The top Democrat on the House Republicans’ select subcommittee on the weaponisation of the government excoriated her political opponents for giving a platform to presidential candidate and vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Stacey Plaskett, who represents the US Virgin Islands, said: “Why would the Republican leadership and the committee majority give a hearing and a platform to the witnesses today, specifically to Mr Kennedy, a man who has recently claimed that COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people.”