Hey, they're folkes. At is Thursday, September fourth, And did you see all of that yelling and streaming and sarcasm at the Senate today? For three hours we saw the people who are representing us in DC act worse than maybe we see some kids in elementary school. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and tj am I Robes. I'm kind of being a little bit of a smart ass, kind of being a little facetious, but this wasn't a great display RFK Junior testifying in the Senate today And Robes,
you actually said it while we were watching. This is uncomfortable.
It is and I was actually glad that all the kids were in school and didn't actually have to watch adults act like children. And the point being, if there was actually something substantive, if something actually came out of it that was a game changer or at least informative.
Or hopeful, or something got.
Accomplished, maybe maybe you could justify some of the heated exchanges. But this was just for political show, This was just for headlines. This was just for in my personal opinion, for lawmakers to use. And I believe RFK actually said this to use in their next promotional video to say, see I'm fighting for the citizens, I'm standing up to whatever, whomever, And look RFK Junior looked just as childish, laughing, ignoring, being.
Calling people names. I mean, it just it was. I thought everybody had egg on their face.
Nobody looked good. And again it's okay to fight and be passionate, I should say be passionate. This was it was. It wasn't substance if it was personal. So it seems like a lot of ego clashes up there.
And performative it did, say.
And when you're talking about the most serious, isn't it the most critical thing? When you talk about kids in education, the only thing more important to that is children in their health. This is what was on the line today and the performance of everyone today. I know the senators, they got good hearts and they're fighting the good fights
in a lot of ways. But there were too many times today robes where these aren't adults acting like adults, and they weren't being respectful and they know that, and that was very difficult to watch during the day today when you're talking about kids health and arguments are being made that people are actually dying because of things that are happening at HHS and RFK Junior and the Senators. There was no sense of working on the same team
and having different right, we have different approaches. We all want to protect kids, we have different approaches. Never even felt like that we have the same goal.
Even yeah, and I mean look and yes, it was about childhood vaccine. It was also about every American's access to vaccines, especially even those who are at high risk, people who are compromised, the elderly, people who can't afford certain medications, or people who don't need to jump through another hoop to have access to vaccines. So this affects the health of millions of Americans and certainly the children of our country.
And so yes, people are passionate about it.
I would argue, regardless of which side you're on in terms of vaccines, if you're a proponent of what JFU sorry RFK Junior is trying to accomplish, or if you're against them, it didn't even matter what side of the aisle or what side of the argument you were on. You had to feel icky about just watching the process of adults fighting like kids.
It makes you feel good about the direction we're heading and that something is going to get done. But to give you all, did you call it up? You know that a lot's been going on at HHS the past seven months, ever since RFK Junior got in there, But in the past month things have been even more heated. Of course, he got a lot of criticism following this shooting at the CDC down in Atlanta. He got a
lot of heat because of vaccine recommendations. He got a lot of heat because the CDC director that he hired was fired after a month. All these things are happening right now. But this was already a previously scheduled Senate Finance Committee hearing in which they wanted him to testify, and it just so happened. We're just days away from him firing the CDC director. So as we knew this was going to be hot, we knew and we knew
they were gonna he might be the one. Huh Is he the favorite punching bag in the administration?
He's in the top three.
I would say to name the other two.
Uh, Nope, that can just be whatever you all want to fill in in the blinks, but he's definitely up there. And look, we expected Democrats to be fiery when addressing him, and sometimes they ask questions, sometimes they just made political statements, but several of them called on him to resign or to be fired. They said it right to his face. But several Republicans also were critical of RFK Junior as well, and that was of note and maybe not as expected.
They weren't as harsh. Clearly they weren't. But there was even one senator who a Republican said I've voted for you, and I'm concerned about some of the things you've been doing, so that some of that sounded bipartisan. But once they got going it good Lord have mercy. Now was a
couple of highlights they wanted to get at. Of course, vaccine policy, the firing of the CDC director, the COVID vaccine recommendations there were high on the list, and they wanted to get at something that the former CDC director who was just fired said about why she was fired. We'll get into that in a second. He called her a liar, flat out said she is a liar.
Multiple times, reiterated it.
He had several times. He could have walked it back. He emphasized it several times. But before we get into the substance. Let's get into the style RFK junior at times. Look, it's only one way to put it. Didn't necessarily behave like an adult.
Now, he chuckled. Look, he was receiving a lot of heat.
So I was actually trying to imagine being in his position, regardless of how any of us feel about his positions or even about him in general. That can't be easy to be sitting on the hot seat and have senators calling for your resignation, calling you lots of negative things,
to just try to put it mildly. But for his reaction to be pulling out his phone, ignoring a senator while they were speaking, yelling at them, cutting them off, speaking over them, like they were actually yelling at each other.
