The Senate’s second-highest ranking Republican, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY)—a physician—delivered a blistering rebuke of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing him of advancing vaccine policies that undermine public health. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy—also a physician—also harshly questioned the HHS chief.

“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Senator  Barrasso began. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”

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“The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership with the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don’t know who to rely on,” Barrasso exclaimed.

The Wyoming Republican noted that 89% of voters and 81% of Trump voters agree that “vaccine recommendations should come from trained physicians, scientists, public health experts.”

“If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined,” Barrasso charged. “So could you explain what steps you’re going to be taking to ensure vaccine guidance is clear, evidence based, and trustworthy?”

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Kennedy responded: “We’re going to make it clear, evidence based, and trustworthy for the first time in history.”

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who has faced harsh criticism from Democrats who consider him the pivotal vote in confirming Kennedy to HHS, also blasted RFK Jr.

The New York Times, which described Thursday’s hearing with RFK Jr. as a “withering barrage of questioning from a Senate committee on his vaccine policy and his record as President Trump’s health secretary,” reported that Senator Cassidy had “voted to confirm Kennedy on the condition that he wouldn’t disrupt access to vaccines.” But Cassidy “said that he believes Kennedy is in fact doing so through his actions as secretary.”

“We’re denying people vaccine,” Cassidy told Kennedy.

“You’re wrong,” Kennedy replied.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Barrasso: “Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then I’ve grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the NIH questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed… pic.twitter.com/pqJlNdpdFj

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2025

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U.S. Senator Michael Bennet dismantled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony in a blistering Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday, accusing him of peddling “lies.”

In the heated debate, Senator Bennet, saying he quoted manufacturers on vaccine safety, blasted Kennedy.

“I quoted them today. What I said was accurate. What you said were lies,” Bennet charged.

The conversation got more heated, with Kennedy demanding Bennet answer his questions, a tactic the HHS chief has used before.

“You’re evading the question,” Kennedy said.

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“No, I’m asking the questions here,” Bennet declared.

“You’re evading that question,” Kennedy repeated. “I asked you a question.”

“I’m asking the questions, Mr. Kennedy, on behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America who deserve so much better than your leadership,” Bennet said, blasting Kennedy.

“That’s what this conversation is about,” he added.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Bennet runs out of patience with RFK Jr and yells at him that “I’m asking the questions on behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America who deserve so much better than your leadership! That’s what this conversation is about.” pic.twitter.com/bW0xtBE261

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2025

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A dozen federal judges are criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court, and in particular Chief Justice John Roberts, for what they say is a pattern of overturning their rulings in cases involving President Donald Trump’s policies while offering little explanation — or none at all. Their rare rebuke comes just as the President has demanded the high court reverse lower court rulings yet again, this time in a pivotal case: Trump’s massive tariffs, which many legal experts and several courts have already deemed unconstitutional.

“Lower court judges are handed contentious cases involving the Trump administration,” NBC News reports in an exclusive. “They painstakingly research the law to reach their rulings. When they go against Trump, administration officials and allies criticize the judges in harsh terms. The government appeals to the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority.”

“And then the Supreme Court, in emergency rulings, swiftly rejects the judges’ decisions with little to no explanation,” according to NBC News. “A short rebuttal from the Supreme Court, they argue, makes it seem like they did shoddy work and are biased against Trump.”

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One judge called the current environment “inexcusable,” lamenting the SCOTUS justices “don’t have our backs.”

NBC noted that when federal judges rule against Trump and his administration, “they are frequently targeted by influential figures in MAGA world and sometimes Trump himself, who called for a judge who ruled against him in a high-profile immigration case to be impeached. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has said the administration is the victim of a ‘judicial coup.'”

At the center of the controversy is the Supreme Court’s growing reliance on its ‘shadow docket,’ a mechanism the Trump administration has repeatedly used to its advantage.

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Instead of filing a petition for the Supreme Court to hear a case and waiting for oral arguments to be scheduled if it agrees, Trump has often bypassed the process — nearly two dozen times since January — by going directly to the justices with emergency requests.

Seventeen times the Supreme Court has granted Trump’s emergency requests.

Late on Wednesday night, the Trump administration again went to SCOTUS, this time demanding the justices overturn the rulings of two separate courts, which had deemed his tariffs unlawful and unconstitutional.

On Friday, in a 7-4 ruling, a federal appeals court affirmed an earlier U.S. Court of International Trade decision that Trump’s sweeping and unilateral imposition of tariffs exceeded his authority.

The Supreme Court has yet to respond.

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Image via Reuters