Just two months into Donald Trump’s second term, the president’s administration announced that it would withhold Title X funds from Planned Parenthood clinics that provide contraception, STI testing and other health services.
Not surprisingly, this sparked a legal fight and a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, though the case was withdrawn earlier this week — not because the ACLU lost interest, but because the underlying dispute became moot. As Politico reported, the Department of Health and Human Services recently “quietly released the money” that had been frozen months earlier.
The same report added, “Though the Trump administration is still defending in court far bigger federal cuts to Planned Parenthood that Congress approved last summer, the release of the Title X funds gives the clinics a crucial lifeline. It is also likely to inflame existing tensions between the administration and anti-abortion conservatives who will rally in Washington later this month for the annual March for Life.”
Two days later, the developments came up during a brief Q&A in the Oval Office.
A reporter asked the president why HHS released the federal funds to Planned Parenthood, and he replied, “I don’t know anything about that.” He then asked HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to respond to the question.
“I haven’t heard of that,” he said of the restored money.
It’s possible that RFK Jr. was being less than honest, reluctant to talk about developments that the White House might consider politically problematic. But given recent history, there’s a more plausible explanation: RFK Jr. couldn’t answer the reporter’s question because he doesn’t keep up on developments at the agency he ostensibly leads.
Last spring, for example, when RFK Jr. sat down with CBS News, the network’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook pressed the Cabinet secretary on some of his most controversial decisions. RFK Jr., however, repeatedly said he wasn’t aware of the actions LaPook was describing.
A month later, the HHS secretary ran into a similar problem during back-to-back appearances before House and Senate committees: Lawmakers kept asking RFK Jr. about steps he and his department had taken, and he kept responding with answers such as, “When did I do that?” and “I don’t know about that.”
Soon after, it happened yet again, during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, for example, asked about HHS cutting funding for ALS research. The secretary said the senator’s question was the first he had heard about this. As the hearing progressed, and the problem persisted, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington raised a highly provocative point. “Secretary Kennedy, listening to your testimony last week frankly left me pretty confused and concerned about what’s happening at your department,” the senator said. “You repeatedly claimed that staffing and funding cuts that have been reported on publicly and even confirmed by your department staff are not happening. So either you’re lying or you’re not the one making decisions.” Months later, the salience of Murray’s pushback lingers for a reason. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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