Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on shaky political ground after two days of contentious confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill failed to lock in enough Senate votes for him to become health and human services secretary.
Kennedy, tapped by President Donald Trump to run the giant health agency, struggled to ease concerns held by on-the-fence GOP senators who could make or break his confirmation over his long history of vaccine skepticism.
“Help us help you” was the running theme from Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), extending Kennedy multiple lifelines to retract unfounded claims that some vaccines could cause autism. Kennedy declined to do so, marking possible missed opportunities that may decide the nominee’s fate.
“I recognize, man, if you come out unequivocally, ‘Vaccines are safe; it does not cause autism,’ it would have an incredible impact. That’s your power,” said Cassidy, a physician and chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “So, what’s it going to be? Will it be using the credibility to support [vaccines] or will it be using credibility to undermine? I got to figure that out for my vote.”
Kennedy didn’t get a chance to respond to Cassidy’s final plea Thursday after a three-hour hearing in which the nephew of President John F. Kennedy refused to promote trust or confidence in the childhood vaccine mandates that have been around for more than a century.
Cassidy concluded he was “struggling” on where to land with Kennedy’s nomination, which can survive with no more than three Republican defections. No Democrats have committed to cross the aisle and support him.
Collins and Murkowski, the chamber’s centrist Republican duo, voted against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Their opposition nearly sank his tenuous confirmation that ultimately required a tiebreaking vote from Vice President JD Vance after an eleventh-hour rebellion from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
“We have made some considerable gains in my state of Alaska with vaccinating the many people in very rural areas where one disease outbreak can wipe out an entire village,” Murkowski said. “When there is a lack of confidence, when there is a doubt, what do I do?”
Murkowski later told reporters she remained undecided as she continued to process the hours of testimony Kennedy offered senators over two separate hearings on Wednesday and Thursday.
“There were some questions that were particularly telling that when the science has been out there for a long time and has been proven, do you need to continue being the skeptic?” she said. “I think he made clear that it’s not everything.”
Collins shared concerns during Thursday’s hearing from a pediatric nurse practitioner about losing herd immunity among children due to vaccine skepticism.
Kennedy conceded to senators that he was fully supportive of long-standing vaccines for polio and measles, but he did not extend his endorsement of vaccines far beyond them.
Collins and Cassidy are on the precipice of fierce reelection fights. Collins is in a blue state Democrats have for decades sought to flip while Cassidy already faces a primary challenger. Their every move will be heavily scrutinized by voters, political opponents, and Trump in particular.
Kennedy repeatedly rebuffed the notion he was a “conspiracy theorist” or “anti-vaccine.” But he declined to retract his claim that some vaccines could be linked to autism, despite repeated prodding from Cassidy to do so.
“If you show me the science that says I’m wrong, I’m going to say, ‘I was wrong,’” Kennedy said. “I don’t have any problem. There’s nothing that would make me happier.”
Cassidy and Democratic senators told Kennedy in several tense exchanges that the science already existed.
In a bright spot for Kennedy, he secured the tentative support of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). He, too, is up for reelection and was a holdout to confirm Hegseth but ultimately cast the deciding vote in favor.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) were initially seen as possible supporters of Kennedy, but their remarks over the course of the hearings signaled otherwise. Whitehouse is a longtime friend of Kennedy’s and his former law school roommate at the University of Virginia. Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, is the ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee.
Whitehouse said for Kennedy to transform from an advocate to the nation’s chief health official, he would need to first recant past vaccine skepticism and vow to support certain mandatory vaccinations. Kennedy did neither.
“You’re in that hole pretty deep,” Whitehouse said. “Frankly, you frighten people.”
Kennedy’s pledge to work with Whitehouse on changing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an umbrella agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, was given a cold reception.
“One of the things I’ve learned in my tenure in the Senate is that a nominee saying that they’re willing to work with me amounts to exactly zero,” Whitehouse said.
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Sanders and Kennedy engaged in heated episodes in both hearings, including one that devolved into a shouting match on Thursday over campaign finances and the pharmaceutical industry.
“I applaud Mr. Kennedy for raising issues, talking about some very important things,” Sanders said. “But what I am not hearing from him are some very specific policy issues that are absolutely needed if we’re going to make America healthy again.”
Gabrielle M. Etzel contributed to this report.
