Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the country’s most well-known vaccine doubters, is poised to face tough questioning Wednesday when he appears before a Senate panel for the first time as President Donald Trump’s candidate for health secretary.
Kennedy, a longtime environmental lawyer with no experience in public health administration or medicine, is well-known for his work challenging the safety and efficacy of vaccines, including encouraging parents not to follow vaccination recommendations and assisting in the lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer for what he claimed was marketing fraud.
If confirmed, Kennedy would be in control of a massive government agency that supervises the health care of around 170 million Americans, regulates access to pharmaceuticals and immunizations, and monitors urgent outbreaks of diseases and foodborne illnesses.
According to two sources familiar with the situation, Vice President JD Vance has been pressuring senators behind closed doors to back Kennedy. A spokesman for Vance did not return a request for comment.
“Vance is working the phones to make sure Bobby gets over the line,” a colleague added.
Kennedy has told senators in private sessions that he is not “anti-vaccine,” but rather that he wants further research, according to two people familiar with the conversations. That message appears to be working, as some Republicans have expressed satisfaction with his approach thus far.
“I don’t agree with everything that he says but we certainly both think that there are opportunities in nutrition and to decrease the toxins that kids are exposed to,” said Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas.
Kennedy can only lose three Republican votes on the Senate floor and still be approved. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, has criticized Kennedy’s stance on vaccinations. Other Republicans have urged Kennedy, a Democrat before joining Trump, to explain his views on abortion rights.
So yet, no Democrats have vowed to support him, with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., describing her private meeting with Kennedy as “by far the strangest” she’s had with a possible Cabinet secretary.
“I was appalled at his answers and his lack of knowledge and what he was pushing on the American people,” she told me. “We need somebody in charge of this agency that is going to make sure that our kids and grandkids … have the correct health care information not misinformation.”
Kennedy has been preparing for this week’s hearings by having what insiders term “murder board sessions”–intense rounds of question-and-answer guided by a group of advisors to prepare Kennedy for the most tough questions he may encounter in the hearing rooms.
According to two persons familiar with his involvement, the sessions were overseen by lawyer Ken Nahagian, who had recently escorted the candidate around the Senate halls for meetings.
Kennedy’s testimony comes after a blistering letter from his cousin and former US ambassador, Caroline Kennedy, landed in senators’ inboxes, branding him a “predator” who “preys on the desperation of parents of sick children” and is “addicted to attention and power.” Caroline Kennedy served as the United States’ ambassador to Japan and, later, Australia during the Obama and Biden administrations.
“The American health-care system, for all its flaws, is the envy of the world,” Caroline Kennedy said. “The doctors, nurses, researchers, scientists, and caregivers are the most dedicated people I know.” They, and all of us, deserve more than Bobby Kennedy. I strongly encourage the Senate to reject his nomination.
Outside parties critical of Kennedy stated that they were trying to ensure senators realized the hazards involved.
