When Truth Becomes a Casualty: Inside the RFK Jr. Hearing
I'm not expecting to or planning to do much writing about politics. It disturbs my peace, so I don't mean to disturb yours. What ever side you're on, you do you, no hard feelings.
I watched the JFK Jr. hearing in the Senate today and saw it firsthand: the interruptions, the loaded questions, and the way many senators seemed less interested in fact-finding than in grandstanding for the cameras. That “performance politics” is exactly what leaves so many Americans disillusioned—because it looks like the priority isn’t serving the people, but protecting power, money, and party narratives.
My curiosity on how this hearing would go was strong, and it did not disappoint. I knew the Senate would give RFK Jr. a hard time, and that’s exactly what happened, The truth becomes a casualty. What struck me most was how, whenever he tried to answer, they didn’t want to hear it. The moment he began to speak, they cried out “It’s my time, not yours!” Almost as if they were afraid the people watching might actually like what he had to say.
The hearing itself was a circus. Senator Ron Wyden went after Kennedy for surrounding himself with so-called conspiracy theorists and grifters. Kennedy didn’t hold back, turning it right back on Wyden by asking why, after more than two decades in the Senate, he had done nothing to confront the rise in chronic disease and infant mortality.
Senator Bill Cassidy accused him of denying people vaccines, citing desperate emails from constituents. Kennedy shot back bluntly, “You are wrong.”
Mark Warner pressed him on whether a million Americans had died from COVID. Kennedy replied that he didn’t know the number, blaming the chaos and misinformation that had poured out of the CDC itself.
Maria Cantwell branded him a charlatan who spread hoaxes, while Kennedy accused her of making things up.
Raphael Warnock called him a hazard to the health of the American people. Kennedy pushed back, asking, “How am I a threat?”
Another big theme was the firings and resignations at the CDC. Senators painted it as reckless and destabilizing, but Kennedy argued the opposite. He said leaders were removed because they had lost the trust of the public, and without trust there is no functioning public health system. I know I haven't trusted in any of their nonsense in a long time.
He even recalled one exchange with an employee who, when asked point blank if they could be trusted, answered “no.” Kennedy’s response was simple: anyone would fire an employee who admitted they could not be trusted. To him, these firings weren’t chaos, they were common sense.
What I saw was not an honest inquiry. It was a performance. Kennedy defended his reforms as necessary, explained that the CDC’s failures during the pandemic shattered public trust, and even surprised people by praising Trump’s Operation Warp Speed while condemning the CDC’s disastrous pandemic response. The senators, on the other hand, seemed far more interested in tearing him down than in hearing his reasoning.
And here’s where my frustration comes in. These long-term senators are masters at twisting the truth. They gaslight, they instill fear, and they make things up. They claim to be fighting for the public, but everything they do screams that they’re fighting for money and power. What they really don’t want is Trump. They accuse him of the very things they themselves are guilty of, and when he says the sky is blue, they call him a liar and insist it’s another color. That same upside-down logic was all over this hearing.
The larger pattern is clear. They project their own corruption onto their opponents. They keep people afraid so they can keep their power. They put money above duty and lobbyists above constituents. And worst of all, they take common sense and paint it as misinformation simply because it comes from the wrong mouth.
Watching this hearing confirmed what many of us already feel deep down: our system is broken. The people we send to Washington don’t serve us anymore. They serve themselves, their careers, and their donors. Today’s spectacle was just another reminder of that painful truth.