Back and forth on top of one another. There were actual shouting matches.
You're not overstating at all. I could not believe what we were watching. Look, we've seen contentious hearings over the years, and you know what, usually in every hearing you see, there's one exchange that makes the highlight real. If you will on the news that you got anything to pick from, If you just want to pick out some yelling.
Yeah, and I will tell you a lot of times when you have it here and there. You had even said earlier, Hey, this is going to be appointment television. We have to watch this. This is going there's going to be fireworks, and sure we were expecting that. I have to tell you, like an hour into it.
I wanted I wanted to turn it off. Yeah, I felt and yes, uncomfortable. I actually I felt irritable. Nobody wins in these situations.
And again there was no information gleaned, there was no resolution, there was no there was.
No headway made. It was just adults yelling at each other.
No, don't you believe, or at least I do. I think most people viewed it if they had a chance to the way we did. There are people on the left and on the right who will watch this and always see it through the lens of their political leanings. There go go get after him, rooting for the Democratic senators, and some Republicans might have seen that being too harsh on them, or they might defend him in the administration.
But don't you think most people are in somewhere in the middle that watching this, you couldn't feel good about where we are.
I think this is why people don't vote TJ. I think this is why people get apathetic. They just stop caring because it doesn't matter. And I understand because once you look. I remember, even early on in my career, I wanted to be a political reporter.
My dream was to go to DC.
I got to DC, and I started reporting on the things and the people who I was excited about being able to be a part of the system and explaining things to I got so disenfranchised. I got so turned off by the whole process. I remember thinking, that's so funny that at one point I actually bought into all of this and thought this was all real.
And I just got turned off.
And I just watching this today, those feelings all came back where I just was. It was sad, and it just makes you want to say, nothing's ever gonna get done, this country is doomed. It really makes you feel pessimistic. And I'm not trying to continue that feeling, but that is what happens. I think when Americans witness what we saw today.
Yeah, we all got to see it. It was live. This was a time. Look, we we are not we have where this is no indictment of the left or the right, no no criticism, no position of any kind, but independent so hard. It's unmistakable when I say there was some childlike behavior. Look, there were times he wouldn't even look at some of the sinners. He turned away and wouldn't acknowledge them when they wrapped questioning. I know he was upset, and sometimes you just react as a
human being. Man. Decorum is a big deal. And just it wasn't a good display and a good show today, And I mean taking your phone out and scrolling during a Senate hearing in which you are the witness. But okay, how do you I don't know.
There was disrespect flying all over the place today.
There was zero respect.
A big point of contention today, of course, and she was talked about more than anybody, right. Husan Moneras who was just fired by Secretary RFK Junior as a CDC director only after only about a month now, she claims, and others and certainly Democrats, claim that she was fired because she wouldn't get in line with the administration, that she just she wouldn't bend the knee, kiss the ring or whatever and do it she was told and specifically Robes.
She wrote in The Wall Street Journal that she was fired after she wouldn't go along with with just kind of rubber stamping some of the vaccine policy, and she just wouldn't go along with and she said that's why she was fired, right, And this was it got like, my eyes got big, my jaw dropped, and I even laughed at some points during some of this back.
I think both of.
Us at this point our jaws both dropped at the same time. And it wasn't planned. It was almost cartoonish. We're like, what are we actually witnessing? So yes, Manara said she refused to do what she was told without actually seeing the science behind what she was told to approve. And yes, RFK Junior said that's a lie. And they said, are you calling her a liar? Yes, I'm calling her a liar. And then they said, well, then why did
you fire her? And he said because I asked her if she was a trustworthy person and she said no.
My that that was the moment like what, Okay, this doesn't even be as hard to imagine.
We need context. If that did happen, there had to be a larger conversation or some context to explain why anybody would say that they weren't trustworthy.
Who would say that to their boss. If your boss asked you if you're trustworthy, you would say yes. Even if that means you're a liar, you would still say yes.
Yes.
So for someone to say no, she had to be pushed into saying that because it was in context of something that she was not okay with.
And when she was asked the question, excuse me, when he was asked about this. It was during Senator Warren's questioning. And Senator Warren of Massachusetts Democrat, you know her, know her well at this point, but she is one who rails against a big compani's, big pharmaceutical companies, big business. So she was all in and she was prepared. She
is good at this. Give her credit. But when she asked him the question, he gave the answer about she asked if she was trusted with she said Senator Sanders was sitting next to Senator Warren. He just started laughing.
He started laughing. There was a man behind her who started laughing, and then there was even a woman sitting behind RFK Junior who started to People were laughing because they couldn't believe what they were hearing, and.
