RFK Jr clashes with Democrat senator over cancer treatment: ‘You don’t care’

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got into a heated debate with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., during a hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday after the senator accused Kennedy and the Trump administration of delaying critical cancer care for one of her constituents named Natalie.

Kennedy told Murray he wanted to do “everything” in his power to help her constituent, telling the senator repeatedly to contact his office to go over the individual’s case. But his answers were not adequate for the senator, leading Kennedy to eventually question whether the Washington state Democrat actually cared about her constituent, Natalie. 

“Mr. Secretary, one of my constituents — her name is Natalie Phelps — she’s a mom of two from Bainbridge Island in Washington state. She has been fighting aggressive stage four colorectal cancer for nearly five years now. Her best hope now is a clinical trial she’s participating in at the [National Institutes of Health’s] Clinical Center,” Murray said in her opening line of questioning directed at Kennedy. 

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“But because of the thoughtless mass firing of thousands of critical employees across NIH and HHS that you carried out, Natalie’s doctors at that clinical center have told her they have no choice but to delay her treatment by an additional four weeks.”

Murray added that those four weeks of delayed care “could mean the difference between life and death” for Natalie. She also demanded Kennedy give a “specific” number of how many employees have been cut at NIH’s clinical center.

“I can’t tell you that now, Sen. Murray,” Kennedy responded. “What I can tell you is that if you contact my office tomorrow, I’ll look specifically into that.” 

However, that answer from Kennedy was “not acceptable” to the senator.

“That is not acceptable. I want an answer,” Murray shot back, eventually demanding Kennedy provide her an update on Natalie’s case within 24 hours.

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“Wouldn’t you rather get her into that clinical trial as fast as you can?” Kennedy shot back.

“Absolutely,” Murray said.

“All right, so if you contact my office tomorrow, this is a …,” Kennedy said before Murray cut him off.

“Natalie is sitting there waiting for treatment, you’re here to …” Murray said before Kennedy interjected to remind her he was trying to help with Natalie’s circumstances.

“I’m offering to help here, but you don’t care. You don’t care about Natalie,” Kennedy told Murray, noting during the hearing he wanted do “everything in [his] power to try to get Natalie into [the clinical trial quicker.]”

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Following a recess, Kennedy said the patient, Natalie, was found to be ineligible for the clinical trial she was trying to get into. The patient was found to be “medically ineligible,” Kennedy said.

“It had nothing to do with the [reduction in force] and NIH had been trying to get her into another clinical trial, but none of our clinical trials were shut down because of the R.I.F. That was a canard.”

Kennedy’s spat with Murray included different questions tied to the Trump administration’s cuts, which Kennedy spent much of Wednesday on Capitol Hill fielding questions about. Kennedy also participated in a separate House hearing Wednesday that covered the matter and other issues HHS faces.

Kennedy told lawmakers he didn’t know of any agency head who wants to see budgets slashed, but he pointed out he is not the president, who, Kennedy said, has a “broader vision” than he does when it comes to spending priorities.

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“We must spend smarter,” Kennedy said Wednesday in response to inquiries about the Trump administration’s cuts at HHS. “We will shift funding away from bureaucracy toward direct impact.”

Trump ‘honored’ by Democrats’ continued attacks as he amasses historic victories

While President Donald Trump focuses on the “big, beautiful bill,” trade deals and foreign policy, the Democratic Party continues to rage against his second term. 

Despite the Left’s outrage, Trump maintained he is “honored” by the continued “Trump Derangement Syndrome” during an exclusive interview aboard Air Force One on “Hannity.”

“I think you have a lot of [Democrats] that — they don’t know where they are right now. I think they don’t know what to do, like men playing in women’s sports,” Trump said in an interview that aired Wednesday.

“They do suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome at a high level, and I guess I’m honored by that.”

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Democrats have long united around their opposition to Trump, but the party has also been in the political wilderness since November’s elections, struggling with a messaging problem and a leadership problem.

Trump highlighted many Democrats’ stance on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, arguing the issue is “99–1.”

“They always say it’s 80–20… A lot of these things are not 80–20,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “In one way, I don’t like talking about it because I don’t want to talk them out of it because, you know, it would be harder to beat them if they were normal on things. It shows that they’re almost insane.”

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The president also directed criticism toward Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., when asked about emerging party voices like Reps. Jasmine Crockett and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Trump argued the longtime New York Democrat is “afraid” to go against the progressive wing of the party. 

