Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is testifying today before the Senate Finance Committee, amid mounting controversy over his leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, is expected to face pointed questions from lawmakers about recent upheaval at the CDC, sweeping changes to vaccine policy, and broader concerns about the direction of HHS.
Just Wednesday, more than 1,000 current and former HHS employees signed an open letter demanding Kennedy’s resignation.
Gabriel Sterling is running for Georgia secretary of state, instantly becoming the most well-known candidate in the race to oversee elections.
Sterling gained national fame when he called out President Donald Trump after the 2020 election, telling him to speak against threats to election workers.
Sterling also became the lead defender of Georgia's touchscreen-based voting equipment after it came under fire from Trump's supporters.
“Georgia elections are the safest in the nation and I will fight everyday to keep it that way,” Sterling said Thursday.
He'll face at least two challengers in the 2026 Republican primary, former U.S. Senate candidate Kelvin King and state Rep. Tim Fleming, the chairman of an elections study committee.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., called on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, to resign and said he is a hazard to the “health of the American people” during a Senate Finance Committee meeting on Thursday.
Warnock also peppered Kennedy with a series of questions about the ouster of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director, Susan Monarez, the vaccine advisory committee and other questions related to the CDC.
When Warnock asked whether Kennedy had visited the CDC’s Atlanta campus before the August shooting during his tenure as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, Kennedy said no.
Kennedy described the CDC as the most corrupt agency in the HHS.
In a news conference outside of the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Jon Ossoff called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign from his post following the cuts to the department and to the Georgia-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy was in a Senate Finance Committee hearing fielding questions concerning President Donald Trump's health agenda, including the secretary's views on vaccines. Watch the moment below. (Credits: AP)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended one of the most controversial new appointments to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Kennedy said that Dr. Robert Malone is one of the inventors of the mRNA vaccine. Malone did not invent it but did do early research on mRNA.
Malone has claimed mRNA causes a form of AIDS and can damage the brains of children.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he doesn't know how many Americans died of COVID-19 or how effective the vaccines were.
"The problem is they didn’t have the data,” he told the Senate Finance Committee.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provisional mortality surveillance data available on the agency's website.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, gave his condolences to the family of DeKalb County police Officer David Rose, who was killed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shooting last month.
“I’d like Officer Rose’s family to know that he remains in our prayers and that he will continue to be in our thoughts,” he said in his opening remarks.
CDC employees have criticized the HHS secretary for the administration's response to the shooting at the agency's Atlanta headquarters.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., called on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign from his post as the Health and Human Services secretary at a news conference before Thursday's Senate Finance Committee hearing.
“It was one thing to be a skeptic or a reformer,” he said. “It is quite another to be a fool and a wrecking ball."
He said chaos at HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “putting children and families at risk every single day.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, is testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.
The 10 a.m. hearing comes a week after Susan Monarez, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, was forced out of her position. Following her ouster, top CDC officials resigned in protest.
Thursday’s hearing is stated to be for the “President’s 2026 Health Care Agenda.” The vaccine skeptic is expected to face tough questions about his actions and the status of HHS.
On Wednesday, hundreds of current and former HHS staff members signed a letter calling on Kennedy to resign.
The state will conduct a recount of the special state Senate election held last week in parts of Fulton and Cherokee counties following a request from the losing candidate, the secretary of state's office said Wednesday.
Republican Jason Dickerson appears to have narrowly edged out fellow Republican Steven West by 65 votes to advance to the Senate District 21 runoff. That margin is within the state’s threshold for a recount.
A recount involves rescanning all of the paper ballots. Counties can choose to supplement the machine recount with a hand count. The process usually takes about a day.
Debra Shigley, the lone Democrat in a seven-candidate race, advanced to the Sept. 23 runoff by capturing about 40% of the vote.
A state lawmaker says a rule governing female athletes at a Cobb County school amounts to "troubling" gender discrimination, and has asked the federal government to step in.
In a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, State Rep. John Carson alleged that female athletes at Pope High School are restricting from participating in girls' basketball if they are playing another sport at the same time.
Carson, a Republican who represents Marietta, claimed the same rule is a Title IX violation because it does not apply to male athletes, "many of whom are allowed to play multiple sports simultaneously and openly without consequence."
Carson sent a letter to the Cobb County Board of Education, urging them to "please let the girls play."
State lawmakers spent much of this year's session focused on girls' sports, specifically preventing transgender girl athletes from participating alongside cisgender girls on the same team.