LIVE: People Rally Before RFK Jr.'s Hearing at Capitol Hill

We did 218 days ago. A bunch of y'all were here 218 days ago before the Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing of RFK Jr. We warned y'all. We warned all of you. We warned Donald Trump. We warned John Thune. We warned Bill Cassidy and the whole Republican caucus and we warned the American people. What would happen if you put a grifter, a conspiracy theorist, a pseudoscientist, a liar in charge of our nation's health care and our nation's public health? And we predicted a whole bunch of things that all these experts are going to talk about. And we predicted things that could happen. But in 218 days, I don't think we predicted that all of them would happen. All of them. You know, gutting NIH, silencing and firing scientists, firing the leadership of the CDC, undermining FDA, cutting American health care, slashing coverage away from 15 million people, spiking premiums. And look, this is not RFK Jr. He didn't walk into HHS by himself. He didn't walk into HHS on his own. Donald Trump appointed him. Senate Republicans confirmed him. And now we have more chaos in our health care system than I've ever seen in my lifetime. I think more chaos in our health care system than we've ever seen. People are at risk. Lives are at risk. And look there, you know, on the one hand, they're taking away funding for cures. They're spreading vaccine disinformation to make it harder to get vaccines. The state of Florida is going to, you know, because RFK Jr. is the poster child for this. He's the one that I think can take credit. State of Florida getting rid of vaccine mandates for kids. So they're doing that on this side. On the other side, they're taking away health care from 15 million people. It's a disaster. And yes, we have a sign that says, fire RFK Jr. A lot of people are holding those signs, wearing those stickers. We know Donald Trump's not going to do that, but we want to put some emphasis on what a disaster this is for the American people. So I'm thrilled to be here. Not thrilled to be here, but I'm happy to be here with this distinguished group. And I want to turn it over to Senator Tammy Baldwin. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I am pleased to join Protect Our Care and 314 Action and all my colleagues this morning to say enough is enough. RFK Jr. has got to go. Look, some of the problems that RFK Jr. is diagnosing are right. Americans absolutely should have the opportunity to live healthier lives. And my career in public service was and is, in fact, inspired by that very idea. But RFK Jr.'s supposed solutions are not only wrong, they are downright dangerous. You don't find cures to diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's by firing scientists doing that very research. You don't restore trust in vaccines by spreading outright lies about their safety and efficacy. You don't keep Americans healthy by mass firings of the people who protect us from disease outbreaks. But that is just what he has done. He's greenlit mass firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes for Health. RFK Jr. has canceled or delayed funding that Congress has approved for biomedical research into cancers, ALS, Alzheimer's disease, and more. In fact, the NIH has awarded $5 billion less, that's $5 billion less, to U.S. institutions for research compared to last year. And most recently, and perhaps most predictably, we've seen RFK Jr. take extraordinary measures to insert his personal politics in the place of science at the Centers for Disease Control. These actions have very real consequences. When you fire people at the CDC, there's no one there to help communities deal with public health emergencies like lead poisoning. And I should know, because that's the exact situation that happened in Wisconsin when children in Milwaukee public schools were exposed to lead paint in classrooms, and no one was there at the CDC to answer the phone. Americans should be able to trust that the information coming from the health department is rooted in what is best for their families, and not based on the unsupported theories of RFK Jr., who has spent his career peddling misinformation. One thing is clear, it is not a matter of politics anymore, it's a matter of public health. And I'm calling on RFK Jr. to resign immediately. I'd personally be happy to help him pack up his desk, right? As I'm sure any one of the thousands of hard-working civil servants that he has fired would also. We'll keep showing up and holding Donald Trump, RFK Jr., and congressional Republicans accountable for terminating Americans' health care and endangering Americans' lives. I hope that my Republican colleagues, especially those who actually believe that RFK Jr. would follow the science, admit they were wrong, and join us to protect our constituents. I thank you again for being here, and now I turn it over to my colleague Angela Alsobrooks. Good morning, everyone. I want to thank my colleague Tammy Baldwin, Senator Baldwin, for being here this morning to protect our care. Thank you as well for being here. And you know what? We didn't have to be here this morning. We really didn't. The chaos, the corruption, the increased costs that we have seen was, first of all, foreseeable, totally unnecessary, and we really should not be here today. The most profound obligation of