Dem senator presses call for Kennedy to ‘resign or be fired’ after election

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) renewed her call for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be removed from office Wednesday — more than a year after she joined fellow Democrats in demanding his ouster over the HHS secretary’s handling of the nation’s public health agencies.

“The time is now. RFK Jr. must resign or be fired. End of discussion,” Alsobrooks wrote on social media Wednesday.

The Maryland Democrat has been among Kennedy’s most vocal critics in Congress, repeatedly accusing him of undermining public health by spreading vaccine misinformation and eroding trust in federal health agencies.

Her latest demand follows more than a year of efforts to push Kennedy out of the Trump administration.

In September 2025, Alsobrooks joined more than 20 Democratic senators in calling for Kennedy’s removal following a contentious Senate hearing that focused on turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and changes to federal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.

During the hearing, the health secretary was faced with pointed questions from Democratic Sen. Mark Warner (Va.) over the number of Americans who had died from COVID-19.

When asked whether he accepted that more than 1 million Americans had died from the coronavirus, Kennedy responded, “I don’t know how many died.”

“You’re the secretary of Health and Human Services. You don’t have any idea how many Americans died from COVID?” Warner pressed.

“I don’t think anybody knows that, because there was so much data chaos coming out of the CDC and there were so many perverse incentives,” Kennedy replied.

At the time, federal and international health data showed approximately 1.2 million Americans died of COVID-19.

Ahead of that hearing, Alsobrooks had already called for Kennedy’s resignation at a rally on Capitol Hill, accusing the Trump administration official of destroying the department he was appointed to lead.

“RFK claims that he wants to make America healthy again, but from day one has systemically dismantled HHS through his anti-science, quack agenda,” she said at the time.

In February, Alsobrooks and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) released a report detailing what they described as harmful actions taken by Kennedy during his first year in office. The lawmakers have continued updating the report to document his decisions as health secretary.