Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrived on Capitol Hill late Monday, as the anti-vaccine health guru from a prominent political family reintroduced himself to senators, this time as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the nation’s Department of Health and Human Services.
It was a soft-opening debut for Kennedy, whose sweeping views — yes to raw milk, no to fluoride, Ozpic and America’s favorite processed foods — are raising alarms in the scientific community and beyond. In the Senate he faces a mix of support, curiosity, skepticism and outright rejection among senators who will be asked to confirm him in Trump’s cabinet.
Kennedy’s first stop on Monday was in potentially friendly territory, the offices of GOP senators allied with Trump, the start of a week-long process.
Ahead of the candidate’s visit, Trump said he was a “big believer” in polio vaccines and sought to allay fears that Kennedy would be “a lot less radical” than people thought.
A man known as RFK, Jr., is the latest in a class of partners turned Trump rivals, a former Democratic presidential hopeful now in line to run the world’s largest public health agency, with its full USD 1.7 trillion budget, and some of America’s most important public services.
HHS has broad reach into the lives of Americans — overseeing the nation’s food, regulating drugs, and overseeing research into disease and cures. It provides health insurance to nearly half of the country—poor, disabled, and elderly Americans—through Medicare.
Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called Kennedy a “really dangerous” choice.
Besser said in an op-ed for US News & World Report that Kennedy, 70, “stands out as the single most likely cabinet member to do the most damage to the lives of the American people.” Before Kennedy’s arrival he was given a word of advice from an important voice: outgoing Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, who cautioned the nominee against anti-vaccine views.
“Anyone seeking Senate consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to avoid the appearance of association with such efforts,” McConnell said recently.
The incoming GOP leader, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, said Kennedy would have to address questions about his views on the polio vaccine and other issues.
“Well I guess he’ll have to address it,” Thune said. “We’ll find out.” But conservative Representative Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, a House member who has no vote in the confirmation process, has been influential in supporting and expanding Kennedy’s views on vaccines.
And GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said his mind is not made up. “I’m open. I’m not prejudged one way or the other,” Tillis said Monday evening.
Kennedy’s nomination will test the nation’s emerging political realignment, as Trump expands his base of supporters to include former Democratic voters moving elsewhere. Kennedy’s views are favored but also opposed by both sides of the political aisle.
Other Trump nominees are also expected to return to Capitol Hill this week. President-elect Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, Tulsi Gabbard for the Office of Director of National Intelligence, Kash Patel for FBI Director and all the other wary senators are running in turmoil.
With Republicans taking control of the Senate in the new year, confirmation of Trump’s nominees is on the way. But with only a 53-47 majority, either candidate could lose only a handful of GOP supporters in the face of Democratic opposition.
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