government is to ensure the health, well-being, and education of the American people. And we're here today because we have seen a disastrous, at least 203-plus actions that have been taken every single day that RFK Jr., our Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been taken against the American people. What we know is that for decades, America's commitment to science and research has helped make us the global standard. The United States of America is and should continue to be the leader, the global leader, in health and research. Yet in just 203 different days plus, RFK Jr. has done serious damage to the health of the American people and to generations of investment in America exceptionalism. Science, research, medicine is what makes the United States exceptional. It is a part of our exceptionalism. Today, Senator Wyden and I have released a report documenting the 203 days of cost, chaos, and corruption. The cost of health care, the chaos at HHS, and the corruption which is now eroding faith and trust in science, all at the hands of RFK Jr. RFK claims that he wants to make America healthy again, but from day one, he has systematically dismantled HHS through his anti-science quack agenda, which is decimating and threatening the critical staff and programs that millions of Americans depend on. He has undermined public trust in the systems, institutions, research, and public health officials that protect our safety and well-being every day. He is a clear and present danger to the American people. It was clear to me from the very beginning that he was unfit to serve and unqualified to hold his position, and I said so. It was obvious that he was far too easily persuaded by pseudoscience, anti-vaccine disinformation, and dangerous conspiracy theories, and that's why I voted against his confirmation. It was only made clearer when he started slashing the HHS workforce and eliminating critical research funding. NIH leads the global charge in scientific discovery, working to solve our most challenging health challenges, like finding a cure for cancer. RFK Jr. decided it was a good idea to fire 1,300 employees and cancel $2 billion in federal research grants. This along with the largest cut to health care in American history means Americans will not only be sicker, but it means that on his watch, millions will die. That's why four months ago, I stood with scientists, many of them my colleagues in Maryland, near NIH, and became the first senator to call for RFK Jr.'s firing or resignation. We don't care whichever came first. He absolutely must go. And every day that he has been in this role, as demonstrated by the damning report that we released today, we know that we risk more American lives. It was our investment in vaccine research that eradicated devastating diseases like measles, but this year there have been nearly 1,300 measles cases reported around the nation, the highest number in 33 years. Many of them are children. Some children have died. A qualified HHS secretary would urge people to continue getting vaccinated, but not this guy. We know a capable secretary would have some sense of compassion for the suffering of children. The secretary we have has unfortunately instead continued to spread misinformation about vaccines and moved to fire the entire Vaccine Advisory Council. And I must mention, he lied to our faces. When he was questioned very directly in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee about whether he would do this, he said he would not. He also said that he would not and had not fired working scientists. Lie, lie, lie. It's all been a pack of lies. He continues to lie. He continues to spread misinformation. And he has no intention in stopping. So under his charge, even reproductive health services are being endangered. RFK Jr. is a clear danger to seniors, to children, to our most vulnerable, and even to the unborn. The American people do not deserve to have their health endangered by an HHS secretary who thinks he knows better than the experts. This guy has no background whatsoever in science. He has no background whatsoever in medicine. So can you imagine the unmitigated gall of him to have fired the CDC director who was a doctor, who the administration said was qualified to do this job, and not only was she fired for failing to follow his pseudoscience, but what we know is that because of his lack of leadership, he caused other experts to resign from the CDC. And trust me, these are serious people. Unlike RFK Jr., who is very unserious and unqualified, he is now jeopardizing our health by causing these real experts, the ones who, by the way, led our country through the anthrax time. We're talking about scientists who led us, who led also with swine flu. These are real experts and real scientists who are now leaving. So we, I've said it before, we are repeating again today that RFK Jr. must be fired. He must resign. I'm asking everyone to join us in our efforts to urge that this would happen, to join the resolution that I am filing today, along with Senator Wyden and many others. Senator Baldwin and others, that we are urging that he be fired or he resign for the good of our nation. So it is. We got it. Thank you. Okay. Hi. Good morning. My name is Eric Poliak. I'm the executive director of 304 Action. We're the leading national advocacy group for doctors and scientists in public service. We hold dangerous leaders accountable. We stand up for science and we make sure scientists have a seat at the table. