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Impeach RFK Jr.? Critics Pan Congresswoman’s Plan to Launch Impeachment Bid

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | September 25, 2025

Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens today said she will introduce articles of impeachment against U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claiming his leadership of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has resulted in “health care chaos” and “reckless cuts.”

Stevens, a Democrat, first announced her intent in a post earlier today on X. She followed up with a statement citing four reasons why she seeks to impeach Kennedy.

Stevens alleged that Kennedy is “severely restricting access to vaccines and spreading absurd conspiracies,” including withdrawing “federal recommendations for COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children” and promoting “wild and unfounded claims” about the risks of acetaminophen.

She also claimed that Kennedy has abdicated his duty as HHS secretary by “cutting funding for lifesaving research,” including cancer research and studies on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

According to Stevens, Kennedy has failed to “carry out statutory duties of HHS” in administering the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and lied during his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate earlier this year.

Stevens also claimed Kennedy’s policies are “making our country less safe and making healthcare less affordable and accessible” and are reflective of his “contempt for science” and “the constant spreading of conspiracy theories.”

“Enough is enough — we need leaders who put science over chaos, facts over lies, and people over politics, which is why I am announcing today that I have begun drafting articles of impeachment against Secretary Kennedy,” Stevens stated.

A spokesperson for Stevens’ office told The Defender the articles of impeachment are being drafted and “will be introduced soon.”

Stevens has repeatedly advocated for Kennedy’s removal, including a call for Kennedy’s resignation earlier this month.

In a statement provided to The Defender, Andrew Nixon, communications director for the HHS said, “Secretary Kennedy remains focused on the work of improving Americans’ health and lowering costs, not on partisan political stunts.”

‘Founders did not want people removed from office over policy disagreements’

According to The Detroit News, it is “unlikely that Stevens’ call for impeachment will be successful, given Republican majorities in Congress.”

A simple majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and a two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate after a trial are required for an impeachment effort to succeed. Republicans hold majorities in both chambers.

Sayer Ji, chairman of the Global Wellness Forum and founder of GreenMedInfo, said that, “with a Republican-controlled House, impeachment is a political non-starter,” but that the goal is “to generate headlines, stigmatize dissent, and chill debate — reputational warfare disguised as constitutional accountability.”

Attorney Rick Jaffe suggested Stevens’ effort may be an inappropriate use of the impeachment process and may set a “dangerous” precedent. He said:

“Those are the kinds of disputes the political process is supposed to resolve. If Congress thinks HHS policy is wrong, it holds hearings, passes oversight statutes or uses the purse. ‘Impeachment as policy veto’ is dangerous.

“Normalizing impeachment for contested scientific positions would chill executive-branch debate and weaponize impeachment as a routine tool. The Constitution reserves impeachment for treason, bribery or comparable abuses. If this standard becomes ‘I disagree with your science,’ every Secretary of HHS under either party will face perpetual impeachment threats. That destabilizes public health governance.”

The Detroit Free Press also called into question the legality of Stevens’ impeachment attempt, writing:

“Given that the Constitution limits impeachment to charges of ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,’ with the presumption being the founders did not want people removed from office over policy disagreements, there almost certainly would be question as to the legality of an impeachment drive.”

Jaffe said that the impeachment push is unlikely to succeed but may further fuel the political divide in the U.S. He said:

“This, in all likelihood, will not remove Kennedy, since the votes aren’t there in the House, and there does not appear to be a path to two-thirds in the Senate. But it will harden lanes. Expect more hearings, subpoenas and media escalation aimed at discrediting HHS leadership.

“If Congress wants to change policy, it should legislate. If it wants accountability, it should investigate. Impeachment is a constitutional last resort, not a press release.”

Stevens eyeing Michigan’s open Senate seat next year

Ji and Jaffe noted that Stevens may also have a political motive in attempting to impeach Kennedy, as she will run for Michigan’s open Senate seat next year.

“Stevens herself is not acting in a vacuum,” Ji said. “This gambit delivers national visibility as a ‘defender of science.’ But her language mirrors pharma-aligned talking points so closely it reads like a continuation of the script.”

According to Jaffe, “Filing impeachment in a GOP-run House is a branding exercise. She gets the headline, tests a message with the primary electorate and positions herself as a ‘defender of science.’ Smart politics from the Democrats’ point of view. They want to keep that Senate seat.”

