President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that his objective to making ‘America Healthy Again’ will not include taking food such as cheeseburgers or Twinkies off of the shelves – quipping his boss has a soft spot for fast food. 

‘Most importantly, we need to use, deploy, NIH and FDA to doing the research to understand the relationship between these different food additives and chronic diseases so that Americans understand it,’ Kennedy explained before the committee on Wednesday. 

‘But I don’t want to take food away from anybody. If you like a cheeseburger, a McDonald’s cheeseburger, or a Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them,’ he said, which sparked laughter from the audience. 

‘If you want a Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that. But you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health,’ he explained. 

Trump has long been a well-known fan of Diet Coke and McDonald’s fast food, including re-installing a Diet Coke button on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office to swiftly deliver him the soft drink, and campaigned at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s ahead of the Nov. 5 election. 

Kennedy’s hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee is just the first, with the nominee scheduled to again join lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday to appear before the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Kennedy has been at the forefront of ‘MAHA,’ or Make America Health Again, movement within Trump’s orbit. 

Kennedy’s hearing was expected to be fiery, as the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy has come under fire for his critical stance on vaccines and food additives. Kennedy said in his hearing that he is not ‘anti-vaccine.’

‘I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish. And nobody called me anti-fish. And I believe that… that vaccines play a critical role in healthcare. All of my kids are vaccinated. I’ve read many books on vaccines. My first book in 2014, a first line of it is ‘I am not anti-vaccine’ and last line is ‘I am not anti-vaccine.’ Nor am I the enemy of food producers. American farms are the bedrock of our culture, of our politics, of our national security,’ he said on Wednesday.

‘In my advocacy, I’ve often disturbed this status quo. I am asking uncomfortable questions. Well, I’m not going to apologize for that. We have massive health problems in this country that we must face,’ he added. 

Former Hamas hostage Amit Soussana is sharing more details about her time in captivity, and she says there was another hostage who was instrumental in her survival. Liri Albag, one of the IDF soldiers who was kidnapped on Oct. 7, ‘saved’ Soussana.

Speaking on Israeli TV, Soussana recalled her captors tying her up and beating her, demanding that she admit to being in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Soussana says her hands and feet were bound, and she was beaten with a stick before one of the captors pointed a gun at her and said, ‘You have 40 minutes to tell us the truth, or else I kill you.’

Fellow hostage Albag was apparently able to convince their captors that Soussana was not in fact in the military. Soussana who calls Albag ‘something special, a force,’ believes this act saved her life.

‘I told her when she came back: ‘I don’t know if they would have killed me or not; as far as I’m concerned, you saved my life,’ Soussana said in the interview.

Hamas terrorists kidnapped Soussana from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the brutal Oct. 7 attacks. She was forced to walk barefoot in pajamas from her burning house to the Gaza border, being beaten along the way. Soussana fought her kidnappers in what was called ‘the battle of my life,’ trying to stall them in hopes that the IDF would rescue her before she was dragged into Gaza.

Soussana was released from Gaza in November 2023 after 55 days in captivity as part of Israel’s first hostage deal with Hamas.

In March 2024, Soussana became the first Israeli woman to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted while in Hamas captivity. She recalled the horrifying incident in an interview with The New York Times. Soussana later testified before the UN Security Council in October 2024 about her experience.

During her captivity, Soussana was chained by her ankle, unable to move. ‘I had to ask for permission to use the bathroom,’ she explained, detailing her experience. ‘In that house, I was sexually assaulted by the Hamas terrorist who had guarded me.’

She described the assault, saying, ‘He forced me to go to the shower and entered the room, pointed his gun at me. He was breathing heavily and had a monstrous beast-like face.’ She recalled his intrusive questioning while he sat next to her in his underwear, lifting her shirt and touching her. ‘I knew exactly what he was planning to do, and yet I couldn’t do anything to prevent it. I was utterly helpless.’

Soussana said that after the assault she was not ‘allowed to cry or to be sad.’ She recalled feeling isolated and being ‘forced to act nice to the person who had just sexually assaulted me.’

Israel and Hamas have been engaged in a deadly war for over 15 months following the terror group’s devastating surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas is expected to release Agam Berger, Arbel Yehoud and 80-year-old Gadi Moses on Jan. 30 as part of the current ceasefire deal with Israel.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, was interrupted by multiple outbursts during his hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday morning. 

