Politicians Weigh Impeaching RFK Jr. While Courting His Base

Millions of Americans are facing higher health insurance costs because the Affordable Care Act tax credits expired in late 2025, about one year ago. Now the party that swept last week's midterms says it will vote quickly to bring them back. Quickly, once they take control of Congress in January 2027, about two months from today. Until then, the people paying those higher premiums wait.

That's the backdrop for the latest Washington spectacle: Democrats weighing whether to impeach Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while also trying to win over his Make America Healthy Again followers. Matt Motta, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health, called it "an unenviable position for Democrats to be in."

Who Has the Power

The lineup of lawmakers reads like a casting call for oversight theater. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., wrote that "unless RFK Jr. is interested in spending the next two years in front of congressional committees, he should go ahead and resign now." Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., most likely the next chair of the House Judiciary Committee, vowed to investigate Kennedy's "wrongdoing." Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said on CNN that Kennedy should be one of two high-priority impeachment targets. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., poised to take over the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he is "absolutely open" to the idea.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., expected to chair the Senate Finance Committee, launched two investigations this week. One probes the accuracy of Kennedy's testimony about a 2019 trip to Samoa. The other looks at his reported acceptance of hundreds of thousands of dollars in lavish gifts. "For those that have broken the law and betrayed the trust of taxpayers and American families, nothing should be off the table," Wyden said.

Kennedy ran for president as an independent in 2024, two years ago, then threw his support behind Donald Trump. Before that he was a lifelong Democrat. His department has cut staff sweepingly as part of Trump's government efficiency push, eliminated areas of scientific study it deemed too focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, and changed vaccine policy while sidestepping long-held protocols.

Who Gets Crushed

The costs of these decisions land far from the hearing rooms. Measles outbreaks are surging around the country, Motta said, and a left-leaning base wants accountability from Kennedy on vaccines. Millions face higher insurance bills. Republicans enacted Medicaid funding reductions in their sweeping bill of tax breaks and program cuts, including new work requirements for recipients. Democrats say proposals to reverse those cuts are ready.

Motta put the stakes plainly: "Above all, people want the price of healthcare to go down. The people who can do that for them are the people who will be rewarded at the ballot box." Read that again. The incentive, as described, is the reward at the ballot box.

The Courtship Problem

The other half of the story is a pitch for MAHA voters. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey have teamed up with MAHA activists on regenerative agriculture, healthy school lunches and liability for pesticide manufacturers. Pingree said whether her colleagues try to impeach Kennedy is "out of my hands," adding, "if he's still there, I'm hoping we can continue to work on some of these things and make whatever gains we can."

Mark Gorton, president of the Kennedy-aligned MAHA Institute, warned that hostility toward Kennedy would backfire. "They alienate all the MAHA voters out there, the people who really care about fighting corporate capture," he said. Many MAHA followers have soured on the Trump administration, seeing an executive order boosting pesticide use as a betrayal. Calley Means, a former administration adviser and top MAHA advocate, recently accused White House officials of catering to foreign and domestic lobbyists at the expense of Americans' health.

McGovern says the MAHA leaders he talks to "quietly agree" and are "ready to move forward together to actually fix the broken status quo in Washington." Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who called Kennedy a grifter, offered his own condition for working together: "If he wants to be evidence driven, I'll work with him."

What They're Calling "Accountability"

Strip away the vocabulary and the shape is clear. The people with the most to lose from a broken health system are parents, patients and people on Medicaid. The people with the power to fix it are weighing committee gavels, impeachment votes and coalition math. Pesticide liability, school lunches and corporate capture are real concerns for the activists raising them. Whether any of it moves from press statement to policy depends on two years of the same institution that let the credits lapse.