Key GOP senator declines to elaborate on planned ‘oversight’ of RFK Jr. after CDC exodus

Washington – Senator Bill Cassidy, R -La., The president of the health committee, holds his cards near the vest, refusing to develop after having said that he would produce the “surveillance” of the best health official in the country and a recent reshuffle to the CDC.

Cassidy, a doctor who supported vaccines, is in a delicate position as the first republican of the health, education and pensions committee that provided a Pivot vote to confirm the secretary of health and social services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. after obtaining insurance on vaccines. The Louisiana republican also presents itself to a re -election next year.

Cassidy refused on Tuesday to say if he regrets his vote for Kennedy or if he has confidence in him after the secretary of the HHS sparked the dismissal of the CDC director, Susan Monarez, leading to a series of resignations from the best CDC employees who accused Kennedy of having undergone an influential vaccination committee.

“I reserve a judgment because we do not know who is right or wrong,” Cassidy told NBC News in Capitol. “But the President of the United States wants radical transparency. I totally agree with Donald J. Trump. We need radical transparency because what is at stake here is the health of children, and we have to focus on children related to children. ”

Asked what he meant by saying in a statement that his committee “will produce surveillance”, Cassidy said that his main concern was to respond to “allegations floating there” about “children’s health”.

“I spoke to several members of my republican caucus,” said Cassidy. “They also think that we must make sure that we are well through the health of children.”

Kennedy is expected to appear on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee for a planned hearing before the dismissal of Monarez. The reshuffle of the CDC is certain to become a subject of questioning, although Cassidy – the help president and member of the finance committee – would not say what he planned to ask the secretary of the HHS.

“I have not yet thought of my questions,” said Cassidy, while adding that he and Kennedy “communicated during the break” but not for “the last days”.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who sits on the aid committee, supported Cassidy calls for surveillance.

“I was not at all satisfied when Susan Monarez was invited to resign, and the leadership posts that we now have at the CDC. I am encouraged that President Cassidy wants to have a certain level of surveillance within the committee on this subject, “she said. “I think it’s important.”

Murkowski said she started reading Kennedy’s OP-Ed, published on Tuesday by Wall Street Journal, in which he defended his leadership on the CDC and said the center is expected to revers her mission to infectious diseases.

“To say that he wants to regain confidence and credibility and return to the original mission of the CDC-hey, I have no problem at all by focusing on infectious diseases, assuring myself that you have more epidemiologists in there. We want to have this based on science,” she said. “Right now, that doesn’t feel that.”

Kennedy faces skepticism on the part of other conservative senators.

Senator John Kennedy, R-La., Who also voted to confirm Kennedy, described the CDC on Tuesday as a “goat rodeo” with “too much chaos”.

“We must restore this confidence, and so far, I do not see where secretary Kennedy has done this,” said Senator Kennedy. “Everything I see there, for the moment, is a multi-vehicle stack. I am not saying that secretary Kennedy is wrong or right. I am not a doctor. I am not qualified to say. And so far, he hasn’t done that.

Senator Kevin Cramer, RN.D., said that the CDC had “had its challenges”.

“I think the president who is shaking is not-it should not be a surprise for anyone,” he said. “That said, the CDC, like most agencies, is better with a certain stability, and therefore I hope that the ship can be corrected – get the right people in leadership and move forward.”

But Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky. – who aligns more with secretary Kennedy in his criticism of the rules of the vaccine and celebrated the exodus of CDC managers – questioned Cassidy’s approach.

“He takes a position that I think he has trouble defending himself with me,” said Paul, noting that he was aside from the HHS secretary by sincere agreement: “It is not myself to support the president.”

Meanwhile, the classification member of the Aid Committee, Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Demanded a bipartite investigation and an immediate public hearing on the recent dismissal and the resignations of the CDC. He also called Kennedy to resign.

“The reality is that secretary Kennedy took advantage and built a career on the distrust of distrust in vaccines,” wrote Sanders in the New York Times. “Now, as HHS chief, he uses his authority to launch a full-fledged war against science, on public health and the truth itself.”