“I think he’s afraid. I watch him. He’s lost his confidence, totally. Chuck Schumer — I’ve known him so long, and he’s in the other party, but I’ve know the guy so long — he’s totally lost his confidence,” Trump said. 

Despite his observations, Trump bet Democratic lawmakers will “have to vote” in favor of the “big, beautiful bill.” The president cited pharmaceutical and drug cuts as a major reason for potential Democratic support. 

“I think a lot of Democrats are going to be forced to vote for the bill because you add this new element that, if this bill passes, you’re going to get a 50% to 90% reduction in prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals,” he said. 

“When you add that in, how does a Democrat not vote? I don’t think they can win an election if they don’t vote for it.”

Swalwell warns Noem he has ‘bulls— detector’ during heated exchange

Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell warned Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that he has a “bullsh— detector” during a heated exchange about a photo of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran citizen who the Trump administration deported.

Swalwell was grilling Noem about a photo of Abrego Garcia’s hand that shows alleged MS-13 tattoos during a Homeland Security budget hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

“I want you to have credibility and I want you to be taken seriously. Is this doctored or is it not?” Swalwell asked, referring to the photo that President Donald Trump shared on social media. Swalwell was asserting that the letters “M,” “S” and the numbers “1” and “3” above the tattoos were edited onto the photo.

Noem tried to respond, saying that the deportation of Abrego Garcia was based off an investigation, not a photo, but was interrupted by Swalwell.

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“Madam Secretary, I have a seven-year-old, a six-year-old and a three-year-old,” Swalwell said. “I have a bulls— detector. I’m just asking you, is this doctored or not?”

Noem replied that it was “unbelievable” that the lawmaker’s focus was on a photo and not on the importance of U.S. national security, before saying she had “no knowledge” of the photo in question.

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Last month, President Donald Trump shared a photo of himself in the Oval Office holding a picture of what the White House said were tattoos on Abrego Garcia’s knuckles that are affiliated with the MS-13 terrorist group.

While Swalwell continued to use his time to push Noem about the photo, the secretary responded that the mission of DHS is to secure the country and go after “the worst of the worst, the criminals, the bad actors.”

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“Abrego Garcia is a known terrorist and member of MS-13, a wife beater and a human trafficker that should never have been in this country to begin with,” Noem said.

El Chapo’s relatives cross US border in apparent deal with Trump administration

Mexican officials said Wednesday that 17 family members of drug cartel leaders crossed into the United States last week as part of a deal between a son of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration.

Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed a report by independent journalist Luis Chaparro that family members of Ovidio Guzmán López had entered the U.S. Lopez, the son of imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was extradited to the U.S. in 2023. 

Among the family members allowed into the U.S. was Guzman’s former wife, Griselda López Pérez. 

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In a radio interview, García Harfuch said it was clear to Mexican authorities the deal was made during negotiations between Guzmán López and the U.S. government.

“It is evident that his family is going to the U.S. because of a negotiation or an offer that the Department of Justice is giving him,” García Harfuch said.

None of the family was being pursued by Mexican authorities. 

Video footage posted online Tuesday by Spanish-language outlet Radio Formula shows Guzmán’s family carrying luggage as they wait to be processed at the Tijuana/San Diego border crossing. They reportedly packed $70,000 in cash with them.

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The confirmation by García Harfuch came the same day the office of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced it was charging a number of top cartel leaders with “narcoterrorism” for the first time since the Trump administration declared a number of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

“Let me be direct, to the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, you are no longer the hunters, you are the hunted,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California said. “You will be betrayed by your friends, you will be hounded by your enemies and you will ultimately find yourself and your face here in a courtroom in the Southern District of California.”

Guzmán López, 35, also known as “the Mouse,” is one of the four of Guzmán’s sons known as “Los Chapitos,” who ran the Sinaloa Cartel in their father’s absence. At his peak, the elder Guzmán was one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world, turning the Sinaloa Cartel into a major force and one of the largest groups responsible for illegal drugs pouring into the U.S. 

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He was arrested and extradited to the U.S. in 2017 and convicted of drug trafficking and other crimes. He is imprisoned in Colorado. 

