The Highwire with Del Bigtree - RFK JR.’S HHS SHOWDOWN

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

‘The HighWire’ comes to you live from Washington DC amid the HHS Secretary Confirmation Hearings of Robert F Kennedy, Jr. Get just a short look at just some of the grueling questioning and rightful praise from the extremely partisan committee and how these historic hearings are bringing the critical appointment of government health agency leaders to the forefront of American’s lives.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

It's time for a very special high wire, sponsored by ICAN Legislate, which allows me to have a little bit more freedom to talk about what's happening here in Washington, D.C., and especially the Kennedy hearings, the HHS Secretary hearings, both the Finance Committee and today, the Health Committee, these last two days. I'm here inside of the Heritage Foundation's headquarters. I want to thank Heritage Foundation for giving us this beautiful podcasting studio. We've been working on some workarounds trying to get their studio with our studio. all meld together, which is why we're a little bit late today, but I want to thank my team for, as always, making miracles happen, and we're here for this very special moment in time, really, moment in history. I've got Jeffrey Tucker coming up in just a little while from Brownstone Institute to talk about what he's seen in these hearings. It's going to be very exciting and interesting to get his perspective. But first, you know, lots of fireworks, a lot of interesting things

happened yesterday in the Finance Committee, and this is what that looked like. I thank my colleagues and Mr. Kennedy for being here today. Mr. Kennedy, congratulations on your nomination. Your commitment to combating chronic conditions that drive health care costs will be critical to our success. Prioritizing disease prevention will save lives, reduce costs, and build a healthier, stronger country. I'm humble. to be sitting here today as President Trump's nominee, oversee the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I want to thank President Trump for entrusting me to deliver on his promise to make America healthy again. In recent years, particularly during the COVID pandemic,

there's been a lot of skepticism about our public health institutions. If confirmed, Mr. Kennedy, how will you work to regain the public's trust? Through radical transparency, the reason And people don't trust the public health agencies because they haven't been trustworthy. The United States has worse health than any other developed nation. Yet we spend more on health care, at least double, and in some cases triple as other countries.

My uncle was president, 3% of Americans were obese. Today, 74% of Americans are obese or overweight. Oh, something is poisoning the American people. That's a deliberate choice not to study things that are truly making us sick, that are not only contributing to chronic disease, but to mortalities from infectious disease. And if we don't solve that problem, Senator, all of the other disputes we have about who's paying and whether it's insurance companies, whether it's providers, whether it's HMOs, whether it's patients or families, all of those

are moving deck chairs around on the Titanic. Our ship is sinking. I got a real quick question for you. Are you a conspiracy theorist? That is a pejorative senator that's applied to me, mainly to keep me from asking difficult questions, a powerful interest. And label was applied to me because I said that the vaccines, the COVID vaccine, didn't prevent transmission and it wouldn't prevent infection. Now everybody admits it. I was called a conspiracy theorist because I said red dye caused cancer. And now FDA has acknowledged that and banned it. The question before the Finance Committee this morning is whether Robert F. Kennedy should be trusted with the health and well-being of the American people.

The receipts show that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, wax charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines. I am also extremely concerned about your endorsement of radical fringe conspiracy. that if implemented at HHS, would put American families' lives at risks. Vaccines are one of our greatest public health triumphs. Did you say that COVID-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon? Do you believe, as you've said, that antidepressants caused school shootings? I said it should be studied along with other potential culprits.

Did you say Lyme disease is a highly-likely, militarily engineered bio weapon? Your organization is made. is making money selling a child's product to parents for 26 bucks, which casts fundamental doubt on the usefulness of vaccines. Are you supportive of these ones? Senator, I have no power over that organization. I'm not part of it.

I resign from the board. I want to know if you will commit right now that not only will you not go to work for drug companies, you won't go to work suing the drug companies and taking your rake out of that while you're a secretary and for four years after. You're asking me, Senator, you're asking me not to serve vaccine companies. No, I am not. Yeah, you are. That's exactly what you're doing.

If you want to move from advocacy to public responsibility, Americans are going to need to hear a clear and trustworthy recantation of what you have said on vaccinations. Are you aware of how harmful these issues could be for public health? That public health in and of itself could be affected by these kind of anti-science views. Senator, I have always been a science person, a pro-science person, I believe in evidence-based medicine and gold standard science. Here's somebody from the left, somebody I don't agree with on many issues politically. coming together with President Trump

and focusing on an area of agreement, something that the American people desperately want. What has caused autism? What is causing chronic illness? I want to say publicly, I thank you for that. I truly appreciate what you're doing here. I have found my engagements with you, both behind closed doors in my office,

as well as listen to you publicly, to be very thoughtful and science-based. I applaud that. I thank you for that. Mr. Kennedy, I believe for such a time as this, that you're not just one of 300 million people. I think that you are the person to lead HHS to make America healthy again. And I have no doubt that you will be confirmed and you are going to do such a solid job for the people of this country.

Should I be so privileged as to be confirmed, we will make sure our tax dollars support healthy foods. We will scrutinize the chemical act. auditives in our food supply. We will remove financial conflicts of interest from our agencies. We will create an honest, unbiased gold standard science at HHS. We will reverse the chronic disease epidemic

and put the nation back on the road to good health. Thank you. This hearing will be adjourned. And Mr. Kennedy, I look forward to working with you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For adjourned. Well, Robert Kennedy Jr. has been through two grueling days of hearings.

Today, even, which we didn't have time to cut, just happened, just finished up just over an hour ago. The Health Committee, which is the Health Committee, some of them very grilling, difficult questions. I think most of us watching feel like Robert Kennedy, Jr., held in very well. But obviously, there's a vote ahead. There's a lot of tension around this. This is probably one of the most anticipated cabinet votes, maybe in the history of this country. certainly, certainly in the history of the health department. I don't think we have ever seen anything as contentious, as dynamic, as talked about.

As I've said many times to reporters throughout this week, as I've been in Washington, D.C., if I stopped someone on the street that was walking right here in Washington, D.C., but especially anywhere else in the country, let's say I stopped a thousand people and said, who is the current HHS secretary? How many people would be able to answer that question? And the answer by almost every reporter is maybe in D.C. one or two, everyone else, everywhere else, zero. And then I said, now imagine I ask the question as I stop people in the street, who is going to be the next or is, you know, looking to be confirmed to be the next HHS Secretary of the United States of America, how many people would say Robert Kennedy Jr. He's in the headlines of every newspaper across the country.

And I think that that shows that America is now engaged in something that they have never thought about before. They're getting sicker and sicker and sicker. They're buying more and more drugs. Their kids are going on more and more drugs. We're getting fatter. We have obesity issues. We have diabetes issues. Chronic illness is now hitting 60%.

Every teacher talks about seeing the schools. No one's ever paid attention to HHS or CDC or FDA or NIH and ask themselves, wait a minute, what are you guys doing in there? Well, now they are. Call them the Maha moms or the people. But this moment, the Make America Healthy Again moment that happened between Robert Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump, this photo will go down in history as the moment that they came together. That morning before that photo, Robert Kennedy Jr., of course, stepped down in his independent run for President of the United States and said, I'm going to assist President Trump that's asked me to work with him to make America healthy again. And I think one of the most profound lines ever stated, we've got to love our children.

more than we hate each other. We have to find a way to do that.