RFK Jr.’s day on Capitol Hill exposes GOP fault lines: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of Political officeA newsletter that brings you the latest report and analysis of the NBC News Policy team from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign campaign.

In today’s edition, we are recaping the tense audience of the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Capitol Hill. In addition, Jonathan Allen has the scoop on the department’s plans to probe the public on vaccines.

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– Adam Wollner

GOP senator, Bill Cassidy, stops RFK Jr. against Trump on vaccines

By Sahil Kapur, Brennan Leach and Gabrielle Khoriaty

Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., The grilled health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his skepticism of vaccines, arguing that his actions are flying to one of the greatest achievements of President Donald Trump.

Cassidy opened his questions during an audience in the Senate today by asking Kennedy if he accepts that Trump should obtain a Nobel Prize for the development of the conscious vaccine during his first mandate via a program known as Speed ​​Operation Warp.

Kennedy replied quickly: “Absolutely, senator.”

Cassidy was skeptical.

“But you just said to Sen. [Michael] Bennet that the coche vaccine killed more people than wearing. It was a statement, “said Cassidy, adding that” it surprises me that you were thinking so strongly of Operation Warp Speed ​​when, as a lawyer, you tried to restrict access “to the cocvid vaccine.

Kennedy denied having declared that the vaccine had killed more people than cochables and proposed to explain why he had carried out legal work in opposition to the vaccine. But Cassidy was not impressed, saying that he had a limited and persistent time with other questions.

Cassidy has cited testimonials from a conservative commentator that health and social services actions make more difficult for some Americans to obtain the vaccine coded, and doctors feared that the lack of HHS advice on the vaccine could create liability problems.

“I would say, in fact, we refuse people the vaccine,” Cassidy told Kennedy during his interrogation.

The exchange came while Cassidy walks on a political striking rope. He is a doctor and a supporter of vaccines. But he also presents himself to a re -election in the deep red state of Louisiana, where he faces a challenge of the Maga wing of the party. Trump did not make the approval in the race.

Cassidy’s strategy was to express his skepticism of Kennedy through the language of Trump’s movement: by presenting them as a means of showing his support for the president and protecting his heritage.

Find out more of today’s audience →

In relation: The chief of the ousted CDC warns that RFK Jr. politicizes public health, by Aria Bendix and Garrett Haake

HHS should award a bicycle -free survey contract to Mark Penn’s company

By Jonathan Allen

The Ministry of Health and Social Services is about to give a bogus contract to probe the view of the Americans on vaccines to a company controlled by Mark Penn, the online advisor to President Bill Clinton who has become an increasingly vocal supporter of President Donald Trump’s policies, who has few environments conducting public opinion research for the government.

In a “unique source intention” opinion published on the federal contracts website, the centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency within the HHS, wrote that it intended to grant the contract for “a project to understand the perspectives of the Americans concerning vaccines and trust engines in the decision -making of vaccines” at Harris Telecom LLC.

It is the old name of a public opinion research company, now called Harrisx, which belongs to Stagwell, where Penn is general manager. In recent weeks, Penn’s Flow X has been full of comments echoing Trump’s opinions on anti -Semitism in Harvard, the use of federal forces to control inner crime, the alleged surpassing judges who governed against Trump and try to infer Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

While the agreement is waiting to be finalized, the secretary of HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, a long-standing anti-vaccine activist, made the legislators that he was not against any vaccination.

“I say that I am not anti-vaccine,” Kennedy said during the interrogation. “To say that I am anti-Vaccin is like saying that I am anti-medicine. I am pro-medicine. But I understand that certain drugs harm people. And the same goes for vaccines.”

Trump finds himself in an awkward position on the issue. One of the greatest achievements of his first mandate was the success of his operating program Warp Speed ​​in the delivery of coastal vaccines. But many voters of its Maga movement have turned against vaccinations and mandates for the Abhor vaccine. Now he is thinking of receiving a survey funded by taxpayers on how Americans think of vaccines.

Although it is not unusual for federal agencies to hire survey companies, an examination of decades of similar rewards suggests the decision to give the contract to an ally of administration without competition – under a rule which authorizes any transaction if there is “only one responsible source and that no other supply or services will meet the requirements of agencies” – is not ordinary.

A former HHS official who knows the markets system said that he was “unknown to a company with zero experience with government contracts to obtain one”.

Harris Telecom previously had a contract with the Commerce Department – less than $ 1 million – for the search for public opinion, according to a search for NBC news in the contractual databases.

Penn did not respond to a request to discuss the agreement. Officials of the White House and HHS admitted having received the NBC News surveys on this subject, but did not respond in time for inclusion in this newsletter.

Laura Strickler contributed.

It’s all of the political bureau for the moment. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Bridget Bowman.

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