We couldn't either. And here's the thing. Folks. That moment was a big one, but they were just getting warmed up. We'll explain why one senator insisted that RFK Junior be sworn in before he started. Also more about Senator Warren that back and forth you're going to be seeing on TV an awful, awful lot.
And.
The senator from New Mexico, in a strange moment, took his lapel pen off and said he was going to give it to RFK Junior, but then just as quickly said nah, you don't deserve it.
Welcome back to Amy and TJ. We are talking about that fiery Senate Finance Committee hearing where RFK Junior was on the hot seat, and it didn't just get hot, it was burning up.
I felt like I was watching a hellscape.
Actually, it was like, these are our trusted politicians who we've elected and appointed to represent the United States, to put our best people to make the best decisions for our health, for our safety, for our humanity. What was I What were we watching today?
This is only only folks, not an indictment of everybody and everybody individually, but the process and how we go about doing this in our politics today. It just if that's where we are, we will never get anything done that was. And we've seen tough ones and we expect them to be tough, and there's certain questioning. The opposite party always is hard on the witness, if you're from the opposite party that the witness is from. We get that.
We understand that this still was different today roams. This was a little more contentious and heated and trifling at times than we're used to seeing, and it just wasn't a good display. And we're kind of kind of disheartened by watching it today, where you're watching a finance committee hearing about something as important as this country's health and children in particular, and you wanted to turn it off because I can't watch this is too much.
Yeah, I mean, think about what are some of I remember being in local news or even like at MSNBC and watching other countries politicians like actually go to blows start.
I thought we were getting close.
To that, that's how pissed off lawmakers were. But you know, you see in other countries people actually jumping over and taking swings at one another. I felt like we were really close to that.
In moments, some of this felt personal. They weren't yelling, no, I say the data is this, and no, I've seen these numbers, and no, I disagree. It was didn't you take money from this pharmaceutical company? Yeah, A lot of stuff was personal. They were throwing jabs at each other. How many times did he say to one of them, you don't know what you're talking about. I have no idea what you're talking about. That's just gibberous generation stuff up, He yelled us yelled this at several sentences.
That was his answer to a lot of pointed questions or at least even statements, just basically calling them liars, calling them idiots, calling them morons, saying you don't even know what you're talking about. And he said it just so just flippantly, like you moron. I mean, he didn't use the word moron, but that is basically what he was saying. So Senator Widen from Oregon, a Democrat from Oregon, actually asked that RFK be sworn in because he said, this witness has lied to the senator.
He's the ranking member. This is how the thing started. It started by the ranking member saying we should swear him in because this witness is a liar. That's how we started.
The chairman said, no, we're going to treat him like other witnesses from the administration, the chairman being Republican. But yes, there were several people who tried to get the chairman to step in and he did not, But yeah, he Senator Wyden said that the unwillingness is a message that it is acceptable to lie to the Senate Finance Committee.
I mean, how many times were people.
Called liars in this committee hearing, including RFK Junior himself right off.
The bat, and a lot of people will agree with that, that he has made false statements, that he has been pushing misinformation, and they say flat out he has come to the Senate before and told them things that are untrue. Ah, but that's how it started. It kind of set a tone for the direction things were going to go. The other big point of contingent, of course, they how many folks I can't remember actually a rope CDC how many of them fired? Hasn't it been thousands?
Oh? I was going to say thousands, Yes, yes, thousands. And obviously just last week the CDC director was fired. There were four other top CDC officials who resigned that week as well. So you've got that not just employees being fired, but you have the folks in charge either being fired or resigning in protest.
And he justified all of this with these stats. He said, eight out of ten young men can't even qualify for military service, and seventy six percent of Americans have a chronic disease. He said, quote, we're the sickest country in the world, and we have to fire some of those people at the CDC. He's essentially pointing out, look, how sick we are. Why were you you telling me that these folks at Health and Human Services are doing a good job when the country is the sickest in the world.
He tried to make that type of connection, like, what do you want me to do? Things are going well, so you want all these sane people. That's the point he was trying to make. At least don't know if it landed.
Yeah, I'm not sure that it did.
But Senator Warren landed her plane because she was ready, as you mentioned, and her big issue was who has
access to the vaccine. She kept saying, you told us, you swore to us that this vaccine, the COVID vaccine, would be available to everyone, and it was just this back and forth, where RFK Junior just kept repeating, I am not taking COVID vaccines away from people, and she says, effectively, you are, though, because if you're telling people, if they don't fit into a certain category, that they then have to go to their doctor to get a prescription, and
some doctors aren't even sure who they can write prescriptions for, and so you are effectively by not recommending that the COVID vaccine be available to everybody, by only recommending that it is available to at high risk patients, and who is that? That is murky as well. You are effectively denying or taking away vaccines from people. And they just kept saying the same thing, back and forth, back and forth, and nothing resonated with either of them.
