Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said Sunday the media engaged in “press malpractice” and fear-mongering during the COVID pandemic.
Mr. Kennedy, who appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” accused host Dana Bash of being “part of the problem” in the media’s coverage of the pandemic, to which she pushed back “No, I wasn’t part of the problem.”
“There was absolute press malpractice,” Mr. Kennedy said. “You weren’t allowing … Your job is a fierce skepticism toward authority.”
Ms. Bash responded, “OK. Yes, I am. I am.”
“And you weren’t doing that,” Mr. Kennedy said. ‘You were beating up on people who were dissenting.”
At one point in the interview, Mr. Kennedy accused CNN of “scaring people.” Ms. Bash asked why he was saying that.
“Because that was the job of CNN,” he said before Ms. Bash attempted to interrupt him, “… was to put the chyrons up about many people are dying to get people to comply.”
A CNN spokesperson told The Washington Times in a statement: “Dana Bash is a veteran journalist who conducted a newsmaking interview with Secretary Kennedy in which he stated that he supports parents getting their children vaccinated against measles and addressed President Trump’s push for further study into autism and vaccines.”
“Asking tough, substantive questions to those in power is the job of every journalist, and Dana did hers incredibly well today,” the spokesperson said. “We stand behind Dana, her reporting, and CNN’s overall coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The contentious back-and-forth erupted just days after Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment to refuse to answer senators’ questions about his conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic and how the virus emerged.
Dr. Fauci now faces a potential contempt of Congress after Sen. Rand Paul announced he would hold a vote in committee this week to recommend the Senate find him in contempt.
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