‘I want to make sure the committee is clear about a few things. News reports have claimed that I’m anti-vaccine or any industry. I am neither. I am pro safety,’ Kennedy said in his opening remarks before a protester shouted at him. 

‘You are,’ the female protester was heard shouting at Kennedy when he said he is not anti-vaccine. 

Minutes later, another outburst erupted in the hearing, sparking Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo to issue a warning to not disrupt the hearing. 

‘To the audience, comments from the audience are inappropriate and out of order. And if there are any further disruptions, the committee will recess until the police can restore order. Please follow the rules of the committee. Mr. Kennedy, you may proceed,’ Crapo said. 

Another protester was spotted in the audience holding a sign reading, ‘Vaccines Save Lives, Not RFK JR.’ 

Kennedy’s hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee is just the first, with the nominee scheduled to again join lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday to appear before theHealth, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The nominee has come under fire for his critical stance on vaccines, which he defended in his opening statement.

‘I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish. And nobody called me anti-fish. And I believe that … that vaccines play a critical role in health care. All of my kids are vaccinated. I’ve read many books on vaccines. My first book in 2014, a first line of it is ‘I am not anti-vaccine’ and last line is ‘I am not anti-vaccine.’ Nor I’m the enemy of food producers, American farms and the bedrock of our culture, of our politics, of our national security,’ he said on Wednesday.

‘In my advocacy, I’ve often disturbed this status quo. I am asking uncomfortable questions. Well, I’m not going to apologize for that. We have massive health problems in this country that we must face,’ he added. 

Protesters disrupting Senate hearings for Trump’s administration picks has become a common theme, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also facing protesters in their respective hearings earlier this month. 

President Donald Trump reportedly fired two of the three Democratic commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), as his administration continues its pledge to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from government bureaucracy. 

The two now-former EEOC commissioners, Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, said in statements Tuesday that they were fired late Monday night. Both said they were exploring options to challenge their dismissals, calling their removal before the expiration of their five-year terms an unprecedented decision that undermines the agency’s independence.

Burrows, who has been an EEOC commissioner since 2015, said in her statement Tuesday that the dismissal of two Democratic commissioners before their terms ended ‘undermine the efforts of this independent agency to do the important work of protecting employees from discrimination, supporting employers’ compliance efforts, and expanding public awareness and understanding of federal employment laws.’

Samuels, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, and then was nominated by former President Joe Biden for a second term, said her removal ‘violates the law, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency – one that is not controlled by a single Cabinet secretary but operates as a multi-member body whose varying views are baked into the Commission’s design.’

‘The President’s action undermines the stability and continuity of the EEOC’s critical work to advance equal opportunity and fair treatment,’ she said. 

In removing her, Samuels said, the White House ‘also critiqued my views on DEIA initiatives and sex discrimination, further misconstruing the basic principles of equal employment opportunity.’ 

The ex-commissioner argued that DEI initiatives ‘protect all people on the basis of race, sex, gender and religious belief, and other characteristics,’ but the Trump administration has contended the so-called protections ushered in by the Biden administration actually veer into discrimination. For example, the EEOC last April published guidance describing how an employer could be found liable for harassment if they mandate an employee use a bathroom that corresponds with their biological sex, prompting backlash. 

‘This Administration’s demonization of transgender individuals is both cruel and inconsistent with the law,’ Samuels wrote Tuesday. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment Wednesday. 

The EEOC was created by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a bipartisan five-member panel to protect workers from discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability and other protected characteristics. The U.S. president appoints the commissioners and the Senate confirms them, but their terms are staggered and are meant to overlap presidential terms to help ensure the agency’s independence.

The two firings leave the agency with one Republican commissioner, Andrea Lucas, who Trump appointed acting EEOC chair last week, one Democratic commissioner, Kalpana Kotagal, and three vacancies that Trump can fill. 

Another Republican commissioner, Keith Sonderling, resigned after Trump appointed him deputy secretary of labor.

Lucas, the new acting EEOC chair, issued a statement last week saying that she would prioritize ‘rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination; protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination; defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single‑sex spaces at work.’

In contrast, the three Democratic commissioners all issued statements last week condemning a slew of executive orders aimed at ending DEI practices in the federal workforce and private companies, along with ‘protections’ for transgender workers. Their statements also emphasized that U.S. anti-discrimination laws remained intact despite Trump’s orders and that the EEOC must continue enforcing them.

