RFK Jr. and Rep. Sewell clash over Black children remarks at hearing
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. found himself in the middle of a fight with a congressman who questioned him about previous comments he made about Black children during a budget hearing on Thursday.
Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., confronted Kennedy over his remarks during a 2024 podcast interview claiming that all Black children are overmedicated and need to be “re-parentified.”
“Mr. Secretary, you have all already admitted that you are not a board-certified physician and have not attended medical school. Have you ever re-parented or parented a black child?” Sewell asked Kennedy.
RFK Jr LAUNCHED AN INVESTIGATION AT THE SCHOOL ALLEGEDLY VACCINATING THE CHILD WITHOUT PARENTAL PERMISSION
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in Washington, D.C., for a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on April 16, 2026. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., speaks at a press conference to unveil the New Democrats Health Care Action Plan at the U.S. Capitol on December 3, 2025. (Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
At the time of the podcast, Kennedy was a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Throughout the interview, he explored various campaign promises, including a plan to fight the drug epidemic by creating “rehabilitation facilities” in rural areas. The facilities will reflect the “wellness farms” he encountered during his time in the Peace Corps.
“The rehab facilities that I will be starting in rural areas all over the country – where any American, anyone who is addicted to drugs, legal drugs or illegal drugs… Psychiatric drugs – every Black kid is now standardly given Adderall, SSRIs, Benzos, which are known to cause violence,” Kennedy said on the Earn Your Leisure podcast.
“And these kids will have a chance to go somewhere and become parents again; they’ll have a chance to live in a community where there won’t be cell phones, there won’t be screens. You’ll actually have to talk to people.”
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Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during an announcement on mental health and addiction initiatives on February 2, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The two argued for several minutes about whether Kennedy had said those words. An aide standing behind Sewell was holding a poster board displaying Kennedy’s remarks.
Kennedy said she did not know what the phrase “becoming a parent again” meant and denied saying it.
“You sure did,” Sewell said.
But Kennedy refused to answer Sewell’s question about whether she had re-parented or parented a Black child. He accused Sewell of “making up” the remarks.
Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage during his Turning Point Action campaign rally at Gas South Arena on October 23, 2024 in Duluth, Georgia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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“I’m certainly not making this up. Mr. Secretary, what factors do you think the federal government should consider when reparenting a black child with ADHD or ADD? [medication]? That’s rhetoric, sir,” Sewell said.
An HHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Kennedy’s comments on the podcast were “out of context.”
“Prior to her tenure as secretary, she described these communities as spaces where individuals, especially young people facing alienation, mental health issues, and increased rates of hopelessness, could undergo a form of ‘re-parenting.’ In psychotherapeutic terms, re-parenting involves developing emotional regulation, discipline, boundaries, and self-worth that may not have been established in childhood through consistent care, responsibility, and supportive relationships.” HHS said.
