Cassidy accuses RFK Jr. of building public health "upon a foundation of lies"

Washington — Sen. Bill Cassidy strongly criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his vaccine skepticism and handling of the nation's public health, despite having delivered the key vote to advance Kennedy's nomination last year. 

Cassidy, a medical doctor who chairs the Senate health committee, said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that it's "easy to surmise" that Kennedy made promises to him to win his vote, and since then, the commitments that the HHS secretary made to him and the country "have been violated." 

"If you build public health upon a foundation of lies, then you're going to have the absence of adequate public health," he said. Brennan's interview with Cassidy was conducted on June 25.

Cassidy explained that he cast the vote to help confirm Kennedy because the alternate scenario was having him installed in a czar-type role without any congressional oversight. 

"Bobby Kennedy was going to have the ear of the President. The President seems to be fascinated with the Kennedys," Cassidy remarked.

"Either he was going to be in a position where there were guardrails, and I did have commitments made as to kind of guardrails. Or he was going to be appointed White House health czar, in which case he would have the president's ear without the guardrails," Cassidy said. "You can criticize it, but I chose to have the one with the guardrails." 

Asked whether Kennedy has restored trust in public health, as Cassidy thought he might do, the senator declared, "He has not restored trust in public health" and pointed to reports of the Trump administration trying to rein in Kennedy. 

"Polling shows that the American people understand that vaccines are important, and for someone to be out there saying that they're not goes against their experience," he said.

Asked if the president is aware of the public perception around some of Kennedy's agenda, Cassidy said, "The administration clearly has gotten off the anti-vaccine message into something more positive."

In a speech on the Senate floor on Feb. 4, 2025, Cassidy said that Kennedy had made a number of promises to him including a pledge that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would keep statements on its website noting there is no established link between vaccines and autism. 

The current CDC web page has a heading stating "Vaccines do not cause Autism," but it appears with an asterisk and says at the bottom of the page that the phrase remains on the site due to an agreement with Cassidy. 

Immediately below the heading, the page reads, "this webpage has been updated because the statement 'Vaccines do not cause autism' is not an evidence-based claim." The page goes on to raise questions about the statement, arguing that "there are still no studies that support the specific claim that infant vaccines DTaP, HepB, Hib, IPV, and PCV, do not cause autism." 

Research has found no evidence of increased rates of autism among those who are vaccinated compared to those who are not.

In the "Face the Nation" interview, Cassidy said "I can tell you that that broken agreement that I had with the secretary, that that was not supposed to happen." 

HHS did not respond to a CBS request for a response to Cassidy's accusation.

Kennedy last June testified in a budget hearing before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that he is "complying with all the agreements" he made with Senator Cassidy. 

Still, Cassidy gave credit to Kennedy for his focus on ultra-processed foods. 

"If that's where he stayed, our country would be really much better off," he said. "But the concept that immunizations somehow are bad has been clearly disproven by life experience, because what's happening is people getting sick, in some cases dying, and the administration clearly has moved away from that." 

Pulte as acting DNI

On President Trump's choice of housing regulator Bill Pulte to temporarily lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Cassidy said his objection "is that he used personal information to target a political enemy of the president." 

Pulte, who also leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has accused several Trump foes of mortgage fraud and lacks any experience in national security, prompting a wave of disapproval from lawmakers. 

"You should not be using the force of government to crash upon somebody just because the person in charge does not like them or finds them inconvenient. The fact that Bill did that is disqualifying for someone to be the director of national intelligence," he said.  

Pulte has  sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department alleging mortgage fraud by a number of Mr. Trump's political foes, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and former Rep. Eric Swalwell. Mr. Trump cited the fraud allegations against Cook to justify her attempted firing, which is currently before the Supreme Court. 

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on Cook's case this week as it wraps up the current term before beginning summer recess.

All four have denied wrongdoing, and only the investigation into James has resulted in criminal charges to date. That case was eventually dismissed.

Democrats on Capitol Hill asked the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to examine whether Pulte "potentially misused federal authority and resources to publicly accuse prominent Democrats and President Donald Trump's perceived political enemies of mortgage fraud." The office confirmed in December that it was investigating FHFA's mortgage fraud investigation procedures and any recent changes in the process. On June 2, a GAO spokesperson said the office expects to issue the results in "late 2026 or early 2027."

Todd Blanche and Jan. 6

The Louisiana senator indicated he could withhold his support for Mr. Trump's attorney general pick, Todd Blanche, who is currently serving in the position in an acting capacity, until there's written assurance that the Justice Department won't move forward with the $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund to pay people who claim they were politically persecuted. 

Blanche told House lawmakers earlier this month that the Justice Department is "not moving forward" with the fund, but the Trump administration has refused to submit a sworn declaration verifying that the fund is dead. 

"It doesn't seem hard to just write a letter saying we're not going to do it," Cassidy said. "But nonetheless, he has said that he is not going to. The president has sent conflicting signals, that's something that has to be sorted out before the vote." 