The EEOC panel investigates and imposes penalties on employers found to have violated laws that protect workers from racial, gender, disability and other forms of discrimination. The agency also writes influential rules and guidelines for how anti-discrimination laws should be implemented, and conducts workplace outreach and training.

In recent years, the agency’s Democratic and Republican commissioners have been sharply divided on many issues. Both Republican commissioners voted against new guidelines last year stating that ‘misgendering’ transgender employees, or denying access to a bathroom consistent with their gender identity, would violate anti-discrimination laws. The Republican commissioners also voted against regulations stating that employers must give workers time off and other accommodations for abortions under the new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

National Labor Relations Board member Gynne A. Wilcox and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo were also fired late Monday night, the agency confirmed. 

Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on the Board since its inception in 1935, according to the NLRB website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This week the U.S. tech sector was routed by the Chinese launch of DeepSeek, and Sen. Josh Hawley is putting forth legislation to prevent that from happening again. 

Hawley’s bill, the Decoupling America’s Artifical Intelligence Capabilities from China Act, would cut off U.S.-China cooperation on AI. It would ban exports or imports of AI technology from China, ban American companies from conducting research there, and prohibit any U.S. investment in AI tech companies in China. 

‘Every dollar and gig of data that flows into Chinese AI are dollars and data that will ultimately be used against the United States,’ said Hawley, R-Mo., in a statement. ‘America cannot afford to empower our greatest adversary.’

His is one of the first bills introduced directly in response to the DeepSeek market shakeup of the past few days.

DeepSeek’s release of a new high-profile AI model that costs less to run than existing models like those of Meta and OpenAI sent a chill through U.S. markets, with chipmaker Nvidia stocks tanking on Monday before slowly gaining ground again on Tuesday. 

The surprise release displayed how China’s economic competitiveness has far outpaced the ability of U.S. business leaders and lawmakers to agree on what to do about it. 

Unlike other legislation to thwart China’s profiting off U.S. innovation, Hawley’s bill would cover any AI-related technology instead of specific entities, which has prompted the Chinese to seek out loopholes through other companies. 

Microsoft and OpenAI are now reportedly investigating whether DeepSeek could have accessed and used their data to train its own Chinese model, Bloomberg News reported. 

White House artificial intelligence czar David Sacks told Fox News there is ‘substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models.’ 

President Donald Trump on Monday said DeepSeek’s arrival on the scene ‘should be a wakeup call’ for America’s tech companies after the new low-cost AI assistant soared to number one on the Apple app store over the weekend. 

‘The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser focused on competing,’ Trump said. 

But the president said it was ultimately a good thing if the world had access to cheaper, faster AI models. ‘​​Instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less, and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution,’ Trump said.

In his final week in office, President Joe Biden issued a rule slapping export controls on AI chips, with his national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, arguing that the U.S. was only six to 18 months ahead of China in the AI sector. 

U.S. officials are now looking at the national security implications of DeepSeek, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who added that the Trump administration was working to ‘ensure American AI dominance.’

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to favorably report Pam Bondi’s nomination for U.S. attorney general to the Senate, a widely expected vote that clears her for a vote in the full chamber later this week.

She secured the votes of the committee’s 12 Republicans, with all 10 Democrats voting against.

Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, made a name for herself in Florida by cracking down on drug trafficking, violent crime and the many ‘pill mills’ operating in the state. She also spent 18 years as a prosecutor for the Hillsborough County state attorney’s office, giving her the experience that many believe she will need to serve as the top U.S. attorney.

Bondi was expected to see a glide path to confirmation ahead of Wednesday’s vote. Her nomination to be President Donald Trump’s attorney general also earned the praise of more than 110 former senior Justice Department officials, including former attorneys general, and dozens of Democratic and Republican state attorneys general, who praised her experience and work across party and state lines.

Those backers described Bondi in interviews and letters previewed exclusively to Fox News Digital as an experienced and motivated prosecutor whose record has proved to be more consensus-builder than bridge-burner.

In her confirmation hearing earlier this month, Bondi stressed that, if confirmed to head up DOJ, the ‘partisanship, the weaponization will be gone. ‘America will have one tier of justice for all.’

Whether the approach will prove successful, however, remains to be seen.

The confirmation vote Wednesday was held against a strikingly different political backdrop than just two weeks ago, when Bondi testified days before Trump’s swearing-in.

