COLUMBUS, Ga. — During a trip to Fort Benning on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the department is working on re-establishing deterrence, ‘so that when the enemy sees an American, they don’t want to f— with us.’

The comments came after Hegseth spoke at an Officer Candidate School (OCS) graduation ceremony, where candidates were commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army or ensigns in the Navy.

Following the ceremony, he made remarks at the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course luncheon — sharing stories about his children wanting Army Ranger shirts, and noting the proudest moment of his life would be saluting them if they earned it.

Hegseth also touched on military priorities under the Trump administration, noting the Department of Defense’s focus is rebuilding the military to ensure it has the best possible equipment from the warfighter perspective, across all services. 

‘And then reestablishing deterrence, so that when the enemy sees an American, they don’t want to f— with us,’ Hegseth said. ‘Because they know they’ll get the business end of the best warrior on the planet. We’re reestablishing that. Whether it’s midnight hammer, or freedom of navigation, or narco-traffickers that are poisoning the American people.’

He said the world knows that when President Donald Trump speaks, he means business, adding that the graduates are the faces of that deterrence. 

‘It’s you that we remember, and we think of, when we make decisions,’ Hegseth said. ‘It’s the job of policymakers and leaders in our positions to look down and say, ‘We’ve asked you to do tough things, we’re going to have your back when you do it.’ We’re going untie your hands and make sure you can unleash hell in Yemen. Absolute violence of action. 

‘We’re going to push decision-making authority down to you, the platoon level, the company level, the battalion unit level, as much as possible.’

During the trip, the secretary also teased that the Defense Department may have a new name on Friday, which Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Emma Colton were first to confirm.

Trump will sign an executive order allowing the department to use the ‘Department of War’ as a secondary title, along with phrases like ‘secretary of war’ for Hegseth.

The order also directs Hegseth to propose legislative and executive actions to make the name change permanent.

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Emma Colton contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump stood by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. after he faced an intense grilling from senators on Capitol Hill on Thursday, telling reporters, ‘I like the fact that he’s different.’

While speaking with the press during his dinner with technology industry leaders at the White House, Trump was asked about the hearing.

‘Mr. President, Sen. Bill Cassidy [R-La.] said, effectively, we’re denying people vaccines. Do you have full confidence in what RFK Jr. is doing?’ asked a reporter.

Trump noted that he ‘didn’t get to watch the hearings today,’ but spoke highly of Kennedy, saying, ‘he’s a very good person.’

‘He means very well. And he’s got some little different ideas. I guarantee a lot of the people at this table like RFK Jr., and I do, but he’s got a different take, and we want to listen to all of those takes,’ said the president.

‘But I heard he did very well today,’ Trump went on. ‘It’s not your standard talk, I would say that, and that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.’

While testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, Kennedy faced intense criticism from Democratic senators, including Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who accused Kennedy of putting children into ‘harm’s way’ with his policies.

Wyden pressed Kennedy during the hearing, saying that he believed Kennedy had ‘no regrets’ about a ‘fundamentally cruel’ agenda. 

‘This is about kids being pushed into harm’s way by reckless and repeated decisions to get scientists and doctors out of the way and allow conspiracy theories to dictate this country’s health policy,’ Wyden said at the end of his questioning. 

‘I don’t see any evidence that you have any regrets about anything you’ve done or plans to change it. And my last comment is, I hope that you will tell the American people how many preventable child deaths are an acceptable sacrifice for enacting an agenda that I think is fundamentally cruel and defies common sense,’ said Wyden.

Kennedy countered by noting Wyden’s decades in office while chronic disease rates climbed significantly.

‘Senator, you’ve sat in that chair how long? Twenty, 25 years, while the chronic disease of our children went up to 76%. And you said nothing.’

‘You never asked the question of why it’s happening. Why is this happening? Today, for the first time in 20 years, we’ve learned that infant mortality has increased in our country. It’s not because I came in here. It’s because of what happened during the Biden administration that we’re going to end,’ he continued.

Vice President JD Vance also came to Kennedy’s defense on Thursday, saying the senators who grilled him are ‘full of s— and everyone knows it.’

