Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he didn’t personally fact-check the MAHA Commission Assessment and called the report’s fabricated citations “wrong” and a “mistake” during a heated exchange with Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz in a Tuesday committee hearing.
The White House commission report — which Kennedy touted as “gold-standard” science — drew widespread criticism after NOTUS first reported that seven of the cited sources did not exist, and that the report misinterpreted studies on public health interventions like vaccines.
During his appearance Tuesday before a subcommittee in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Kennedy insisted that “all of the foundational assertions in that report are accurate,” and brushed off the impact of the fabricated citations, saying that “some of the citations were messed up for one day” before being corrected.
The nonexistent citations were present from the time of the report’s release in mid-May and remained in place for over a week before NOTUS identified them. An updated version of the report was released soon after with replacements for the fabricated studies, but even those replacement studies were misinterpreted, some of the authors told NOTUS.
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Kennedy denied that the report had issues beyond the fictitious citations, saying that “there were no erroneous actual assertions.”
In a letter sent earlier this month, other Democratic members of the panel called for Kennedy to respond to the report’s citation issues. The letter highlighted reporting by The Washington Post that found “clear hallmarks of the use of ChatGPT in the report.”
Ruiz called the report’s issues “unbelievable” during Tuesday’s hearing and said that it would receive an “F” if turned in as a college assignment.
He added that the report — and its issues — carry “significant weight.”
“What you’re relying upon isn’t real. It isn’t data-driven. And it isn’t based on facts, science or reality,” Ruiz said.
“How does that happen under your leadership?” Ruiz asked. Kennedy did not answer the question.
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Margaret Manto is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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