‘Enough is enough’: Rep. Haley Stevens moves to impeach RFK Jr.
‘Enough is enough’: Rep. Haley Stevens moves to impeach RFK Jr.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from HHS.
U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens has introduced articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Australia Bondi Beach SHOOTING: Eyewitness Report Gunmen Shouted ‘ALLAH-U-AKBAR’ at Hanukkah EventAustralia Bondi Beach SHOOTING: Eyewitness Report Gunmen Shouted ‘ALLAH-U-AKBAR’ at Hanukkah EventStevens, a Democrat from Birmingham, accused Kennedy Jr. of weaponizing misinformation and being a danger to the health of Michiganders and people nationwide.
“Secretary Kennedy is driving up costs, endangering lives, undermining public health, betraying public trust, and threatening Michigan families and our world class research institutions,” Stevens said Wednesday. “These are violations of his oath of office.”
Articles of impeachment need to be first adopted by a majority vote in the House, before the Senate has to hold an impeachment trial to determine if the official should be removed from office and banned from serving in the future.
With a Republican majority, the U.S. House is unlikely to approve articles of impeachment against Kennedy, who was selected by Republican President Donald Trump.
In response to the announcement, Andrew Nixon, communications director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said “Secretary Kennedy remains focused on improving Americans’ health and lowering costs, not on partisan theatrics designed to elevate standing in a failing, third-rate Senate bid.”
Stevens first announced her planned impeachment effort in September, citing Kennedy Jr.’s “ongoing efforts to jeopardize public health, increase the cost of healthcare and cut critical medical research.” She also called on him to resign after he declared a link between autism and acetaminophen — a point the majority of the health world refutes.
Known best under the brand name Tylenol, acetaminophen is a painkiller and fever-reducing medication recommended for use in pregnancy by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Officials with ACOG said Kennedy’s announcement isn’t backed by the full body of scientific evidence and dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of neurologic challenges in children.
“In more than two decades of research on the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy, not a single reputable study has successfully concluded that the use of acetaminophen in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children,” ACOG said in a statement. “In fact, the two highest-quality studies on this subject — one of which was published in JAMA last year — found no significant associations between use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability.”
Stevens criticized Kennedy Jr. for firing members of an advisory committee for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and selecting his own advisors, some of whom gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for spreading misinformation and criticizing COVID vaccines.
Last week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to end the 34-year-old recommendations that newborn babies be immunized against hepatitis B. Members instead favored vaccination only if the mother tested positive for the virus or whose infection status was unknown.
The ACIP recommends the shot be delayed until 2 months — a change that was strongly opposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“This irresponsible and purposely misleading guidance will lead to more hepatitis B infections in infants and children,” said AAP President Dr. Susan Kressly in a statement. “I want to reassure parents and clinicians that there is no new or concerning information about the hepatitis B vaccine that is prompting this change, nor has children’s risk of contracting hepatitis B changed. Instead, this is the result of a deliberate strategy to sow fear and distrust among families.”
Hepatitis B is a liver disease spread by an infected person through contact with their blood or bodily fluids. About 50% of people with the virus don’t know they have it, but it’s particularly dangerous for babies. About 90% of infants infected at birth develop chronic hepatitis B infection and about 25% of those babies will die prematurely, according to AAP.
Stevens said Kennedy Jr. has made “outlandish” claims about Tylenol, vaccines and autism. She also accused him of slashing funding for pediatric cancer research and made it harder for Americans to enroll in affordable health insurance plans.
“Enough is enough,” she said. “This is about protecting the health and safety of Michiganders and every American.”
Asked how Democratic leaders in the House responded to her efforts, Stevens said she’s eager to have her colleagues stand beside her. She declined to specify if House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was in support of the effort.
Johnson Pushes Back on ‘War Powers’ Vote Amid Iran Strikes
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Monday that passing a war powers resolution would strip President Trump of his authority to continue military operations in Iran, warning that such a move would present a “frightening prospect.”
Representatives Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) plan to push for a vote on a war powers resolution this week, which would require Congressional authorization before Trump can use military force against Iran again. They argue that the operations in Iran put U.S. troops at risk and are not representative of an “America First” agenda.
According to a source who spoke to The Hill, the resolution is expected to be brought to the floor on Thursday.