‘When I see all these senators trying to lecture and ‘gotcha’ Bobby Kennedy today all I can think is: You all support off-label, untested, and irreversible hormonal ‘therapies’ for children, mutilating our kids and enriching big pharma,’ Vance wrote in an X post. ‘You’re full of s— and everyone knows it.’

Kennedy reposted the vice president, writing, ‘Thank you @JDVance. You put your finger squarely on the preeminent problem.’

Kennedy’s testimony came one day after over 1,000 current and former HHS employees signed a letter calling for his resignation on Wednesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also called for his resignation.

Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch, Jasmine Baehr and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

The U.S. accepted a luxury Boeing Jet as a gift from Qatar in May, with plans to retrofit it to become the next Air Force One. The Air Force says the effort will cost less than $400 million for the updates. Other estimates show it could cost more than $1 billion. 

Meanwhile, a separate deal with Boeing to produce two new 747-8s has faced significant delays and cost the company more than $1 billion.

‘They’re getting a new Air Force One. I didn’t want to do it because if I did it they’d say why are you doing that?,’ President Donald Trump said in January 2016. ‘I don’t mind getting that plane, but, you know, it does seem like an awful lot of money, doesn’t it?’

The Air Force first announced the plan to develop the 747-8s in 2015, when President Barack Obama was in office.

‘The President doesn’t need a new plane right now. But eight years from now, whoever is President, they are likely to need a new plane,’ White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in October 2015.

Nearly ten years later, the Air Force One project has yet to deliver, prompting President Trump to look for other options.

‘I’m not happy with Boeing. It takes them a long time to do, you know, Air Force One,’ President Trump said in February. ‘I could buy one from another country, perhaps. Or get one from another country.’

The Air Force and Boeing now say their jets could fly by 2027. A White House report estimates the debut might not take place until 2029. President Trump told reporters on July 29, the retrofitted Qatar Jet could be in the air by February. 

‘I think it’s another example of them pulling us so closely to them that our interests become aligned, even if they’re not,’ Staff Writer for the Free Press Jay Solomon said.

According to an investigation by Solomon and fellow Free Press writer Frannie Bock, Qatar has spent almost $100 billion to establish its influence in the U.S. Qatari officials have funneled money into Ivy League universities to build campuses in Doha, newsrooms like Al Jazeera and corporations to establish offices in Qatar. Doha has also made an effort to invite congressional delegations to visit, while paying lobbyists to align with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. President Trump even made a stop in the country as part of the first major foreign trip of his second term.

‘Their national security apparatus is fused now into the United States. They’re surrounded by Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE countries they’re either kind of frenemies with or not friends at all,’ Solomon said.

Qatar’s ties to Iran and extremist groups lead many of its neighbors to sever diplomatic relations for several years.

‘The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,’ President Trump said in June 2017.

The blockade ended with little impact on Qatar’s economy and without Doha meeting the demands to end its ties to terror groups.

‘They sort of use their relationship with the United States as a way to project what is a very aggressive foreign policy. Which there are a lot of questions, is that foreign policy really aligned with the U.S.?’

Qatar allowed the Taliban to open a political office in Doha in 2013 while maintaining close relations with the U.S. The Qataris have also worked to negotiate peace between Israel and Hamas.

‘It’s really unfair accusations for [saying] Qatar’s trying to buy influence. Throughout the last 25 years or 30 years, you will see, you’ll find Qatar always by the side of the U.S. in many areas and many things,’ Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said.

Qatar said they are proud of their relationships with U.S. entities and its effort to mediate conflicts, but some question the country’s intentions.

‘I stew over this, to be honest. A lot of people do. I think they have gotten some of the hostages if you look at it on a positive note, they helped Americans get out of Afghanistan. They helped negotiate the end of our role in Afghanistan. You could look at that and say, wow, that’s positive,’ Solomon said. ‘But I do think they empower groups in a lot instances that are not our friends.’

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle express unease over Qatar’s controversial record on human rights and terror links.

‘Qatar is not, in my opinion, a great ally,’ Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in May.

