Outgoing Republican Senator Bill Cassidy offered a bizarre answer when questioned about whether he regretted voting to confirm top Trump health official Robert Kennedy Jr.
The senator, who is also a doctor, sounded off over Donald Trump’s executive order on the childhood vaccine schedule.
However, when confronted about paving the way for RFK Jr., a known longtime anti-vaxxer, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he twisted himself in knots rather than admit he regretted being complicit in putting Kennedy in the top job.
During Cassidy’s appearance on CNBC on Thursday, the host pointed out that he ultimately voted to confirm RFK Jr. as secretary and more recently cleared the way for Erica Schwartz to become director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Do you regret those decisions?” CNBC asked the Louisiana senator, as he smiled awkwardly.
“So first, this is a presidential executive order,” Cassidy claimed, as if Kennedy was not in the room promoting it on Monday when Donald Trump signed it.
“RFK told me he was not going to change the [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices], so if you want to tell me—somebody didn’t tell me the truth, and I should have like seen in the future that they were not going to tell the truth, you could say ‘Oh Bill, you should have seen into the future’ in which case I’d be on your show talking about the futures of stocks as oppose to vaccine policy,” Cassidy continued.
The senator went on to claim that he anticipated Schwarts will “do the right thing.”
Before Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy last year as HHS secretary, the top Trump ally, who has no medical background, assured him that he would not change the CDC’s ACIP, but last June, he fired every sitting member on the panel tasked with developing recommendations on the use of vaccines.
At the time, Cassidy, who is the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, expressed concerns but shied away from blasting Kennedy for lying to him directly, though he has since accused Kennedy of violating commitments he made to get the job.
On Monday. Trump signed an executive order to revise the childhood vaccine schedule during an appearance in the Oval Office.
Cassidy responded to the order in a post on X in which he wrote, “I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong.”
“The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism,” Cassidy wrote. “Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe. Parents should listen to their child’s pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order. This is so wrong.”
While the Senate is in recess, Cassidy went on to post multiple times on social media promoting vaccines, but he never called out Kennedy, who has been leading the charge to change the vaccine schedule, or acknowledged his own role in paving the way for the administration’s actions.
Cassidy is on his way out of Congress at the end of his term after Trump helped his primary opponent oust the GOP senator in the primary for another term earlier this year.
But despite the president seeking revenge against the GOP lawmaker, Cassidy has repeatedly continued to back his nominees and avoid calling out the administration directly for lying to his face as the clock ticks down on his exit.
