Bill Cassidy

Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who helped confirm Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as health secretary, is warning of the consequences of his vote.

The former doctor, speaking on CBS News’s Sunday edition of “Face the Nation,” voiced concerns about Kennedy’s leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services. The secretary has used his role as head of the country’s public health system to set policy rooted in false beliefs.

“If you build public health upon a foundation of lies, then you’re gonna have the absence of adequate public health,” Cassidy said. “You need to build everything in life on truth.”

Kennedy, who has a history of promoting false theories, passed the Senate with the support of nearly all Republicans last year. In the following 16 months, he has weakened HHS’s role in the fight against infectious diseases, some of which he incorrectly claims can’t be prevented with vaccines.

The secretary announced in May 2025 that COVID-19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for pregnant women and healthy children, whom he said can’t benefit from the preventative shots. Many public health researchers have found otherwise.

“My goal, our goal should be to serve the American people,” Cassidy added. “And you better serve them in terms of public health with stability and with an acknowledgment of that which is actually true, and in this case, immunizations work.”

The National News Desk requested comment from Kennedy but hasn’t received a response.

He has asserted that his highest priority is protecting Americans, whom he claims have suffered from a dishonest public health system. The secretary said in a social media post earlier this month that the federal response to COVID-19 proved the existence of “politicized science.”

“Ultimately, God puts us all on this earth to search for existential truths,” Kennedy wrote on X. “I've tried to instill this mission at HHS by implementing gold standard research to end the regime of politicized science that COVID exposed to the American public.”

KFF, a health policy research firm, found low support for Kennedy in an April poll. Six in 10 voters disliked his performance as secretary, including 46 percent who strongly disapproved. There were similar findings on the administration’s vaccine policies.

Kennedy’s support in the Senate has also appeared to wane. It remains to be seen whether growing congressional discontent will force President Donald Trump to replace him.

“He serves at the president’s pleasure,” Cassidy remarked.