{"id":25541,"date":"2026-08-02T21:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T16:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=25541"},"modified":"2026-08-02T21:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T16:24:10","slug":"cnns-dana-bash-battles-rfk-jr-on-autism-in-fiery-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=25541","title":{"rendered":"CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash Battles RFK Jr. on Autism in Fiery Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<p>CNN\u2019s <strong>Dana Bash<\/strong> called out HHS Secretary <strong>Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s<\/strong> claims about autism in the second half of the stunning 22-minute showdown between the two on Sunday\u2019s State of the Union. <\/p>\n<p>After a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/youre-talking-nonsense-rfk-jr-berates-cnns-bash-in-fiery-22-minute-brawl-on-fauci-trump-and-vaccines\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">chaotic start to the interview <\/a>which focused on Covid, the battle ramped up even further when the subject switched to autism. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/trump-rfk-jr-cut-vaccine-children-78582411?mod=hp_lead_pos7\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported<\/a> that the president is pressuring you to conduct studies probing the link between vaccines and autism,\u201d Bash said. \u201cIs that true?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe certainly does,\u201d Kennedy said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave you talked to him about medical research that have studied this for 25 years and found no link between autism and vaccines?\u201d Bash asked. \u201cAnd just that \u2014 this is my question here, because I don\u2019t want to litigate that. My question is, why not \u2014 because you are HHS secretary now. Why not study what could cause autism, which scientists do believe starts with fetal brain development? Why not do some studies on that, whether there\u2019s \u2014 since you\u2019re an environmental lawyer, whether there are environmental factors that go into contributing to a predisposed genetic situation?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, let me say this first. We\u2019re doing all those things,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s one of the ways that we found Tylenol. There\u2019s 73 studies out that link Tylenol exposure during later pregnancy and during the perinatal period to autism onset. But you are wrong when you say that this issue has been studied. It has been studied. And you\u2019re rolling your eyes, Dana \u2014\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am,\u201d Bash said. \u201cBecause I don\u2019t want \u2014 I don\u2019t want to have you use our air to say this. There have been more than 40 studies involving 5.6 million people to conclude there is no link between vaccines and autism. This is the head of the Committee of Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy interrupted the fact-check. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd now let me tell you what the Institute of Medicine is \u2014 says, which is the National Academy of Sciences, which is the ultimate arbiter on vaccine safety, in which it does not have an interest in this debate,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cIt says that none of the eight vaccines that are administered during the first six months of life have ever been studied for relationship to autism. It found two studies, one on the DTP vaccine that show that it does cause autism, and one on the hepatitis B vaccine that again suggests that it does cause autism. The Institute of Medicine dismissed those two studies because they were based on CDC\u2019s database. The studies that you\u2019re referring to are all from one vaccine, the MMR vaccine, or one ingredient, thimerosal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Bash pressed the secretary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo you are using \u2014 you are actually looking at \u2014 you\u2019re starting new studies to try to link autism, but you\u2019re also telling me_\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not trying to link autism to anything,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to find out, why has autism gone from-\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you also trying to find out how it interacts with people\u2019s DNA, what\u2019s predisposed to have an autistic child?\u201d Bash said. \u201cAre you doing both?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d Kennedy replied. \u201cDana, you probably don\u2019t understand this because you\u2019re not a scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re not either!\u201d Bash shot back. <\/p>\n<p>From there, the already off-the-rails interview got truly chaotic.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p> BASH:  Do you want people to get the MMR vaccine?<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  Yes, I said that already.<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  OK.<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  So I know you\u2019re flustered now, and it is\u2026<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  I don\u2019t \u2014 I\u2019m not flustered at all.<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  It is frustrating because people\u2026<\/p>\n<p>(CROSSTALK)<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  I am frustrated. The reason I\u2019m frustrated is because I \u2014 you are the HHS secretary, and you are talking about things that lead to vaccine hesitancy in this country. And it is something that causes problems for people, when there is not anything\u2026<\/p>\n<p>(CROSSTALK)<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  Let me ask you something. Do you see your job as ending vaccine hesitancy, or do you see your job as telling the truth to the American people?<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  I see my job as telling the truth. And the truth is that there is study after study after study. It\u2019s one of the most studied things out there in science.<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  You\u2019re repeating it like a parrot. You\u2019re repeating it like a parrot.<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  So are you.<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  I have actually read the science. Let\u2019s\u2026<\/p>\n<p>(CROSSTALK)<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  You don\u2019t want to\u2026<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  Let\u2019s you and I come back here and debate the science.<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  I don\u2019t \u2014 I\u2019m not debating this with you.<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  Of course you won\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  No, because I\u2019m not\u2026<\/p>\n<p>(CROSSTALK)<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  All you know how to do is repeat things that people told you and say, trust the experts. That\u2019s what you did during COVID. Now we know that Anthony Fauci, who was the expert, was lying about everything, about masks, about the social distancing, about natural immunity, about the transmission from the vaccine, about the source of COVID. He was lying, and you were punishing people for not trusting the experts. And now you\u2019re rolling out the experts again\u2026<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  Yes.<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  \u2026 to talk about something that you have no personal knowledge of.<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  OK. Well, guess what? That is my job to talk to people.<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  Your job is to tell the truth to the American public\u2026<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  Am I allowed to talk? Yes, yes. And my job is to get as much information as I can <\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  \u2026 and to maintain a posture of fierce skepticism toward government authority.<\/p>\n<p>BASH:  What we were doing in COVID and still, with regard to these vaccines, is getting the best information, the best science that we can and putting it out there.<\/p>\n<p>And, sir, you what you are doing is causing information to be out there that is not accurate.<\/p>\n<p>(CROSSTALK)<\/p>\n<p>KENNEDY:  \u2026 lying to you, who is lying to you.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Watch above, via CNN&gt; <\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CNN\u2019s Dana Bash called out HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s claims about autism in the second half of the stunning 22-minute showdown between the two on Sunday\u2019s State of the Union. After a chaotic start to the interview which focused on Covid, the battle ramped up even further when the subject switched to autism&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/State-of-the-Union-With-Jake-Tapper-and-Dana-Bash-9-21-08-am-2026-08-02.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}