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn't a scientist or a doctor. He's a quack who turned HHS into a megaphone for conspiracy theories. Just this week, he praised vaccines while taking credit for containing a measles outbreak that he helped cause while firing actual scientists and gutting the CDC. RFK Jr. is the arsonist who got put in charge of the fire department and he's making America sicker. This is not just about politics. This is about science versus quackery, health versus harm, truth versus conspiracy, and 304 Action will always stand on the side of science. Our next speaker, RFK Jr. is a danger to us all and that's why he needs to resign. Our next speakers show what leadership rooted in science looks like. The Democratic Doctors Caucus is leading the fight with science, facts, and compassion. We've worked alongside them for years from senior members like Dr. Ami Berra and Dr. Raul Ruiz, to leaders we've partnered with since their earliest days in public service including Dr. Kim Schreier, Dr. Kelly Morrison, Dr. Herb Conway, and Dr. Maxine Dexter. Dr. Dexter has been at the center of that fight from the start. She stood with us for science, truth, and public health. She shows why physicians must shape policy at the highest levels of government. It's my honor to introduce representative Dr. Maxine Dexter for Morgan. Thank you all for being here and thank you so much for bringing us together. I am Congresswoman Maxine Dexter of Oregon's third, I'm a mother, a lawmaker, and the first pulmonary and critical care physician to serve in Congress. As a physician, we all took an oath to do no harm. Today, that oath compels me, along with the entire Democratic Doctors Caucus, to call for the unequivocal resignation of RFK Jr. To list the harm that he has done on the American public in its entirety would require us to stay here all day. From dehumanizing people with autism to suggesting that antidepressants cause school shootings, the record is as long as it is appalling. The horror reached a fever pitch last week when RFK Jr. fired CDC Director Dr. Menorrez. Dr. Menorrez is a dedicated public servant. She is a distinguished microbiologist. She represents exactly what RFK Jr. cannot, someone who is committed to putting science over politics. Her dismissal has unleashed a wave of outreach. At least four CDC leadership officials have resigned in protest. And just this week, more than 1,000 current and former employees across HHS joined together to demand Kennedy's resignation. A thousand public health professionals, past and present, warning us that they are no longer feeling that their job is to do the work of keeping us safe. That we cannot trust the CDC. As a physician, as a mother, and as somebody who has dedicated my life to protecting human health, I cannot and will not stay silent while our public health institutions are dismantled, while trust in science is corroded, and while American lives are put at stake. But let me be clear, this is not just about one man. This is about whether we, as members of Congress, will stand up for truth over lies, science over conspiracy, and the health of American people over political games. So today, I'm not only calling on RFK Jr. to resign, I am calling on my colleagues in both parties to summon the courage to act, to restore integrity at HHS, and to send a clear message that in this country, science will not be silenced. Thank you. Now, I'm very honored to introduce, oh, very good. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Dr. Dixon. So our next speaker will be Senator Chris Murphy. Well, thank you very much all for being here. Thanks to my great and heroic colleagues in the House of Representatives. We don't have as many doctors in the Democratic Caucus and the Senate as you have in the House, but we certainly have a lot of parents. John and I both have two school-age children, and we know that every day that goes by as we watch the CDC and HHS spiral out of control, be put more firmly in the hands of radical conspiracy theorists, our children's health is at risk. RFK Jr. says that there's no real risk in this country from infectious disease. Tell that to the tens of thousands of Connecticut residents who died, who perished at the hands of the COVID virus. This is a really dangerous moment for this country. And I think we owe a great deal of thanks to the heroic leadership at CDC who has chosen to speak out, who has chosen to tell a really dangerous and very scary truth. I just want to read you a couple quotes, short quotes from Dr. Descalus's resignation letter. It's an extraordinary letter. Every single member of the United States Senate, Republican and Democratic senators should read it. He says, I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public's health. Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I ever seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people. Those are extraordinary statements, but it tells you what is happening at CDC today. The radical political judgment of RFK Jr. and his conspiracy theory crowd being substituted for the judgment of scientists and doctors, putting all of our health care at risk. We are at risk today, but imagine if there was to be another outbreak later this year. Imagine the chaos and the havoc that would be wrought in this country if science was replaced with conspiracy. I just want to end by making it clear that this has nothing to do with politics. Not everything here in this building has to be right or left, blue or red. This is just right or wrong. In the last 24 hours, some of our Republican colleagues have begun to mildly speak up. I don't really understand much of what John Kennedy said and says, but he called the CDC and the HHS a goat rodeo. I don't really know what that is, but it doesn't sound good. But we need more than criticism. We need our Republican colleagues to stand up and say that it's time for RFK Jr. to go. We need our Republican colleagues to go to the White House and demand that the President clean house and put science and medicine back in charge. We will continue to speak up, but this really shouldn't have anything to do with your political stripes or who you are politically loyal to. We are at a moment of decision for this country. I think the country will learn something today from the Secretary's testimony, but it's time that both Republicans and Democrats stand up to protect our kids before it is too late, before the CDC and the HHS have gone fully, unrecoverably off the rails. With that, let me introduce my great colleague who's been speaking up on this matter strongly over the last few days, represents the CDC, Senator John Ossoff. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Senator Murphy. Thank you to my colleagues. Thank you to the hosts of today's event. Mr. Kennedy never should have received so much as a hearing in the United States Senate, so obviously unqualified and unfit for this office, is he? He never should have been confirmed by the United States Senate, and he needs to resign. It is one thing to be a skeptic or a reformer. It is quite another to be a fool and a wrecking ball. And the destruction of the CDC in Georgia, the systematic dismantling of American public health is putting children and families across the country at risk every single day. This is chaos. It is out of control. And every day this continues, more and more Americans are put at risk by Mr. Kennedy's radical and incoherent ideology. I defend the CDC not just because those who work there are my constituents, but because it is the most important disease-fighting agency not just in the country, but in the world, with unmatched capabilities and responsibility. And the CDC has been systematically demolished since Mr. Kennedy was sworn in. Agency morale is at rock bottom. A quarter of the workforce has been pushed out. It is an agency known for its tenacity and precision and capacity that is now totally in chaos by design. And every day this continues, the damage is compounded. It is time for Mr. Kennedy to resign. He has demonstrated his incompetence. This is gross mismanagement, unforgivable mismanagement that cannot continue. And I join my colleagues today in calling for the Secretary's resignation. Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I'm Congressman Ami Barrett, Dr. Ami Barrett. I always will defer to my good friends Senator Murphy and Senator Ossoff here. But look, here's the deal. A lot of us spent time going to undergrad, to medical school, residency, sometimes fellowship, sometimes spending time in the lab. We learned about the scientific method. We learned about looking for truth, looking at data, evaluating it, and making decisions. The oath we take when we enter the profession of medicine was to do good, to do no harm, and to help our patients make the best decisions for them. That's why I'm so proud to stand with my Democratic doctor colleagues. But you know what's shameful here? Our Republican doctor colleagues should be standing here with us right now. They took that same oath. What we've seen from day one with RFK Jr. is he's done harm. He's not done any good. And he is taking away a patient's right to choose those vaccinations, to look at credible health information. So when folks have been asking me, it's like, what should we do? It's like I never would have said this. I would not listen to RFK Jr.'s CDC because he's hollered it out. He's put conspiracy theorists in there. The CDC director, the folks that resigned, they are doing what's right. They're standing up for the American people. This is shameful. Now, Senator Bill Cassidy and I were colleagues in the House. I like Dr. Cassidy. Dr. Cassidy, you took that same oath. You're in a position today to ask some really hard pointed questions. Please do it. Do it for America's patients. And it's time for us to stand up. This is not about Democrats or Republicans. It's about the American health care system. In the seven months, eight months of the Trump administration, they've dismantled a patient's ability to go see a doctor if they get sick. They're going to put so many patients at risk of going bankrupt because they're going to lose their health insurance. They've taken the gem of public health, the CDC, what the world looks at for guidance on vaccines, on how to handle public health issues. They've dismantled it. The FDA that protects us, that makes sure the drugs that are coming to market are safe and effective, they've dismantled it. The NIH, that is the cutting edge scientific research institution, that never has been a partisan issue, that has always