Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the senators on Wednesday for his first confirmation hearing as a candidate for President Donald Trump for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, facing a grill on his views on vaccines and abortion.
Kennedy tried to defend himself in his declaration of opening the expected questions, which caused a brief eruption of a protester in the gallery.
“News reports have affirmed that I am Anti-Vacuna or Anti-Industry,” Kennedy said.
“Are you!” The person shouted before being expelled from the camera.
Kennedy continued: “I’m not any; A fundamental role in medical care. “
Follow the live coverage of the audience
After another interruption of a protester, the crowd was warned that the hearing would postpone to allow the police to investigate whether there were more outbursts of the audience.
The hearing highlighted the strong division between the parties with Kennedy’s opinions, with Republicans thanking for their past work and the Democrats in their previous comments showing doubts about the effectiveness of the vaccine, their contradictory statements about abortion and the millions of dollars that have cattle through an antivacuna group, as well as by making references to several law firm.
Kennedy and Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., The classification member of the Senate Finance Committee, participated in a heated exchange when Wyden tried to nail Kennedy’s position in the measles vaccine.
“Is deadly measles yes or no?” Wyden asked Kennedy, who did not answer directly to the question. Kennedy argued again that he was not Anti -Vacuna.
Wyden pressed Kennedy in his comments on a 2023 podcast in which he said: “There is no safe and effective vaccine.”
“Lord. Kennedy, all these things cannot be true. So are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vacuna? Wyden said.
Kennedy said that the statements made in the podcasts “have been repeatedly discredited.”
He also argued that he would not deter the Americans from obtaining certain vaccines.
“Support the measles vaccine. I support the polyomyelitis vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary to make people difficult or discourage to take anything, ”said Kennedy.
At another time, Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colo., He became burning while challenging Kennedy in some of his past statements.
“Did you say that Lyme’s disease is very likely, a materially designed biowapon? Did you say that Lyme’s disease is very likely that military engineering connecting rod?
“I probably said that,” Kennedy said.
Bennet then asked Kennedy about his previous comments that support the rights of abortion. When Kennedy began to argue, Bennet was interrupted.
“This matters!” Bennet said, his voice increasing. “This is a job where it is life and death … for the families of this country.”
At another time, when he faced the questions of Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a democratic of Nev. Kennedy was asked if the federal law protects the right of a pregnant woman to emergency care if she has an incomplete spontaneous abortion in An emergency room in an emergency room in a state where abortion is restricted.
“I don’t know,” Kennedy said. “The answer is that I don’t know.”
While the Democrats focused largely on Kennedy’s opinions about vaccines and diseases, conservatives had expressed concern about their past support for abortion rights.
Last year, while running as an independent candidate for the president, Kennedy told a podcast host that would support to allow women to have full -term abortions, if that were the election.
But only a few days later, his position was walking again, writing in an X post that “abortion should be legal until a certain number of weeks and restricted from then on.”
On Wednesday, under the interrogation of Senator James Lankford, R-Okla., Kennedy said he believed that states should control abortion. Then he described Trump’s positions on abortion, even wanting to end federal financing and abortions in the late time.
“I serve at the president’s pleasure. I will implement your policies. ”
In a remarkable exchange, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Mass’s Democrat. He tried to extract a Kennedy promise that would not leave her role in HHS and continue to benefit in any way from the policies she helped establish.
“I want to know if he will commit at this time that he will not only go to work for pharmaceutical companies, but will not work demanding the pharmaceutical companies and get your rake while you are secretary and for four years later? Warren said.
Kennedy would only say he wouldn’t take that money while performing as a HHS chair. Warren went ahead, saying that the question was not answering.
“Senator, you are asking me not to demand Vaccine, pharmaceutical companies,” Kennedy interrupted.
“No, I’m not!” Warren exclaimed, raising his voice.
At one point, Kennedy talked about the increase in chronic diseases and ingredients in food, but also pointed out that his “boss” likes to eat a hamburger with McDonald’s cheese and drink a coca -Cola Light.
“You should be able to do that,” Kennedy told some laughs at Trump’s inclination for eating fast food. “But you should know what the impacts on your family and your health are.”
While several of Trump’s cabinet teams have generated controversy, Kennedy is unique in the sense that he has drawn the opposition outside the right and left.
He has been the subject of negative advertising campaigns, with liberals criticizing his positions and anti -vaccinos conservatives that denounce his positions about abortion. Nobel doctors and laureate have publicly warned about him, they accused him of politicizing science.
And on the eve of his hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, he received a sharp rebuke of his own family.
On Tuesday, his cousin Caroline Kennedy wrote a scathing letter asking the Senate to deny his confirmation. She described it as a “predator” that once delighted in a “perverse scene of despair and violence”, placing chickens and mice in a blender to feed their hawks. She also accused him of attracting other family members to addiction.
“Bobby is addicted to attention and power,” he wrote. “Bobby takes advantage of the despair of parents of sick children, vaccinating their own children while building followers by hypocritically discouraging other parents to vaccinate their own.”
The letter addressed the presidents and the classification members of the Finance Committee, which will vote on its nomination before it reaches the full floor of the Senate, and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will hold a second audience with Kennedy on Thursday.
You must clear a wide variety of obstacles this week while seeking to be confirmed to one of the most influential positions in the United States government. As head of HHS, Kennedy would supervise powerful agencies, including the centers for disease control and prevention, food and medication administration, national health institutes and Medicare and Medicaid service centers.
Kennedy can afford to lose the support of only three Republicans if the Democrats come together against him when the complete Senate votes in his nomination. Until now, no Republican senators have publicly opposed him.