Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is calling on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to resign. Kennedy is seen at an event on the National Mall in Washington D.C. on Monday, August 4, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
And the progressive champion and 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential nomination runner-up warned that "if Kennedy and his friends are able to make people think that vaccines are not safe, it will be a real public health crisis for America."
Sanders is among a growing list of politicians and officials who warn that Kennedy, the longtime environmental activist and vaccine skeptic who Trump picked late last year as his health secretary in his second administration, is jeopardizing the health of Americans with his controversial moves.
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"Mr Kennedy and the rest of the Trump administration tell us, over and over, that they want to Make America Healthy Again. That’s a great slogan. I agree with it. The problem is that since coming into office, President Trump and Mr Kennedy have done exactly the opposite," Sanders wrote this past weekend in an opinion piece in the New York Times.
And Sanders said that "despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, Secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts."
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont headlines the New Hampshire AFL-CIO's annual Labor Day breakfast, on Sept. 1, 2025 in Manchester. N.H. (Paul Steinhauser - Fox News)
"Who supports Secretary Kennedy’s views?" Sanders asked. "Not credible scientists and doctors. One of his leading ‘experts’ that he cites to back up his bogus claims on autism and vaccines had his medical license revoked and his study retracted from the medical journal that published it."
The incident received rare bipartisan pushback by some members of Congress.
But the White House defended the firing of Monarez, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters on Thursday that the president has the "authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission."
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"The president and Secretary Kennedy are committed to restoring trust and transparency and credibility to the CDC by ensuring their leadership and their decisions are more public-facing, more accountable, strengthening our public health system and restoring it to its core mission of protecting Americans from communicable diseases, investing in innovation to prevent, detect and respond to future threats," Leavitt argued.
Fox News Bonny Chu and Landon Mion contributed to this story
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bernie-sanders-calls-rfk-jr-resign-hhs-secretary-vaccine-policies-rally-american-people