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See the full story · 3 sourcesTrump and RFK Jr. spread misinformation about vaccines and autism as they upended the federal vaccination schedule
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Sen. Bill Cassidy danced around whether he regretted voting to confirm Health Secreatry Robert F. Kennedy Jr. even as he faced questions about whether he’d made a mistake voting for another of Donald Trump’s nominees.
Cassidy was questioned Sunday by Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union and told the anchor only that “you have to live life living forward” when asked why he voted for the health secretary despite his track record of spreading misinformation about vaccines and autism for decades. Cassidy has, since Kennedy’s confirmation, stated that he believes the Health secretary misled him about his intentions during the confirmation process.
“Last week when you were asked if you regret your vote to confirm Secretary Kennedy to HHS, you noted that you couldn't see into the future at the time-- you couldn't see that he was not going to honor his promises to you to get your vote,” said Tapper. “How do you respond to the criticism that you didn't need to look to the future, you just needed to look to the past, because Secretary Kennedy, RFK Jr. has been spreading disinformation about vaccines for 22 years?”
“Yeah, again, people always want to bring that up, and all I can say is you have to you have to live life living forward,” the Republican senator said in response.
He then went on to chide Tapper for focusing on Kenndy’s role in the situation rather than the policy matters raised by the Trump administration’s order this week altering the federal vaccine schedule for children.
“I think actually people bringing this up now distract from actually what we should be speaking about,” argued Cassidy. “In fact, you're playing into this.”
“We should have positive policy to improve the health of the American people,” he continued. “We should be really about ‘Making America Healthy Again,’ and that means that we should be working to increase immunization rates, not to decrease them. And the policy that the president just put forward is going to decrease immunization rates, aside from being less convenient and costing families more. And frankly, that is where the focus should be.”
His interview comes after the president’s order that significantly changed the federal vaccine schedule, dividing shots into three separate categories and recommending that infants and young children receive them in separate doctor’s visits. In his interview, Cassidy, a doctor, noted repeatedly that the change to the schedule will mean more doctor’s appointments for parents of young children, leading to higher costs and what he described as a significantly more inconvenient scenario for working families.
But more impactful than the order itself was the president’s rhetoric at Monday’s signing ceremony where the order was announced. At the event, Trump leveled untrue and disproven claims about vaccines and their supposed dangers and made factually inaccurate assertions about Americans having supposedly been healthier, en masse, before the advent of childhood vaccines and vaccination schedules.
He also wrongfully linked those early childhood vaccinations to rising numbers of autism diagnoses, which scientists and doctors say are unrelated.
The senator, during his interview, agreed with the characterization of Trump’s rhetoric at the event as “crazy” and “stupid” and argued that the order’s economic consequences were part of the reason why the president’s poll numbers continue to sink.
"If it wasn't so potentially tragic, you would break out laughing,” said Cassidy. “It is wrong on so many levels.”
The senator from Louisiana, a Republican, clashed repeatedly with RFK Jr. over 2025 and into 2026 after the secretary’s confirmation, angered by official statements and messaging from the Department of Health and Human Services that catered to conspiracy theorists and contributed to the spread of misinformation about vaccinations.
Still, Cassidy cast the deciding vote that saw RFK Jr. confirmed to oversee the nation’s health industry.
Cassidy also had his own personal blow-up with Trump over the Iran war and the senator previously supported the president’s impeachment after January 6. Trump endorsed against him in a primary earlier this year, and Cassidy lost his battle for re-election as a result.
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