And then he threw in there in the middle of this back and forth that she's taken eight hundred and fifty five thousand dollars from pharmaceutical company. So he was ready to try to push back or call other folks out. This was a this was a con you know, this was an important back and forth because the subject matter was real and this is the one that a lot of people are struggling with trying to figure out getting a COVID vaccine. He said, he's not taking it away.
But to your point, right, other people are saying you're making it more difficult, or I have to jump through a hoop, or I have to pay so I don't have the same access as I can.
Correct, So any one of us can walk in to CBS whatever Dwayne read, pharmacy you have, and you can get a flu vaccine. That was up until a month ago. The same case for the COVID booster or the COVID vaccine. That has changed because what the CDC recommends impacts what pharmacies supply, and when doctors have to write prescriptions and who they can write them for and what insurance companies will cover which, so it does.
Matter what the CDC recommends. It has a huge impact.
Got nowhere on that, Senator Sanders was a to jump in. Now he picked up on that earlier point because Senator Warren wrapped up and she was the one who had been asking about why the CDC director was fired Robes, and she got him to say that she was a liar and that no, I fired her because I asked her if she was trustworthy and she said no. Now, Senator Sanders jumped in and the first thing he said was, Hey, I need some clarification. I want to make sure I
understand what you're saying. And I think I use the word seriously. Are you seriously saying that? She responded to you, no, I'm not a trustworthy person. RFK Junior had a response for that.
Robe he said no. She didn't say no, I'm not a trustworthy person. She said no. And the way he said that was, yeah, it was with it, it was with purpose.
He said it into the microphone. He said, she said no and leaned back in his chair. He said nut and didn'dra to elaborate and left it at that. But it was that kind of. It was petty at times, It really.
Was, absolutely and probably it got even more petty when we heard from Senator Ben Ray Luhan, Democrat from New Mexico.
It was a ridiculous back and forth.
It actually was kind of I was even confused in moments. It was so contentious, but I wasn't really even clear what they were so upset about.
That's a good way to put it. They were yelling at each other and I'm not sure why.
I was like, wait, what, It's almost like they were creating an argument for the fun of it.
It almost felt like that anyway.
That's when RFK Junior said to Senator Luhan, you're talking gibberish. He tried to make some racial thing about it, saying, Oh, I'm sorry you can't understand my new Mexico accent. And then it just spiraled from there because I'm not even sure how to explain the story that the senator told about the lapel pin he had. He said he had a starfish pin and it represented even the smallest creatures are impacted.
I don't know.
And he said he was gonna give it to him, but now because of what he's heard, I'm not going to give him this pen. He said, I'm sorry that you're not worthy of this nice little pen or pen. I'm going to pray for you instead.
But it was just odd.
It was but he was ready and he made some reference some little girl gave this to me, and I was going to give it to you, And what was he really?
We were We raised our eyebrows were like, what's happening right now? It was like, I was going to give you this, but now I'm not gonna And that's really what it felt like it was.
It really felt like.
Children, That's exactly what it was.
Like, too bad is this was going to be yours, but now it's not.
And he took it off like it was a whole motion, like it was. Look, we are not in any way, not in all admire respect what these senators do, what they had to do to get the positions they have, how smart they are, how capable many of them are. And I think overwhelmingly that most of them have their hearts in the right place. I think so. But this was one of those things that everybody got caught up in and it felt like everybody got dragged down by it,
and it was for me or abes. It was a disappointment. It was difficult to watch. And if you are carrying American you can't I don't care you a Democratic Republican, you can't feel good at your side won or we made our point or this is just one like we can't do this constantly. Nothing got what got accomplished.
It is nothing.
I would dare somebody to find me something today that happened that benefited a child in Oklahoma.
There was a lot of emotion and it might have been intended to create change or to shake RFK Junior up, or to get the world or at least americans watching and listening who maybe don't realize what's happening. But it just turned a lot of us off. I think it might have had the opposite effect ultimately.
And folk, we'll be honest, we didn't think we'd do an episode about this initially today, and we were prepared. As we were watching, we were kind of taking notes on the fundamentals, taking notes on the actual policies, taking notes on what's happening. And we stopped doing that because there wasn't enough of it and it wasn't substance. So we decided to hop on because right now, folks, we
are kind of venting, and this is cathartic. We're just saying how we felt about what we watched, and we don't know if you felt the same, but we got to try this again, and we got to do better than we did today.
Ropes.
Yeah, hopefully the next Senate hearing will go better. We'll be sure to watch and pass along our notes to all of you. But thank you for listening to us, everybody.
We appreciate you hanging with us on this Thursday evening.
I Ami Robot alongside t J. Holmes. Have a great rest of your night. Everybody,