
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Well being and Human Providers, was on Capitol Hill in early January to fulfill with senators.
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems more likely to quickly be taking the helm as Secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Providers. The Senate Finance committee voted alongside social gathering strains, 14-13, to favorably report his nomination to the complete Senate.
A vote to verify him doubtless will occur within the coming days or maybe subsequent week.
President Trump has up to now succeeded in putting in most of his most well-liked cupboard picks regardless of slim Congressional majorities. Kennedy was one in all his most contentious nominees.
Kennedy is a really uncommon option to run the nation’s well being businesses, which embrace Medicare, the Meals and Drug Administration, the Nationwide Institutes for Well being, and extra. A scion of the well-known Democratic household, Kennedy spent years as an environmental advocate earlier than pivoting to anti-vaccine work. That work constructed his popularity and fortune.
Senator Invoice Cassidy, R.-La., forged a key vote in favor of Kennedy. A doctor, Cassidy spoke in personal terms throughout hearings final week about his experiences with sufferers who suffered from lifelong well being penalties as a result of they had been unvaccinated. He indicated on Thursday he was “struggling” with the choice, however in the end voted in Kennedy’s favor.

Sen. Invoice Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, forged his Senate Finance Committee vote in favor of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, on Tuesday. Additionally a doctor, Cassidy requested Kennedy robust questions on his conspiracy theories on vaccines final week.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Photos
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Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Photos
On social media Tuesday, Cassidy posted: “I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White Home over the weekend and even this morning. I need to thank VP JD [Vance] particularly for his sincere counsel,” he wrote. He added that he determined to vote in favor of Kennedy after receiving commitments from the Trump administration and “the chance to make progress on the problems we agree on like wholesome meals and a pro-American agenda.”
Overcoming opposition from many sides
Democratic Senators stayed united in opposition to Kennedy, together with his former regulation faculty classmate Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D.-R.I., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I.-Vt., who has agreed with Kennedy previously about issues with the meals trade.
Since Trump introduced Kennedy’s nomination, he is confronted fierce opposition from the left. An advert marketing campaign from the left-leaning advocacy group Defend Our Care focused choose Republican senators and portrayed Kennedy as an anti-vaccine extremist. He additionally confronted opposition from the precise due to his previous assist of abortion entry — former Vice President Mike Pence’s group Advancing American Freedom additionally ran advertisements towards him. 1000’s of physicians and scientists wrote letters opposing his nomination. Additionally, simply earlier than he was set to look on Capitol Hill, his cousin Caroline Kennedy despatched Senators a scathing letter about him, describing sordid acts and calling him a “predator.”
Republican Senators had been very pleasant to Kennedy and his concepts during hearings last week, together with those that are fervently against abortion rights. Additionally supporting him had been “MAHA mothers,” as Kennedy known as them, who confirmed up in drive in his affirmation hearings. The MAHA title refers to Kennedy’s “Make America Wholesome Once more” slogan.
As Cassidy defined throughout Thursday’s listening to within the HELP (Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions) committee: “I’ve discovered you bought an amazing following — my telephone blows up with individuals who actually observe you, and there are numerous who belief you greater than they belief their very own doctor.”
A sudden alliance with Trump
Kennedy ended his personal presidential bid as an Unbiased in August and threw his assist behind Trump. In alternate, Trump agreed to let Kennedy “go wild on well being” and execute his imaginative and prescient.
In his affirmation hearings, Kennedy regularly referenced “his era” — he was born in 1954 — describing how Individuals had been more healthy again then and within the many years because the nation’s well being had gone off observe.
He regularly referenced knowledge to assist his arguments, however when confronted with knowledge in regards to the security and efficacy of vaccines, Kennedy mentioned he was unfamiliar with it. He mentioned he was “pro-safety” and would change his place if he noticed knowledge that satisfied him. Cassidy responded that he was skeptical that Kennedy would actually change as a 71-year-old man.
Kennedy has regularly been known as a conspiracy theorist, a label he denied throughout the hearings, though he doubled down on unproven claims together with that Wi-Fi causes most cancers and that AIDS is a unique sickness in Africa than within the West. An particularly tense moment got here when Kennedy steered Black Individuals ought to have a unique vaccine schedule, a place Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., known as “harmful.”
One difficulty that arose throughout the affirmation course of was his financial conflicts of interests. As somebody who has made a fortune by suing vaccine makers, he might financially profit from ongoing litigation whereas in command of the federal businesses that regulate these drugmakers. Kennedy wrote in subsequent filings that he would switch these pursuits to his son. He additionally informed lawmakers that he understood how the well being businesses labored from having sued them many occasions over time.
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