Trump sometimes "acts as if Congress is merely an appendage"

Cassidy said it is not Congress' job to act as a rubber stamp on Mr. Trump's priorities, but at the same time, he's not sure if Mr. Trump understands the separation of powers. 

"Sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage, and frankly, sometimes Congress acts like it's an appendage," Cassidy said. 

"Congress wants to be read in, and Congress has our rules and procedures that our Founding Fathers set up, and they set it up precisely so that there would not be too powerful of an institution of a presidency designed to reflect all of the American people, not just the will of one person," he added. 

Cassidy is among a handful of Republican senators who have at times been critical of Mr. Trump's policy and personnel decisions. Three of them, including Cassidy, are either retiring or lost their primaries to Trump-backed challengers. Asked whether anyone else would be left to hold the president accountable after they leave, Cassidy replied, "the simple answer will be yes." 

"The Senate is a separate body, separate from the presidency. I think we're seeing that," he said. 

Cassidy and Mr. Trump clashed Wednesday when the president attended a GOP lunch at the Capitol. Their testy exchange came after Cassidy voted in support of a war powers resolution to limit Mr. Trump from taking further military action against Iran. Before the meeting, Mr. Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing affordability bill that had overwhelming bipartisan support as he sought to increase pressure on Senate Republicans to pass a voting regulations bill known as the SAVE America Act. Some of Mr. Trump's other priorities, including funding related to a massive new White House ballroom and the Justice Department's proposed "anti-weaponization" fund, also hit roadblocks in the upper chamber. 

"I cannot get inside the president's brain," Cassidy said of Mr. Trump's priorities. "What I think should be the priority is, how do you make life more affordable for the American people?" 

Cassidy also told Brennan that after his dustup with the president, he passed a note to Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, saying he'd consider changing his vote if he received a briefing on the war. Witkoff gave him a briefing, and Cassidy then withdrew his support for the resolution.

Thursday night, Trump called Cassidy and thanked him for changing his position on the procedural vote on the Iran war powers resolution Wednesday night. Cassidy told CBS that the conversation was "positive and looking to build a working relationship."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. 

Work on Dyslexia 

In his final months as a senator, Cassidy is trying to get federal support for early intervention to help kids with dyslexia, and may take up Mr. Trump's offer to work together in the future. 

Millions of Americans are dyslexic — up to 20% — according to an estimate cited by the American psychological association.

And it is a cause particularly important to Cassidy. His daughter is dyslexic and his wife - also a doctor - runs charter schools in Louisiana with a special curriculum for children who have been diagnosed with the disability. 

Cassidy said backing from the federal government to help identify and accommodate learning differences can ensure kids across the country don't suffer long term consequences. 

"If the federal government kind of puts a little bit of oomph behind it, it's going to happen." 

Cassidy also said, "It makes sense if 20% of the children learn to read differently and we are not accommodating the difference in how they learn to read, then they're going to be stuck, and we lose that social capital." 

He was also sharply critical of Mr. Trump's criticism of California Governor Gavin Newsom's disclosure that he is dyslexic. Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social posts in March that Newsom is "dumb" and has a "mental disorder." 

"It's harmful," Cassidy said of the rhetoric when asked what impact it has on younger generations. "You should not insult people." 

"We should have a gift of encouragement," Cassidy said in the interview. 

"If you look at some of the people who are dyslexic, who are really bright, they just learn to think differently. Charles Schwab describes himself as dyslexic. Charles Schwab is a pretty smart guy, and he thought differently."

Vaccine diplomacy

Cassidy also disagreed with Kennedy's efforts to roll back U.S.-led initiatives to help end disease in Africa and elsewhere, arguing it undercuts America's national security. 

"I strongly objected to what Bobby did with immunizations overseas," Cassidy said. "That is a form of soft power. We are in a global geopolitical competition with China. One thing that's helped us tremendously in Sub-Saharan Africa is the PEPFAR program and immunization programs, in which people there thank the United States and are predisposed to work with us." 

PEPFAR - also known as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief - had its operations disrupted in the early months of the second Trump Administration as part of Elon Musk's closure of USAID, which administered parts of the program. 

The initiative was signed into law by President George W. Bush more than two decades ago and saved an estimated 26 million lives by delivering vital medications and education about the disease according to the State Department. 

Kennedy has also curtailed U.S. participation in GAVI — the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization — which helps immunize people in third world countries. 

"It is better than sending troops, it's cheaper than sending troops, it's a humane thing to do," he said. "It's in the U.S. interest. Bobby was opposed to it because he had some foolish notion about the dangers of vaccines, but instead we see, more, people are dying of disease. Next, there's not a vaccine for Ebola, but it's, but it's fair to say that the infrastructure we had helped create in Africa had been damaged by the changes in USAID, for example, and that probably made us less capable of responding."

On GAVI, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Senate Foreign Relations hearing on June 2 that "the State Department's going to be renengaging," and that HHS will still have a role. 

"We want to take their input, but we'd like to get this issue resolved and an outcome that's acceptable both to Congress and also to our goals on global health," Rubio said.