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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. found himself in a shouting match with a congresswoman after she questioned him about previous comments he made about Black children during a budget hearing Thursday.
Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., confronted Kennedy about remarks he made during a 2024 podcast interview alleging that all Black children are overmedicated and need to be “re-parented.”
“Mr. Secretary, you’ve all ready admitted that you are not a board-certified physician and you’ve a ready admitted you did not go to medical school. Have you ever re-parented or parented, I should say, a Black child?” Sewell asked Kennedy.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), arrives for a House Ways and Means Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2026, as Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., speaks during a news conference to unveil the New Dems Health Care Action Plan in the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 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 would mirror “wellness farms” he encountered during his time in the Peace Corps.
“Rehabilitation facilities that I’m going to start in rural areas all over the country — where any American can go for free, anyone who is dependent on drugs, either legal drugs or illegal drugs … Psychiatric drugs — which every Black kid is now just standardly put on Adderall, SSRIs, Benzos, which are known to induce violence,” Kennedy said on the Earn Your Leisure podcast.
“And those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented — to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens. You’ll actually have to talk to people.”
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during an announcement addressing mental health and addiction initiatives in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 2, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
For several minutes, the pair bickered back and forth over whether Kennedy made those remarks. Standing behind Sewell, an aide held a poster board displaying Kennedy’s remarks.
Kennedy said he didn’t know what the phrase “re-parented” meant and denied ever saying it.
“You absolutely said it,” Sewell said.
But Kennedy refused to answer Sewell’s question about whether he had ever reparented or parented a Black child. He accused Sewell of “making up” those remarks.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage at a Turning Point Action campaign rally at the Gas South Arena on October 23, 2024 in Duluth, Georgia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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“I am absolutely not making this up. Mr. Secretary, in your opinion, what factors should the federal government consider when re-parenting a Black child who has been on ADHD or ADD [medication]? That’s rhetorical, sir,” Sewell said.
An HHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Kennedy’s comments on the podcast were taken “out of context.”
“Prior to his time as Secretary, he described these communities as spaces where individuals, particularly young people facing alienation, mental health challenges, and rising rates of despair could undergo a form of ‘re-parenting.’ In psychotherapy terms, reparenting involves developing the emotional regulation, discipline, boundaries, and self-worth that may not have been established in childhood, through consistent care, accountability, and supportive relationships,” HHS said.