In his first nine days in office, Trump has fired more than 15 inspectors general from top federal agencies, ousted more than a dozen special counsel members tasked with investigating him and reassigned or removed officials from top posts at the department.

He also froze new hiring at DOJ, issued a sweeping clemency grant for more than 1,500 criminal defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol and installed as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia a criminal defense attorney who represented several high-profile rioters.

Combined, Democrats have raised serious concerns about these actions— and about Bondi’s ability to steer the Justice Department in the face of a willful, and at times seemingly impulsive president-elect, and questioned her willingness to go after political ‘enemies’ and asked her to give credence to certain remarks made by Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI nominee.

However, Bondi appeared composed and largely unflappable during the course of her confirmation hearing, which stretched for more than five hours, save for a 30-minute lunch break.

She highlighted her record of fighting violent crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking as Florida’s top prosecutor, and outlined her broader vision for heading up the Justice Department, where she stressed her desire to lead a department free from political influence.

If confirmed, Bondi’s former colleagues have told Fox News Digital they expect her to bring the same playbook she used in Florida to Washington – this time with an eye to cracking down on drug trafficking, illicit fentanyl use and the cartels responsible for smuggling the drugs across the border.

Democrat Dave Aronberg, who challenged Bondi in her bid for Florida attorney general, told Fox News Digital in an interview that he was stunned when Bondi called him up after winning the race and asked him to be her drug czar.

He noted that she has stared down political challenges before. When she took office in Florida, Aaronberg said, Bondi ‘received a lot of pushback’ from members of the Republican Party for certain actions she took,’ including appointing a Democrat to a top office.

‘But she stood up to them and she did what she thought was right, regardless of political pressure,’ Aaronberg told Fox News Digital on the eve of her confirmation vote. ‘So that’s what gives me hope here, is that she’ll editorship and refocus the Department of Justice on policy and politics. You know, I’m hopeful she’ll focus on and I know that the border and the and human trafficking and the rise of anti-Semitism in our country and on college campuses, those won’t be popular positions.’

President Donald Trump has ordered the construction of an advanced, next-generation missile defense shield to protect the United States from aerial attack.

On Monday, the president signed an executive order that tasks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with drawing up plans to build an ‘Iron Dome for America’ that will protect Americans from the threat of missiles launched by a foreign enemy. In doing so, Trump kept a campaign promise to prioritize missile defense.

‘By next term we will build a great Iron Dome over our country,’ Trump said during a West Palm Beach event on June 14. ‘We deserve a dome…it’s a missile defense shield, and it’ll all be made in America.’

But what exactly are Trump’s plans for an ‘Iron Dome’? Here’s what you need to know: 

1. Israel’s first defense

The Iron Dome missile defense system Trump has called for is similar to one that Israel has developed to intercept thousands of rockets. 

Israel’s first line of defense, a missile defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is labeled the Iron Dome. It was first deployed in 2011, and has since rebuffed and destroyed rockets from Hamas terrorists, Hezbollah forces and Iranian drones and missiles.

The Iron Dome is land-based and built to keep the citizens of Israel safe from barrages of rockets deployed most often by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials claim the Iron Dome has been 90% effective in intercepting thousands of rockets fired into Israel. 

The U.S. has contributed at least $2.6 billion to the development of Israel’s Iron Dome system since 2011. 

2. The threats facing the U.S.

Critically, the Iron Dome is a short-range defense system capable of tackling missiles with ranges between 2.5 miles and about 43 miles. Trump’s executive order identifies attack by long-range ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles as ‘the most catastrophic threat facing the United States,’ so his proposed defense system will need to be adapted and redesigned to defend against intercontinental missiles.

Russia currently has an arsenal of 1,250 deployed weapons, according to the New York Times. Pentagon analysts believe China will have a weapons stockpile of similar size within 10 years, if not earlier, and North Korea has continued development of intercontinental ballistic missiles under both Trump and President Joe Biden’s watch.

Most recently, Russia and China have experimented with hypersonic missiles, which are designed to exceed Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. Intercepting missiles at such speeds is a challenge the U.S. has partnered with Japan to confront at an estimated cost of $3 billion, the Associated Press reported. 

3. Reagan tried it first

President Ronald Reagan was the first U.S. president to call for a national defense system that would counter the threat of the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons, including warheads attached to ballistic missiles.