“I think the idea that we would move a War Powers Act vote right now, I mean, it will be forced to the floor, but the idea that we would take the ability of our commander in chief, the president, take his authority away right now to finish this job, is a frightening prospect to me,” Johnson told reporters after a briefing on the operation.
“It’s dangerous, and I am certainly hopeful, and I believe we do have the votes to put it down. That’s going to be a good thing for the country and our security and stability,” he added.
The U.S. and Israel conducted joint military strikes against Iran on Saturday after weeks of threats from Trump, who had called for regime change in Tehran. Johnson wrote on the social platform X that Congress’s bipartisan “Gang of Eight” was “briefed in detail earlier this week that military action may become necessary to protect American troops and American citizens in Iran.”
On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Iranian military and regime were racing to achieve “immunity” for its ongoing nuclear weapons program, meaning the ability to develop enough ballistic missiles to shield itself and the program from destruction. That’s why Trump chose to act now, he added.
Trump told CNN on Monday morning that the “big wave” of the operation is yet to come. When he was asked how long the war will last, the president said, “I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule.”
On Monday, Johnson told reporters he believes Trump “was acting well within his authority” as commander-in-chief to protect the country.
“It’s not a declaration of war. It’s not something that the president was required, because it’s defensive in nature and in design and in necessity, to come to Congress and get a vote first. And if they had briefed a larger group than the Gang of Eight, you know, there’s a real threat that that very sensitive intelligence that we had, you know, might have been leaked or something,” he said.
“So, this is why the commander in chief of our armed forces has the latitude that any commander in chief, any president always has, because they have a set of information that is sensitive, timely and urgent, and they have to be able to act upon it. They did that.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has urged lawmakers to support the war powers resolution, stating in a CNN interview on Monday that Trump needs to be constrained.
Presidents from both parties have taken action on behalf of the country in the past. Also, every president since the act was passed in the early 1970s has said they believe it unconstitutionally limits a president’s Article II authorities.
Trump Escalates Criticism of Ilhan Omar While Aboard Air Force One
What began earlier this month as a viral White House jab at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has now turned into a broader campaign offensive, with President Donald Trump doubling down on his criticism of the Somali-born congresswoman and the Somali refugee community in the United States.
Omar said during an October appearance on The Dean Obeidallah Show that she was not worried about losing her U.S. citizenship or being sent back to Somalia, where she was born.
“I have no worry, I don’t know how they’d take away my citizenship and like deport me,” Omar said. “But I don’t even know why that’s such a scary threat. I’m not the 8-year-old who escaped war
anymore. I’m grown, my kids are grown. I could go live wherever I want.”
On Nov. 10, the White House posted on X a 2024 photo of Trump waving from a McDonald’s drive-thru window, replying to a clip in which Omar said she was unconcerned about being deported.
The photo — taken during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania — quickly circulated online and was widely interpreted as a taunting “good-bye” message aimed at the Minnesota lawmaker.
Now, the feud has reignited. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump referenced the allegation that Omar had entered the U.S. through a fraudulent marriage.
“She supposedly came into our country by marrying her brother,” he said. “If that’s true, she shouldn’t be a congresswoman, and we should throw her the hell out of the country.”
The president also broadened his remarks to criticize Somali immigration overall.
“Somalis have caused us a lot of trouble, and they cost us a lot of money,” Trump said. “What the hell are we paying Somalia for? We have Ilhan Omar who does nothing but complain about our Constitution and our country! We’re not taking their people anymore — in fact, we’re sending them back.”
Trump has often accused Omar of being “anti-American,” previously telling her and other progressive “Squad” members to “go back” to their “broken and crime-infested countries.” Omar responded earlier this month by calling Trump a “lying buffoon” and saying his story about Somalia’s president refusing to take her back was fabricated.
The White House has signaled that it will not walk back the president’s latest statements. A senior aide said Trump was “reminding voters that America’s generosity should never be repaid with contempt.”
Omar’s family fled Somalia’s civil war in 1991 and spent several years in a Kenyan refugee camp before settling in the United States. She was elected to Congress in 2018, becoming one of the first Muslim women and the first Somali-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The renewed confrontation underscores the political tension between Trump and radical members of the “Squad.” It comes amidst growing concerns about immigration policy and the vetting of immigrants in the aftermath of an Afghan refugee’s shooting of two National Guard members over the Thanksgiving holiday.
