‘I Didn’t Know That’: RFK Jr. Pleads Ignorance When Grilled About Gutted Health Programs

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke to CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook for his first network interview on Wednesday since joining President Donald Trump’s cabinet.

CBS Mornings promoted the interview as a conversation “about the measles vaccine, major government cuts and health care costs.” LaPook and Kennedy spoke in Mesa, Arizona where Kennedy was visiting a native health center as part of a tour promoting his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

“Since his appointment in February, Kennedy has facilitated sweeping cuts for programs and staffers alike,” noted LaPook in the segment, before asking Kennedy:

You proposed more than $11 billion in cuts to local and state programs addressing things like infectious disease, mental health, addiction, and childhood vaccination. Did you personally approve those cuts?

“I’m not familiar with those cuts, you know, we’d have to go… We’d have to go,” Kennedy replied as LaPook noted, “There’s like more than 50 pages of, you know, of cuts that I actually went through.”
“The cuts were mainly DEI cuts, which the president–” Kennedy replied.

LaPook interjected, “There were a lot, but I’ll give you, for example, about $750,000 of a University of Michigan grant into adolescent diabetes was cut. Did you know that?”

“I didn’t know that,” Kennedy replied. “That’s something that we’ll look at,” Kennedy added, noting he couldn’t say whether or not the cut was made by DOGE.

“I just, I’m not familiar with that particular study. But there’s a number of studies that were cut that came to our attention and that did not deserve to be cut, and we reinstated them. Our purpose is not to reduce any level of scientific research that’s important,” Kennedy added.

CBS News published a news item on the interview and summarized the part of the interview on vaccines, writing:

For decades, Kennedy has been a vaccine skeptic and promoted false claims that vaccines cause autism. But now, Kennedy told CBS News he encourages people to get the measles vaccine.

“The federal government’s position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine, but … the government should not be mandating those,” he said.

Kennedy had previously said the measles vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the virus from spreading, but until now had stopped short of recommending it.

Yet he also continued to raise doubts, despite decades of research and extensive testing that backs up the effectiveness and safety of vaccines.

Watch the clip above via CBS.