Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) on Sunday defended Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. days after senators from both parties offered pointed questions about a vaccine policy-related shake-up at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Marshall told host Margaret Brennan of CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Kennedy was chosen to be a “disruptor to the CDC,“ and that is exactly what he is doing.

“Right now, Americans don’t trust the CDC, so he is literally turning that place upside down,” Marshall said. “I respect what my colleagues are saying, but I think that, you know, this whole issue today, or in that meeting, was about vaccines.”

“In my humble opinion, not every person needs every vaccine,” he said, while adding that “vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives, but not every person needs every vaccine.”

Marshall’s defense comes days after Democrats and some Republicans grilled Kennedy in a contentious three-hour Senate hearing. During his testimony on Thursday, the secretary repeated vaccine misinformation, attacked the CDC, and offered differing explanations of his vision for remaking the agency.  

Republican senators have largely been deferential to Kennedy. Still, Thursday’s Senate hearing revealed some cracks, including a surprisingly barbed back-and-forth between Kennedy and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), an orthopedic surgeon.

Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) also had pointed issues with Kennedy’s attempt to rewrite the nation’s vaccine policies.

Marshall, who is also a doctor, said during his Sunday interview he believes not every person needs a vaccine, and that “we need to be more specific” and not “overly prescriptive.”

When Brennan questioned whether picking and choosing vaccines could lead to more distrust among Americans, Marshall said he had confidence in “doctors, and nurses, and parents, and grandparents to make these decisions.”

“I don’t think that we should have one government policy that dictates every one of these vaccines,” he told Brennan. “I think local policy, local schools, if they want to have requirements, what Florida did was a bridge too far. But how about just a little common sense? Just a little common sense would go a long ways here.”

Officials in Florida last week said they would end all mandates for school children to be vaccinated.

President Trump, who has defended Kennedy, expressed some reticence on Friday about Florida’s decision.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took a swing at Vice President Vance on Saturday over comments Vance made about a strike on an alleged drug boat.

“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vance said in a Saturday morning post on the social platform X, referencing a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration has stated killed 11 Venezuelan drug traffickers.

In response to Vance’s post, Paul wrote in a post of his own later Saturday that “JD ‘I don’t give a s—’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military.’”

“Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation??” the Kentucky senator added.

“What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial,” he continued.

On Tuesday, President Trump said that a U.S. military “kinetic” strike killed 11 “terrorists” on a “drug vessel” in the Caribbean in the wake of leaving Venezuela.

According to the administration, the Tuesday morning strike hit a boat with members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan transnational gang that is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere,” the president continued.

The Hill has reached out to Vance’s office for comment.