had the full support of Democrats and Republicans, that has been searching for cures of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease. Not partisan issues, not Democrats and Republicans, just looking for cures to make America healthier again. Well, they've dismantled it. It is time for RFK Jr. to go. And you know, I don't normally give compliments to President Trump, but you know, Operation Warp Speed, getting that mRNA vaccine into the arms of folks, getting those COVID shots that were safe and effective and saved hundreds of thousands, millions of lives across this world and in the United States, that was a crowning achievement. President Trump, RFK Jr. is dismantling your biggest achievement as president. You gotta call him into the White House, call him into the overall office and tell his ass to get out of there. Sorry about that. Thank you. And let me introduce my colleague, Dr. Raul Ruiz, who's been fighting his whole professional life to give care to the folks in the Inland Empire in California. He's been at my side for 13 years, fighting to make sure American patients get the care that they deserve. Thank you. Thank you, Ami. Let's listen. Let's give it up for Ami Barrow once again. Thank you so much. Good morning, everybody, and thank you to 314 Action, Protect Our Care for bringing us together. It's a pleasure to be here with my Senate colleagues in the Democratic Doctors Caucus. I'm Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz, and I'm an emergency medicine physician specialized in international humanitarian disaster aid and public health. We're here today because the health and safety of the American people are being jeopardized by the dangerous leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It is the biggest health threat that we face. He is the biggest health threat that we face in America today. More than 1,000 current and former federal health workers who dedicate their lives to keeping Americans safe have sounded the alarm. They are warning that Secretary Kennedy's reckless actions and inflammatory rhetoric are actively endangering the nation's health. In fact, with the recent shooting at the CDC, his inflammatory rhetoric is actively endangering the lives of CDC workers. The last thing this nation needs is a health secretary who undermines vaccines that have been shown through scientific studies and rigor that are safe and effective, who fires experienced experts and scientists doing the research that will save lives, and installs unqualified political allies based on their fringe, unhinged ideology in positions of critical scientific leadership. He forced out CDC Director Susan Monares, a respected scientist with impeccable credentials, because she refused to rubber stamp his dangerous, unscientific, ideologically driven agenda. Four senior CDC leaders resigned in protest and he replaced them with individuals who push conspiracy theories and unproven treatments. That is not reform. It is the very politicization he falsely accused CDC scientists of perpetrating. Nine former CDC Directors, Republicans and Democrats, serving both under Republican and Democratic administrations, have issued a chilling warning that Secretary Kennedy's actions have weakened life-saving programs that protect Americans from cancer, heart disease, infectious disease, and much more. They told us plainly this is unlike anything our nation has ever experienced. And this is unacceptable. The American people deserve a health secretary who understands and uses science to protect families that puts the public's health above politics. Secretary Kennedy has proven he cannot and will not do that. That is why today I join the Democratic Doctors Caucus and the chorus of health professionals, public servants, community leaders, CDC workers, scientific experts, the bench researchers, in demanding his resignation now. And if he will not step down, then Congress and the President must act to remove him. Our nation cannot afford a health secretary who undermines science, dismantles protections, puts lives at risk, our children's lives at risk. And we must restore integrity and trust to the Department of Health and Human Services because the public's health is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of life and death. Thank you and now I want to introduce Dr. Kim Schrier. Good morning. I'm Kim Schrier, Congress's pediatrician. I have seen for decades that RFK Jr. has lied to the American people. He has spread misinformation. He is so doubt about vaccine safety and efficacy and he has scared parents. And I want to be really clear that his theories are baseless and fringe and that he cannot be trusted for one second. For months, RFK Jr. has let his reckless conspiracy theories guide our public health policy, eroding public trust and endangering lives. He's fired experts and replaced them with activists. Day after day, we are seeing evidence that having RFK Jr. as our Secretary of Health and Human Services is making our country a more dangerous place, particularly for children. And as a pediatrician, I cannot overstate how reckless, how irresponsible this peddling of vaccine misinformation is. I want to make it clear, doctor, to patients and parents, that vaccines are safe and effective and essential to protecting our health. Unlike RFK Jr., I've actually treated patients with measles, with