Within the first of two public sit-downs with the Senate that can determine his doable future as secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confronted practically 4 hours of questions about his decadeslong public report.
Kennedy, a former Democrat from a legacy political household who threw his weight behind President Donald Trump in 2024 with the “Make America Wholesome Once more” motion, is a longtime environmental lawyer. He is maybe most identified for his work in questioning the protection and effectiveness of vaccines — a subject on Wednesday that he repeatedly sought to placate senators on, with out a lot obvious luck amongst Democrats.
If confirmed, Kennedy could be in control of overseeing an unlimited federal company that manages the well being care of some 170 million Individuals, regulates entry to medicine and vaccines, and tracks pressing outbreaks of illnesses and foodborne diseases.
Kennedy returns to the Senate on Thursday for an additional listening to. Listed here are the important thing takeaways from day one:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s option to be Secretary of Well being and Human Companies, seems earlier than the Senate Finance Committee for his affirmation listening to, on the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 29, 2025.
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RFJ Jr. seems to vary his stance on vaccines
Kennedy stated a number of instances throughout his listening to on Wednesday that he helps vaccines, usually in blunter phrases and with extra vigor than his earlier public feedback. However that rhetoric contradicted years of false statements he has made concerning the risks of vaccines and misinformation about vaccines.
“Information experiences have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or any business. I’m neither. I’m pro-safety,” Kennedy stated in his opening assertion. Whereas Kennedy has, prior to now, denied he’s “anti-vaccine” and has stated his kids have been vaccinated, he has promoted views on vaccines that many years of proof has refuted.
He pledged, after a grilling Wednesday from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, to “do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it troublesome or discourages folks from taking” the measles and polio vaccines.
“I assist the measles vaccine. I assist the polio vaccine,” Kennedy stated.
Kennedy has brazenly questioned the widespread administration of these vaccines, saying throughout a podcast interview final 12 months that he wouldn’t take the measles vaccine himself and downplaying the deadliness of the illness by attributing measles-related deaths in Africa to “malnutrition,” not the illness itself.
Nevertheless, each measles and polio could be lethal. Earlier than the measles vaccine was launched in the US, roughly 400 to 500 folks died every year, in line with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Earlier than the polio vaccine was developed, the virus killed or paralyzed practically half one million folks worldwide every year within the mid-Twentieth century, in line with the World Well being Group.
Kennedy additionally expressed assist throughout the listening to for the childhood vaccine schedule, which suggests what vaccines kids ought to get and when, regardless of the stream of criticism he has leveled in recent times.
Kennedy has falsely linked the vaccine schedule to an increase in power illness, saying throughout a marketing campaign occasion final 12 months, “What I am targeted on is the larger concern of power illness, and that’s linked to the vaccine schedule in some circumstances, the explosion of power illness.”
Kennedy has additionally been essential of the variety of vaccines kids obtain.
Childhood vaccines have steadily elevated in current many years as new photographs have been authorised following sturdy scientific trials on their security and efficacy, rising the variety of illnesses that are actually preventable through vaccine, the CDC says.
Based on the CDC, even when infants obtain a number of vaccinations in at some point, their immune methods are below considerably extra stress from the micro organism and viruses they encounter day by day of their surroundings.
Selecting up on Kennedy’s shift on vaccines on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., requested Kennedy about onesies offered on the web site of a company of which Kennedy is a founder, the nonprofit Kids’s Well being Protection, which pursues anti-vaccine causes. The onesies had been stamped with phrases reminiscent of “Unvaxxed, Unafraid,” and “No Vax, No Downside.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders gestures, infront of shows that includes photographs of a Kids’s Well being Protection T-shirts, throughout a Senate Finance Committee affirmation listening to on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be Secretary of Well being and Human Companies, in Washington, Jan. 29, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
“Are you able to inform us now that you’ll, now that you’re pro-vaccine, that you’ll have your group take these merchandise off the market?” Sanders requested.
Kennedy stated he had resigned from the board and holds “no energy over that group.”
After shifting abortion place, RFK Jr. guarantees to “implement [Trump’s] insurance policies”
When requested Wednesday about his views on abortion, which swung drastically all through his marketing campaign, Kennedy hemmed tightly to President Trump’s place on the difficulty, saying he thinks “the states ought to management abortion.”
