Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) grilled Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, about "false statements" he made claiming COVID-19 spared Jews and Black people.
During a Wednesday confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Bennet blasted many of Kennedy's past statements.
"What is so disturbing to me is that out of 330 million Americans, we're being asked to put somebody in this job who has spent 50 years of his life not honoring the tradition that he talked about at the beginning of this conversation," Bennet said, "but peddling in half-truths. Peddling in false statements. Peddling in theories that create doubt about whether or not things that we know are safe are unsafe."
"Did you say that COVID-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets Black and white people but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?" the senator asked.
"I just quoted an NIH-funded, an NIH-published study," Kennedy asserted.
"Did you say that it targets Black and white people but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?" Bennet pressed.
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"I quoted an NIH study that showed that certain races were disproportionately targeted," the nominee repeated.
"Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely, militarily engineered bioweapon?" Bennet continued.
"I probably did say that," Kennedy admitted.