RFK Jr. grilled on vaccines and insurance

R.Obert F. Kennedy Jr. were grilled by senators in his first confirmation hearing for secretary for health and human services (HHS) Wednesday, where he struggled to convince legislators that he is not “anti-vaccine” and seemed to be inconsistent with key aspects of health insurance programs and other policies , he would oversee.

By acting on the Senate Finance Committee, President Donald Trump’s nominees insisted to lead the country’s leading health agency that he has been mistakenly labeled as an anti-vaccine, despite his previous comments, spreading incorrect information about the security and efficiency of immunization. “I’m pro-security,” said Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer who ran as a Democrat and then an independent candidate in the presidential election in 2024 before approving Trump.

“All my children are vaccinated,” he said. “I have written many books on vaccines. My first book in 2014, the first line of it is, ‘I’m not anti-vaccine’ and the last line is, ‘I’m not anti-vaccine.’ ”

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the most ranked Democrat in the committee, referred to Kennedy’s performance at several podcasts, where Kennedy mistakenly claimed that no vaccine was safe or effective and said he regretted vaccinating his children. “Mr. Kennedy, all these things can’t be true. Then you lie to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine, or are you lying on all these podcasts? “Wyden asked.

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While Kennedy was facing critically questioning from Democrats, he and other cabinet-nominated have benefited from solid support among Republicans who have a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Trump’s nominees to lead the Ministry of Defense, Pete Hegeth, were confirmed despite broadly considered one of the most controversial choices. Kennedy’s appointment has given rise to widespread debate with opponents, including members of his own family, warning that his views could undermine public health efforts. On the threshold of his first confirmation hearing, his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, accused him of “swapping for desperation of parents and sick children,” with reference to his role in Stoking -vaccine skepticism in the United States and abroad. But it is not clear that more than three Republicans will vote against his confirmation, which is what would be necessary to sink it if all Democrats vote together.

Here are some of the most important moments in Kennedy’s first day of confirmation hearings.

Vaccines

Democrats raised Kennedy’s controversial history with Samoa, accused him of traveling to the country and spreading anti-vaccine-forking information after the government, which had temporarily paused on distribution of vaccines to measles, mumps and Rubella when two babies died in 2018 after have received incorrectly prepared shots. Shortly after Kennedy’s visit, a measles outbreak in Samoa killed 83 people, most of them children. Kennedy denied the claims and said he “went there, nothing to do with vaccines” and insist on, “you can’t find a single Samoan who will say,” I didn’t get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy. “

Read more: RFK Jr. denied that he is anti-vaccine during his confirmation hearing. Here’s his record

Kennedy said he supported measles and polio vaccines and promised that he would not do anything that would make it difficult for or discourage people from becoming immunized. But the Democrats continued to push back and noted their concerns with his previously controversial statements about vaccines.

“We just had a measles case on Rhode Island, the first since 2013, and frankly you scare people,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island.

Health Insurance

Vermont sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who cauces with the Democrats and was considered a potential swing vote on Kennedy’s nomination, began his question by saying he agrees with Kennedy’s “Make America Health Again” slogan. But when he pressed the nominees on his views in health insurance, he seemed disappointed when Kennedy refused to say that healthcare is a human right.

Kennedy has previously said little about the health insurance programs that make up about a quarter of the federal budget and coverage More than 150 million Americans. During Wednesday’s consultation, he sometimes seemed to confuse Medicaid and Medicare (Medicaid is a State Federal Program that provides coverage for low -income people, while Medicare is a federal program that offers coverage for the elderly and disabled).

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor considered a vote Kennedy, has to win confirmation, and repeatedly asked Kennedy to share how he would reform Medicaid, a taxpayer financed that could be subject to budget cuts to finance Trump’s agenda. “I don’t have a broad proposal for dismantling the program,” Kennedy said.

Read more: RFK Jr.’s Confirmation Hearings Could Be Bannoment For Anti-Wax Movement

Kennedy said that “Most people who are on Medicaid are not happy” because the prizes and self -share are “too high.” But most people who are enrolled in Medicaid do not pay prizes or ownership. He also suggested that most Americans would prefer private insurance and induce laughter from Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire and Sanders.

“I want to ask any of the Democrats who are humming right now: Do you think all the money, the $ 900 billion that we send to Medicaid every year, have made Americans healthy? Do we think it works for someone? Are the prizes low enough? “Said Kennedy.

Abortion

Kennedy also faced the question of senators of both parties about his flip-floating attitude towards abortion. When Senator James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, who has called himself “the senate’s most pro-life member, Kennedy asked about abortion, the nominee replied:” I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy “and that He agrees with the president that abortion policy should be left to the states.

But many Democrats, including Hassan and Sanders, referred to Kennedy’s previous comments that expressed support for bodily autonomy and people’s right to choose, and threw him for what Sanders called a “Major U Turn” on his faith.

“It is noteworthy that you have such a long list of fighting for women’s reproductive freedom and really great, that my Republican colleagues are so open to voting for a choice of HHS secretary. Then Mr. Kennedy, I’m confused, ”Hassan said. “You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values. The question is, do you stand for that value or not? When was it that you decided to sell the values ​​you have had all your life to gain the power of President Trump? “

Kennedy stumbled when asked about specific abortion policies he would oversee if they were confirmed to lead HHS. When Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, Kennedy asked if he agreed that emergency medical treatment and Labor Act, a federal law that requires hospitals to stabilize patients experiencing life -threatening situations, whether they can pay, Protects a pregnant person’s or not right to a emergency abortion held Kennedy a break before he replied, “I don’t know.”

The senators questioned Kennedy about what actions he would take on the abortion medicine Mifepristone. The drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for abortion purposes more than two decades ago was recently contested by the court by a group of anti-abortion doctors and organizations. The Biden administration helped facilitate access to MifePiston by letting it be prescribed via Telehealth and received by email. Mail. Kennedy had a guard answer when asked about the drug and said only that Trump asked him “to study Mifepriston’s security,” but that the president “has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it.”

Conspiracy theories

Another contentious moment arose when late. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, challenged Kennedy on his earlier controversial statements, including his claims that Covid-19 was a genetically constructed bio-weight aimed at black people and sparse Chinese and Ashkenazi Jews, and that Lyme disease was a constructed Biowapon. “I probably said that,” Kennedy said of Lyme disease.

Democrats in the committee seemed to be frustrated and not convinced by Kennedy’s insistence that he is not a conspiracy theorist, and many criticized the nominee for being unqualified and unfit to run the top health agency.

“What is so disturbing to me is that out of 330 million Americans we are asked to put someone in this job who has spent 50 years of his life not honoring the tradition he spoke of in the beginning of this conversation, but peddling in half truths, peddling in false statements, ”Bennet said.