Kennedy’s personal public stance on abortion has various wildly all through his presidential marketing campaign, and he at instances advocated for reproductive rights that may be in direct battle with Trump’s marketing campaign guarantees.
“I agree with President Trump that each abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we can’t be an ethical nation if we’ve got 1.2 million abortions a 12 months. I agree with him that the states ought to management abortion,” Kennedy stated on Wednesday.
Kennedy stated he would assist Trump in working to “finish late-term abortions,” a non-medical phrase utilized by the anti-abortion motion to explain abortions late in being pregnant, which the Guttmacher Institute says account for lower than 1% of abortions and are steadily the results of advanced medical points.
Kennedy additionally vouched to guard “conscience exemptions,” which might broaden protections for well being care suppliers who do not wish to carry out abortion procedures, permitting extra suppliers to disclaim care.
“Forcing any person to take part in a medical process as a supplier that they imagine is homicide doesn’t make any sense to me,” Kennedy stated.
Kennedy additionally dedicated to trying into mifepristone, the abortion tablet that’s utilized in practically two-thirds of abortions nationwide. He stated he would direct the Meals and Drug Administration to look into the protection of the tablet and take into account rolling again telemedicine entry to the tablet — each actions that would have wide-ranging impacts on entry to the drug, which the FDA has decided protected to make use of as indicated and directed.
“President Trump has requested me to check the protection of mifepristone. He has not but taken a stand on methods to regulate it. No matter he does, I’ll implement these insurance policies,” Kennedy stated.
“I’ll — I serve on the pleasure of the president. I’ll implement his insurance policies,” Kennedy stated.
However as just lately as March 2024, Kennedy informed Reuters he thought it needs to be a girl’s proper to decide about abortion “all through the being pregnant.” He has additionally stated he helps the identical entry and limitations that had been supplied by Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in all U.S. states.
Since Trump nominated him to guide Well being and Human Companies, Kennedy has confronted stiff blowback from conservatives, notably former Vice President Mike Pence, who declare he’s not sufficiently anti-abortion.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s option to be Secretary of Well being and Human Companies, seems earlier than the Senate Finance Committee for his affirmation listening to, on the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 29, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., pushed Kennedy on his repeated shifts on the difficulty of reproductive rights.
“You have got clearly acknowledged prior to now that bodily autonomy is certainly one of your core values. The query is, do you stand for that worth or not? When was it that you simply determined to promote out the values you’ve got had your complete life in an effort to be given energy by President Trump?” she stated.
“Senator, I agree with President Trump that each abortion is a tragedy,” Kennedy stated.
Previous feedback come again to hang-out RFK Jr.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., learn aloud alleged previous feedback made by Kennedy, together with unfounded claims about transgender kids.
“Did you say that publicity to pesticides causes kids to turn out to be transgender?” Bennet requested.
“No, I by no means stated that,” Kennedy replied.
Nevertheless, Kennedy has repeated an unfounded conspiracy idea suggesting endocrine disruptors, together with phthalates — which make chemical substances extra sturdy — and pesticides, can affect sexual orientation or gender identification.
“I wish to simply pursue only one query on these, you understand, the opposite endocrine disruptors as a result of our kids now, you understand, we’re seeing these impacts that folks suspect are very completely different than in ages previous about sexual identification amongst kids and sexual confusion, gender confusion,” Kennedy stated throughout an episode of his podcast in June 2022. “These sorts of points which are very, very controversial in the present day.”
Seemingly unclear understanding of Medicaid below HHS
Kennedy appeared to stumble when discussing elements of the company he could be tasked with working if he had been to be confirmed as HHS secretary.
He claimed Medicaid, a federal medical insurance program for disabled and low-income Individuals, is “not working.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Well being and Human Companies, testifies earlier than a Senate Finance Committee affirmation listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 29, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
“Most people who find themselves on Medicaid should not comfortable. The premiums are too excessive. The deductibles are too excessive,” Kennedy stated throughout his listening to.
Nevertheless, besides in very slim circumstances, there aren’t any premiums or deductibles below Medicaid.
Kennedy additionally claimed that “nearly nothing is studied” on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being concerning the etiology, or the trigger, of “our power illness epidemic.”
There are a number of institutes and facilities on the NIH devoted to researching power illnesses, in addition to coaching well being care professionals and disseminating info.