参议员怀登启动调查：卫生部长肯尼迪被指在提名听证会上就2019年萨摩亚之行说谎
美国参议院财政委员会资深民主党成员、俄勒冈州参议员 Ron Wyden 11 月 12 日致信美国卫生与公共服务部长 Robert F. Kennedy Jr.，通知他将面临调查。Wyden 指控肯尼迪 2025 年在参议院提名确认听证会上，就自己 2019 年访问太平洋岛国萨摩亚的目的作了虚假陈述。美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）当天率先报道了这封信。
争议的核心是肯尼迪对那次访问目的的说法。他在确认听证会上作证称，自己 2019 年 6 月的萨摩亚之行「与疫苗毫无关系」。那次访问发生在萨摩亚一场麻疹疫情暴发前几个月：萨摩亚政府此前因两名儿童接种混合不当的麻腮风疫苗死亡，暂停了全国接种，涉事护士被控过失杀人；全国接种率随之骤降，2019 年 9 月暴发的麻疹疫情最终录得约 5,700 例病例、83 人死亡。
Wyden 在信中援引了《卫报》与美联社取得的一封信：2019 年 1 月，时任「儿童健康防卫」组织负责人的肯尼迪曾致信时任萨摩亚总理 Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi，明确要求对方调查麻腮风疫苗「到底出了什么事」、是否存在更广泛的安全问题。肯尼迪本人在 2021 年为该组织所写的博文中也写道，他此行除参加独立庆典外，还会见了政府官员，商谈建立监测体系、评估每项医疗干预对整体健康的影响，并提到疫苗话题。这些记述与他听证会上「与疫苗毫无关系」的证词并不一致。
Wyden 在信中向肯尼迪提出了范围广泛的文件要求：提交与其总统竞选、提名确认过程有关的全部文件，以及联邦卫生官员与「儿童健康防卫」组织之间的全部往来记录。肯尼迪领导该组织直至 2024 年 12 月。这封信由马里兰州参议员 Angela Alsobrooks 联署，她 11 月 4 日曾公开表示肯尼迪「应当辞职或被解职」。卫生与公共服务部与「儿童健康防卫」组织没有立即回应 CNN 的置评请求。
在美国，向国会作虚假陈述可构成刑事犯罪，但极少被起诉。民主党在本次中期选举中翻盘，将于明年 1 月重新掌控参众两院，Wyden 届时预计出任参议院财政委员会主席。多名民主党人（包括新当选参议员）已表示明年将调查甚至可能弹劾肯尼迪；参议员 Bernie Sanders 11 月 8 日也曾表示不排除弹劾这位卫生部长。本周早些时候，民主党人弹劾国防部长赫格塞思的努力在众议院受阻。
（来源：美国有线电视新闻网）
Senator Wyden Launches Investigation Into Health Secretary Kennedy Over Alleged False Testimony About 2019 Samoa Trip
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on November 12 notifying him that he will face an investigation. Wyden alleges that Kennedy lied to Congress during his 2025 confirmation hearing about the purpose of a 2019 trip to the Pacific island nation of Samoa. CNN first reported the letter on Thursday.
At issue is what Kennedy told senators about that trip. He testified during his confirmation hearing that his June 2019 visit to Samoa had \"nothing to do with vaccines.\" The trip came months before a measles outbreak swept the country: Samoa's government had paused all vaccinations after two children died from improperly mixed MMR vaccines, and the nurses involved were charged with manslaughter. Immunization rates then plummeted, and the outbreak that began in September 2019 eventually reached some 5,700 cases and 83 deaths.
In his letter, Wyden cited a January 2019 letter, obtained by The Guardian and The Associated Press, in which Kennedy, then head of the group Children's Health Defense, explicitly asked Samoa's then prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, to study \"what happened\" with the MMR vaccines and whether there were broader safety issues. In a 2021 blog post for the group, Kennedy also wrote that besides attending an independence celebration, he had met government officials to discuss monitoring systems to evaluate the safety of medical interventions, and he referenced vaccine discussions. Those accounts sit uneasily with his hearing testimony that the trip had nothing to do with vaccines.
Wyden's letter also imposed sweeping demands: Kennedy must provide all documents related to his presidential campaign and his confirmation process, and any communications between federal health officials and Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group Kennedy chaired until December 2024. The letter was co-signed by Maryland Senator Angela Alsobrooks, who posted on November 4 that Kennedy \"must resign or be fired.\" The Department of Health and Human Services and Children's Health Defense did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment.
Knowingly giving false testimony to Congress is a crime, though it is rarely prosecuted. Democrats, who flipped both chambers in this month's midterm elections, retake control of Congress in January, when Wyden is expected to assume the Finance Committee chairmanship. Several Democrats, including newly elected senators, have promised to launch probes and possibly impeach Kennedy next year; Senator Bernie Sanders said on November 8 that he was open to impeaching the health secretary. Earlier this week, a Democratic effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was blocked in the House.
Related: Sen. Sanders Says He Is Open to Impeaching Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
(Source: CNN)
来源：美国有线电视新闻网
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：美国卫生与公共服务部长 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 官方肖像（公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: Official portrait of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
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