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Politics46 outlets ran this3 min read

Documents contradict RFK Jr.'s testimony on Samoa trip

New evidence suggests Health Secretary's 2019 visit to Samoa was related to vaccines, contrary to his statements.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's choice to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, appears before the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, file)

What this story says

  • New documents obtained by the Associated Press and The Guardian suggest Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 2019 visit to Samoa was connected to vaccines.
  • Kennedy told lawmakers his trip to Samoa had "nothing to do with vaccines," but a letter he sent to the Samoan prime minister mentioned vaccines eight times.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services stated that the Samoa visit was unrelated to vaccines and called claims of Kennedy lying under oath "false and defamatory."
  • Kennedy's statements have drawn scrutiny, particularly in light of a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa that followed his visit.

Who covered it

Left 44%(20)Centre 49%(22)Right 7%(3)

Percentages are shares of the 45 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 46 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

57/100

Hype

41/100

46 sources · methodology

Thin on the right so far

Only 3 of the 45 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

New documents have emerged that appear to contradict statements made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. concerning his 2019 visit to Samoa. Kennedy had informed lawmakers during his confirmation process that the trip was unrelated to vaccines. However, a letter he sent to the Samoan prime minister at the time mentioned vaccines eight times.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responded to inquiries by stating that Kennedy's Samoa visit was not connected to vaccines. The department also asserted that any suggestion Kennedy lied under oath is false and defamatory. Kennedy was not under oath during his confirmation hearing, though knowingly providing false testimony to Congress can be a crime.

Conflicting accounts of the Samoa visit

During his confirmation hearings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly denied that his 2019 visit to Samoa had any connection to vaccines. He stated to senators that he went to introduce a medical informatics system to digitalize health records and improve efficiency. He also stated his purpose was not related to vaccines. The Associated Press and The Guardian obtained documents that they say refute these statements.

Kennedy's letter to the Samoan prime minister proposed his team conduct an assessment of what happened with the nation's measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines, noting that two children had died after receiving them. The letter stated Kennedy believed manufacturing issues could have caused the deaths. The Samoan government had halted vaccinations for 10 months following these deaths.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated reports mention the specific details of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s letter to the Samoan prime minister, including the number of times vaccines were mentioned. The left and centre-rated reports included this detail, citing the Associated Press and The Guardian.

Tags:#RFKJr#Vaccines#Samoa#HealthSecretary#Testimony

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 5 times, most recently on 27 Aug 2026, 14:00, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

20 rated outlets

  • Left-rated reports focused on the contradiction between Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s statements to lawmakers and the content of his letter to the Samoan prime minister. These reports highlighted that Kennedy used the word "vaccine" or "vaccination" eight times in his letter, while he had told Congress the trip had "nothing to do with vaccines." The reports noted that Kennedy, then an anti-vaccine activist, had pledged to maintain vaccine policies during his confirmation, but later ousted members of a federal vaccine advisory committee. The Associated Press and The Guardian were credited with obtaining the documents that refute Kennedy's testimony. Some reports mentioned that Kennedy's visit occurred before a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa.

Centre

22 rated outlets

  • Centre-rated reports also highlighted the discrepancy between Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s testimony and the contents of his letter to the Samoan prime minister. These reports stated that Kennedy told lawmakers his 2019 visit to Samoa had "nothing to do with vaccines," but new documents obtained by the Associated Press and The Guardian refute this. The reports noted that Kennedy's letter mentioned vaccines eight times. The Department of Health and Human Services was quoted as saying the visit was unrelated to vaccines and that claims of Kennedy lying under oath were "false and defamatory."

Right

3 rated outlets

  • Right-rated reports stated that new documents refute Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s testimony that a visit to Samoa had "nothing to do with vaccines." The reports indicated that the Associated Press and The Guardian obtained documents that contradict statements made by Kennedy during congressional hearings.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Documents contradict RFK Jr.'s testimony on Samoa trip?
Of the 45 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 44% are rated left, 49% are rated centre, 7% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 46. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Documents contradict RFK Jr.'s testimony on Samoa trip left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 45 rated outlets on this story, 44% are rated left, 49% are rated centre, 7% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Documents contradict RFK Jr.'s testimony on Samoa trip biased?
Documents contradict RFK Jr.'s testimony on Samoa trip is one event reported by 46 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Documents contradict RFK Jr.'s testimony on Samoa trip?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Documents contradict RFK Jr.'s testimony on Samoa trip?
46 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tell lawmakers about his 2019 trip to Samoa?
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly told lawmakers during his confirmation process that his 2019 visit to Samoa had "nothing to do with vaccines." He stated his purpose was to introduce a medical informatics system to improve health delivery efficiency.
What do new documents suggest about the Samoa trip?
New documents obtained by the Associated Press and The Guardian appear to contradict Kennedy's statements. A letter he sent to the Samoan prime minister at the time mentioned vaccines eight times, suggesting a connection between the visit and vaccine-related matters.
What is the Department of Health and Human Services' stance on the matter?
The Department of Health and Human Services stated that the Samoa visit was unrelated to vaccines. The department also issued a statement calling any claim or insinuation that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath "false and defamatory."

Read it at the source

46 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

20
Show 12 more

Centre

22
Show 14 more

Right

3

Not rated

1

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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