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 satisfy with senators.
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems prone 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 traces, 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 to this point succeeded in putting in most of his most well-liked cupboard picks regardless of slim Congressional majorities. Kennedy was certainly one of his most contentious nominees.
Kennedy is a really uncommon option to run the nation’s well being companies, which embody 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 repute and fortune.
Senator Invoice Cassidy, R.-La., solid a key vote in favor of Kennedy. A doctor, Cassidy spoke in private phrases 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, solid 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.
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Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
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 Shield Our Care focused choose Republican senators and portrayed Kennedy as an anti-vaccine extremist. He additionally confronted opposition from the fitting due to his previous help of abortion entry — former Vice President Mike Pence’s group Advancing American Freedom additionally ran adverts 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 throughout hearings final week, together with those that are fervently against abortion rights. Additionally supporting him had been “MAHA mothers,” as Kennedy referred to 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, Schooling, Labor and Pensions) committee: “I’ve realized you bought an incredible following — my telephone blows up with individuals who actually comply with you, and there are a lot of 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 help behind Trump. In change, Trump agreed to let Kennedy “go wild on well being” and execute his imaginative and prescient.
In his affirmation hearings, Kennedy steadily referenced “his era” — he was born in 1954 — describing how People had been more healthy again then and within the a long time because the nation’s well being had gone off monitor.
He steadily referenced information to help his arguments, however when confronted with information 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 information that satisfied him. Cassidy responded that he was skeptical that Kennedy would actually change as a 71-year-old man.
Kennedy has steadily been referred to as a conspiracy theorist, a label he denied through 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 second got here when Kennedy urged Black People ought to have a unique vaccine schedule, a place Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., referred to as “harmful.”
One situation that arose through the affirmation course of was his monetary conflicts of pursuits. As somebody who has made a fortune by suing vaccine makers, he might financially profit from ongoing litigation whereas accountable for the federal companies that regulate these drugmakers. Kennedy wrote in subsequent filings that he would switch these pursuits to his son. He additionally advised lawmakers that he understood how the well being companies labored from having sued them many occasions through the years.