Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Clashed with CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday during a live interview on “State of the Union,” accusing the network of “press malpractice” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The exchange started after Bash challenged Kennedy’s claim that the United States had “the highest death rate from COVID of any nation on earth.” Kennedy repeated the claim and pivoted to criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief White House medical adviser who invoked the Fifth Amendment last week during a Senate hearing on the pandemic’s origins.
“There was absolute press malpractice,” Kennedy told Bash. “You weren’t allowing… Your job is a fierce skepticism toward authority.”
Bash responded, “OK. Yes, I am. I am.”
“And you weren’t doing that,” Kennedy said. “You were beating up on people who were dissenting.”
Bash pushed back that state governors, not the media, issued lockdown orders, saying they acted mostly after “hearing from hospitals saying that their ICUs were overrun and they needed some help.”
Kennedy went on to accuse CNN of “scaring people” through on-screen death tolls. “Because that was the job of CNN,” he said, before Bash tried to interrupt. Kennedy continued, saying the network’s chyrons showing death counts were meant “to get people to comply.”
The two also sparred over vaccines. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, asked Bash directly whether she believed “the COVID vaccine protected children.” Bash cited findings that vaccine disinformation contributed to thousands of deaths, prompting Kennedy to accuse her of “saying nonsense.”
“Are you going to, you want to sit here and attack me? Or do you want to have conversations about public health?” Bash asked at one point.
“Well, you’re sitting here attacking me,” Kennedy replied.
“I’m not attacking you, I’m asking questions about how to prevent the next pandemic,” Bash said, adding she didn’t “want to use this interview to allow you to say things that aren’t entirely true.”
As the back-and-forth continued, Bash said, “This is not productive,” before adding, “I am not saying that the entire way that the COVID reaction was accurate. It was a scary time, and people made mistakes.”
The clash comes days after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering senators’ questions about his conduct during the pandemic and how the virus emerged. Sen. Rand Paul has announced he will hold a committee vote this week to recommend the Senate find Fauci in contempt of Congress.