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said at a press conference with other democrats that ‘there is no such thing as a free palace in the sky.’ And Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., noted ‘the Trojan Horse was a gift.’

The White House deflected concerns. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN, ‘the French gave us the Statue of Liberty. The British gave us the Resolute Desk.’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced a hold on approving all Justice Department nominees until the White house gave more details about the jet deal.

‘This just isn’t naked corruption. It’s also a national security threat,’ Schumer said on the Senate Floor in May.

Democrats have now delayed more than 140 judicial nominees.

‘When it comes to gifts, we have ethics rules. We have them in the Senate. We’ve got them in White House. Those rules need to be followed. And ultimately what we want is to make sure that we’ve got the president traveling in a way that’s as safe as possible,’ Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., said.

A memo reviewed by ABC News stated the donation of the jet is unconditional and that ‘the aircraft may be used or disposed by the DOD in its sole discretion.’

U.S. laws generally prohibit the acceptance of large foreign gifts by government employees, including the president. However, the statute can be interpreted to show gifts can be put into official government use with the agency’s approval.

‘This plane’s not for me. This goes to the United States Air Force. For whoever is president. At some point, it’ll be like Ronald Reagan, it will be decommissioned. You know, it’s 11 years old,’ President Trump said on Special Report during his trip to the Middle East. ‘It would be decommissioned because they won’t want it. Plus, they’ll have the other two planes by that time.’

Legal analysis also shows an individual may transfer large gifts to a government agency for sale or donation. President Trump says the jet would be donated to his presidential library after he leaves office.

‘When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, thank you very much,’ President Trump said to questions over the ethics of the gift.

‘There seems to be conflicts of interest all over the place. When it comes to Qatar and the highest wrongs of the administration,’ Solomon said. ‘Are their decisions on these types of issues gonna be in any way conflicted or influenced by the fact that they’re taking major gifts from a government that’s the main Sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood.’

Vice President JD Vance shot back at senators who clashed withHealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, saying they are ‘full of s— and everyone knows it.’

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed Kennedy during the hearing, accusing him of endangering children with reckless decisions and conspiracy-driven policies, adding that he believed Kennedy had ‘no regrets’ about a ‘fundamentally cruel’ agenda. 

Kennedy countered by noting Wyden’s decades in office while chronic disease rates climbed to 76%.

The Vice President later sounded off on X, using profanity while directly addressing the opposition.

‘When I see all these senators trying to lecture and ‘gotcha’ Bobby Kennedy today all I can think is: You all support off-label, untested, and irreversible hormonal ‘therapies’ for children, mutilating our kids and enriching big pharma,’ Vance wrote in an X post. ‘You’re full of s— and everyone knows it.’

Secretary Kennedy reposted the Vice President, writing ‘Thank you @JDVance. You put your finger squarely on the preeminent problem.’

Other White House voices chimed in to support Secretary Kennedy after the fiery hearing. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote, ‘Secretary @RobertKennedyJr is taking flak because he’s over the target. The Trump Administration is addressing root causes of chronic disease, embracing transparency in government, and championing gold-standard science. Only the Democrats could attack that commonsense effort.’

‘Democrats are getting absolutely TORCHED by @SecKennedy,’ wrote Deputy White House chief of staff Taylor Budowich. ‘They seem uninterested in health or human services, just parrots of a failed medical orthodoxy that has made America less healthy. Great hearing and preparation by the Sec.’

The exchange came a day after more than 1,000 current and former HHS employees called for Kennedy’s resignation.

At the hearing, Wyden accused Kennedy of elevating conspiracy theories and mismanaging federal health agencies, saying his tenure has been defined by ‘chaos’ and ‘corruption’ benefiting himself and President Donald Trump and rising health costs for families.

He also accused Kennedy of ‘taking vaccines away from Americans’ and threatening doctors who deviated from his guidelines.

Kennedy touted his department’s work, saying it has been ‘the busiest, most proactive administration in HHS history.’ 

In six months, he said, HHS has tackled issues ranging from food and baby formula contamination to drinking water safety, drug prices, e-cigarettes, heroin at gas stations and prior authorization delays.

