
Sen. Maggie Hassan Gets Emotional In Rebuke Of RFK Jr. ‘Sowing Doubts’ About Vaccines
HuffPost
The New Hampshire Democrat described raising a son with severe cerebral palsy and ripped Kennedy for "relitigating" settled science on autism.
WASHINGTON ― Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) delivered a fiery rebuke Thursday of President Donald Trump’s health and human services nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his history of fanning conspiracy theories about vaccines, becoming emotional as she described raising a son with cerebral palsy and the need to build on settled science.
During Kennedy’s confirmation hearing, Hassan called it “disturbing” that some Republicans have accused Democrats of opposing Kennedy’s nomination for partisan reasons. In fact, she said, Democratic senators take their role seriously when it comes to vetting potential Cabinet secretaries, and many have concerns about Kennedy’s distrust of science.
“You may not know that I am the proud mother of a 36-year-old young man with severe cerebral palsy,” Hassan said, choking up. “A day does not go by when I don’t think about, ‘What did I do when I was pregnant with him that might have caused the hydrocephalus that has so impacted his life?’”
The New Hampshire Democrat condemned the suggestion that any senator, in either party, doesn’t want to know what causes autism.
“Do you know how many friends I have with children who have autism?” she asked, her voice rising. “The problem with this witness’ response on the autism cause and the relationship to vaccines is because he’s relitigating and churning settled science. So we can’t go forward and find out what the cause of autism is and treat these kids and help these families.”