On March 30, 1983, Reagan proposed ‘a vision for the future that offers hope’ that he called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The idea was to develop a space-based missile defense program that would protect the country from large-scale nuclear attack. Reagan proposed to develop technology that would allow the United States to identify and automatically destroy numerous incoming ballistic missiles before they reached their targets.

Acknowledging that the technology to realize his vision did not yet exist, Regan urged the scientific community to partner with the defense community and work towards a future where Americans need not fear nuclear attack.

‘I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete,’ Reagan said.

The president’s critics derided the plan, nicknaming it, ‘Star Wars,’ and questioned why his administration would pursue a costly defense initiative with no guarantee that it would work. The Soviet Union accused Regan of violating a 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that committed both countries to refrain from developing missile defense systems. Arms control measures stalled during Reagan’s term because he refused to give up the project.

After Regan left office, interest in SDI waned and the program was canceled before the U.S. could develop a functional missile defense system. However, research conducted while SDI was active contributed to the Iron Dome’s development. In 2002, the U.S. withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which now allows Trump to pick up where Reagan left off.

4. Hegseth’s to-do list

Under Trump’s order, freshly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must submit to the president ‘a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield.’ 

The plans must include defense against ‘ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries.’ 

Hegseth is also instructed to accelerate the deployment of a satellite-based sensor system developed by the Missile Defense Agency that is currently in its prototype phase. Called the Hypersonic Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, the system uses ‘birth-to-death’ tracking to follow missile threats from launch through interception, according to the Defense Department.

Additionally, Trump’s order instructs the development and deployment of several space-based missile interception technologies, including systems that could disable a missile prior to launch, as well as a ‘secure supply chain’ to ensure that the ordered missile defense infrastructure is made in America.

Hegseth must also submit a plan to pay for these dense systems before the president puts together his fiscal year 2026 budget. 

5. Cooperating with U.S. allies

Trump’s order calls to ‘increase bilateral and multilateral cooperation on missile defense technology development, capabilities, and operations,’ as well as to ‘increase and accelerate the provision of the United States missile defense capabilities to allies and partners.’

Hegseth is also directed to conduct a review of the U.S. military’s missile defense posture in theaters across the globe and identify areas for cooperation with allies.

Fox News Digital’s Gabriele Regalbuto contributed to this report.

With the exceptions of former President Joe Biden’s dead-man-walking debate performance and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Penn., no event swung the 2024 presidential election to our current president more decidedly than his endorsement by Robert F Kennedy, Jr.

The impact that the scion of the Democrats’ greatest family had on voters should not be lost on Republican senators as they consider his nomination for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services this week.

These members of the world’s greatest deliberative body, direct descendants of those in ancient Rome, should remember that SPQR, or Senatus Populusque Romanus, means The Senate and The People. And that the latter usually win in the end.

The day before RFK, Jr.’s Aug. 23, 2024 endorsement of Trump, I wrote in this very space what independent and frustrated voters I met across the country who were ready to just sit it out had to say.

‘’hey’re both so tied down by money and special interests,’ a couple in San Francisco told me. ‘We need a real outsider.’
Another voter said to me, ‘What are we even voting for?’
If Kennedy comes out this week and says he believes Trump is the one who can break up the monotonous monopoly of Washington power, then many of these voters may well pivot to the former president’s side.’

Columnist Selena Zito, who might be the only person who expended more tire tread than I during the past election, had this to say this week on X:

‘The most interesting voter bloc I saw in Pennsylvania move towards Trump happened when Bobby Kennedy Jr endorsed Trump & just enough young, college educated suburban moms who were concerned about what their children are eating, joined him.’

Between the disaffected voters I was talking to and the moms Zito met with, none of whom were overly fond of Trump, there were enough votes for Republicans to win up and down the ballot.

Don’t want to trust the anecdotes and instincts of shoe-leather columnists? That’s a mistake, but for those who prefer analytical data, well, it shows up there too.

On the day RFK, Jr. endorsed Trump, polls showed Kamala Harris had a 3.7 point lead over Trump. It was the largest lead she would ever have in the race.

Elections have consequences, and millions of new Republican voters demand that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of HHS be one of them.

After RFK, Jr. threw in with the Donald, Harris fell and fell in the polling until we all know what happened.

The health food moms and disgruntled dads Kennedy brought into the GOP fold are not going to take kindly to the bait and switch if oh-so-principled .senators replace their reason for voting Republican with a run-of-the-mill establishment lackey.

