WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. scrapped with senators for more than four hours Wednesday, trying to defend everything from his “conflicting” claims on vaccines to his stance on abortion to past statements that the virus causing COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” against black and Caucasian people.
In his opening statement, President Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services declared that despite what his critics claimed he was not “anti-vaccine” and remained unapologetic about “asking uncomfortable questions” about polio and measles immunizations — which the top Democrat at the Senate Finance Committee hearing referred to as “settled science.”
“I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish and nobody called me anti-fish,” he told senators. “I believe that vaccines play a critical role in health care. All of my kids are vaccinated.”
Republicans on the panel rattled off issues they were eager to work with RFK Jr. on should he be confirmed next month — especially the nominee’s plans to reverse the “grievous” state of US health care — and appeared ready to approve his nomination by the end of the hearing.
“When my uncle was president, 3% of Americans were obese. Today, 74% of Americans are obese or overweight,” RFK Jr. told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “Epidemics are not caused by genes. Something is poisoning the American people, and we know that the primary culprit’s our changing food supply.”
“He’s got every Republican vote on Finance. That’s big,” a source close to the confirmation process told The Post, while another senior Senate GOP aide indicated Wednesday’s hearing had given RFK Jr. “positive” momentum.
But Democrats on the panel tried to hoist RFK Jr. on his own petard, reading his own words about the safety and efficacy of vaccines back to him, while protesters halted the hearing twice to shout down the nominee.
Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pointed to years of “conflicting” statements and books in which Kennedy expressed that “no vaccine” is “safe and effective,” while claiming that he would “do anything” to “go back in time and not vaccinate” his children.
“Are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine, or did you lie on all those podcasts?” Wyden pressed.
“I said, ‘There are no vaccines that are safe and effective,’” Kennedy answered before referring to one of the demonstrators. “And I was going to continue, ‘for every person.’ Every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines. He interrupted me at that point.”
Wyden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also accused RFK Jr. of causing a measles outbreak on Samoa that killed 83 people by spreading the notion that the contagious disease was not “deadly.”
Trump’s nom countered that he arrived in 2019 after officials on the island had already banned the MMR vaccine for the contagious disease the previous year — though he later wrote a book in 2021 with the anti-vaccine advocacy group he founded, Children’s Health Defense, that claimed measles was “basically a rash” with a low fatality rate and could be treated with Vitamin A supplements.
“He’s trying to play down his role in Samoa,” Wyden seethed. “That’s not what the parents say. That’s not what [Hawaii] Governor [Josh] Green says.”
Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been rumored as a potential “yes” vote on RFK Jr.’s confirmation, still tore into the nominee for his past affiliation with the anti-vaccine nonprofit.
“You have started a group called the Children’s Health Defense. … On their website, they are selling what’s called ‘onesies,’” Sanders said, showing posterboards of the merchandise. “One of them is titled ‘unvaxxed, unafraid.’ Next one — and they’re sold for 26 bucks apiece, by the way — next one is ‘no vaxx, no problem.’”
“Your organization is making money selling a child’s product to parents, which casts fundamental doubt on the usefulness of vaccines,” the Vermont senator declared.
“Senator, I have no power over that organization. I’m not a part of it. I resigned from the board,” RFK Jr. replied.
“That was just a few months ago!” Sanders balked. “Are you supportive of these onesies?”
“I’m supportive of vaccines,” the nom said flatly.
Other Democrats — including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) who attended the University of Virginia’s law school with RFK Jr. — pushed Trump’s pick to account for his about-face on abortion and not speaking out enough about climate change despite his long history of environmental activism and litigation, including some past lawsuits for chemical pollutants spilling into rivers off of Trump’s golf properties.
“I believe it’s existential,” RFK Jr. said of climate change. “President Trump and I, from the beginning, from our first meeting, agreed to disagree on that issue.”
After having not backed any federal limits to abortion during his failed independent presidential bid, Kennedy told senators: “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 that the states should control abortion,” he added. “President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions; he wants to protect conscientious exceptions; and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions abroad.”
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) later seized on the Kennedy scion’s reversal during his line of questioning.
“Mr. Kennedy, it doesn’t matter what you come here and say; it isn’t true. That’s not reflective of what you really believe, that you have said over decade after decade,” Bennet erupted.
RFK Jr. noted, however, that Trump had asked him to study the safety of the abortion pill Mifepristone, potentially signaling openness to reversing a move by the Biden administration expanding access to the drug, which the Supreme Court upheld last year.
Bennet also took RFK Jr. to task later for comments from July 2023, first reported by The Post, that COVID-19 is “targeted to attack Caucasians and black people.”
“I didn’t say it was deliberately targeted,” RFK Jr. responded. “I quoted a study, your honor. I quoted an NIH study that showed that certain races were disproportionately…”
“Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely a militarily engineered bioweapon?” Bennet also asked.
“I probably did say that,” Kennedy acknowledged.
Trump tapped the 71-year-old environmental lawyer in November to lead one of the most powerful cabinet positions after the son of Democratic royalty gave the Republican’s 2024 campaign a shot in the arm by endorsing him just months before Election Day.
When given the floor, RFK Jr. touted how his “Make America Healthy Again” movement would work to reform US taxpayer funds to “support healthy foods,” “scrutinize the chemical additives in our food supply,” “remove financial conflicts of interest,” and promote “gold-standard science” to “reverse the chronic disease epidemic.”
He also took a swipe at former President Barack Obama for increasing Medicaid coverage to US adults through the signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 — with little benefit to “the poorest Americans.”
“Medicaid is not working for Americans. And it’s specifically not working for the target population,” RFK Jr. also said. “The best doctors will not accept it, the best hospitals, and particularly Medicaid was originally designed for a target population: the poorest Americans. It’s now been dramatically expanded and the irony of the expansion is that the poorest Americans are now being robbed.”
Elsewhere, Kennedy also floated strange developments on the health care frontier, claiming that AI nurses would soon be able to fill gaps in rural coverage with “diagnostics as good as any doctor.”
“Even as health care spending climbs, outcomes across a range of conditions continue to decline,” glossed Finance Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) in his opening remarks, later adding in his concluding statement that RFK Jr. had “gone through the most thorough vetting process that any committee in this Congress puts anybody through.”
“I think that you have come through well and deserve to be confirmed,” Crapo added.
RFK Jr. will almost certainly advance to the Senate floor for a vote — barring any unforeseen opposition in his hearing Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — and maybe even pick up some unlikely Democratic allies along the way.
“I very much like that slogan that you coined, ‘Make America Healthy Again,’” Sanders had told the nominee in the hearing. “I strongly agree with that.”
