Key Senate Republican Expresses Doubts About Advancing RFK Jr’s HHS Nomination to Full Floor
Robert F Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr) day 2 confirmation hearing
Robert F Kennedy Jr Day 2 of his Senate Confirmation hearings for the nomination of Secretary of Health and Human Services.

WASHINGTON, DC – Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Jr’s Senate confirmation as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary faced fresh obstacles on Thursday after Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) said he “wasn’t sure “ he could vote for someone “who spent decades criticizing vaccines, and who’s financially vested in finding fault with vaccines — can he change his attitudes and approach now ?” 

“I’ve got to figure that out for my vote,” he said, referencing his position on the Senate Finance Committee, which must vote to advance his nomination to the full floor. 

His comments came during a second day of grueling Senate confirmation hearings, which drilled down further on Kennedy’s beliefs on vaccine safety, funding, and his past statements claiming vaccines cause autism.  During the hearings, he walked back many of his past statements opposing vaccines and, conversely, supporting a woman’s right to abortion. In his second hearing, on Thursday, Kennedy also refused to comment on if vaccines cause autism, also in response to questions from Senator Cassidy. 

Kennedy, who would oversee a $1.7 trillion agency that includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), has vowed to “put the health of Americans back on track” by addressing the nations growing mental health and chronic health crises – the latter by addressing unhealthy foods and environmental exposures, as well as high drug costs.

All eyes on medical doctor from Louisiana

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana)
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) asked Kennedy to “convince him” that he believes that the measles vaccine does not cause autism.

All eyes are now on Cassidy, the medical doctor from Louisiana who also sits on the Senate Finance Committee, the body that will vote on whether to advance Kennedy’s confirmation to a vote before the full Senate. Kennedy would need the support of nearly all Republican senators for a positive recommendation.  

In a series of questions built around his own experiences as a medical doctor, Cassidy zeroed in on Kennedy’s  stance regarding vaccines such as Hepatitis B – whose benefits he said he’d witnessed firsthand – reducing  serious liver disease by 95% since its introduction.

“Will you reassure mothers unequivocally and without qualification, that the measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism?” He asked the HHS nominee.

Kennedy answered he would, “if the data is there.”

Cassidy retorted “And I don’t mean to cut you off, but that really is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. There is the data, because I used to treat Hepatitis B as I said, I know the data is there,” replied Cassidy. Kennedy then pledged that he would publicly apologize for past statements if he’s proven wrong on the vaccine’s benefits versus its risks.

Later citing research papers disproving vaccines’ links to autism, Cassidy asked RFK Jr to “convince him” that “that you will become the public health advocate, but not just churn old information so that there’s never a conclusion” – a question Kennedy also sidestepped. 

Taking aim at the sentiments of his fellow Republicans, Cassidy also raised concerns over whether Kennedy could taint Trump’s legacy by advocating vaccine hesitant policies that lead to a loss of life. “You will have the responsibility to restore trust in our public health institutions…” he told Kennedy. “ I want President Trump to be successful. It’s important for our country. Any action you take as HHS Secretary will shape his legacy. And we both want that legacy to be positive.”

Although Thursday’s hearing took place in the Senate HELP committee, Cassidy is an important swing vote for RFK Jr.’s confirmation on the Finance Committee, which  is expected to vote next week on whether to advance his confirmation to the full Senate. 

The committee can make a recommendation that is “favorable,” “unfavorable”, or make none at all.  

RFK Jr refutes data that COVID-19 vaccine saved millions of lives

Bernie Sanders RFK jr hearing HHS jan 2025
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) questions RFK Jr on whether he believes the COVID-19 vaccines, developed under President Trump’s Project Warpspeed, saved lives.

In a heated exchange with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Kennedy also asserted that “we don’t have a good surveillance system” to say whether the COVID-19 vaccine was successful in saving lives. “I don’t know,” he said.

 In fact, the vaccines, which were developed under the Trump administration, saved over three million lives during the pandemic period, according to US research. Kennedy continued to cast doubt on the COVID-19 vaccines, defending his efforts to sue the CDC over its ongoing recommendations that most Americans, six months and older, get the vacccine.

Sanders called Kennedy’s statements “really problematic”  – casting doubt on conclusions “established” by the scientific community.

Kennedy also said he stood by previous statements that “we should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to whites, because their immune system is better than ours,” under questioning from Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Maryland).

His assertions that African Americans have a “better” immune system prompted sharp criticism from Alsobrooks saying “what vaccination schedule should I have received?” 

“Mr. Kennedy, with all due respect, that is so dangerous,” said the senator, who is African American. “Your voice would be a voice that parents would listen to, that is so dangerous.”

In other remarks, Kennedy also said:

  • The country’s vaccine safety data systems are ‘broken’ and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps the data “under locks” and will not let independent scientists review raw data.
  • Praised the popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs but said they should not be the first-line treatment for obesity.
  • Promised to relinquish rights to legal fees that he might otherwise receive from anti-HPV vaccine lawsuits in which he has continued to be involved as part of his legal practice.
  • Denied ever calling Lyme’s disease a “biological weapon,” contradicting statements made on Wednesday.

Pledge to address environmental contamination and “broken” health system

Kennedy also described how his experience as an environmental lawyer working with hunter’s fisherman and farmers along the Hudson River had sensitized him to the health impacts of pesticides and environmental pollutants early in his career. 

He has pledged  to tackle the obesity crisis, unhealthy processed foods, and environmental pollution to “make America healthy again” – as well as confronting big Pharma and high drug prices – messages that clearly resonated with many senators.

“Something is poisoning the American people and we know that the primary culprits are our changing food supply, highly processed foods,” he said, citing the unusually high proportion of obese people in the US in comparison to other developed nations, something that he called an “existential threat”.

But it’s unclear how much leeway he’d really have to move such a massive agenda in the new Trump administration – which is deeply indebted to big food and the pharma industry for supporting Trump’s election campaign. 

See the first day of coverage of the RFK Jr hearings here: 

RFK Jr Backtracks Anti-Vax Statements at Start of Contentious Confirmation Hearing

Watch the full confirmation hearing:

 

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