Kennedy, polarizing pick for health secretary, makes his Senate debut

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose antipathy toward vaccines has raised alarms among health experts and galvanized the “medical freedom” movement, will testify Wednesday at the first of two Senate committee hearings as he seeks to become the nation’s health secretary.

Until now, Kennedy has had only closed-door meetings with senators. His appearance Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Finance, which is set for 10 a.m. Eastern, will be high profile and high stakes, one part Washington theater and one part substantive debate.

Kennedy’s unorthodox views on a range of matters — from vaccines, to fluoridated water (he opposes it) to raw milk (he embraces it, though federal regulators say it is dangerous) have made him one of President Donald Trump’s most polarizing Cabinet picks. He has lately shifted his emphasis away from vaccines and toward consensus ideas like combating the nation’s chronic disease epidemic and curbing ultra-processed foods from the American diet.

In a Senate where Republicans hold a slim majority, Kennedy can afford to lose the support of just three senators when his nomination comes before the full body of lawmakers for a vote.

A number of Republican senators have been noncommittal about him. They include Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a polio survivor and former Republican leader, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor who leads the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Kennedy will appear before that committee Thursday. (The Senate Finance Committee will make the decision on whether Kennedy’s nomination moves forward to a full vote, however.)

Wednesday’s hearing comes a day after Kennedy’s cousin, Caroline, released a letter casting him as a charismatic “predator” who led his siblings and cousins down “a path of drug addiction,” and whose views about vaccines make him unfit for the secretary’s position. He has spoken openly about recovering from heroin addiction.

If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee the Department of Health and Human Services, a vast agency with 13 operating divisions that include some of the nation’s most recognizable agencies and programs: the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Medicare and Medicaid.

If there is a through line to Kennedy’s thinking, it is his deep suspicion of elements of corporate America, particularly the pharmaceutical industry. He rose to prominence by accusing federal agencies like the FDA and the CDC of being subject to “regulatory capture” — Washington lingo for being in the pocket of big industry. He has vowed to clean house at those agencies.

“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” Kennedy wrote on the social platform X before the presidential election, adding, “If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”

Public health experts are especially concerned about how Kennedy would handle the Vaccines for Children program, an $8 billion program that provides vaccines for more than half the nation’s children. As secretary, Kennedy would have the power to enter into — or reject — vaccine contracts with pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Kennedy, who has trumpeted the phrase “Make America Healthy Again” after dropping his presidential bid and joining forces with Trump, has a history of confounding the usual political norms, at times bringing together people on the far left and the far right.

The right-leaning editorial page of the New York Post criticized Kennedy this week, calling him a “left-wing lunatic,” and urging senators not to confirm him. Yet Kennedy has a fan base among conservative Christian mothers who like his emphasis on natural, unprocessed foods.

As an independent presidential candidate and later as a surrogate for Trump, Kennedy pledged to upend the nation’s agriculture system and public health bureaucracy, effectively gutting whole swaths of the regulatory state, under the rubric of rooting out “cronyism” and corruption. But his views on vaccines, long considered one of public health’s greatest triumphs, have drawn the most attention.

Kennedy has said he does not intend to take anyone’s vaccines away, and has said he is “all for the polio vaccine.” But as chair of the nonprofit Childrens Health Defense, a position he gave up when he began his unsuccessful campaign for president, Kennedy spent much of the past two decades sowing doubts about the safety of vaccines and their ingredients.

In 2021, he petitioned federal officials to revoke authorization of all coronavirus vaccines at a time when thousands of Americans were dying each week from COVID. Kennedy has also recruited clients for lawsuits claiming that the pharmaceutical company Merck’s vaccine against HPV, a leading cause of cervical cancer, caused injuries.

Records released in advance of Kennedy’s confirmation hearings also show that he plans to keep his financial stake in that vaccine litigation if he is confirmed.

“I think he’s dangerous to American’s health,” said former Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., who served as health secretary to President Bill Clinton, adding, “Even though he says he’s not going to tell people they can’t get a vaccine, just raising the issue increases the number of people” who shun vaccination.

Kennedy may also face tough questions from Republicans about his views on abortion and agriculture. While campaigning for president, he pledged to upend the nation’s agriculture system by cracking down on the use of pesticides. He has also attacked subsidies for seed oils, a stance that has raised alarms among farm-state senators.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has been trying to rally conservative opposition to Kennedy over the nominee’s stance on abortion.

Kennedy has said he supports “the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted” until “the baby is viable outside the womb.” But he has also said he would carry out Trump’s anti-abortion agenda.