‘Why Did You Think RFK Would Change?!’ ABC’s Raddatz Grills GOP Senator Amid His Recent Criticism of Trump-RFK Vaccine Rhetoric

ABC News’ Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz grilled Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on his support for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sunday.

“You ultimately voted for Secretary Kennedy’s nomination despite concerns about his views on vaccine, on autism. He convinced you in some ways that nothing would change. Was he lying to you?” Raddatz asked on ABC’s This Week.

Cassidy answered, “Well, as I’ve mentioned multiple times in the past, there are guarantees that were given to me and guarantees that were supposedly going to be enforced by the White House. Among those were not to affect the ACIP schedule.”

He added that the “American people have been poorly served” by Kennedy.

“Was he lying to you?” Raddatz continued.

Cassidy attempted to deflect. “Again, Martha, people love to go there — again, it speaks for itself. I don’t know if we have to, like —,” he said before breaking into laughter. “— my staff said, you’re going to get this question. I’d say, yeah, for the 10,000th time. So it’s pretty evident.”

Undeterred, Raddatz then asked, “Why did you think he would change? I’m curious about that. You voted for him. You knew what RFK had said for years about autism. What convinced you he would change?”

Cassidy said:

You know, there’s a lot of — a lot of parents who contacted me. I am a representative of people. So if I got — if I got a thousand contacts over that period of time, 60 to 70 percent of them were from folks who believed in the need to address ultra-processed food.

Also, some people — from people within the biotech industry or people who were investors who said we need a shakeup at the FDA and they thought there would be a positive shakeup.

There was a lot of folks who were again either concerned about ultra-processed food and in credit, this administration has brought attention to ultra-processed food as no other administration has, still haven’t done anything about it but they’ve brought attention to it, and as well as people who felt that this could be a very positive development in getting things done.

But the point is that when you’re making the decision process, you’re taking in everything at once, and you just make the best decision that presents at this — at the time.

Watch the above via ABC.

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