RFK Jr. Explodes After Brutal Report Claims He’s ‘Checked Out’ at HHS

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is firing back after a damaging new report painted him as isolated, distracted and disengaged inside the very agency he now leads.

The Health and Human Services Secretary erupted online after New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg published a blistering piece accusing Kennedy of showing little interest in the daily grind of running one of the most important departments in the federal government.

The report claimed Kennedy has stayed largely removed from top staff, focused narrowly on his own pet issues and failed to publicly address major health threats, including an Ebola outbreak in Africa that the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency.

According to the report, even after six Americans were exposed, Kennedy made no public remarks about the growing outbreak.

Sources told the Times that Kennedy has “shown little interest in managing the details” of the sprawling department and has instead zeroed in on issues that have long defined his controversial public career, including vaccines, food recommendations and pesticide exposure.

The report also described Kennedy as “checked out,” claiming he has remained isolated from much of HHS leadership and rarely attends meetings meant to keep him updated on the work happening across the department.

When he does show up, insiders claimed, he often appears distracted and spends time scrolling on his phone.

In one meeting, Kennedy reportedly arrived late, apologized to those in the room and said, “Thank you for putting up with my dysfunctional self.”

The article also alleged that Kennedy often leaves the office around 4 p.m., a detail that quickly fueled criticism from Democrats and public health observers already alarmed by his leadership of HHS.

Kennedy, 72, was furious.

Taking to X, he blasted the report as “unfair, inimical, and inaccurate,” insisting the portrayal of him as an absentee secretary was completely wrong.

“All one needs to refute your argument is to glance at my publicly available calendar and to review my unprecedented list of accomplishments on a wide range of issues, all of which I drove,” Kennedy wrote.

He claimed he meets daily with advisers to discuss policy and strategy and said his workday does not end when he leaves the building.

Kennedy said he typically leaves the office between 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. so he can spend hours quietly answering emails, adding that he often works until 11 p.m. on calls with staff.

He also accused the Times of relying on anonymous sources who had a grudge against him, claiming some were people he had fired or who quit before they could be fired.

“You also deceptively quote HHS employees without identifying whether they were among those I fired,” Kennedy complained.

Then he turned his fire on the Biden administration.

Kennedy claimed that when he took over HHS, “the building was empty” and alleged that around 90 percent of employees were not coming into work. He said he changed that culture but accused the media of ignoring his reforms.

He also took a swipe at his predecessor, Xavier Becerra, claiming the former Biden-era HHS secretary “almost never showed up for work” during his four years in office.

But Kennedy’s lengthy defense did not exactly quiet the criticism.

Instead, his response sparked another wave of mockery online.

“Bobby, if you’re in politics and you have to explain it to this length and degree, you’ve already lost,” one person wrote.

Another critic pointed to the fierce opposition Kennedy faced from members of his own famous family, saying, “Your own family did everything they could to make sure you weren’t confirmed.”

A third user slammed him as “objectively the most unqualified HHS secretary in US history.”

Kennedy’s tenure has been controversial from the start. His long history of vaccine skepticism made his appointment deeply alarming to many Democrats, doctors and public health experts, who warned that putting him in charge of HHS could undermine confidence in federal health guidance.

Since taking the job under President Donald Trump, Kennedy has repeatedly generated headlines for reasons that have little to do with steady public health leadership.

He has caught wild snakes, discussed his past drug use in shocking detail and even made headlines for getting into a hot tub with Kid Rock.

Now, the latest report is raising fresh questions about whether Kennedy is focused enough on the enormous responsibilities of his office — or whether the nation’s top health agency is being led by a man more interested in fighting the press than managing a public health department.

Kennedy insists he is working harder than his critics know.

But for his detractors, the explosive response only reinforced the concern that HHS is being run by a deeply polarizing figure who may be more consumed by personal battles than the health emergencies facing the American people.