JD Vance posted a curse-laden message to X defending Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. after his disastrous Senate Finance hearing yesterday, in which Vance made it all about trans kids.

Senators largely berated Kennedy for his attempts to erode access to and confidence in vaccines in his tenure at HHS, with even Republicans expressing anger at him for his claims that vaccines have not saved uncountably many lives, his firing of vaccine experts at HHS, his cutting of funding for vaccine research, and the FDA narrowing its approval of the COVID-19 vaccine, which will make it more difficult for many people to obtain.

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Clips from the hearing went viral as senators angrily questioned Kennedy, and he responded with conspiracy theories or just pretended that his own public actions didn’t happen. Now, many senators are calling for him to resign.

So Vance decided to defend Kennedy by bringing up trans kids.

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“When I see all these senators trying to lecture and ‘gotcha’ Bobby Kennedy today all I can think is: You all support off-label, untested, and irreversible hormonal ‘therapies’ for children, mutilating our kids and enriching big pharma,” Vance wrote. “You’re full of s**t and everyone knows it.”

Gender-affirming care is supported by all major medical associations in the U.S., including the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, as safe and life-saving for young people with gender dysphoria. The medications are often reversible, and they don’t “mutilate” children; they help save lives.

“Classy, as ever, Mr. Vice President,” the conservative Wall Street Journal responded, which noted that many of the senators attacking Kennedy are also transphobic. “None of this is true of Dr. Cassidy, Dr. Barrasso, and other Senators, and the Vice President knows it.”

“Mr. Vance is trying to rally Republicans to RFK’s side by framing this dispute in a polarized partisan framework, either/or, us/them. That may serve his political purposes as he courts RFK’s supporters with 2028 in mind, but it won’t win over anyone paying attention to the health secretary’s contradictions as he attacks life-saving vaccines.”

Others on X criticized Vance for bringing up trans kids to deflect from criticism about vaccines.