‘We’re ending gain of function research, child mutilation and reducing animal testing,’ Kennedy said. ‘We are addressing cellphone use in schools, excessive screen time for youth, lack of nutrition education in our medical schools, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis C, the East Palestine chemical spill and many, many others. At FDA, we are now on track to approve more drugs this year than at any time in history.’

Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Vance and Wyden did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

China’s Xi Jinping likes getting the world stirred up with military confrontation. Perhaps that’s why he wore his Mao Zedong high-collar suit, channeling the aura of the 1949 revolution, to the first major military parade in China since 2019. 

With him stood Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, marking the first time in 66 years that this terrible trio of leaders of China, North Korea and Russia have gotten together. 

And did you catch the hot mic moment with Xi and Putin, both 72, groaning like the ‘Grumpy Old Men’ they are about how ’70 is just a child’ and wondering if organ transplants can enable immortality? Kim, just 41, stifled a grin. Who knows who will have the last laugh in that trio. They are not my picks for immortality. 

Xi, Putin and Kim had their serious dictator faces back on as they watched as China’s People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force – teacher’s pet to Xi – roll their DF-5C intercontinental nuclear missiles down the streets of Beijing. They also showed off a new variant of their DF-26D medium-range missile. They claim it can hit U.S. ships and aircraft carriers or the island of Guam. 

Dealing with this trio is a challenge like no other. And it’s all in a day’s work for President Donald Trump. Trump said he’s not concerned and called them out with some choice trash-talk, posting on Truth Social about their rather obvious efforts to ‘conspire’ against the U.S.

The China-Russia military alliance is the single biggest danger the U.S. military has ever faced. 

However, Xi’s plan for world domination is showing some fault lines. Xi has scrambled for 13 years to build up China’s military. His strategy is based on loading up with missiles, missiles and more missiles. Yet looking at what rolled down the streets in Beijing, the fact remains that China can’t outpace U.S. military technology, despite decades of espionage, copycat designs and heavy military spending. 

The U.S. has some far superior systems. I’m talking about the new B-21 stealth bombers and F-47 sixth-gen fighters, for example. China has no true equivalents. 

The U.S. also has new ways to deal with China’s missiles. The U.S. Space Force’s new Hypersonic and Ballistic Track and Surveillance System will use a constellation of satellites in low earth orbit, cued to use a medium field-of-view, to track China’s hypersonic missiles as they maneuver. Innovations like this nix China’s gains. 

The parade showcasing ‘multi-domain’ technologies that might be used during an invasion of Taiwan was underwhelming. China’s laser gun on the truck, the unmanned surface vessels and even the big underwater drones are nothing remarkable. The U.S. has all that. Just check out the U.S. Navy’s massive Orca drone, which can lay seabed mines all by itself. Or the U.S. Army’s high-energy laser tests against drone swarms at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, this summer. 

Xi needs his thug friends to challenge the U.S. and allies. Sadly, China allows Putin the option of refusing to talk about ending the war in Ukraine. The warm welcome given to North Korea showed that China is eager for Kim’s rising nuclear capabilities to provoke the U.S. and Pacific partners. Kim toured a solid-fueled missile facility before boarding the train to Beijing and North Korea is working on nuclear submarines as well. That’s scary.

Trump’s nonchalance in dealing with this terrible trio is possible because the administration is taking action every day to shore up America’s power and oppose the China-Russia alliance. 

In the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump flexed American power with two very different announcements.

First, U.S. forces blew up a Tren de Aragua drug runner’s fast boat with an anti-ship missile. The strike opened a whole new chapter in the drug war.  

Tren de Agua is a designated terrorist organization, so in tactical terms, this is no different from striking ISIS or Houthi terrorists in the Middle East.  Believe me, the U.S. Navy has plenty more anti-ship missiles and it’s high time to clean up the Western Hemisphere. Trump’s predecessor James Monroe, famous for the Monroe Doctrine, would be proud.

Next, Trump announced that U.S. Space Command will be headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. U.S. dominance in military and commercial space is essential for the economy and for global power; that’s why Trump created the United States Space Force as the sixth military branch in 2019. 

