Somebody’s Lying: Susan Monarez’s Congressional Testimony Is 180 Degrees From RFK Jr.’s

Say That Again

from the liar-liar dept

When you’re brought before Congress to testify, you’re not supposed to lie. I realize that sounds rather obvious to many of you, but I’ll remind you that this is the year of our lord, 2025, and such common sensibilities are not quite as common as they used to be. Even if you’re not under oath, which was the case when RFK Jr. testified before Congress recently, you’re just not supposed to lie to Congress. While the hearing was to get Kennedy’s input on all the crazy, fucked up things he’s doing on matters of health, vaccines, and in response to health concerns, it also delved into Kennedy’s firing of Dr. Susan Monarez as CDC Director after less than three Scaramucci’s worth of time, which would have been 33 days.

Well, somebody is definitely lying, because Monarez went before Congress herself this week and her testimony stands in direct rebuttal to some rather unbelievable testimony from Kennedy. Let’s break it down.

Kennedy claims he fired Monarez because she told him, a quote according to Kennedy, that when he asked if she was a trustworthy person, she responded “no”.

Yes, that was his claim. Here it is in video form.

As I said at the time, this claim is simply not believable. It’s a form of an old catch-22. If a known liar tells you they are lying, do you believe them? If someone who is untrustworthy tells you they are untrustworthy, how do you know if you should trust that statement?

The whole thing is silly. Bad actors don’t tell others not to trust them. So… what happened?

Monarez told a different version of events on Wednesday, saying Kennedy had grown “very concerned” that she had spoken to members of Congress and told her not to do it again.

“He told me he could not trust me because I had shared information related to our conversation. … I told him, ‘if you cannot trust me, then you can fire me,’ ” she said.

That is a very, very different story from what Kennedy told. One has her telling him she’s not trustworthy. The other has him telling her that, with her responding that he should fire her if he felt that way. Related as they may be, this is not the sort of thing that would cause a case of misremembering or confusion. One of them is lying.

So, why was she fired?

In addition, Kennedy claims that Monarez’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, in which she claimed that Kennedy fired her because she refused to rubber stamp the newly reconstituted ACIP panel’s recommendations for vaccination schedules without a review of the scientific evidence, was a lie.

Here again, you can hear this at the beginning of the following exchange with Senator Bernie Sanders.

It’s one thing to write something in an op-ed. It’s quite another when you’re testifying before Congress. Dr. Monarez was unequivocal in her description of her firing.

Monarez also said that on August 2, she learned from media reports that Kennedy had removed liaison members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP — an influential group of outside experts who advise the agency on vaccinations – essentially being blindsided by the news.

Then, “on the morning of August 25, Secretary Kennedy demanded two things of me that were inconsistent with my oath of office and the ethics required of a public official,” Monarez said. “He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation regardless of the scientific evidence. He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy, without cause. He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign.”

Once again, we have a complete refutation of the claim that Kennedy made.

Now, I know who I trust between the two of these individuals. But my opinion doesn’t mean all that much here. This requires investigation. Senator Bill Cassidy in particular, who was both pivotal in Kennedy’s confirmation to HHS and who has more recently expressed skepticism and reservation about Kennedy’s actions at the agency, ought to be furious. If Kennedy is lying directly to all of their faces, including his own, one would think the mere concept of professional pride would drive Cassidy to want to get to the bottom of this.

As was the case with Kennedy, it is important to note that Monarez was not sworn in for her testimony. It’s also important to note that the lack of swearing in doesn’t mean that lying to Congress by either party is not a felony under the False Statements statute, Obstruction of Congress, and Contempt of Congress.

Somebody is lying to Congress here. And somebody, whoever that may be, should be held accountable for doing so.

Filed Under: cdc, elizabeth warren, health and human services, lying, rfk jr., susan monarez