There is likely only one bite at the apple that the Republican Party has with the RFK, Jr. voters. If they spit in their faces, they ain’t getting them back, and that could cause electoral woes in 2026 and beyond.

In terms of the American voter who matters, who is persuadable, or who might just sit it out, RFK, Jr. is as big a mandate as border security or the economy It would be foolish for Republican senators to ignore their will.

RFK, Jr. is a symbol. For some, he represents a new way to think about health and the food supply. For others, he is a check on power, or the guy with nothing controlling him. To still others, he may remain a climate activist. 

All of that is as may be. What we know is that the voters who put this Republican majority in power, at least those who were not already on board, want Kennedy. And there no reason to fear that he’s going to cause a smallpox outbreak, ban penicillin, or outlaw the polio vaccine.

In ancient Rome, when senators fell too far out of line with the people, bad things could happen. If the old school Trump-skeptical GOP members of the upper body of Congress defy the will of the people, it’s not just them falling on their own electoral sword, but the whole party.

Elections have consequences, and millions of new Republican voters demand that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of HHS be one of them.

House Democrats are demanding answers regarding the Justice Department’s move this week to fire more than a dozen officials involved in former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, arguing the action was in ‘complete contradiction’ of President Trump’s effort to keep a ‘merit-based system’ for government employees. 

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Gerald Connolly, D-Ma., penned a letter to acting Attorney General James McHenry Tuesday, obtained by Fox News. 

‘We write to you with alarm and profound concern about reports of the administration engaging in the widespread summary firing and involuntary reassignment of excellent career prosecutors and federal agents throughout the Department of Justice (DOJ),’ they wrote. ‘This onslaught against effective DOJ civil servants began within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, in complete contradiction of the president’s repeated pledges to maintain a merit-based system for government employment.’ 

Raskin and Connolly added that the officials worked ‘strenuously to defend the rule of law have been removed from their positions without any evaluation—much less any negative evaluation—of their work.’ 

McHenry, on Monday, fired more than a dozen key officials on Smith’s team who worked to prosecute the president, saying that they could not be trusted in ‘faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.’ 

Fox News Digital first reported the news exclusively on Monday. 

Raskin and Connolly argued that the officials terminated on Monday were ‘part of an expert, non-political workforce tasked with protecting our national security and public safety.’ 

‘They have been hired and promoted based on their professional merit and excellence,’ they wrote, adding that ‘many of them have decades of experience under their belt and have served under, been promoted by, and received awards from presidential administrations of both major political parties, including President Trump’s first administration.’ 

The Democrats argued that McHenry removed them from their posts ‘without regard to their demonstrated competencies, their recognized achievements, or their devoted service to the Department, in some cases reassigning them to areas that are outside of their legal expertise.’ 

‘By removing them from their positions in this hasty and unprincipled way, you have very likely violated longstanding federal laws,’ they wrote, also accusing McHenry of having ‘taken aim at law students who applied to, interviewed for, and received offers from the Department based on their demonstrated academic achievements and their commitment to public service.’ 

The Democrats claimed that the DOJ ‘rescinded job offers to summer interns and entry-level attorneys hired through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, a highly competitive 72-year-old recruitment program that receives applications from students at hundreds of law schools across the country.’

‘We have also received disturbing reports surfacing that White House staff are playing a substantial role in these employment decisions and examining career civil servants’ LinkedIn and other social media profiles to ascertain their personal political leanings,’ Raskin and Connolly wrote. ‘Taken together, your actions raise significant concern that you are determined to fill the ranks of the DOJ and FBI with career employees selected for the personal loyalty or political services they have rendered to President Trump.’ 

Raskin and Connolly are demanding the DOJ provide them with a list of names of officials who have been reassigned or terminated; and provide any communications between the DOJ and the White House since Inauguration Day regarding the content of personal social media accounts of career DOJ employees or applicants. 

Raskin and Connolly demanded the information by Feb. 11 at 5:00 p.m. 

Their letter comes after McHenry, on Monday, transmitted a letter to each official notifying them of their termination, a Justice Department official exclusively told Fox News Digital. It is unclear how many officials received that letter. The names of the individuals were not immediately released. 

‘Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,’ a DOJ official told Fox News Digital. ‘In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda.’ 

This action ‘is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,’ the official told Fox News Digital.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.