By Jennifer Porter Gore
This story was originally published on WordInBlack.com.
Confronted with a statement he made on a podcast in 2024 calling for Black children on ADHD medication to be “re-parented,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a House committee on Thursday not to believe their lyin’ ears.
During an exchange with Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat, Kennedy said he didn’t recall making the statement and accused Sewell of “just making stuff up.”
The receipts, however, say otherwise
“Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence,” Kennedy said on the 19Keys online show, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. “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.”
Pending Budget Cuts
The exchange with Sewell, who called Kennedy’s remarks “disturbing,” came during the HHS secretary’s at times contentious testimony before the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee. In his first appearance before Congress this year, Kennedy praised the agency’s work to change the nation’s dietary guidelines and decrease waste, fraud and abuse.
The secretary also claimed the administration’s overhaul has led to improved drug price negotiations that have decreased prices. But a Senate committee report released Thursday finds drug prices have actually continued to skyrocket.
While the committee’s Republicans praised Kennedy as “a breath of fresh air” for emphasizing nutrition and overall health, Democrats slammed him for the Trump administration’s plan to cut roughly 12% from his department’s 2027 budget. The reduction would carve more than $100 billion from the agency that provides healthcare services to all Americans.
Home Energy Assistance Threatened
Along with slashing $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health — the nation’s world-class health and biomedical research organization — the proposed cuts would also eliminate a program that provides home heating and energy assistance to almost 6 million households. And it would slash budgets for federal programs that help feed low-income families and children.
Kennedy also took fire for changes to the vaccine schedule — a move that the courts have sidetracked for now which has been halted by a legal injunction — and a series of measles outbreaks that spread through South Carolina and Texas earlier this year.
But Kennedy’s remarks about separating Black children who have ADHD and other mental health issues from their parents drew substantial heat.
‘Re-parenting Controversy’
Pressed by Sewell, Kennedy continued to deny he said anything of the sort. But several social media users reposted the original recording of Kennedy touting his plan for “wellness farms.” He also brought up the idea more than once — including during an interview with the “High Level Conversations” podcast.
“Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence,” he said.
At the hearing, Sewell pressed Kennedy: “Have you ever re-parented – or parented, I should say – a Black child?”
Kennedy responded that he did not “even know what that phrase means” and denied he made the remark.
“I’m not going to answer something I didn’t say,” Kennedy said. “You’re just making stuff up.”
But Sewell insisted she was “absolutely not making this up, Mr. Secretary.” Even now, she says, Black children and their parents are separated more often than white families “not because of their greater harm but because of longstanding bias and built-in institutionalism.”
To suggest that Black families “are not capable of raising their own children is deeply offensive, sir,” she said.
