Republicans in Congress are starting to revolt against President Donald Trump and his Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following their changes to children's vaccine schedules, their latest attacks on Tylenol, and their unproven correlation between it and autism, reports The Guardian.
Leading the threats to "break ranks" is Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a medical doctor and chair of the Senate health committee, who did vote to confirm Kennedy.
While Cassidy eased the blow of his comments by applauding Trump's "desire to address this issue and support HHS," he challenged both present the proof backing their claims.
“HHS should release the new data that it has to support this claim,” Cassidy posted on X. “The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case. The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy.”
Cassidy expounded on his concerns in an interview with The Hill, to which he said, “You’re going to change a medical guideline without science? I mean, you’re going to build a bridge without physics? You’re going to fly a plane without engineering?”
Joining Cassidy in his condemnation of the administration are two Republicans who have expressed their concern before: Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
“It appears that [fired CDC director Susan Monarez] was under a lot of pressure to approve recommendations that may come from the [vaccine advisory] committee that may lack scientific basis, so that is disturbing and would undermine our public health efforts,” Collins told the Hill, adding, "I’m very pleased that Chairman Cassidy is having these hearings.”
Monarez served as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for less than a month in 2025 before being fired. During a recent Senate hearing, she alleged she was ousted for refusing Kennedy's demands to compromise scientific integrity.
Murkowski said that Monarez’s testimony was “very unsettling and very concerning."
Some say more Republicans will join them in their concerns.
“You see a lot of Republicans starting to break ranks here, and there’s a lot of noise. I think it will come down to Trump and what his tolerance level is for all this noise around [Kennedy],” one unnamed senator told the Hill.
But it's Kennedy's pedigree that may keep him in place for now — despite the fact that his family members shunned him and his nephew Joe Kennedy III called him "a threat to every American."
“I don’t think [Trump] likes all the noise. He hasn’t liked that previously," the unnamed senator said. "He has a really low tolerance level for that, but Bobby Kennedy is different. He’s not like anyone else in the Cabinet.”