Maryland U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks has stuck to her messaging this week, at protests and in a congressional hearing: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must go!
Alsobrooks made it clear Wednesday she’s had enough of Kennedy’s dissembling and vaccine skepticism, telling Kennedy, “Sir, you are the wrong person for this job.”
It wasn’t clear that Kennedy disagreed with Alsobrooks. Earlier Wednesday, he told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee he didn’t think people “should be taking medical advice from me” as he faced questions about his fringe beliefs on vaccinations and autism. He also appeared before the House Appropriations Committee to discuss President Donald Trump‘s 2026 budget, which includes deep cuts to HHS.
Kennedy said he supported the cuts, which have already eliminated care programs, stymied medical research and reduced staffing. The budget proposes even deeper cuts.
Kennedy said DOGE provided the blueprint for the spending cuts, which he and his team implemented with occasional pushback. He also said he’s reinstated a few programs that were inadvertently axed.
Alsobrooks found Kennedy’s lack of specifics troubling and was also taken aback by his claim that China had exceeded the U.S. in at least some areas of health care because “the Chinese are not spending a lot of money on DEI.”
He’s also given a high-profile platform to a bonkers conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to spare Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews.
“I’ve been sitting through this hearing all day today, and noted you have been unable in most cases to answer specific questions related to your agency,” Alsobrooks said.
“Because I haven’t been given time,” answered Kennedy.
“Well, no, you have been given time. But the point of the matter is you’ve been unable to answer specific questions,” the Maryland senator told him. “Sir, you are the wrong person for this job. And you had, in this hearing today, the unmitigated gall to say at the beginning of your testimony that China is the head of the United States in health care because China does not have DEI.”
Kennedy denied saying that about China. Alsobrooks offered to play the tape back.
The first-term senator held a “sick of it” rally over the weekend outside the National Institutes of Health, demanding that Kennedy resign from his position, according to the Baltimore Banner.
On Tuesday, she introduced a resolution declaring the Senate has no confidence in Kennedy to “faithfully carry out the duties of his office.” The 15-page resolution summarizes Kennedy’s actions so far, arguing that, by slashing health programs and discrediting vaccines, he’s diminished his own mission.
But it’s unlikely Kennedy is going anywhere, as Trump has praised his work.
Kennedy was also asked about his stance on measles. Cases have risen during the first few months of his tenure, and The Wall Street Journal said in a recent editorial that the secretary was vindicating his critics.
