Sanders releases trove of internal HHS emails showing RFK Jr. pressured CDC over vaccine messaging

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

06/25/26 7:55 PM ET


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday released a tranche of Health and Human Services (HHS) emails that appear to show HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pressuring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over its vaccine messaging. Emails indicate that Kennedy directed the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel to restrict access to vaccines, allowed researchers to access “confidential data” to indicate the disproven claim that vaccines cause autism and changed recommendations for the public to receive COVID-19 shots without input from the CDC.

Other emails also show that Kennedy’s then-chief of staff, Matthew Buckham, emailed former CDC Director Susan Monarez in August 2025 about the need for a “political review of major decisions at CDC … to ensure that [the Immediate Office of the Secretary] and the CDC political leadership all have eyes on the decisions for approval/changes before they go into effect.”

Less than a week later, Kennedy fired Monarez “for failing to rubber stamp recommendations from” the CDC’s vaccine panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Sanders said in a statement.

Sanders, the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), blasted Monarez’s firing as “outrageous,” accusing Kennedy of firing her “for her commitment to public health and vaccines.” Sanders requested a bipartisan investigation into her firing and called on Kennedy to resign.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5941650-sanders-releases-hhs-emails/

---

Link to Sen. Sanders PRESS RELEASE - NEWS: Sanders Releases Internal HHS Emails Demonstrating Secretary Kennedy’s Politicization of CDC, Interference with Vaccines

Link to emails Summary MEMO (PDF) - https://outreach.senate.gov/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=SenSanders&crop=0000.0000.0000.0000&report_id=&redirect=https%3a%2f%2fwww.help.senate.gov%2fimo%2fmedia%2fdoc%2fcdc-emails-memo623.pdf&redir_log=541808825095433

Link to EMAILS (PDF) - https://outreach.senate.gov/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=SenSanders&crop=0000.0000.0000.0000&report_id=&redirect=https%3a%2f%2fwww.help.senate.gov%2fimo%2fmedia%2fdoc%2fcdc_emails.pdf&redir_log=845482209526389

As a note - that file with a compilation of emails was the result of what is often derisively dubbed and dismissed as a "sternly worded letter" but in reality is a request for information, in this case, communications that happened during a specified time period, and answers to specific questions, with a deadline. The emails were what HHS submitted to Sen. Sanders that were deemed responsive to the request.

[hookaleft]

1. RFK also lied to congress

New evidence casts doubt on RFK Jr testimony before Senate

Kennedy repeatedly said 2019 Samoa trip had ‘nothing to do with vaccines’. An email from his then colleague says they were on a vaccine-related ‘mission’

New evidence has emerged that Robert F Kennedy Jr was on a vaccine-related “mission” when he visited Samoa ahead of a deadly measles outbreak in 2019, raising further questions about whether the US health secretary lied to the US Senate when he said the trip had “nothing to do with vaccines”.

Records obtained by the Guardian show Kennedy’s colleague told Samoan officials in an email that he and Kennedy were coming as part of a mission to study the island nation’s medical records in the aftermath of a “discontinuity in vaccinations”.

“We all look forward to the opportunity to be of service to the people of Samoa with our mission,” Dr Michael Graven wrote.

Kennedy was at the time serving as chair and chief legal counsel of Children’s Health Defense, a non-profit group known for its anti-vaccine activism. Graven was the group’s chief information officer. Spokespeople for Kennedy at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not respond to messages seeking comment.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/25/rfk-jr-senate-testimony-samoa-visit

[hookaleft]

2. also this:

Sec. RFK, Jr. tries to convince Iowa candidate to drop out of race

DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau) — Iowa Libertarian Party Chair Stephanie Berlin shared with Gray Media Iowa’s State Capitol Bureau audio of a phone call that she said took place between candidate Rick Stewart (L - Iowa 2nd District, Cedar Rapids) and U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Service Robert F. Kennedy, Junior, on June 11th.

In the audio, Kennedy tries to convice Stewart to drop out of the race for Congress.

Gray Media Iowa reached out to HHS for comment about the phone call Thursday evening but did not immediately receive a response.

https://www.ktiv.com/2026/06/26/listen-sec-rfk-jr-tries-convince-iowa-candidate-drop-out-race/


All of this scandal is why Trump has appointed Chris Klomp

Trump nominates Chris Klomp as HHS second-in-command

President Donald Trump on Thursday named Medicare director and former health care executive Chris Klomp to be deputy secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The deputy secretary oversees operations and regulatory policy. The move would make Klomp second in command behind HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he has been closely advising for several months.

“HHS is a massive and complex organization, but Chris knows exactly how to run it,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He added that he, Kennedy and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz “made this decision together!”

Klomp would need to be confirmed by the Senate as deputy secretary,

[70sEraVet]

3. And the results of RFKjr's efforts in Samoa are dead kids.

Samoan officials later said Kennedy’s visit bolstered the credibility of anti-vaccine activists. A measles outbreak, which tore through the Pacific island nation a few months after Kennedy’s visit, sickened thousands and killed 83 people, mostly children under age five.
(same Guardian article)

And what he did for Samoa, he will do for the US -- on a MUCH grander scale!

