00:00Mr. President, I recognize a senator from Washington State.
00:07Thank you, Mr. President. I rise today with a pretty simple message. Fire RFK Jr. This man
00:14is burning down our public health system from the inside. We have got to take his matches
00:22and his keys away, and we need to do it now. We need to make his latest attack on public health
00:29firing a CDC director. Why? Because she stood up for science. The stakes are sky high. Our
00:39medical research, our public health, our pandemic preparedness, our food safety, RFK Jr. is putting
00:47all of that in jeopardy and putting communities across this country in danger. We cannot put
00:55our heads into the sand. We absolutely need a Secretary of Health and Human Services, not
01:03a Secretary of Conspiracies, not a Secretary of Measles and Food Poisoning, certainly not
01:10a Secretary of Cancelled Research and Chemtrail nonsense. It does not take a shred of imagination
01:18to see how dangerous RFK Jr.'s leadership has been. It just takes two eyes and two seconds,
01:25if that.
01:26I mean, one of the first things he did right off the bat was fan the flames of a measles
01:32outbreak by ignoring the science, peddling quack treatments, and spreading falsehoods about
01:40vaccines. The result, no surprise, was the largest measles outbreak we have seen in decades, one
01:47that tragically took the lives of two children. Did that spark one iota of reflection from RFK Jr.?
01:55Of course not. The largest measles outbreak since 1992, and do you know how RFK Jr. described
02:03the response this week? Effective. Effective? Are you kidding me? I shudder to think what it would
02:10take for a man like that to admit failure. We should all hope that we never find out. Instead of
02:17learning even a single lesson, all he has done now is double down on doing as much damage as possible.
02:24When it comes to vaccines, he has not only spouted off nonsense and falsehoods to families who are
02:32looking to him for reliable guidance, he fired every single member of CDC's vaccine advisory board
02:42down to the very last one. And then he started replacing them with a who's who of anti-vax alarmists who've
02:51already started shaping federal policy to fit their anti-science conspiracies. And when the new CDC director
03:00nominated by Trump, endorsed by RFK Jr. himself, confirmed by the Senate, dared to stand up and say,
03:10you know, I think we should follow the science instead of nonsense, RFK Jr. pushed to fire her too. This is
03:19unbelievable. Meanwhile, when it comes to medical research, he is tossing promising work and potential
03:26breakthroughs into the garbage. One example, mRNA research is on the cutting edge of medical innovation, not just for
03:36life-saving vaccines, by the way, but for life-saving cancer treatments. And you don't have to just take my word for it.
03:44President Trump's own health leaders champion mRNA research as groundbreaking scientific advancement. But with all the
03:54lives hanging in the balance, RFK Jr. pulled the plug on all federal funding for mRNA research. Now, not only is this a massive blow to our
04:06researchers and to our patients, but it is a massive win, by the way, for China, who just was been handed a huge
04:13opening to now take the lead on biomedical innovation. And mRNA technology isn't the only cancer research
04:22which RFK Jr. has upended. He and Trump are cutting research grants across the board, across the country, and cutting
04:31patients off from clinical trials that were their last, best chance at beating a deadly disease. They are now condemning some of
04:41these patients to death. They are killing their hope for a cure. And some of these kids, patients are kids, children are
04:50children. Last month, in fact, the National Cancer Institute's Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium stopped enrolling kids with brain
05:00cancer in clinical trials that could save their lives. All after Trump and RFK Jr. ended federal funding for that work.
05:10What do my colleagues want to say to those parents? I don't even know what there is to say.
05:16Yes, we can fight to restore funding. Yes, we will fight here to restore funding, especially as so many of Trump's cuts are, in fact, outright illegal.
05:26But we cannot restore from here lost time, invaluable time for kids fighting an incredibly deadly disease. For some of them, it may be too late.
05:37And that is heartbreaking. And it is a direct result of RFK Jr.'s disastrous leadership at HHS. To my colleagues, sorry does not cut it,
05:49especially if you aren't sorry enough to demand the person who's responsible to be fired. What happened to the accountability
05:58Republicans pretend to care so much about? And that's not all. RFK Jr. is sabotaging food safety. I'm glad that some companies are
06:08now choosing to remove artificial dyes from some of their products. But when it comes to bedrock regulations that keep all Americans safe and
06:18prevent foodborne illnesses, RFK Jr. may as well be pro-food poisoning. Because on his watch, CDC is throwing in the towel on food safety monitoring.
06:33This summer, our Food Surveillance Network stopped monitoring requirements for all but two dangerous pathogens. I know RFK Jr. doesn't like listening to public health experts,
06:47but I don't think it takes an expert to understand that listeria will not go away just because states don't track it.
06:54It will not go away because nobody's looking. Shigella outbreaks will not disappear if you ignore them. Foodborne diseases sicken people.
07:04They actually kill people. This isn't about following the science. That's as plain as day. You don't follow the science by defunding it.
07:13You do not follow the science by shutting it down. And you don't follow the science by firing scientists. That is exactly how RFK Jr. has been operating.
07:25And as I mentioned last week, we saw some of the most egregious examples yet when he fired the CDC director. All because she chose to listen to science instead of falsehoods. All because she insisted on protecting lives instead of pandering to anti-vax conspiracies.
07:46And as we now continue to see the damaging aftershocks of RFK Jr.'s reckless decision to steamroll a CDC director that refused to bow to his will, several other experienced, respected, trusted public health experts resigned from the CDC in protest.
08:07Some are now also sharing alarming allegations of the widespread culture of conspiracy and incompetence and willful ignorance of science that is now defining RFK's leadership.
08:20And just this week, a thousand, one thousand HHS workers demanded he resign because of how his actions are compromising the health of our nation.
08:33And it's clear RFK Jr. has no intention of changing gears. Earlier today, he had a Senate hearing and he continued to flaunt his ignorance like a badge of honor, not even knowing the COVID death toll, outright lying about established science, refusing to take any accountability for his actions.
08:54Mr. Mr. President, great leaders leave behind a track record of accomplishments, but it is plain painfully clear RFK Jr. will leave behind a body count.
09:07How high will it go? Well, that all depends on how long Republicans let him go around setting fires.
09:14How much damage will my colleagues let him do? How many children will die before they finally take action?
09:22We should not let him have one more day in power.
09:26I know some of my colleagues understand the grave reality of this situation.
09:31What I don't know is how long they're going to be willing to stay silent.
09:36You can talk about oversight. What are you actually doing?
09:40You can talk about the need to follow science, but that's not the path we are on.
09:45If you want to show us you are serious, if you want to save lives, you need to join us in talking about how important it is President Trump fire RFK Jr.
09:56Anything less is lying to yourself, while RFK Jr. lies to the American people about things as basic, as established, and as lifesaving as vaccine safety.
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