4 highlights from RFK Jr.'s contentious interview with Dana Bash: 'You were part of the problem'
4. Trusting the experts: 'You're repeating it like a parrot'
.@SecKennedy NUKES @DanaBashCNN:
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 2, 2026
"I'm not debating this with you."
"Of course you won't. All you know how to do is repeat things that people told you and say, 'Trust the experts!' That's what you did during Covid. Now we know that Anthony Fauci, who was the 'expert,' was… pic.twitter.com/IVRLJfDSZ6
Following a discussion about probing the potential link between vaccines and autism, Bash and Kennedy both hit at each other for not being scientists.
"Are you also trying to find out how it interacts with people's DNA, what's predisposed to have an autistic child?" Bash said. "Are you doing both?"
"Yes," Kennedy responded. "Dana, you probably don't understand this because you're not a scientist."
"You're not either!" Bash said.
"Let me ask you something: do you see your job as ending vaccine hesitancy, or do you see your job as telling the truth to the American people?" Kennedy asked following crosstalk.
"I see my job as telling the truth. And the truth is that there is study after study after study. It's one of the most studied things out there in science," Bash said.
"You're repeating it like a parrot. You're repeating it like a parrot," Kennedy said. He went on to note that Fauci was seen as an expert, but has since been shown to have been "lying" about COVID-19 protocols.
"I'm not debating this with you," Bash said.
"Of course you won't. All you know how to do is repeat things that people told you and say, 'Trust the experts!' That's what you did during COVID. Now we know that Anthony Fauci, who was the 'expert,' was lying about everything ... now, you're rolling out the 'experts' again to talk about something that you have no personal knowledge of."
"He was lying, and you were punishing people for not trusting the experts, and now you're rolling out the experts again to talk about something that you have no personal knowledge of."
"What we were doing in COVID and still, with regard to these vaccines, is getting the best information, the best science that we can and putting it out there," Bash said. "And, sir, you, what you are doing is causing information to be out there that is not accurate."
Kennedy and Bash's tense exchange prompted widespread reaction on social media and elsewhere. CNN issued a statement defending her amid backlash, according to TheWrap.
"Dana Bash is a veteran journalist who conducted a newsmaking interview with Secretary Kennedy in which he stated that he supports parents getting their children vaccinated against measles and addressed President Trump's push for further study into autism and vaccines," the network said.
"Asking tough, substantive questions to those in power is the job of every journalist, and Dana did hers incredibly well today. We stand behind Dana, her reporting, and CNN’s overall coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Bash recently made headlines for her appearance in Fauci's leaked private pandemic-era diary, which recorded his friendly interactions with media figures such as Bash and CNN anchor Jake Tapper, whose home he visited for dinner during the pandemic.
"Dana Bash sent me a text: 'I just watched the whole [Rep. Jim] Jordan thing. Again, you're a better man than I .… As our friend Wolf Blitzer said to me yesterday — no one would have blamed you if you said simply 'Mr. Jordan, go f— yourself,'" Fauci wrote.
