Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to Capitol Hill Thursday to testify about the president’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, but Democrats had a surprise line of attack waiting: Jeffrey Epstein.
In his opening statement during Thursday’s hearing, Finance Committee Ranking Member, Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden called out Kennedy Jr. for his past Epstein associations.
‘Mr. Kennedy calls himself a protector of children, some kind of rich claim, coming from someone who has flown on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet on multiple occasions,’ Wyden noted.
Wyden also added that Kennedy ‘shouldn’t be within a million miles of this job’, his current role as HHS Secretary, due to his Epstein connections.
Kennedy did not comment on his ties to Epstein during the hearing, leaving Wyden’s remarks unaddressed.
However, earlier this year, Secretary Kennedy Jr. told Jesse Watters of Fox News that he had been on Epstein’s jet twice.
Kennedy noted to the Fox host that he traveled on the plane once in 1993 and ‘on another occasion’, ‘one or two years’ after 1993.
The secretary also told Watters that at the time, he has no knowledge of ‘Epstein’s … nefarious issues.’
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., testifies before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Donald Trump’s 2026 health care agenda, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2025
Ranking member Senator Wyden (D-OR) and committee Chairman Sen. Crapo (R-ID) question U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as he testifies before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Donald Trump’s 2026 health care agenda, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2025
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questions Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. during a Senate Finance Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on September 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. The committee met to hear testimony on President Trump’s 2026 health care agenda
The secretary’s ties to Epstein were also raised by Senator Maria Cantwell – a Washington State Democrat – who asked Kennedy if he believed that the women who spoke out against the pedophile’s crimes.
‘Do you think the women on the steps of the Capitol were a hoax yesterday, talking about Epstein? Do you think they were a hoax yesterday? You think they were perpetuating a hoax yesterday?’ Cantwell asked Kennedy.
The idea of the women’s claims being a ‘hoax’ pushed by Democrats is the angle that President Trump took regarding Wednesday’s rally on the Capitol steps.
Kennedy replied to Cantwell, asking ‘perpetuating a hoax? Yeah, I have no idea what they were saying. This is the first I am hearing about it.’
Discussion of the controversy over the release of the secret files of the former financier and convicted pedophile has dominated discussions both on Capitol Hill and across Washington, DC in recent months.
A document from the Epstein Files lists now-Secretary Kennedy Jr. in the flight logs, along with his former wife Mary, who passed away in 2012.
Kennedy Jr.’s mother Ethyl is also seen on the log, as well as his sister Kerry Kennedy and her then-husband, Andrew Cuomo, who later became governor of New York and is currently running for Mayor of New York City.
An image of the Epstein flight logs, obtained by the Daily Mail
Survivors of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein‘s abuse spoke about their experiences on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning in a push to release additional files on the serial child predator.
Close to a dozen victims of the sinister New York financier spoke at a press conference hosted by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who are pushing a bill to release the Justice Department’s Epstein documents, despite some files being published on Tuesday.
Many of the survivors were speaking publicly for the first time and offered details not yet widely reported.