Americans have a less favorable review of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after his calamitous and combative Senate hearings, according to polling from The Washington Post and Ipsos.
The poll, taken between Sept. 11 and Sept. 15, found Kennedy’s approval rating in free fall, with just 42 percent of Americans approving of his job performance and 55 percent disapproving.
The WaPo/Ipsos poll was conducted after Kennedy’s Sept. 4 Senate hearing in which he fought with Senators over the firing of CDC director Susan Monarez.
During the hearing, Kennedy also denigrated Operation Warp Speed, the Trump-initiated operation to get COVID-19 vaccines out to the public in record time. Politicians, health experts and even Kennedy’s own family members have called for his resignation in the wake of the hearing.
Since the hearing, Kennedy has made several other statements that have kept him mired in controversy, including implying that video games cause mass shootings and that there may be a link between Tylenol and autism.
The secretary’s -13 approval rating is six points worse than the -7 he scored in a June poll by Pew Research. It is 20 points worse than the +7 points he scored in an April poll by Harvard Caps Harris.
Approval is predictably split along party lines, as 86 percent of Democrats disapprove of Kennedy, while 76 percent of Republicans approve. Interestingly, Kennedy only notched a 31 percent approval from Independents. Kennedy toyed with a third party run in the 2024 presidential election before he endorsed Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, the ousted Monarez appeared on Capitol Hill to give her version of the events that led to her firing. She claims Kennedy directed her to “commit in advance to approving every [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)] recommendation regardless of the scientific evidence” and to “dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause.”
Monarez contends that her refusal to agree to these terms led to her firing.
Kennedy’s -13 is still not the worst score among Trump’s Cabinet. That dishonor belongs to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who sits at -19 as she threatens free speech in America.
