U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. faced bipartisan questioning in a three-hour Senate committee hearing on Thursday.
According to the Associated Press, Kennedy said the fired CDC Director, Susan Monarez, was “untrustworthy” and stood by his past anti-vaccine rhetoric.
Both Democratic U.S. Senators for Georgia, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, took the day to scrutinize Kennedy as well.
Warnock specifically made waves at the hearing for calling on President Donald Trump to fire Kennedy.
“For the first time we’re seeing deaths from children from measles. We haven’t seen that in two decades … you are a hazard to the health of the American people,” Warnock said. “I think that you ought to resign. And if you do not resign, the President of the United States, who put forward Operation Warp Speed, which worked, should fire you.”
The Senate Finance Committee hearing comes after last month’s shooting at the CDC that claimed the life of a DeKalb County police officer.
Warnock also grilled Kennedy on his criticism of Monarez following the shooting.
“Despite your lack of credentials and expertise, clearly, you have an agenda. It is a threat to the public health of the American people. It's clear that you are carrying out your extremist beliefs,” Warnock said.
Ossoff also demanded Kennedy’s resignation at a press conference.
“The destruction of the CDC in Georgia, the systematic dismantling of American public health is putting children and families across the country at risk every single day. This is chaos. It is out of control. And every day this continues, more and more Americans are put at risk by Mr. Kennedy's radical and incoherent ideology,” Ossoff said.
Ossoff said the agency’s morale is low.
“Agency morale is at rock bottom. A quarter of the workforce has been pushed out. It is an agency known for its tenacity and precision and capacity that is now totally in chaos by design. And every day this continues, the damage is compounded. It is time for Mr. Kennedy to resign,” Ossoff said.
Concerns were reportedly raised by Republican senators as well, including North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, Wyoming’s John Barrasso, and Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy.
Kennedy also admitted he ordered Monarez to fire career CDC scientists before she was ousted.
