Vice President J.D. Vance pushed back against Senate Democrats on Thursday after they sharply criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., pointing out the hypocrisy of their attacks.

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing, several Democratic lawmakers demanded Kennedy either step down or be removed from his post. Vance, in turn, pointed out that many of those same senators back medical interventions for minors seeking gender transitions.

“When I see all these senators trying to lecture and ‘gotcha’ Bobby Kennedy today, all I can think is: You all support off-label, untested, and irreversible hormonal ‘therapies’ for children, mutilating our kids and enriching big pharma. You’re full of shit and everyone knows it,” Vance wrote on X.

Kennedy himself had heated exchanges with Democratic senators during Thursday’s hearing. At one point, he accused Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts of benefiting from major pharmaceutical industry contributions.

“I never promised that I was going to recommend products with which there is no indication,” Kennedy told Warren. “And I know you’ve taken $855,000 from pharmaceutical companies, senator.”

He also clashed with Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, accusing her of “making stuff up” during a debate over COVID-19 vaccination rules for children, and sparred with Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon over rising rates of chronic illnesses among young people.

The criticism comes as questions mount about transgender medical practices. The Daily Caller News Foundation recently obtained video from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health’s (WPATH) September 2022 Global Education Institute, along with more than 100 pages of internal records. Those materials revealed members debating the group’s “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8” (SOC 8).

The recordings showed instructors advising physicians to ignore a guideline requiring mental health conditions be addressed before patients undergo gender-related procedures, even in cases involving severe psychiatric issues like schizophrenia. Other footage highlighted warnings about serious complications linked to some surgeries, the Caller found.

In a separate disclosure, a doctor acknowledged in October 2024 that she had withheld a study questioning the success of such procedures, saying she feared the findings could bolster restrictions.