Georgia Senators and Former HHS Workers Call for RFK Jr.’s Resignation

Georgia’s U.S. Senators, Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, are demanding the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., citing his handling of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

During a Sept. 4 Senate Finance Committee hearing, Warnock accused Kennedy of mismanagement in the wake of last month’s CDC shooting that left DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose dead, as well as amid a wave of firings and resignations among top CDC leadership. “Despite your lack of credentials and expertise, clearly you have an agenda. It is a threat to the public health of the American people,” Warnock told Kennedy. “You are a hazard to the health of the American people. I think that you ought to resign.”

Kennedy, who has long been accused of promoting vaccine skepticism, recently cut COVID vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women. He pushed back at the hearing, saying the CDC is “a corrupt agency” and questioning how he could be a threat when, in his words, “we’re the sickest people on Earth.”

That same day, Sen. Ossoff held a press conference condemning Kennedy’s leadership, calling him “a fool and a wrecking ball” who is dismantling the nation’s premier public health agency. “The destruction of the CDC in Georgia—the systematic dismantling of American public health—is putting children and families across the country at risk every single day,” Ossoff said. He added that CDC morale is at “rock bottom,” with a quarter of the workforce having left.

In a show of broad support for their position, more than 1,000 current and former employees across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) signed a letter calling for Kennedy’s resignation. Addressed to Kennedy and members of Congress, the letter accuses the secretary of endangering the health of Americans. The group behind the letter, Save HHS, told ABC News it has sent the letter to the Senate Committees on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Finance, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, as well as to both the Majority and Minority leadership.

Both Senators warned that unless Kennedy resigns, President Biden should remove him to protect the future of the CDC and public health across the nation.