‘He Lied to You!’ Jake Tapper Confronts GOP Senator Whose Vote Confirmed RFK Jr. About HHS Secretary Breaking His Vow Not to Link Vaccines to Autism

CNN’s Jake Tapper confronted a Republican senator — who cast a decisive vote, in February, to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary — about RFK breaking his vow not to link vaccines to autism.

In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Tapper pressed Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) — who is a licensed physician — about Kennedy stating this week he personally instructed the CDC to remove the statement on its website that “there is no link” between vaccines and autism. The CDC website now reads, “the statement vaccines do not cause autism is not an evidence-based claim. Scientific studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines contribute to the development of autism.”

Tapper, at the outset of his interview with Cassidy, played a clip from RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.

“If the data is brought to you — and these studies that have been out there for quite some time and have been peer-reviewed — and it shows that these two vaccines are not associated with autism, will you ask, ‘No, I need even more,’ Or will you say… ‘I see has stood the test of time and I unequivocally and without qualification say that this does not cause autism?'” Cassidy asked.

“Not only will I do that, but I will apologize for any statements that misled people otherwise,” Kennedy replied.

Tapper’s takeaway from the exchange was blunt.

“Dr. Cassidy, he lied to you!” Tapper said.

Cassidy criticized the message without commenting on the messenger.

“Let me say what is most important to the American people, speaking as a physician, vaccines are safe,” Cassidy said. “As has been pointed out, it’s actually not disputed. It’s actually quite well proven that vaccines are not associated with autism. There’s a fringe out there that thinks so, but they’re quite a fringe. President Trump agrees that vaccines are safe. And if you look at the consequences of not taking vaccine, there’s two children dead in West Texas from not taking a measles vaccine. There’s a woman pregnant who lost her child because she was exposed to someone who did not have the measles vaccine. There’s children in my state who died from things like pertussis recently because they weren’t vaccinated. So, discuss this with your doctor. Vaccines are safe. That’s the most important message.

“How worried are you that this change to the CDC’s Web site and Secretary Kennedy’s other actions are going to result in more dead Americans?” Tapper asked — following up.

“Anything that undermines the understanding, the correct understanding, the absolute scientifically based understanding that vaccines are safe and that, if you don’t take them, you’re putting your child or yourself in greater danger, anything that undermines that message is a problem,” Cassidy replied.

The CNN anchor went on to press Cassidy about his decisive vote to advance Kennedy out of the Finance Committee (the committee voted 14-13 to send his nomination forward to the full Senate). Tapper played a clip of Cassidy explicitly saying Kennedy would not do the very thing he did this past week.

“If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations without changes,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor in February. “CDC will not remove statements on their Web site pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”

“So you just said that you have never met anybody other than pediatricians who read the CDC Web site, but, back then, you were talking about the importance of the CDC Web site,” Tapper said. “Watching this, did you give RFK Jr. too much credit? What are you going to do now to push back against this?”

“Well, first, I’m not minimizing these changes. They are important, because you need to send the consistent signal that vaccines are safe,” Cassidy said. “I will just say that. And, again, President Trump agrees that vaccines are safe and important and that that should not be undermined.

If you — as we both know, there’s an asterisk associated with that change on the Web site. And the asterisk reflects a conversation he and I had, but I will leave it at that. The fact is, the scientific community agrees that vaccines are safe. Talk to your physician. Keep your family safe. Don’t be misled. And don’t let your child be one of those who dies who wouldn’t have died had your child been vaccinated. That’s all I can say.”

Tapper then asked Cassidy about the New Yorker essay from JFK’s granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg — in which she discussed her fatal cancer diagnosis and attacked RFK Jr. for cutting research funding.

“RFK Jr., according to his own family, is causing real damage to the health of the United States of America,” Tapper said. “You don’t seem willing to criticize him by name at all, unlike members of his family.”

Cassidy bristled at that suggestion.

“So, Jake, clearly, this conversation, you want me to be on the record saying something negative,” Cassidy said. “And, of course, it makes news if Republicans fight each other. I get that.”

“I don’t even know that he’s a Republican,” Tapper interjected.

“I’m all about, how do we make America healthy?” Cassidy continued. “And I speak as a physician. And I don’t think the tit-for-tat is what people are about. I don’t think the inside the Beltway, oh, he said, she said, he said, he said.”

The senator added, “Jake, I know it’s titillating, but I think we need to move beyond the titillation and actually what matters to the American people.”

“This isn’t about titillation,” Tapper said. “This is about the fact that you are the chairman of the Health Committee and you voted to confirm somebody that, by all accounts from the medical and scientific community and his own family, including his dying cousin, this health secretary is actually making America less healthy when it comes to vaccines and studies.”

Watch above, via CNN.