{"id":672,"date":"2026-06-26T18:41:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=672"},"modified":"2026-06-26T18:41:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:41:22","slug":"new-evidence-suggests-rfk-jr-lied-to-senate-in-claims-about-2019-samoa-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=672","title":{"rendered":"New Evidence Suggests RFK Jr. Lied to Senate in Claims About 2019 Samoa Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<!-- begin partial\/series-card --><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><i><span>Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with <\/span><\/i><i><span>a donation<\/span><\/i><i><span> of any size.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=670\">US Sanctions Impede Rescue Efforts After Venezuela Earthquakes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>More evidence has emerged that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), likely lied during his Senate confirmation hearings in early 2025 regarding his visit to the island nation of Samoa several years ago.<\/p>\n<p>A newly disclosed email obtained by <em>The Guardian<\/em> demonstrates that Kennedy and his colleague Michael Graven had traveled to Samoa to examine health outcomes on the island, likely in hopes that it would help promote their anti-vaccine agenda. Kennedy had said otherwise during his Senate confirmation last year.<\/p>\n<p>Samoa halted use of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines for children in 2018. Upon the onset of deaths from that decision, the country restarted the program in 2019, though anti-vaccine sentiment continued to grow among residents.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy and his team visited the island in 2019. Following his visit, 83 people died of measles, mostly children.<\/p>\n<p>Graven stated to Samoan officials in that email that he and his team \u201call look forward to the opportunity to be of service to the people of Samoa with our mission.\u201d Kennedy and Graven were coming to the island specifically to \u201cevaluate outcomes associated with the recent discontinuity in vaccinations,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<p>After Kennedy was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead HHS in January 2025, he faced scrutiny over his anti-vaccine disinformation campaign. Kennedy sought to downplay his anti-vaccine beliefs during his confirmation hearings, claiming that he visited Samoa to introduce health officials to a new \u201cstate of the art\u201d medical information system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went there, nothing to do with vaccines,\u201d Kennedy added. <\/p>\n<p>Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) challenged that narrative, noting that several Samoan officials had said that Kennedy helped promote vaccine skepticism during his visit. Kennedy denied that was true in his statements before the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou cannot find a single Samoan who will say, \u2018I didn\u2019t get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy,&#8217;\u201d he said under oath.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not what the parents say,\u201d Wyden countered.<\/p>\n<p>In that same testimony, Kennedy disputed that the dozens of deaths on the island were related to measles at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEighty-three people died. \u2026 Most of those people did not have measles. We don\u2019t know what was killing them,\u201d Kennedy said. He then falsely claimed that tissue samples sent to New Zealand found that the deaths were unrelated to measles.<\/p>\n<p>In response to that testimony, Alec Ekeroma, the former Director-General of Health in Samoa, said Kennedy\u2019s words were a \u201ctotal fabrication of what actually happened,\u201d noting that there wasn\u2019t any record of tissue samples even being sent to New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=668\">Alaska GOP Pushes 800-Mile Gas Terminal and Pipeline That Could Decimate Climate<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s measles that killed those people,\u201d Ekeroma added. <\/p>\n<p>The newly reported email adds to the body of evidence that Kennedy lied during his Senate hearings.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, an email from the State Department was discovered that discussed Kennedy\u2019s plans to travel to the island. Kennedy, the email stated, was visiting in order \u201cto raise awareness about vaccinations, more specifically some of the health concerns associated with vaccinating (from his point of view).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another email from a UNICEF representative also indicated that Kennedy\u2019s visit was \u201cto investigate the safety of the vaccine.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Perjury, or lying while under oath, is a criminal offense, including when it occurs while testifying before Congress. While there is not yet a serious effort to hold Kennedy accountable for his apparent lies during his testimony, the penalty for perjury includes fines or five years\u2019 imprisonment, or both, depending on the severity. It is also an impeachable offense. <\/p>\n<p>Other evidence of Kennedy appearing to lie to Congress abounds, including instances unrelated to his views on vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>In April, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Alabama) asked Kennedy to answer for a statement he made two years prior, in a podcast interview, in which he had said that Black children being treated with mental health medication should be \u201cre-parented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence,\u201d Kennedy said in that interview, adding that the best way to treat children in those situations is to remove them from their families.<\/p>\n<p>After Sewell cited Kennedy\u2019s own words during the hearing, Kennedy claimed she was \u201cjust making stuff up,\u201d and that he didn\u2019t even \u201cknow what re-parenting means.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sewell asserted that she was \u201cabsolutely not making this up,\u201d and proceeded to play the clip of Kennedy\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n<p>The denial from Kennedy indicated that he had either forgotten what he had said in that interview from just two years ago, or had lied directly to a lawmaker during a congressional hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=666\">New Trump Admin Policy Hides Deaths at National Parks From Public<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2019, shortly after Kennedy promoted his anti-vaccine agenda in Samoa, 83 people on the island died of measles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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