Bill Maher said he was "disappointed" in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and urged the health secretary to step aside after a contentious appearance before the Senate Finance Committee this week.
Maher, who has had Kennedy as a frequent guest on his HBO show Real Time since 2004 and on his podcast Club Random, said in his monologue that it "pains" him to call for Kennedy's removal but that "he's got to go." Maher said he had been sympathetic to some of Kennedy's critiques of mainstream medicine and public-health agencies, but that the Senate hearing showed a pattern of behavior he could no longer defend.
The testimony drew bipartisan criticism from senators who pressed Kennedy on a range of issues, including his dismissal of top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisers, the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez about a month into her tenure, and decisions that narrowed eligibility for the updated COVID-19 vaccines. Democrats in particular were sharp in their criticism of Kennedy's record eight months into the job.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., referenced Kennedy's past associations in questioning his fitness for office, saying, "Mr. Kennedy calls himself a protector of children, some kind of rich claim, coming from someone who has flown on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet on multiple occasions." Republicans also pressed the health secretary; Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who was the decisive vote in Kennedy's February confirmation, repeatedly challenged his statements and actions.
Cassidy asked Kennedy whether he agreed that President Trump deserved credit for Operation Warp Speed, the public-private partnership that accelerated COVID-19 vaccine development. When Cassidy raised an apparent contradiction over Kennedy's past comments — including an exchange in which Kennedy was reported to have said that the COVID vaccine had killed more people than the virus — Kennedy replied, "Wait, I did not say that. I just want to make clear, I did not say that."
Kennedy defended some of his decisions and sought to explain his legal and policy positions, including prior participation in lawsuits that sought to limit access to COVID-19 vaccines. Cassidy at one point curtailed a longer explanation by saying he had only three minutes left for questioning.
During an exchange with Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Kennedy reiterated concerns he has voiced about mRNA vaccines and said the vaccines have been linked to myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescent and young adult males. Public-health officials and medical experts acknowledge rare cases of myocarditis and pericarditis following mRNA vaccination but say the majority of such cases have been mild and treatable.
As health secretary, Kennedy has taken concrete steps that have drawn scrutiny. He canceled an estimated $500 million in mRNA vaccine research, saying 22 projects he terminated failed to "protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu." The hearing also revisited comments Kennedy has made in the past: in December 2021, Kennedy described the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine as "the deadliest vaccine ever made," remarks that were cited by senators during questioning.
Maher said he once viewed Kennedy as a voice for a different approach to public health. "I am the person who was sympathetic to what he was trying to do," Maher said on his show, noting that he had recommended Kennedy emphasize his background as an environmental lawyer. In interviews and conversations earlier this year, Maher praised Kennedy's broader argument that environmental toxins contribute to illness, telling actor Chris Pratt last month that he agreed with Kennedy's "overall view that what makes us sick is the toxicity."
But after watching the hearing footage, Maher told viewers he had changed his view. "The knives are out for Bobby Kennedy and I gotta' say... I'm with the knives," Maher said. He criticized what he described as Kennedy's unwillingness to find a more moderate position, saying, "He just does not listen." Maher concluded, "It's just, he's got to go and it pains me to say it because I like him."
Kennedy's tenure and the choices he has made as health secretary have become a focal point for both Democrats and Republicans, with senators continuing to press him about policy reversals, personnel changes at federal agencies, and the broader implications for public-health preparedness and vaccine policy. The debate highlighted deep divisions over vaccine safety, the role of federal health agencies, and how best to balance innovation with public confidence in medical interventions.