Elon Musk’s Starlink and now Amazon’s Kuiper are muscling China out with thousands of satellites in low-earth orbit to deliver broadband, and backstop U.S. military freedom of action in space. And the Space Force is key to the Golden Dome defenses for the U.S.

Finally, no military parade can cover up the fact that China, Russia and North Korea all face economic problems. China’s growth rate has halved in recent years and tariffs threaten the continued expansion in global markets that is Xi’s top economic priority. Russia is running on defense production and oil sales, and North Korea has no discernible economy apart from its trade with China. 

Those other leaders in the parade photo had better not be looking to do more business with the U.S. anytime soon. The larger economic reality is that the U.S. is winning the AI race and, with concerted effort, can shut the door on China’s attempts to dominate AI. 

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Friday to alter the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War — reverting to the agency’s former namesake, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Both Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently have indicated that they want to change the name of the agency. It is one of several initiatives the Trump administration has spearheaded as part of its ‘warrior ethos’ campaign within the Pentagon. 

A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital Thursday that Trump would roll out the name change Friday. The executive order calls for using the Department of War as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with terms like the ‘Secretary of War’ for Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet. 

The order also instructs Hegseth to propose both legislative and executive actions to make the name change permanently ‘U.S. Department of War.’ 

Likewise, implementing the order will require modifications to public-facing websites and office signage at the Pentagon, including renaming the public affairs briefing room the ‘Pentagon War Annex,’ according to a White House official. Other longer-term implementation projects also are in the works, the official said. 

Trump signaled in recent days the change was imminent. 

‘Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,’ Trump told reporters Aug. 25. ‘Then we changed it to Department of Defense.’

Hegseth, who Trump already has referred to on occasion as the ‘secretary of war,’ also expressed similar sentiments and said the change would reflect a broader, cultural shift within the Pentagon. 

‘We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War,’ Hegseth said in a Wednesday interview with ‘Fox & Friends.’ ‘As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense.’ 

‘We’re reestablished at the Department the warrior ethos. We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy,’ he said. ‘We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defense. We think words and names and titles matter. So we’re working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by.’ 

The U.S. employed the Department of War title for its military agency up until 1949, when it was renamed the Department of Defense in accordance with a series of massive reforms included in the National Security Act of 1947. 

It’s unclear if Congress, which has the authority to establish federal executive departments, will need to step in to issue final approval on the move. However, Trump previously has voiced confidence that he doesn’t need approval from lawmakers, and that they will get on board if necessary. 

‘We’re just going to do it,’ Trump told reporters Aug. 25. ‘I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don’t think we even need that.’

The executive order changing the name of the Department of Defense will be the 200th order Trump has signed in his second term. 

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

A Senate Democrat compared language from one of the nation’s founding documents to that of Iran during a Senate hearing considering President Donald Trump’s nominees.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., pushed back against the opening statement of Riley Barnes, who was tapped by Trump to serve as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, during a Senate Foreign Relations hearing Wednesday.

Barnes quoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio in his opening remarks, telling lawmakers on the panel, ‘We are a nation founded on a powerful principle, and that powerful principle is that all men are created equal, because our rights come from God our Creator — not from our laws, not from our governments.

‘The secretary went on to say that we will always be strong defenders of that principle, and that’s why the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor is important,’ he said. ‘We are a nation of individuals, each made in the image of God and possessing an inherent dignity. This is a truth that our founders understood as essential to American self-government.’

But Kaine, who is a Catholic, found Barnes’ sentiment ‘troubling.’

‘The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator, that’s what the Iranian government believes,’ Kaine said. ‘It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shia law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities.

‘And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator,’ he continued. ‘So, the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.’

Kaine said he was a ‘strong believer in natural rights’ but noted that if natural rights were to be debated by people within the committee room with different views and religious traditions, ‘there would be some significant differences in the definitions of those natural rights.’

While the Constitution does not explicitly mention God or a Creator, the Declaration of Independence does.

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,’ the document states.

