Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., on Sunday declined to say that he had 100% confidence in Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instead saying that Kennedy has not “gone a wrong direction” on vaccines.
The comments come just days after the Trump administration fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, triggering an exodus of senior CDC officials from the agency.
Asked the first time whether he has 100% confidence in Kennedy, whom he voted to confirm, Lankford demurred, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that Kennedy isn’t limiting access to the Covid vaccine.
“It’s still widely accepted,” Lankford said.
“The challenge is, is it right for children to be able to have the Covid vaccine? That’s been a conversation where doctors widely disagree on this,” he added, before encouraging Americans to get their flu vaccines.
Asked a second time about whether he has 100% confidence in Kennedy, Lankford told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, “I believe he is who the president has picked. I don’t think he’s gone a wrong direction in this.”
NBC News reported last week that former CDC Director Susan Monarez’s ouster came after she refused to sign off on vaccine guidance that contained anti-vaccine talking points. Kennedy is a longtime anti-vaccine activist.
Shortly after Monarez was fired, several other top CDC officials resigned, including Dr. Debra Houry, the chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.
Since taking his post earlier this year, Kennedy has already drastically reshaped the top federal health agency’s outlook on vaccines.
In June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and replaced them with his own appointees. Shortly after, the panel received a presentation from an anti-vaccine activist featuring claims that have been widely debunked by scientists.
On Sunday, Lankford claimed that Kennedy’s actions were just “pushing the boundaries.”
“I think he is challenging some of the assumptions that a lot of Americans have asked,” the senator said. “What is it about our food? What is it about autism? What is it about all these things that are different in America than they are in different places? I think those are appropriate questions.”
“[Kennedy is] pushing the boundaries, but he also seems to be following the science. It’s not wrong to be able to ask hard questions. It is wrong to ignore the science. I don’t see him ignoring the science. I see him asking the hard questions,” the Oklahoma senator said.
He later clarified that he does not believe the widely debunked theory that vaccines cause autism, telling Welker, “I don’t connect those two at all, but there are reasonable questions to say, Why do we have more cases of autism here? What is it? But I don’t think they’re connected to vaccines.”
Lankford on Sunday also spoke about an appeals court’s decision late Friday that concluded that President Donald Trump had misused his authority in imposing sweeping tariffs on foreign nations without Congress’ approval.
The senator praised Trump’s work on the tariffs in recent months, saying that the president is “accomplishing” his economic goals with tariffs.
“For the court to step in and say he doesn’t have the ability to be able to regulate trade — that is within the statute,” Lankford said, acknowledging that the Trump administration is planning to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
He also blamed court decisions like this one for causing instability for retailers as they plan their imports and set prices.
“What I’m hearing, Kristen, more than anything else, from all the companies that I talked to, is they just wanted to be set. They just want to know what the rules of the road are,” Lankford said. “Every time there’s a new court hearing, every time there’s a new change, it’s destabilizing for every one of our businesses. So let’s get all these things resolved as quickly as we possibly can.”
The senator also called for the Federal Reserve to remain independent from the whims of the executive branch, but emphasized that the Fed is part of a collaborative approach to the economy, along with the president and Congress.
“The president has a role, as he’s doing with tariffs in multiple different ways, to be able to negotiate more deals. The Federal Reserve also has a role in this. So all of us have a role in it. We just have a different role,” Lankford said. “The Federal Reserve is at its best when it’s independent, but they’re not independent of the entire American people.”
Lankford also expressed support for the president’s decision to send National Guard troops and federal law enforcement to Washington, D.C., earlier this month in what Trump has called an effort to curb crime.
Lankford said that other cities and jurisdictions, including in his home state of Oklahoma, should invite federal law enforcement to help lower crime rates in their towns as well.
“If the governor of Oklahoma or the mayors of these different cities were to invite him in,” Lankford said, “I would say they would cooperate with the president and say, ‘Hey, we could use the help to be able to deal with any kind of crime issues.’”
“I would say the people of Oklahoma would welcome any help that we can get to be able to deal with criminal issues,” Lankford added, saying that other cities, like Chicago, “should be asking for help rather than pushing help away.”