pertussis, with meningitis and let me tell you, these are terrible diseases. Children suffer. They are life-threatening illnesses and we should all be grateful that they are rare thanks to vaccines. The longer that RFK Jr. manipulates policy at HHS, the more danger he puts all of us in. He's already restricted who's eligible for a COVID vaccine. He is taking our choices away. He has reversed evidence-based recommendations that pregnant women get COVID vaccines, putting them and their babies at risk. And now, he's coming after the entire childhood vaccination schedule. Based on his actions so far, and his tight ties and financial interests in the anti-vaccine industry, it will not be long, I do not believe it will be long, before we see more outbreaks of measles and pertussis, meningitis and maybe even polio. Yes, polio could come to the United States of America. And let me just add that Florida's cancellation of school vaccine requirements is only going to add fuel to this fire. These and other vaccine-preventable illnesses will once again get a significant foothold in this country and every one of us should be scared. I am so proud to join my Democratic doctors and my colleagues in standing up for our constituents, standing up for public health and calling seriously, forcefully, for RFK Jr. to resign immediately before more children get sick or, God forbid, die from diseases that could easily have been prevented. And with that, I'd like to turn this over to my colleague, Dr. Kelly Morrison from Minnesota. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Schreier. Good morning. I'm Kelly Morrison, Congresswoman for Minnesota's 3rd District and the first and only pro-choice OBGYN to ever serve in Congress. I joined my colleagues this morning in calling for RFK Jr.'s immediate resignation. I stand here again with the members of the Democratic Doctors Caucus six months after we voiced our warning about and opposition to his nomination to lead HHS. Our worst fears are now being realized. There needs to be a point at which we all stop and say, this is unequivocally disqualifying. We cannot be complicit in letting political ideologues take over our scientific and public health institutions. We just had the firing of one of the nation's top scientists because she refused to put a political agenda over protecting public health. We've had an exodus of senior agency officials who said they could no longer work in RFK Jr.'s environment of weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk. We have had a complete political takeover of our nation's top health agency. This is the truth of where we are. What we've been hearing from the federal health officials whistleblowing about RFK Jr.'s leadership at HHS is horrifying. We have to listen to what they're telling us. RFK Jr. is literally orchestrating the destruction of public health care in the United States. He is completely undermining globally respected health institutions like CDC. He is taking us from being a leader in the world to at best an absolute mockery and at worst a danger. Vaccines are modern miracles that keep us from dying of preventable diseases. After decades upon decades of dedicated work to create these life-saving miracles, he is dragging us backwards. I'm disturbed by this administration's indifference to the damage he is causing. And I am beyond disappointed in congressional Republicans who confirmed him and continue to enable his destruction of public health in the United States. If nothing changes, I worry the CDC won't survive this and irreparable harm will have been done to public health in our country. So we must be clear-eyed about the danger we are in and we all need to speak out. This is not a partisan issue. This is about the health of the American people. I call on all members of Congress to be patriots and stand up for the health and safety and well-being of the American people. Thank you very much and I turn it over to my colleague from New Jersey, Dr. Herb Conway. Good morning everyone. My name is Dr. Herb Conway. I represent New Jersey's third congressional district. I've come to the Congress as a practicing internist and actually an officer working for the public health in the county where I reside. And I understand fully well as a public health officer how important it is for a functional CDC to review the science and transmit that data down to the state and down to the county where I work so that we might advise people on how to protect their health, advise them about emerging infections, infectious diseases coming from overseas, what they ought to do with respect to COVID, responding to measles outbreaks. We rely on the CDC for important information on doing that. Now, coming before the Congress, I also served in the state legislature for 26 years. I served as the chairman of the health committee and I've had to deal with these anti-science anti-vax types, many of whom are driven by a financial desire to, as they promote, wild conspiracy theories disproven over and over again. As for example, that vaccines cause autism, disproven over and over again and yet they continue this about that lie, saying that additives in vaccines cause autism and other problems also disputed over and over again. And recently, and we as a group joined understanding what RFK Jr. did, I had firsthand knowledge of this because he worked in my state trying