RFK Jr. Lashes Out Over His Own Quote on Re-Parenting Black Kids
Two years ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that Black children prescribed depression or ADHD medication should be “re-parented.” When confronted with that statement on Thursday by Representative Terri Sewell—a Black Democrat from Alabama—he denied ever saying it.
“In a 2024 podcast interview, you suggested that Black children on ADHD medication should be ‘re-parented.’ You said: ‘Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence,’ and that those children are going to have to go somewhere to get ‘re-parented,’” Sewell said. “Have you ever ‘re-parented,’ or parented, a Black child?”
RFK Jr. immediately went on the defensive.
“I don’t even know what that phrase means, and I doubt that I said it,” he replied.
“It’s just a yes or no answer,” Sewell responded.
“I doubt that I said that phrase, no. Not gonna answer something that I didn’t say.”
“You absolutely said it.”
“I’d like to hear the recording.”
Sewell: In a 2024 podcast interview, you suggested that black children on ADHD medication should be re-parented . Have you ever re-parented or parented a black child?
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 16, 2026
RFK JR: I'm not going to answer something that I didn't say.
Sewell: You absolutely said it. pic.twitter.com/Gbfppd6PaM
Kennedy is completely wrong here, and he said what Sewell is accusing him of saying nearly verbatim. Here’s the recording:
“My Peace Corps program is going to be wellness farms, rehabilitation facilities that I’m gonna start in rural areas all over the country, where people—any American—can go for free,” Kennedy said, painting a utopian picture for his solution to the prescription drug epidemic. “Psychiatric drugs, which every Black kid is now just standard put on—Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence—and those kids are gonna have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented, to live in a community where there’ll be no cell phones, no screens, you’ll actually have to talk to people.”
Even with the utopian framing, it’s impossible to ignore that Kennedy is pushing for Black children to be separated from their families and taken to farms to do God knows what—all because they’ve been prescribed depression or ADHD meds. That alone is extremely troubling given Kennedy’s position as health secretary and his lack of any kind of medical expertise. The fact that he denied even saying it during a congressional hearing—when there is clear evidence proving otherwise—is just as troubling.