Cassidy says Kennedy violated promises, undermining public health soon after vote

Sen. Bill Cassidy accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of violating promises that helped secure his confirmation, saying the health secretary was building public health on falsehoods and eroding the credibility of the nation’s vaccine apparatus. Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician who chairs the Senate health committee, delivered the key vote to advance Kennedy’s nomination and then backed final confirmation 52-48 in February 2025.

In an interview on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan conducted June 25 and aired June 28, Cassidy said Kennedy made commitments to him and to the country that “have been violated.” He said, “if you build public health upon a foundation of lies, then you're going to have the absence of adequate public health.” Cassidy also defended his vote by saying the alternative was giving Kennedy a “czar-type role” without congressional oversight, and that he chose the path with “guardrails.”

In May 2025, he said Kennedy had “lived up to” his vaccine-related promises. During Kennedy’s January 2025 hearing, Cassidy pressed him hard on vaccines, whether he would discourage vaccination, and whether he would make unfounded claims before deciding to support him after what Cassidy later described as “very intense conversations” with Kennedy and the White House.

Senate Democrats released internal Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emails on June 25 showing Kennedy’s team pushing the CDC on vaccine messaging early in 2025. One CDC official wrote that a request to pull flu vaccine ads “came directly from the Secretary.” The emails also showed Kennedy’s push to replace all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel.

In January 2026, he criticized the CDC’s reduction of the childhood immunization schedule from 17 vaccines to 11, saying the move was “based on no scientific input” and would “make America sicker.”