Kaine’s sentiment drew heat from Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota, who panned his remarks in a post on X Thursday. Barron argued that the lawmaker was ‘actively contesting the view that our rights come from God and not from the government.’

‘If the government creates our rights, it can take them away,’ Barron said. ‘If the government is responsible for our rights, well then it can change them.’

‘It just strikes me as extraordinary that a major American politician wouldn’t understand this really elemental part of our system. God help us. I mean that literally, God help us if we say our rights are coming to us from the government, that gives the government, indeed, godlike power,’ Barron continued. 

Fox News Digital reached out for comment from Kaine’s office but did not immediately hear back. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended the Trump administration’s firing spree at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, promising ‘new blood’ will soon take over the agency.

‘America is home to 4.2% of the world’s population, yet we had nearly 20% COVID deaths,’ Kennedy said Thursday in front of the Senate Finance Committee. ‘We literally did worse than any country in the world.’

Kennedy said CDC leaders ‘who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving.’

‘And that’s why we need bold, competent and creative new leadership at CDC,’ he continued. ‘People are able and willing to chart a new course. As my father once said, progress is a nice word, a change that’s a motivator. And change has its enemies. That’s why we need new blood at the CDC.’

Kennedy testified before the committee hearing, which focused on President Donald Trump’s healthcare agenda and vaccine guidance. Senate Democrats grilled Kennedy on his moves to limit access to COVID-19 shots for children, his dismissal of health officials, and his ties to figures who have questioned the safety of mRNA vaccines.

In recent months, the Trump administration has carried out a sweeping shake-up inside the CDC and federal health agencies. All 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices were dismissed in June, and CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired in August. Kennedy has repeatedly argued the changes are necessary to restore public trust in health guidance.

Monarez, who had been in the position for less than a month after earning Senate confirmation, said in an op-ed that Kennedy and his aides told her she must either step down or face dismissal. She wrote that she was instructed to ‘pre-approve the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed anti-vaccine rhetoric.’

During the pandemic, the CDC recommended vaccines for children as young as six months and for pregnant women to help pass immunity to newborns, while older children were required to wear masks in schools and daycares.

For many, former National Institutes of Health Director Anthony Fauci’s shifting mask guidance became one of the most controversial flashpoints of the pandemic. In early 2020, he discouraged Americans from wearing masks, citing supply shortages and limited evidence of asymptomatic spread. Weeks later, the CDC reversed course and urged cloth mask use nationwide. Fauci later said the mixed messaging ‘fooled’ the public and fueled mistrust.

Vice President JD Vance shot back at senators who clashed withHealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, saying they are ‘full of s*** and everyone knows it.’

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed Kennedy during the hearing, accusing him of endangering children with reckless decisions and conspiracy-driven policies, adding that he believed Kennedy had ‘no regrets’ about a ‘fundamentally cruel’ agenda. 

Kennedy countered by noting Wyden’s decades in office while chronic disease rates climbed to 76%.

The Vice President later sounded off on X, using profanity while directly addressing the opposition.

‘When I see all these senators trying to lecture and ‘gotcha’ Bobby Kennedy today all I can think is: You all support off-label, untested, and irreversible hormonal ‘therapies’ for children, mutilating our kids and enriching big pharma,’ Vance wrote in an X post. ‘You’re full of s*** and everyone knows it.’

Secretary Kennedy reposted the Vice President, writing ‘Thank you @JDVance. You put your finger squarely on the preeminent problem.’

Other White House voices chimed in to support Secretary Kennedy after the fiery hearing. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote, ‘Secretary @RobertKennedyJr is taking flak because he’s over the target. The Trump Administration is addressing root causes of chronic disease, embracing transparency in government, and championing gold-standard science. Only the Democrats could attack that commonsense effort.’

‘Democrats are getting absolutely TORCHED by @SecKennedy,’ wrote Deputy White House Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich. ‘They seem uninterested in health or human services, just parrots of a failed medical orthodoxy that has made America less healthy. Great hearing and preparation by the Sec.’

The exchange came a day after more than 1,000 current and former HHS employees called for Kennedy’s resignation.

