In the first of two public sit-downs with the Senate, which will decide his possible future as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, stood Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Over four hours of questions about his decades long public record.
Kennedy, a former Democrat of a legacy political family who threw his weight behind President Donald Trump in 2024 with “Make America Healthy Again” movement, is a long -time environmental lawyer. He is perhaps best known for his work to question the safety and effectiveness of vaccines – a topic on Wednesday that he repeatedly tried to place senators, without very obvious luck among the Democrats.
If confirmed, Kennedy would be responsible for overseeing a huge federal agency that controls health care of about 170 million Americans, regulates access to drugs and vaccines and spores pressing outbreaks of diseases and food -borne diseases.
Kennedy returns to the Senate Thursday for another hearing. Here are the most important takeaways from day one:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s election to be secretary of health and human services, will be shown to the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing at Capitol in Washington, January 29, 2025.
Allison Dinner/EPA-FEE/Shutterstock
RFJ JR. seems to change its attitude toward vaccines
Kennedy said several times during his consultation on Wednesday that he supports vaccines, often in blunter terms and with more power than his previous public comments. But the rhetoric opposite years of false statements he has made about the dangers of vaccines and incorrect information on vaccines.
“News reports have claimed that I am an anti-vaccine or any industry. I’m neither. I’m pro-security,” Kennedy said in his opening declaration. While Kennedy has previously denied that he is “anti-vaccine” and has said his children have been vaccinated, he has promoted views on vaccines that decades of evidence have rejected.
He promised, after a barbecue Wednesday from Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, that “do not do anything like HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking” measles and polio vaccines.
“I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy has openly questioned the widespread administration of these vaccines and said during a podcast interview last year that he would not even take the measles vaccine and neglect the disease of the disease by attributing measles-related deaths in Africa to “malnutrition” himself.
However, both measles and polio can be deadly. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in the United States, approx. 400 to 500 people each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before the polio vaccine was developed, the virus Killed or lamb Almost half a million people all over the world each year In the middle of 20.00 century, According to the World Health Organization.
Kennedy also expressed support during the consultation with the child vaccine plan, which suggests what vaccines children should get and when he, despite the flow of criticism he has planned in recent years.
Kennedy has mistakenly linked the vaccine plan to an increase in chronic illness and says during a campaign event last year, “What I am focused on is the bigger question of chronic illness, and it is linked to the vaccine plan in some cases, the explosion of chronic illness .
Kennedy has also been critical of the number of vaccines children get.
Child vaccines have steadily increased in recent decades, as new shoots have been approved after robust clinical trials of their safety and efficiency, which increases the number of diseases that can now be prevented via vaccine, says CDC.
According to the CDC, although babies receive more vaccinations in one day, their immune systems are under significantly more pressure from the bacteria and viruses they encounter daily in their environment.
By picking up Kennedy’s shift on vaccines on Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT., Kennedy asked on Onesies sold on the website to an organization that Kennedy is a founder, the nonprofit children’s health defense pursuing anti-vaccine causes. Oneies were stamped with phrases like “Uvaxxed, not afraid” and “No Vax, no problem.”
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Senator Bernie Sanders moves in front of exhibitions with pictures of a child defense-T-shirts under a confirmation committee for the Senate Financing Committee on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be secretary of health and human services in Washington, Jan.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
“Can you tell us now that you will, now that you are pro-vaccine, that you get your organization to remove these products from the market?” Asked Sanders.
Kennedy said he had withdrawn from the board and has no “no power over this organization.”
After changing an abortion position, RFK Jr. [Trump’s] policies ”
When asked Wednesday about his views on abortion that swung drastically throughout his campaign, Kennedy closely inhibited President Trump’s attitude towards the question and said he believes “states should control abortion.”
Kennedy’s own public attitude towards abortion has varied wildlife throughout his presidential campaign, and he sometimes went on sometimes to reproductive rights that would be in direct conflict with Trump’s campaign trucks.
“I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him in, That states should control abortion, ”Kennedy said Wednesday.
Kennedy said he would support Trump in working to “finish late-term abortions”, a non-medical phrase used by the anti-abort movement to describe abortions late in pregnancy is often the result of complex medical problems.
Kennedy also claimed to protect “exceptions in the conscience of conscience” which would expand the protection of healthcare providers who do not want to perform abortion procedures, allowing more providers to refuse care.
“To force someone to participate in a medical procedure as a provider that they believe is that murder doesn’t make sense to me,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also undertook to investigate MifePistone, the abortion pill used in nearly two -thirds of abortions nationwide. He said he would instruct the Food and Drug Administration to examine the security of the birth control pills and consider scrolling telemedicine access back to the pill-sized actions that could have extensive influences on access to the drug to use as stated and instructed.
“President Trump has asked me to study MifePiston’s security. He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement these policies,” Kennedy said.
“I will – I serve to the President’s joy. I want to implement his policies,” Kennedy said.
But as late as March 2024, Kennedy told Reuters that he thought it should be a woman’s right to make a decision on abortion “throughout pregnancy.” He has also said that he supports the same access and limitations provided by ROE v. Wade, who legalized abortion in all US states.
Since Trump nominated him to lead health and human services, Kennedy has faced stiff blowback from Conservatives, especially former vice president Mike Pence, who claims he is not sufficient anti-abort.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s election to be secretary of health and human services, will be shown to the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing at Capitol in Washington, January 29, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
Senator Maggie Hassan, DN.H., pushed Kennedy on his repeated shifts about the question of reproductive rights.
“You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values. The question is, you stand for that value or not? When was it that you decided to sell the values you have had all your life in order that gets the power of President Trump? ”She said.
“Senator, I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy,” Kennedy said.
Previous comments come back to Haunt RFK Jr.
Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Read highly alleged previous comments from Kennedy, including unfounded allegations of transcend children.
“Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transk?” Asked Bennet.
“No, I never said that,” Kennedy replied.
However, Kennedy has repeated an unfounded conspiracy theory that suggests endocrine disturbed, including phthalates – which make chemicals more durable – and pesticides, can affect sexual orientation or gender identity.
“I just want to pursue just a question about these, you know the other endocrine disturbed because our kids now, you know we see these influences that people suspect are very different than in ages past about sexual identification among children and sexual confusion, gender confusion, “Kennedy said during an episode of his podcast in June 2022.” These kinds of problems that are very, very controversial today.
Apparently unclear understanding of medicaid during HHS
Kennedy seemed to stumble when discussing aspects of the agency he would be assigned to run if he were to be confirmed as HHS secretary.
He claimed that Medicaid, a federal health insurance program for disabled people and Americans with low income, “not working.”
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominees to be secretary of health and human services, testify to a confirmation committee for Senates Finance Committee at Capitol Hill in Washington, January 29, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
“Most people who are on Medicaid are not happy. The prizes are too high. The traits are too high,” Kennedy said during the hearing.
However, except in very narrow circumstances, there are no prizes or self -part under Medicaid.
Kennedy also claimed that “almost nothing is being studied” at the National Institutes of Health about the etiology or cause of “our chronic disease epidemic.”
There are several institutes and centers of NIH dedicated to examining chronic illnesses as well as educating healthcare professionals and communicating information.