Sen. Cassidy Faults Kennedy’s Vaccine Record and Trump’s Iran War Briefings

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate health committee, said Sunday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has broken commitments made to him and “has not restored trust in public health,” in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” Cassidy, a physician, provided the key vote to advance Kennedy’s nomination last year. The interview with moderator Margaret Brennan was recorded June 25, CBS reported.

“If you build public health upon a foundation of lies, then you’re going to have the absence of adequate public health,” Cassidy said. He said he voted for Kennedy because the alternative was a White House health role with no congressional oversight: “I chose to have the one with the guardrails.” CBS noted that the CDC web page now carries the heading “Vaccines do not cause Autism” with an asterisk and text saying the claim is “not an evidence-based claim,” which Cassidy called a violation of an agreement with the secretary. CBS reported that research has found no evidence of higher autism rates among vaccinated people. Cassidy also credited Kennedy for his focus on ultra-processed foods: “If that’s where he stayed, our country would be really much better off.”

On foreign policy, Cassidy described his clash with President Donald Trump at a Senate Republican lunch Wednesday over the Iran war, which followed the Senate’s 50-48 vote for a war powers resolution. He told Face the Nation that the president had treated Congress as “merely an appendage,” and that he raised his voice to match Trump’s, the Guardian reported. He said he later received a briefing from Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff and dropped his support for the resolution. “The fact is that a medium-sized power at this point is perceived to have fought a superpower to a draw,” he said, adding that the conflict has so far cost $29 billion and claimed 13 American lives, according to the Guardian.

Cassidy, who lost his primary last month after Trump endorsed a challenger, also criticized the president’s priorities. He questioned the push for the SAVE America Act, saying Trump should be focused on “how we make life more affordable for the average American,” the Guardian reported. Julia Letlow, the Trump-backed challenger, won the Republican runoff Saturday and is favored in November, the Guardian said. On the president’s choice of housing regulator Bill Pulte to temporarily lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Cassidy said Pulte’s use of personal information to target a political enemy of the president is “disqualifying,” CBS reported.

He also signaled trouble for Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, whose confirmation Cassidy may help decide. He said he “absolutely” objects to the Justice Department’s attempt to set up a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and to a move to shield the president and his family from IRS audits. “Leaders should be held to a higher standard, not a different standard,” Cassidy said, according to the Guardian.

Other Republicans offered a different view. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said, “I don’t think the war is over, but we’re making great progress,” and asked Americans to “hang in there,” the Guardian reported. Cassidy himself acknowledged a shift on vaccines: “The administration clearly has gotten off the anti-vaccine message into something more positive,” he said, CBS reported.