WASHINGTON – During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday, September 4, Minnesota Senator Tina Smith and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Junior had a heated exchange after the Democrat accused Kennedy of suggesting school shootings should be blamed on anti-depressants.
Watch Minnesota Senator Tina Smith’s full questioning of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Junior above.
“At [the National Institutes of Health], we’re launching studies on the potential contributions of some of the [Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor] drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence,” Kennedy said on Fox News August 29, two days after the Annunciation Catholic School Shooting in Minneapolis.
At one point during the hearing, Smith told RFK, Jr. to “shut up” in the middle of questioning.
The two also got into a fiery dispute over vaccines.
“When were you lying, sir? When you told this committee you were not anti-vax? Or when you told Americans that there’s no safe and effective vaccines?” Smith asked.
“Both things are true. Do you want me to explain, Senator?” Kennedy replied.
“No, actually I want you to listen to me,” Smith said.
“Ok, go ahead,” Kennedy said.
But the vaccine concerns were also bipartisan.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who is also a doctor and one of the Senate’s top Republicans, said he had grown “deeply concerned” that some vaccines could be in jeopardy after Kennedy cut research funding and fired the CDC director.
But Kennedy disputed the notion that he was blocking vaccine access.
“I’m not taking them away from people,” Kennedy said, adding that any healthy Americans should still be able to get one if a doctor prescribes a vaccine.