At the hearing, Wyden accused Kennedy of elevating conspiracy theories and mismanaging federal health agencies, saying his tenure has been defined by ‘chaos,’ ‘corruption’ benefiting himself and President Donald Trump, and rising health costs for families.

He also accused Kennedy of ‘taking vaccines away from Americans’ and threatening doctors who deviated from his guidelines.

Kennedy touted his department’s work, saying it has been ‘the busiest, most proactive administration in HHS history.’ 

In six months, he said HHS has tackled issues ranging from food and baby formula contamination to drinking water safety, drug prices, e-cigarettes, heroin at gas stations, and prior authorization delays.

‘We’re ending gain of function research, child mutilation and reducing animal testing,’ Kennedy said. ‘We are addressing cellphone use in schools, excessive screen time for youth, lack of nutrition education in our medical schools, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis C, the East Palestine chemical spill, and many, many others. At FDA, we are now on track to approve more drugs this year than at any time in history.’

Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Vance and Wyden did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited his father, Robert Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general and senator from New York, while testifying on Capitol Hill about backlash over the Trump administration’s efforts to reform the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).    

The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) head signaled a dramatic course-correction at the CDC several days before the hearing, which came amid reports of the administration’s decision to fire CDC Director Susan Monarez. Monarez’s firing spurred backlash among Democrats who complained that the administration’s efforts to reform the CDC, including through staff and budget cuts, were politicizing public health and undermining scientific integrity.

‘The people at the CDC who oversaw [the COVID-19 mitigation] process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving,’ Kennedy said during his opening remarks, shortly after the hearing was briefly interrupted by a heckler. ‘That’s why we need bold, competent, and creative new leadership at CDC. People who are able to and willing to chart a new course.’

‘As my father once said, ‘Progress is a nice word, but change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.” The health secretary, who is also the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, continued: ‘That’s why we need new blood at CDC.’

Thursday’s brief moment when Kennedy invoked his father, who was shot and killed while serving as a U.S. senator in 1968, would not be the first time the Kennedy family has been invoked in the health secretary’s approach to governing. In the lead-up to President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, slammed him for supporting Trump and ‘desecrat[ing] and trampl[ing] and set[ting] fire’ to their dad’s memory.

The quote from RFK Jr.’s father comes from a speech he made to the United States Conference of Mayors in Chicago in 1963. The remarks came while he was serving as attorney general under former Democratic Party president Lyndon B. Johnson. 

Kennedy’s speech in Chicago discussed contemporary economic stresses and poverty in the early 1960s, noting they had resulted in an ‘unwanted stockpile of idle youth,’ according to a copy of the speech shared by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The then-attorney general suggested the issue was exacerbated by a lack of equal access to education, vocation training and poor housing that was occurring at the time.

‘The hardest task is to appoint and incorporate in our work a group of men and women with the power and willingness to look at our community difficulties, dissect them, criticize areas of shortcoming, and make meaningful suggestion,’ Kennedy said during his speech to the conference of mayors. ‘Sometimes, too, it is hard to accept that sort of recommendation. For, sometimes, it carries with it announced or implied criticism of programs that have failed us in the past. Change means that someone’s professional feathers will be ruffled, that a glass-topped desk might be moved to another office or abandoned, that pet programs might die.’

‘Progress is the nice word we like to use. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies,’ Kennedy continued. ‘The willingness to confront that change will determine how much we shall really do for our youth and how truly meaningful our efforts will be.’

Amid the CDC shakeup being spearheaded by RFK Jr., over 1,000 current and former federal health officials penned a letter this week calling for the HHS secretary’s resignation, arguing he is ‘endanger[ing] the nation’s health.’ Following Monarez’s ouster, several other top CDC officials resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s policies on public health.

Meanwhile, Kennedy penned an op-ed earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal echoing his Thursday remarks on Capitol Hill that the changes coming to the CDC are restoring confidence in an agency that lost the public’s trust due to its response to the COVID-19 virus.

‘Most CDC rank-and-file staff are honest public servants,’ the health secretary wrote. ‘Under this renewed mission, they can do their jobs as scientists without bowing to politics.’