President Donald Trump’s nominee for the next secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is scheduled to appear before the Senate on Wednesday for his first confirmation hearing. He is anticipated to be questioned about his opinions on abortion and vaccines, as well as any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in the position.
Although a number of Trump’s Cabinet choices have caused controversy, few have sparked as much outside opposition from the left and right as former third-party presidential candidate John F. Kennedy has.
Kennedy has been the target of derogatory paid advertising efforts, with conservatives denouncing his views on abortion and liberals condemning his anti-vaccine views. Nobel laureates and doctors have publicly warned about him and charged him with politicizing science.
Additionally, he received a harsh reprimand from his own family the night before his Senate Finance Committee hearing.
Caroline Kennedy, his cousin, penned a harsh letter on Tuesday requesting that the Senate reject his nomination. According to her, he was a predator who once took pleasure in a twisted spectacle of murder and anguish in which he fed his hawks by blending young mice and chickens. He allegedly lured other family members into addiction, she said.
She wrote that Bobby has an addiction to power and attention. Bobby builds a following by hypocritically advising other parents from vaccinating their children, taking advantage of the desperation of parents of ill children by vaccinating his own.
The letter was sent to the ranking members and chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which will hear his nominee again on Thursday, and the Finance Committee, which will vote on it before it is sent to the Senate floor.
In a letter this month, over 15,000 doctors objected to Kennedy’s nomination, claiming that RFK Jr. is not only hazardous but also unfit to oversee this crucial organization.
In a letter to the Senate last month, 77 Nobel laureates in the fields of medicine, chemistry, physics, and economics pointed out a variety of issues, ranging from Kennedy’s resistance to fluoride in water to his campaign against life-saving vaccines, alleging that he has politicized science.
However, Senate Republicans will ultimately decide Kennedy’s fate. When the entire Senate votes on his nomination, if Democrats are united against him, he can afford to lose only three of them. No one has publicly opposed him thus far.
In order to be confirmed to one of the most powerful positions in the U.S. government, he needs to overcome a wide range of obstacles this week. Kennedy would be in charge of the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other significant organizations as head of HHS.
Critics claim that some of those responsibilities directly clash with his long-standing position as the head of Children’s Health Defense, which has developed into one of the biggest anti-vaccine groups globally. He now wishes to work for the federal government, which is the target of legal action filed by the group. Kennedy just revealed that he was no longer the group’s chair as of December.
Mike Pence, the former vice president of Trump, has been one of Kennedy’s most vocal opponents, particularly when it comes to abortion. The Kennedy scion, who first ran against President Joe Biden as a Democrat before registering as an independent, has stated that he supported minimal abortion restrictions.
He stated on X in May that although abortion has long been a contentious topic in America, there is now a growing consensus that it should be permitted up to a specific number of weeks and then regulated after that. The baby should have rights and be protected by society once it is viable outside the womb.
Kennedy’s confirmation has prompted advertisements from Pence’s organization, Advancing American Freedom, claiming that he is in favor of abortion on demand.
Kennedy has also encountered resistance from the left. A “Stop RFK WarRoom” has been established by a group called Protect Our Care, which offers quick response, research, and a summary of Kennedy news coverage.
Kennedy was forced to file a financial disclosure form with the Senate, which made his numerous financial entanglements public last week. It sparked a new round of inquiries, with some Democrats claiming that, should he be approved, his possible payment in a pending lawsuit against the pharmaceutical behemoth Merck would constitute a clear conflict of interest.
RFK Jr. wants us to have faith in him to decide on millions of Americans’ medical care. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, told NBC News that he might earn millions of dollars from litigation against the same vaccine producers that he would oversee as health secretary. If RFK Jr. is preoccupied with filling his own coffers, he cannot protect Americans.
A request for comment regarding a possible conflict of interest was not answered by a Kennedy representative.
Last week, Kennedy revealed that he planned to retain a part in a possible settlement for a case against Merck involving the HPV vaccination Gardasil. WisnerBaum is the law firm that has Kennedy involved in the lawsuit.
In matters referred to the firm for contingency fees, I am eligible to collect 10% of the fees awarded. “During my appointment to the position of Secretary, I will not provide representational services in connection with the cases, I am not an attorney of record for the cases, and I am not trying these cases,” his filing stated.
Additionally, he stated that he will be compensated under the national Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
I will be paid in full and final by WisnerBaum for any settled cases involving claims against the United States, including claims made under the VICP, before I begin the responsibilities of my role.
Democrats will look into his any conflicts of interest, according to Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the leading Democrat on the Finance Committee.
When asked about the payouts, Wyden told NBC News, “I don’t want to get into a case, but I mean, these are extraordinarily important issues, and we’re going to dig deeply into them.” Many of us Democrats are quite worried about such conflicts of interest.