After playing ball Wednesday during his first confirmation hearing with the Senate Finance Committee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), faced a tougher crowd in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).
While senators at his first hearing scrutinized the nominee on a plethora of topics, RFK Jr.’s task on Thursday was largely to convince the lawmakers that he can be trusted with handling the country’s vaccine regulations and recommendations.
It’s a topic that, in some cases, transcends party lines. Republicans and Democrats alike pressed the nominee on some of his more questionable past positions on vaccines, with Republican committee chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D., R-Louisiana, kicking off the hearing by acknowledging that while he and RFK Jr. can find common ground on other issues, he has “some reservations about your past positions on vaccines.”
“Can I trust that that is now in the past? Can data and information change your opinion? Or will you only look for data supporting a predetermined conclusion?” Cassidy asked.
Ranking member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, took what he called the “rare” position of agreeing with Cassidy, with both senators specifically questioning RFK Jr. on his stance on the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. RFK Jr. has a long history of repeating that claim, dating at least back to a now-retracted 2005 article in Rolling Stone.
This time, when asked by Cassidy whether he will “unequivocally and without hesitation” assure mothers that measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism, the nominee responded that he would—“if the data was there.”
When told by Cassidy that the data in question are in fact there, RFK Jr. took the request a step further and assured the committee that not only would he let the data guide his positioning, but he would also apologize for “any statements that mislead people” upon viewing such data.
That’s not to say that all senators in the committee agreed with Cassidy and Sanders’ hesitation to accept RFK Jr.’s claim of being pro-vaccine. Former ophthalmologist Sen. Rand Paul, M.D., R-Kentucky, used his allotted time to defend those who question vaccines, pointing out that he himself “doesn’t know” what causes autism, or schizophrenia for that matter: “Might be vaccines, might be our food,” he said.
RFK Jr., for his part, made a concerted effort to alleviate worries that his influence over the country’s health agencies would impact vaccine uptake. He also committed, if confirmed, to recommending that children follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine schedule and to further supporting research on “every kind of vaccine.” With the help of “good science,” the nominee said he looks to “restore trust” in vaccines, which will in turn increase uptake.
Outside of the vaccine topic, questions of RFK Jr.’s character also came up in the HELP hearing. He denied previously publicized sexual assault allegations and was once again accused of entertaining conspiracy theories when Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, brought out a poster-sized screenshot of an X post that RFK Jr. made in July during his presidential campaign, in which he wrote, “I won’t take sides on 9/11.”
Now, all that’s left to do for the senators is vote. While Republicans hold a small 53-47 lead in the chamber, it’s not unlikely that some senators, likely those with medical degrees, could cross party lines. Still, Citi analysts predict that RFK Jr. will ultimately be confirmed, as his efforts to distance himself from his “prior anti-vax comments” and instead affirm the importance of vaccines “likely sufficiently assuaged” some voters’ concerns, the analysts wrote in a note.
The Senate often votes along party lines when it comes to the new administration’s cabinet members. Cassidy, who sits on both the finance and the HELP committees, notably seemed unsure of his vote, telling RFK Jr. that he "may be hearing from me over the weekend."
“There are political realities. We all get that,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, told her fellow senators during the hearing. “But there's also right and wrong, fact and fiction, and there's also people staying healthy or dying pointlessly from diseases we can prevent.”