Democrats dodge questions about Biden’s cognitive decline amid new revelations

Several top Democrats have deflected questions about former President Biden’s cognitive decline, as alleged in multiple books about the 2024 election, telling the media that they’re looking to move forward and not look back.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., dismissed the questions surrounding the latest book to come out with allegations of the president’s decline on CNN, MSNBC and during a press conference on Tuesday. 

During an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt, Schumer was asked, “Did you really not have any idea that he was not fit to serve a second term?”

“Kasie, we’re looking forward. We have the largest Medicaid cut in front of us. We have the whole federal government,” he said as Hunt pushed back, noting the reason they were dealing with President Donald Trump now was because the Democrats lost in 2024. 

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“Is that not Joe Biden’s responsibility for deciding to run again?” Hunt followed up as the Democratic lawmaker repeated, “We’re looking forward.”

Hunt pressed, “That’s it?” Schumer said, “That’s it,” before the interview ended.

While multiple books have come out about Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and the 2024 election, the most recent excerpts from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson’s upcoming book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” detail several insider concerns over whether Biden could last a second term as president.

The senator was also pressed on Tuesday by MSNBC’s Katy Tur, who asked him to respond to a specific portion of the book that mentioned the Democratic senator. “The book also reports that Biden put his hands on your shoulder and said, ‘You have bigger,’ I’m going to say huevos, it’s not what the book said, ‘than anyone I’ve ever met.’ Do you think Biden deserves the blame for the loss in 2024?” Tur asked.

“Katy, we’re looking forward. We have the largest Medicaid cut in history facing us. We are focused on the future and doing right for the American people, plain and simple,” he said. 

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Tur followed up and asked if Biden actually said what was reported in the book, and he said again, “We’re looking forward.”

The senator gave the same response during a press conference earlier in the day when a reporter asked if he was being straight with the American public in posting on X in June that the president was “in command and impressive” in meetings.

The reporter juxtaposed Schumer’s post with an insider describing to Tapper and Thompson a “terrifying” moment that same month when Biden failed to recognize award-winning actor George Clooney at a June fundraiser.

Schumer dismissed the question, saying, “We’re just looking forward.”

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Asked by a reporter on Tuesday whether it was helpful for the Democratic caucus to have these books about Biden and the 2024 campaign, and whether he wanted Biden to help campaign for Democrats, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries deflected. 

“We’re not looking backward, we’re looking forward at this particular moment in time,” Jeffries said. 

Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., said the commentary about the president’s health was “very backward-looking” during an interview on CNN on Tuesday, but argued that the former president should have either stayed in the race or not run for re-election at all. 

He added, “So I don’t know whether he should have been the nominee or not. I don’t really want to review all of it because it’s past history, and we live in a moment right now when 500,000 people in the state of Illinois are being told basically they’re going to lose their healthcare because of what the Republicans are doing.”

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Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was confronted on Sunday by NBC’s Kristen Welker about Biden’s insistence that it didn’t matter that he dropped out of the race in July, only giving former Vice President Kamala Harris about 90 days to campaign. 

“You know, everything we look at in a rearview mirror after you lose an election. Yes, we would have been served better by a primary, but we are where we are. We’re not on the History Channel right now, and I believe that President Biden can come out and speak and do interviews whenever he wants,” Klobuchar said.

“But I will say this: We’re not in the ‘History Channel’ and our Republican colleagues, instead of dealing with where we are now, think they’re in some kind of a way back zone, that they can go bring time backwards and blame everything on Joe Biden. Donald Trump is the president right now, and we have to deal with helping the American people,” the senator added.

After listing what she wanted the party to focus on going forward, the Democratic senator added, “So I’m not interested in going backward in time. I’m interested in going forward.”

Some Democrats acknowledged that the president put the party in a tough spot when pressed on the book allegations, and on whether they should have held a primary. 

Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., told MSNBC on Wednesday when pressed on Biden’s decline and revelations from the book that he shouldn’t have run for re-election, as he said he was going to be a transitional president. 

“I don’t think he should have run for reelection. And I do think that it put the party in a much tougher spot to win, which we needed the best person on the field,” McGarvey told MSNBC’s Ali Vitali, citing Trump’s policies and the high stakes of the election. “We knew the stakes were that high, and we needed to make sure we had the best person on the field for the Democrats at that time.”

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Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that Biden “maybe” hurt Democrats in running for re-election. However, Buttigieg defended the former president against allegations of decline. 

