CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins dropped a brutal video receipt on Trump Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confident declaration at a trainwreck congressional hearing.
Kennedy spent several hours being bombarded with questions from both sides of the aisle at a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. The HHS secretary was defiant and combative throughout the hearing as senators grilled him about his fringe medical opinions and the policy decisions they have driven.
On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, the anchor interviewed Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) about her confrontation with RFK Jr. over his “fake link” between mass shootings and antidepressants, which Kennedy denied making.
Collins took that opportunity to play a Fox News clip in which Kennedy made that suggestion:
SMITH: I’ve been so offended by the way that he has dangled out there, this fake link between antidepressants and school shootings, like, somehow, this is what is causing this terrible surge of — scourge of violence in our — in our country.
So, he doesn’t like to be challenged. And he showed that really clearly, this afternoon.
COLLINS: Well, actually that moment, because you asked him — obviously, there was a devastating shooting in your home state, just last week, and that was what you were referring to today. You asked him about those comments, and basically, he denied saying what he said.
I just want people to listen to your exchange today. And also to Secretary Kennedy, in his own words, last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Just last week, in the days after the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School, in my home state of Minnesota, you went on Fox News, blaming school shootings, on antidepressants.
KENNEDY JR.: No.
SMITH: You have no evidence of that, because you have no evidence of a connection. And you want to talk about —
KENNEDY JR.: I don’t know — you’re just saying something. You’re just making stuff up.
SMITH: You know, this is what you say, right? Secretary Kennedy?
KENNEDY JR.: No. No, no.
SMITH: When someone presents you with information that does not fit your worldview.
KENNEDY JR.: I did not blame that shooting on — I have no idea whether — I have no idea, and I would — I never said that. You’re making it up. You are twisting.
SMITH: I am not making this up —
KENNEDY JR.: Yes, you are.
SMITH: Secretary Kennedy —
KENNEDY JR.: You are being dishonest right now.
SMITH: — if you want to —
KENNEDY JR.: At NIH, we’re launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence. You know, many of them on there have black box warnings that warn of suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation. So, we need — we can’t exclude those as a culprit, and those are the kind of studies that we’re doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: He uses the word, potential, there.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.