Protester Interrupts RFK Jr. Claiming He Isn't Anti-Vaccine During Senate Hearing: 'You Lie!'

A protester interrupted the confirmation hearing of HHS Secretary nominee Robert Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) as he was denying to be "anti-vaccine."

"News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I'm neither," RFK Jr. said before being interrupted. "You lie!" yelled a woman before being promptly removed from the premises. It was unclear what she added, her yelling also drowned out by applause.

If confirmed, the 71-year-old former environmental lawyer would take the helm of a department overseeing more than 80,000 employees and a $1.7 trillion budget at a time when scientists are sounding the alarm over the potential for bird flu to trigger a human pandemic.

Critics have labeled him dangerously unqualified, citing his promotion of debunked claims linking measles vaccines to autism, his suggestion that HIV does not cause AIDS, his financial interests in law firms suing pharmaceutical companies, and more.

At the same time, the former Democrat has garnered praise for his "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) agenda, a slogan he used during his opening statement and emphasizes combatting the nation's chronic disease epidemic through healthier eating and prioritizing wellness.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is among Kennedy's detractors, using Donald Trump's own words against him in a message urging senators to "vote no." Pence used a video of Trump from May 2024 calling RFK Jr. a "Democrat plant" and a "radical left liberal" to beg senators not to confirm him as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

"President Trump was right the first time...Senators, Vote No on RFK Jr.," he captioned the tweet, which has since amassed more than 400,000 views.

In the video, Trump went on to call Kennedy "anti-gun," "an extreme environmentalist" and "anti-miliary" in his video demanding that Republicans and conservatives not vote for him.

"A lot of people think that Junior is a conservative — he's not. He's more liberal than anybody running on the Democrat side," Trump said in the video.

"I'd even take Biden over Junior because our country would last about a year or two longer than it would with Junior. It would collapse almost immediately," he continued.

Former US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy issued a scathing tell-all of her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday, posting a series of Instagram videos where she called him a "predator" unfit to oversee critical health agencies like the CDC and FDA.

"Bobby himself is a predator," Kennedy said in the video. "He's always been charismatic, able to attract others through the strength of his personality, his willingness to take risks, and break the rules ... It's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets."

"He enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks," she recounted.

The former diplomat, who served as US Ambassador to Australia until 2024, painted a damning picture of her cousin's past and accused him of fostering a destructive environment for their family.

"I watched his younger brothers and cousins follow him down the path of drug addiction," she said, recalling chaotic scenes centered around drugs and violence.

Breaking her silence after months of restraint due to her diplomatic role, Kennedy explained her decision to address RFK Jr.'s nomination publicly.

"Overseeing the FDA, the NIH, the CDC, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, agencies that are charged with protecting the most vulnerable among us, is an enormous deal," she said. "Now that Bobby has been nominated by President Trump ... I feel an obligation to speak out."

Kennedy also condemned her cousin's anti-vaccine activism.

"The conspiratorial half-truths he's told about vaccines, including in connection with Samoa's deadly 2019 outbreak of measles, have cost lives," she stated, citing his hypocrisy in vaccinating his own children while discouraging others from doing the same.