“The time I worked closest with him in his final year was around the Baltimore bridge collapse. And what I can tell you is that the same president the world saw addressing that was the president I was in the Oval with, insisting that we do a good job, do right by Baltimore. And that was characteristic of my experience with him,” he told reporters in Iowa this week. 

Officials in West Coast state sound alarm after traveler diagnosed with viral disease

Public health officials in Washington state are warning residents that a Canadian traveler who was contagious with measles visited several public locations, including the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The person, whose vaccination status is unknown, traveled through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and visited multiple public locations in Renton, Bellevue, Seattle, Everett and Woodinville between April 30 and May 3, according to a King County news release.

Health officials said the Canadian was given the diagnosis after traveling through the area.

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The spread of measles can happen before any rash appears, and the virus can remain in the air for up to two hours after someone contagious with measles leaves the area. 

Officials said potential exposure sites where the Canadian traveled include Seattle-Tacoma International Airport; Bellevue Market Place at Factoria Shopping Center; Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery; Home Depot in Redmond; Dunn Lumber in Renton; Genki Sushi in Renton; Topgolf Renton Sport Bar and Restaurant; Pho Mignon in Kirkland; Kobo at HIGO Art Gallery; Uwajimaya Seattle Asian Market; Stoup Brewing; Spicy Style of Sichuan; a hotel; and three fitness centers.

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While the case is not connected to any previous local measles cases, Public Health – Seattle and King County responded to two other measles cases this year from non-residents.

There have been a total of five cases of measles in Washington state residents this year.

Meagan Kay, medical epidemiologist for Public Health – Seattle and King County, said there is a “significant measles resurgence” in the U.S. and globally.

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“With over 1,000 cases reported so far this year nationally, 2025 is on track to have the highest number of measles cases in the U.S. since the early 1990s,” Kay said. “It’s an important time to check your vaccination status and get vaccinated if you aren’t protected.”

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Officials encouraged those who were in the potentially affected locations to find out if they are vaccinated for measles and call a healthcare provider promptly if they develop an illness with fever or with an unexplained rash.

Popular burger chain announces changes are coming to its recipes

In-N-Out Burger has announced a major menu switch, changing the ingredients of a few of its beverages.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to providing our customers with the highest-quality ingredients, we have removed artificial coloring from our Strawberry Shakes and Signature Pink Lemonade,” Patty Pena, a spokesperson for the California-based burger joint, confirmed to Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 

It is unclear which specific dyes have been removed by the popular fast-food restaurant or if the coloring will be replaced.

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Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a ban on petroleum-based synthetic dyes within the nation’s food supply, citing health concerns.

Petroleum-based synthetic dyes are used to add color to food and drug items.

The dyes are commonly found in breakfast cereals, candy, snacks, beverages, vitamins and “other products [that are] aimed at children,” according to an article titled “The Artificial Food Dye Blues,” shared by the National Library of Medicine. 

The FDA recently announced the approval of three natural-source colors in food items: Galdieria extract blue, butterfly pea flower extract and calcium phosphate.

Pena told Fox News Digital the chain will be making a major change to a staple condiment as well.

“We’re also in the process of transitioning to an upgraded ketchup, which is made with real sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup,” Pena said. 

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called out sugar during the agency’s announcement on the artificial dye ban.

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“Sugar is poison,” Kennedy said at the time. “And Americans need to know that it is poisoning us.” 

California-based certified nutritionist Courtney Swan of Realfoodology told Fox News Digital that high-fructose corn syrup needs to be examined. 

High-fructose corn syrup is a processed sweetener derived from corn starch, which Swan classifies as an “ultraprocessed, refined sugar.”

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The syrup is “so far removed from its original source that it’s not even recognizable as something that would be considered food anymore,” Swan said.

Fox News Digital followed up with In-N-Out Burger for additional comment. 

Sports retail giant nearing billion-dollar acquisition of sneaker mainstay

Dick’s Sporting Goods is reportedly closing in on a deal to buy competitor Foot Locker for about $2.3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.

The retailers discussed a deal at $24 per share for Foot Locker, which would be an 86.5% premium to Foot Locker’s last closing price, according to the report.

Foot Locker announced its “Lace Up Plan” in 2024, which included new store formats, moving away from mall stores, revamping its loyalty program and going digital, FOX Business previously reported.

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The company later launched its Global Technology Services Hub in Dallas to modernize its technology infrastructure.

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Dick’s Sporting Goods and Foot Locker did not immediately respond to inquires from FOX Business.

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