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/

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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.