WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump launched Operation Warp Speed in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, an effort he has credited with saving tens of millions of lives. During a Cabinet meeting last week, he likened it to “one of the greatest achievements ever.”
Sitting at the table as a proud Trump spoke was Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who came under fire at a congressional hearing Thursday for his work to restrict access to vaccines, including the very COVID-19 shots still touted by his boss.
The three-hour hearing exposed an odd dichotomy: One of Trump’s most universal successes in his first term remains Operation Warp Speed, yet his handpicked health chief and a growing cadre of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” supporters are distrustful of the very mRNA vaccine technology that the president has championed.
Highlighting that divide, much of the praise of Trump’s unprecedented effort to find a vaccine for COVID-19 came Thursday from Democrats.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., called Operation Warp Speed “a monumental achievement.” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., told Kennedy he was a health hazard and said Trump, “who put forward Operation Warp Speed, which worked,” should fire him. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, said he doesn’t “usually agree with” Trump but cited the president’s remarks on the COVID-19 vaccine and said the scientific community is aligned behind him.
Republicans were also critical of Kennedy’s approach to vaccines.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician whose vote for Kennedy ensured his narrow confirmation, noted the overarching success of Operation Warp Speed at a time when thousands of people a day were dying from COVID-19, businesses were shuttered and much of everyday life had ground to a halt.
“Others said it couldn’t be done. We saved millions of lives globally. Trillions of dollars. We reopened the economy. An incredible accomplishment,” Cassidy said as he questioned Kennedy. “Do you agree with me that the president deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed?”
When Kennedy answered, “Absolutely, Senator,” Cassidy pivoted sharply.
He pressed Kennedy on denouncing the vaccine in the past, working on lawsuits targeting pharmaceutical makers and filling vacancies on a powerful vaccine advisory committee with expert witnesses who testified against the drugmakers, suggesting they posed a conflict of interest.
“It just seems inconsistent that you would agree with me that the president deserves tremendous amount of credit for this,” Cassidy responded.
Hassan read from a June 2024 post on X in which Kennedy wrote that Trump “has a weakness for swamp creatures, especially corporate monopolies, their lobbyists, and their money” and called the vaccine operation among “the most devastating impact of President Trump’s weakness, but not the only one.”
“If you agree with President Trump that the vaccine saved millions of lives, why have you acted behind closed doors to overrule scientists and limit the freedom of parents to choose the COVID vaccine for their children?” Hassan asked.
Kennedy told Hassan she was “just making stuff up.”
Still, under Kennedy, U.S. regulators have limited the availability of COVID-19 vaccines for many Americans.
Last month, U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 shots but limited their use for many Americans — and removed one of the two vaccines available for young children. The new restrictions are a break from the previous U.S. policy, which recommended an annual COVID-19 shot for all Americans 6 months and up, sparking confusion and frustration from some Americans, including parents interested in vaccinating healthy children against the virus.
Many pharmacies are unwilling or legally barred from giving vaccines outside the uses endorsed by the Food and Drug Administration and other federal authorities.
Several administration officials came to Kennedy’s defense on vaccines. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said what Kennedy wants is “integrity and honesty” in the vaccine review process.
“Democrats are, as usual, being intellectually dishonest to try — and fail — to drive a wedge between President Trump and Secretary Kennedy,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said Thursday. “Instead of playing politics and trying to get stupid sound bites, Democrats should spend more time working with Secretary Kennedy and the rest of the Administration to Make America Healthy Again.”
The White House on Thursday did not directly address the criticism from Cassidy. Asked later about Kennedy’s testimony, Trump said he hadn’t watched but Kennedy “means very well” and he likes the fact that Kennedy is different.
But the Louisiana Republican was not the only one from his party chastising Kennedy over vaccines.
“If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming, a staunch Trump ally, told Kennedy. “I’m a doctor. Vaccines work.”
Meanwhile, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis had a multitude of questions for Kennedy, including how he really feels about Operation Warp Speed, saying he’d accept Kennedy’s answers later in writing.
Asked in early August about Kennedy’s cancellation of the mRNA contracts, Trump said the effort was “now a long time ago and we’re on to other things,” but said he would continue to speak on it.
“Operation Warp Speed was, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country,” Trump said. “The efficiency, the way it was done, the distribution, everything about it was, has been amazing.”
But Trump himself has been inconsistent in his attitude toward vaccines.
He said in a social media post this week that the companies were responsible for the recent turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because they were not transparent about the science behind the shots. He has sometimes embraced discredited theories that vaccines could cause autism. Trump has also ferociously opposed vaccine mandates, threatening to withhold funding from schools with such policies.
The anti-vaccine movement within Trump’s party has been growing since the early days of the vaccine. Trump himself was booed at an event in December 2021 when he revealed that he had gotten the COVID-19 booster.
He tried, in vain, to rally his supporters back around Operation Warp Speed and remind them of what had been accomplished.
“Look, we did something that was historic. We saved tens of millions of lives worldwide. We together, all of us — not me, we — we got a vaccine done, three vaccines done, and tremendous therapeutics,” Trump said. “This was going to ravage the country far beyond what it is right now. Take credit for it. Take credit for it. … Don’t let them take it away. Don’t take it away from ourselves.”
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Kinnard reported from Chapin, S.C. Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, Lauran Neergaard in Washington, and Jill Colvin and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
