Trump Health Secretary Nominated RFK JR Survives Heated Hearings prior to decisive confirmation votes

Clothing for back-to-back flammable senate confirmation hearings are over.

But Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominees to Secretary of the Institute for Health and Human Services (HHS), still face crucial committees and full Senate’s confirmation votes in his mission to lead 18 powerful federal agencies overseeing the country’s food and health.

By testing in front of Senat’s Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Health Committee on Thursday, the vaccine skeptical and environmental crusader, who ran for the White House in 2024, stood before ending his bid and approved Trump, plenty of verbal fireworks over previous controversial comments.

And while most of the harsh questions and sparring over his attitudes to vaccines, abortion, Medicaid and other questions came from Democrats in the two committees, ended Thursday’s consultation with the top republic of the health panel and said he “fought” with Kennedys nomination.

RFK’s confirmation hearing quickly goes off the rails

“Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,” the GOP told. Bill Cassidy to the nominee.

Louisiana doctor, who is a crucial vote and who has expressed concern about Kennedy’s past attitude towards vaccines, asked if Kennedy can “trust to support the best public health.”

And the senator told Kennedy, who seeks to lead Key Health Agencies as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that “You can hear from me over the weekend.”

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Kennedy was facing two days of grilling over his controversial past comments, including his repeated claims in recent years that connect vaccines to autism, which have been debunked by scientific research.

And the Democrats have also highlighted Kennedy’s service for years as chairman or head of legal adviser to Children’s Health Defense, the non -profit organization he founded, which has advocated against vaccines and sued the federal government several times, including a challenge over the approval of the coward vaccine For children.

One of Thursday’s most heated exchanges came when Independent Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont pushed Kennedy over his past to connect vaccines to autism.

Sanders said “vaccines do not cause autism” and asked Kennedy “Do you agree with that?”

After the nomine did not answer, Sanders replied, “I asked you a simple question, Bobby.”

Kennedy replied, “Senator, if you show me these investigations I will definitely … apologize.”

“It’s a very worrying answer because the studies are there. Your job was to have looked at these studies as an applicant for this job,” Sanders said.

Later during the hearing, the two also collided on political contributions to the pharmaceutical industry, where Kennedy referred to Sanders simply as “Bernie.”

“Almost all members of this panel, including yourself, accept millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry and protect their interests,” Kennedy said.

Sanders pushed back immediately, “I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They didn’t come from the leaders, not a nickel of PAC (Political Action Committee) money from the pharmaceutical (businesses). They came from workers. “

Another fiery moment came when the Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire seemed to strike back tears as she noticed her son’s fight with cerebral palsy in the midst of accusations that “Partisanship” was behind Democrat’s blistering question to Kennedy.

Hassan, who at Wednesday’s hearing accused that Kennedy “sold out” to Trump by changing his attitude towards abortion, on Thursday accused the nominees of “religious settling science.”

But many of the Republicans on the panel came to Kennedy’s defense, including Conservative Senator Rand Paul.

Kentucky the ophthalmologist defended Kennedy and aimed at comments on vaccines that did not cause autism.

“We don’t know what is causing autism, so we should be more humble,” Paul said to the applause from Kennedy supporters in the committee room carrying “Make America Healthy Again” Garb.

The 71-year-old Kennedy, a scion of the country’s most-pleased political dynasty, launched a long shot campaign for the democratic presidential election against President Joe Biden in April 2023. But six months later he switched to an independent race for the White House.

Kennedy gave big headlines again in August last year as he dropped his presidential bidder and approved Trump. While Kennedy had long identified himself as a Democrat and repeatedly called on his late father, former Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and his late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy – who were both murdered in the 1960s – built Kennedy in the later years relationship with height-right leaders who are partly due to his high-profile vaccine skepticism.

Trump announced shortly after the November election he would nominate Kennedy to his cabinet to run HHS.

Kennedy, if obvious views of Big Pharma And the food industry has also given rise to controversy, has said that he is aiming to shift the focus of the agencies he would oversee the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, including revision of dietary guidelines aimed at ultra-processed foods and comes to the basic causes of chronic diseases.

“Our country will not be destroyed because we get the marginal tax rate wrong. It will be destroyed if we get this question wrong,” Kenendy said on Thursday as he pointed to chronic illnesses. “And I’m in a unique position to be able to stop this epidemic.”

The Finance Committee, which will decide whether to send Kennedy’s nomination to the full Senate, has not yet planned a date of a confirmation vote.

With Republicans checking the Senate by a 53-47 majority, Kennedy can only afford to lose support from three GOP senators whose Democrats are united against his confirmation.

And besides Cassidy, two other Republicans are in the Health Committee – Sens. Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska – Potential “No” votes on Kennedy.

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Collins asked Kennedy on Thursday about vaccines, herd immunity as well as his views on Lyme disease. Kenendy promised that there is “no one will fight harder for a treatment of Lyme disease.”

A 50-50 vote in full Senate would force Vice President JD Vance to act as a draw to push Kennedy nomination over the top, as the vice president did last week with the confirmation of another controversial nominated, now defense secretary Pete Hegeth.