Republican senator Bill Cassidy has accused Robert F Kennedy Jr of a “series of failures” as US health secretary, citing rising healthcare costs, measles deaths and limited progress on ultra-processed foods.
Mr Cassidy, a doctor from Louisiana who is due to leave the Senate early next year after losing his re-election bid, said President Donald Trump should consider replacing Mr Kennedy.
“This has been a failure. If I were president, I would choose someone else because there needs to be accountability for higher health care costs, more measles deaths, losing elimination status, and no progress on processed foods,” Mr Cassidy said during an appearance on Face the Nation.
The Republican has been engaged in a bitter dispute with Mr Kennedy over vaccines and other health policies. Mr Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary last year depended on Mr Cassidy’s support, which was ultimately given after the senator said the administration had made “serious commitments” to him.
Mr Cassidy said he had been promised a “collaborative working relationship”, but argued that it had failed to materialise.
His criticism followed comments by Mr Kennedy that Republicans had obstructed his Make America Healthy Again agenda. Mr Kennedy also said the Senate would soon have less influence over him as Republicans prepare to lose their majority in the new year.
“The Senate no longer has any leverage over me. And that’s a big deal,” Mr Kennedy said on November 9. “I don’t think anything is going to get in our way now.”
Mr Cassidy dismissed that explanation, saying Mr Kennedy was “obviously trying to provide cover for failure as Secretary of Health and Human Services”.
He said there had been “minimal progress” on ultra-processed foods, an issue he said was important to supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement, and criticised the loss of the US’s measles elimination status.
“So if you’re a MAHA mom and you are hoping for something better — and hundreds of them contacted me during this debate about whether to support the secretary for HHS secretary, that’s what they wanted — they have every right to be disappointed,” he said.
Mr Cassidy rejected the suggestion that Mr Kennedy would find it easier to pursue his agenda with Democrats in charge. “There is no logic. This is about covering a series of failures,” he said.
Asked about calls from some Democrats for Mr Kennedy to be impeached, Mr Cassidy said: “You can impeach, I guess, over a ham sandwich, so they’ll have to decide what to do on that.” He said the focus should instead be on the president’s decision.
Mr Cassidy argued that higher healthcare costs, the measles status and the lack of progress on ultra-processed foods could “taint the president’s legacy”.
“If the president wants actually something positive, he should change,” he said. “And that’s just speaking politically. The American voters signalled at the midterm they don’t like status quo, particularly in health care, and I think it’s time for something different.”
Discussing measles, Mr Cassidy warned that unvaccinated adults could pass the disease to children too young to be vaccinated, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems.
“You could be the person that brings death to another,” he said, urging the president to make the message clear and repeat it “pounded, pounded, pounded”.
Mr Cassidy is also chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which is due to vote this week on Heidi Overton’s nomination for commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
He said he was unsure whether the nomination would advance, adding that he still had questions after speaking with Dr Overton, Republican members of the committee and his advisers.