to get us to walk away from science and to abandon vaccines. He's now brought it here. Now, he's got a record and I am sorry that the senators in the United States Congress did not follow the advice of many, including certainly our doctor's caucus, when we raised the alarm about what he is going to do if he becomes the head of the most important health apparatus in the world, CDC, our colleagues who are working in Medicare and Medicaid. We have seen the disaster that he's wrought and we warned the Congress about it and sadly they refused to listen to his own history of lying and spreading misinformation that is directly harmful to the health of many citizens right straight across this country and indeed will impact people worldwide. I hope when they bring him before the Senate today that they will remember that he lied to them when he said he would not remove the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee members and then when he gets into office, what does he do? He fires every single one of them and puts on that committee a known vaccine skeptics who again are interested in stoking misinformation so that they can go to the courts, they can make money giving speeches and putting money into their own pocket and they're willing to sacrifice the health of so many in order to do it. Now we've already seen him ignore a measles outbreak across several states in the West. 1,408 people have died when I checked this morning, have contracted measles when I checked this morning, three people have died and what did he do? What did he fail to do? He failed as any expert would tell you, get in there, get people vaccinated, arrest and stop the progression of measles virus. He did nothing and the virus continues to spread and what these vaccine skeptics fail to tell you as they advise you to take vitamin A and do other things that won't help, that there are many, that one in a thousand children who contract the measles virus will end up having a subacute encephalitis that could cause long term cognitive disabilities and other issues related to their health. This is a serious condition. So they don't want the protection of the measles vaccine to prevent children from getting measles in the first place, leading to more deaths just this year than the last 25 years. This is what this man is bringing. Just think about this attack on the childhood vaccinations that he is bringing forward. Rubella, a vaccine which causes congenital birth defects. We give this vaccine to children, not only to protect them, but to protect their mothers and other women who might give birth and if they contract Rubella during pregnancy, they were very likely to have a child that is so severely damaged by the virus that the child won't live. These things have been proven time and time again. He's shown who he is. Ideology has no place in the process of determining and developing the best recommendations for how we can protect our health. We could have another pandemic. We've seen viruses in recent memory, the Middle East, that caused 25% of the people contracted to die. Now, we didn't have the mRNA virus then, but with that virus, the technology that the vaccine brings will allow the world to vaccinate everyone at risk in a year's time. Just think of what that could mean in terms of arresting a pandemic that can cause so much death and dislocation. And we're cutting the funding from it and we're walking away from this science-based intervention. Now, I join, of course, my colleagues in saying that he needs to go. He has failed in his principal duty to protect the American people. We're sitting here in a situation now, again, ideologically driven, where we are defunding health care. We are seeing the resurgence of diseases, which were nearly eliminated. I'm surprised they don't wax poetic about the good old days of polio. That's how misguided these people are. He needs to resign. He needs to go. The Senate needs to do its job. And hopefully, with your help, we'll keep the pressure on and tell the clear and present danger to not only the health of Americans, but the health of the world, leaves the stage once and for all. Thank you. Thank you so much. I got to tell you, I want to thank all of our speakers, but I really love the Congressional Doctors' Conference. I mean, you know, the expertise, and many of you all do stuff with 314 Action, you do stuff with Protect Our Care, out in the wild, not just here in D.C., so I want to thank all of you. That is our final speaker. I know these members will mill around for a minute if you have questions. But 314 Action and Protect Our Care have been on the case since the minute Donald Trump announced that he was going to appoint R.F.K., R.F.K. Jr. We're going to stay on the case with these members, with the Senate, continuing to make the case. R.F.K. Jr. and Donald Trump, and the Republicans who confirmed him, are to American health care and to public health, but I think the message that you heard from several of these speakers from the Congressional Doctors' Caucus also needs to be relayed. Don't listen to R.F.K. Jr. You know, don't listen to the anti-vaxxers. Don't listen to the pseudoscientists. Listen to the Doctors' Caucus. Listen to your doctor. Listen to the scientists. Thank you all for coming, and we'll be in touch soon. Look at guys. Can you tell it's been a lot? She had to run, she had to run.