The Detroit Free Press reported that Stevens faces a Democratic primary along with two other major candidates for the open Senate seat. Her impeachment push “makes clear that Democrats intend to use disapproval of Kennedy with the voters against Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.”

According to The Daily Beast, recent moves by Kennedy and other public health officials have “raised concerns, including among some Republican lawmakers.” The Hill reported today that unnamed Republican senators “are growing increasingly uncomfortable with health actions being taken by the Trump administration.”

Stevens’ donors include Pfizer, medical organizations, health insurers

Data from Open Secrets shows that Stevens received $98,739 in donations from “health professionals” during the 2023-2024 donation cycle, making this one of the top five industries that donated to her.

She also received $17,756 from pharmaceutical and health products companies during the same period.

Open Secrets data also show that Stevens received a $1,500 donation from Pfizer last year — and donations from medical and health organizations including the American Medical Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Stevens has also received donations from pharmacy chains including CVS Health and Target, major insurers including Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan and UnitedHealth, and from BlackRock, Google, Mastercard, McDonald’s and Microsoft.

Are calls for impeachment part of ‘hybrid warfare’ aiming to oust RFK Jr.?

According to Ji, the effort to impeach Kennedy is part of a broader, coordinated attempt by multiple actors, including political figures, pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists, and some legacy media outlets, to oppose Kennedy.

“Stevens’ announcement is not genuine ‘oversight’ — it is the next front in a coordinated influence operation,” which includes the recent Senate hearing in which Susan Monarez, Ph.D., operated and a series of op-eds published in prominent outlets, Ji said.

These efforts mirror proposals contained within a leaked document — purportedly the minutes of an April meeting of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), a major pharmaceutical lobbying organization. BIO has denied the authenticity of the document.

In June, research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., first went public with the alleged minutes of an April meeting of BIO’s Vaccine Policy Steering Committee. He said the document was sent “anonymously by whistleblowers.”

According to the BIO document, John F. Crowley, president and CEO of BIO, allegedly participated in the meeting and proposed a “creative communication campaign” targeting legislators and influencers while isolating Kennedy.

Crowley also allegedly suggested that BIO spend $2 million on such lobbying efforts.

Participants in the BIO meeting, including current employees and board members of vaccine manufacturers, also allegedly said, “It is time to go to The Hill and lobby that it is time for RFK Jr to go … communicate what’s going on in business.”

‘Looks like a part of the coordinated action’ against Kennedy

Ji connected efforts targeting Kennedy to the U.K.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nongovernmental organization that, in 2021, included Kennedy on its “Disinformation Dozen” list of the 12 “leading online anti-vaxxers.”

According to documents leaked by a whistleblower last year, CCDH planned “black ops” against Kennedy. “Black ops” are defined as a “secret mission or campaign carried out by a military, governmental or other organization, typically one in which the organization conceals or denies its involvement.”

The leaked documents, containing minutes from internal CCDH staff meetings held between January and October 2024, revealed that CCDH planned these “black ops” in response to “Nervousness about the impact of him on the election.”

CCDH, currently under investigation by Congress, and its founder and CEO Imran Ahmed, maintain ties to members of the Democratic Party.

Ji said core components of this coordinated campaign include “congressional convergence” and the dissemination of a narrative opposing Kennedy in the media.

Last month, MedPageToday reported that doctors and “public health advocates” were calling for Kennedy’s impeachment. Later in August, USA Today published an op-ed titled, “RFK Jr. is an anti-vaccine kook destroying the CDC. Impeach him.”

Earlier this month, a Mother Jones op-ed stated, “Impeach RFK Jr.,” characterizing him as one of several “unqualified extremists” in Trump’s cabinet. On Sept. 15, Free Speech for People cited unnamed “constitutional law experts” in calling for Kennedy’s impeachment, accusing him of “abuses of power.”

“Far from independent analysis, this is narrative warfare — reputational framing masquerading as journalism, designed to normalize impeachment talk before it even reached Congress,” Ji said, calling this an example of “hybrid warfare — reputational, legislative and media-based.”

Jaffe called the string of op-eds calling for Kennedy’s impeachment “an unmistakable pile-on” that “looks like a part of the coordinated action” against Kennedy.

Stevens has a controversial congressional past. In March 2020, House leadership ruled Stevens was “out of order” following a speech that ran over time on a proposed COVID-19 relief package. The Detroit News described the speech, during which Stevens wore pink latex gloves, as a “yelling spree.”

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

September 28, 2025 - Posted by aletho | Progressive Hypocrite | HHS, United States