[riversedge]

4. Sen Sanders--' called on Kennedy to resign."

........Sanders, the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), blasted Monarez’s firing as “outrageous,” accusing Kennedy of firing her “for her commitment to public health and vaccines.” Sanders requested a bipartisan investigation into her firing and called on Kennedy to resign.

[chouchou]

5. RFK Jr. should be in jail..

...or much worse. His ridiculous, idiotic "Laws" have killed citizens.
(My husband ...former Paratrooper, would first like to "Beat the shit out of him"...just for fun)
My hubby never usually talks like that.

[Botany]

6. I have come to the conclusion that JFK Jr was installed to kill people by the likes of Peter Thiel.

He knows nothing about science, medicine, or immunology and yet he gets to dictate policy
about those issues. This is madness and it was done purposely. @ HHS he is a baby with a
chain saw & machine good.

[yardwork]

8. RFK, Jr. has been working for Russia since 2005.

That's the year that he suddenly started publishing wacko articles about vaccines causing autism and other diseases. Before that he was an environmental lawyer.

Using his fame he went to Africa to promote his anti-vax views. That campaign undermined trust for NGOs that were promoting vaccine use (such as the WHO, Doctors Without Borders, and others) in those nations. As the influence of NGOs receded, Russian influence increased.

Today, Russia dominates much of central Africa - the nations right below the gulf states. These countries have rare minerals that are essential for emerging technologies.

With Trump's destruction of USAID the field is clear for Russia and China to divide up the African continent as a modern day slave state used for mining and industry.

RFK, Jr's elevation to the Trump administration is another example of how Trump is run by Russia.

Oh and he's horribly racist too. Just like Trump and the rest of them.

[Botany]

9. He is a complete piece of shit.

Last edited Fri Jun 26, 2026, 12:06 PM - Edit history (1)

I didn’t know about his Russian connections but I have heard he has been paid millions of dollars
by a law firm that sues vaccine manufacturers and that he went to Samoa and spread lies about
the measles vaccine and got about 90 people killed and many more sick.

I know a guy who clerked @ a law firm where RFK Jr. clerked (he was a legacy hire) and told
me he was dirt bag that never did anything except fall asleep @ his desk and smelled like shit.

[yardwork]

10. I can believe all that.

He was a self-admitted drug addict. He was not a good lawyer. He sells his family's name to the highest bidder, probably because he needs the money.

Anyway, his efforts in Africa have caused a great deal of harm. The foray in American Samoa gets more attention but his global impact is much worse.

[Botany]

13. And RFK Jr. parrots anti vaccine* propaganda from Russia's Storm 15-16 (used to be the I.R.A.)

a state run misinformation operation that feeds crap to America’s right wing such as CPAC and
Fox News in order to weaken America.

* Especially about the C-19 vaccine… when a study showed that C-19 and flu vaccines were safe
and effective JFK Jr. tried to hide the results.

[yardwork]

14. His connections to Putin are in plain sight.

He's a useful tool just like Krasnov.

[relogic]

12. "and smelled like shit"

This is an odiferous example of someone’s gut-reaching persona and visage certainly matching one’s detection of their fumes.

[YodaMom2]

15. Based on what his own family has said about him,

I suspect he’s a literal psychopath. The dead children in Samoa would affect him not at all - he is devoid of conscience and empathy. And it sounds like he’s a sadist as well.

[relogic]

18. I have always

empathized with his laryngeal unpleasantness aspect erupting from him, (I have my own) but not his lies. His cruel face makes me as ill when I look upon the toddler who selected him to so strategically kill so many of us.

[sakabatou]

19. This

[Bayard]

7. Funny thing.....

All of his kids are vaccinated. He admitted it in his confirmation hearing.

[dave99]

11. Damn Right, Senator Sanders !

[QueerDuck]

16. Will this go anywhere? Or is it just official confirmation of things we've always known to be true?

What's next?

[BumRushDaShow]

17. I think like Gabbard

he'll eventually be on the chopping block and this could be turned around and used as justification. His MAHA group (and voters) just got fractured again with yesterday's SCOTUS Roundup ruling and his anti-vax loons were thwarted over the past month between FDA and DOD.

Those two were brought in as "bipartisan" disposable appointees who were eager to carry out some draconian agenda and were representing specific voting blocs, but they are no longer useful when they generate negative P.R. attention.

[QueerDuck]

21. Fingers crossed!

[31j20b3]

20. I would expect political appointees to argue with the departments including the CDC

But there is definitely a red-line crossed when a wacko like RFK starts firing people who can't be persuaded by evidence and logic.

[Initech]

22. We have the government the conspiracy theorists have been warning us about the last 25 years.

[Callie1979]

23. The MAGA will love him even MORE. Morons.