented.
An angry Kennedy fired back, “You’ve been sitting here and attacking me.”
Bash then attempted to pivot to the measles outbreak, but she quickly suggested that the COVID-19 vaccines worked, including on children.
Kennedy demanded she cite one study proving that to be true, and Bash claimed that there was research indicating that vaccine misinformation led to 100,000 to 200,000 more deaths in the US than what otherwise could’ve been.
“You are saying nonsense. You are saying something that you cannot [prove]” the HHS boss fumed
“I am not saying nonsense,” Bash interjected during some crosstalk. “Excuse me.”
Once they jumped into the measles discussion, Kennedy argued that it was an “international outbreak” and that the US is “doing better at handling it than any country in the world.”
The HHS boss also blamed the measles outbreak in the US on the COVID-19 pandemic and a segment of the population that refuses to get vaccinated due to religious reasons.
“What I want you to do is please use your bully pulpit to right now, as we’re getting close to back to school, say … to parents who have not vaccinated their kids that they should vaccinate their kids for measles because it is safe and it will help them save their children’s lives?” Bash said,
She pressed him to look into the camera and do that. Kennedy obliged.
Next, Bash grilled Kennedy on autism. He confirmed that President Trump “certainly does” want him to probe whether there are links between autism and vaccines.
“You are wrong when you say that this issue has been studied,” Kennedy said.
At one point, he said, “I know you’re flustered now.”
“Do you see your job as ending vaccine hesitancy or telling the truth to the American people?” he later added, before bashing her for repeating her lines “like a parrot.”
Bash decided to wrap up the interview on a somewhat conciliatory note after keeping him on for the full segment — in sharp contrast to other CNN anchors who have historically cut off guests that questioned them on air.
“I’m sorry that this turned into a very contentious conversation and my job is to try to get the best information out there, and it concerns me when you come in and say things [that are wrong]” Bash concluded before ending the interview, which lasted over 20 minutes.
