THOM TILLIS:
00:00:02
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Secretary Kennedy, thank you for being here. A couple of times, you asked people if they were making a statement or a question. What I think I may do, just to give you a breather, is to make a statement with a lot of questions, and just for the record, I'd like for you to have the opportunity to have your staff respond. I can't conclude from the discussion today where you are on Warp Speed. So I would like a definitive statement on exactly where you are. Was it good? Was it bad? Were there things that worked? Were there things that didn't work? I can't discern that from what you said here. I, for one, think that it was a signature accomplishment of President Trump, and the mRNA platform is something-- ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: I agree with that. I look forward to you giving us a detailed statement on exactly where you are with Warp Speed. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a trial lawyer. I'm a boring management consultant. Another question that we'll submit in the record. I'll give you directionally where we're going. I don't see how you go over four weeks from a public-health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a long-time champion of MAHA values, caring and compassionate and brilliant microbiologist, and, four weeks later, fire her because, at least the public reports say, because she refused to fire people that work for her. So as somebody who advised executives on hiring strategies, number one, I would suggest in the interview you ask them if they're truthful, rather than four weeks after we took the time of the US Senate to confirm the person, just for the future nominee that we're going to have to consider. But I do also believe that some of your statements seem to contradict what you said in the prior hearing. You said you're going to empower the scientists at HHS to do their job. I'd just like to see evidence where you've done that, and I'm sure that you will have some. You will do nothing that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines. There seem to be several reports that would seem to refute that, but I'd rather you just respond to it. I'm not going to come here and impose my belief over any of yours. That, again, seems to be contradictory to the firing of a CDC director, the cancelling of mRNA research contracts, firing advisory-board members, attempting to stall NIH funding, eliminating funding for the half-- I think a half a billion dollars for further vaccine-- I'm sorry, mRNA research, and just want an answer for it. On HR1, I believe you know my concerns about HR1. I've had several meetings with-- and HR1 is the big, beautiful bill, OB3, whatever the brand is. But I'm still-- I've got an office with 60 staff, including half of them in state office. I've had three different estimates of the economic impact on the state of North Carolina. Can I get your commit-- and I have been looking for somebody that's far more resourced than an office of 30 people up in here in DC to disprove my estimates with respect to the impact on North Carolina, period, and I've yet to have any-- I would love to be embarrassed and be wrong, but I would like to get your commitment for people to tease through the numbers that I provided before the vote on HR1 that says that if you normalize three independent estimates across a broad spectrum, $25 billion over 10 years. I don't need your response now. I want somebody to destroy my estimates because, to this point, the most resourced health agency in the world has only given me word-salad responses, and I need that so that we can prepare for the response. $25 billion over 10 years is half of the Rural Relief Fund over five years. And so we just need to have that fact as a matter of policy so that we can go in North Carolina and absorb it. And I know every state is different, and I'm assuming every one of my colleagues here have done the math for their states. Not focused on that, but I want you to destroy my estimates if they're, in fact, wrong, and I want you to acknowledge them if, in fact, they're right. That will come into question as well. Mr. Kennedy, you've stated multiple times in response to other members' questions that scientists were lying. We'll go back to the record in cases where you've said that. I'd just like to see the scientific evidence to substantiate that. I'm going to stipulate that you were honest and you had research behind it. We'll go back and figure out what scientific studies you believe are founded on lies and not scientifically viable. And then finally, I just want to give you an opportunity. Apparently in the exchange with Senator Bennet, you said you agreed with Dr. Levy's statements who said that the mRNA vaccine cause serious harm, including death, particularly in young people. They said you agreed with that comment. Did you agree with that comment or not? I think that's true, yes.
