Senate democrats questioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about their various controversial statements, including the position on vaccines during the confirmation hearing to be President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, and most were extremely dissatisfied with the answers you received.
Democratic legislators confronted Kennedy with previous statements to press him on his role in a deadly outbreak in Samoa in 2019, opinions about Covid-19 and previous allegations that falsely linked vaccines to autism in children. Throughout the hearing, Democrats repeatedly asked Kennedy to commit not to purge employees for political reasons or to use their position to benefit financially without gaining clear answers.
Republicans, however, seemed quite receiving to Kennedy, although their past positions – particularly about abortion – not in accordance with conservative ideology.
Given the narrow majority in the Senate, Republicans can only afford to lose three Senators of the Republican Party, and some have not yet said how they will vote. There are some areas in the Kennedy record that coincide with those of Democrats, but no Democratic Senator has stated that they will support him.
The tense hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Finance Commission was Kennedy’s first test, which will have to face the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Commission this Thursday.
For his part, Kennedy tried to minimize antivacies and other controversial public health positions, refuting the statements that he is a skeptic regarding vaccines, despite an extensive history that associates vaccines with childhood autism.
“In my defender activity, I often disturbed the status quo asking uncomfortable questions. Well, I won’t apologize for it, ”said Kennedy. “We have huge health problems in this country that we have to face honestly.”
Kennedy’s response to past conspiracy theories
Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado was one of the lawmakers who took the documents from Kennedy’s previous statements to the audience.
When he was asked to respond to his previous statements that Covid-19 was a “genetically modified biological weapon that aimed at blacks and whites, but spared the Jews Ashkenazi and the Chinese,” Kennedy replied, “I didn’t say it was Deliberately targeted, I only mentioned a study published by the NIH. ”
Asked if he would have stated that Lyme’s disease is a “highly probable and militarily conceived biological weapon,” Kennedy admitted, “Probably said that.”
After Kennedy’s answer, Bennet addressed his Republicans: “I want them to hear him.”
Kennedy denied that he said that pesticide exposure causes children to become transgender, but Bennet replied, “I have the record I will give the president.”
Kennedy said he was not sure whether he had written in his book that it is “undeniable that African AIDS is a completely different disease from Western AIDS.”
After the hearing, Bennet told CNN that Kennedy is telling “half truths” and that he does not believe Kennedy’s statements during the hearing that he is no longer anti -vacies.
“There is a long history here, and there is a lot in this history that he is trying to cover up with the opening statement they heard and his statement that he is now pro-rax among quotes,” said Bennet.
Kennedy tries to clarify the position on abortion
Kennedy sought to reassure conservative fears of their position on abortion, saying that he agrees with the president and that “states must control abortion.”
“I agree with President Trump that each abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we do 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that states must control abortion, ”Kennedy reiterated at his confirmation hearing, in response to the question of Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, about supporting Trump’s previous position on title X.
Republican senators and anti-abortive rights advocates sounded the alarm about Kennedy’s position on this issue, including his prior support for access to abortion until fetal viability and his previous Democratic candidacy for the presidency. Republican party senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who is against abortion rights, told CNN before the audience that Kennedy needs to do more to calm her concerns, taking into account her previous comments to support access to the procedure .
In the same line of interrogation, Kennedy also suggested that he would support the protection of “consciousness objections” to service providers who refuse to provide reproductive health care that they consider morally questionable.
“I don’t know anyone who wants a doctor to perform surgery to which he opposes morally,” he said.
“Forcing someone to participate in a medical procedure as a service provider who considers it to be a murder makes no sense to me,” he added.
But New Hampshire’s Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan attacked Kennedy’s change of position on abortion right.
“It is remarkable that it has such a long history of struggle for women’s reproductive freedom and it is really fantastic that my republican colleagues will be so open to vote for a HHS secretary pro-school,” Hassan said, after quoting several quotes from Kennedy who previously expressed positions of support to the right to abortion.
Kennedy reiterated that he agrees with Trump when he says “every abortion is a tragedy.”
“When did you decide to sell the values you defended throughout your life so that President Trump gave him power?” Asked Hassan.
Kennedy dodges fundamental commitments
Kennedy refused to give clear answers about waiving his own financial interests if confirmed, or if he would purge HHS employees for political purposes.
Kennedy gave contradictory answers when Massachusetts’s Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren asked him if he would commit to not receive any compensation for legal actions against pharmaceutical companies while he was secretary or for the next four years, since his personal financial participation in Some lawsuits were scrutinized.
When Warren asked Kennedy to commit to not receiving any compensation for lawsuits during and after his future term, Kennedy said: “I will certainly commit to doing so while secretary. But I want to clarify one thing because it’s making me look like a sheriff. ”
Kennedy’s financial statements, presented under his potential role in the new administration and during his brief presidential candidacy last year, show that he earned more than $ 2.4 million in lawsuits brought by Wisner Baum, a firm of lawyers whose specialty is the persecution of cases of drug damage.
But as Warren’s line of inquiry continued, Kennedy’s answers did not address the senator’s concerns.
“I won’t agree not to process pharmaceutical companies or anyone else,” said Kennedy.
Warren continued to insist: “I am asking you to commit to not now participating financially in each of these processes, so that what you do as a secretary also benefit you financially in the future.”
To which Kennedy replied, “I will fulfill all the ethical guidelines.”
Warren was not satisfied with his answer.
“No one should be fooled,” said Warren. “And despite all his conversation about ‘following science’ and his promise that he will not interfere with those of us who want to vaccinate their children. The end result is the same. Kennedy can end vaccine access and earn millions of dollars while doing so. Children may die, but Robert Kennedy may continue to make money. ”
The President of the Republican Party Panel, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, said Kennedy went through the process of the Government Ethics Office, just like any other named for the cabinet.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia also pressured Kennedy about which federal officials want to dismiss in the Department of Health and Human Services, as concerns about the purge of federal employees conducted by the Trump government have emerged.
Kennedy said he intends to dismiss and replace 600 workers from national health institutes, and Warner revealed that at his private meeting Kennedy said he intends to get rid of 2,200 federal HHS employees.
When he was asked to commit to not dismissing employees who work in food safety or cyber attacks on health care, Kennedy did not give an answer of yes or no, but said: “I commit not to say goodbye to anyone who is doing your work. ”
Warner then pressured to clarify whether these decisions would be based on his opinion, his political agenda, or the desires of President Donald Trump.
“Based on my opinion,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy has not committed not to freeze the financing of subsidies for community health centers, as the consequences of the Trump government’s federal aid freeze remain obscure and instead said: “The White House made it clear that no fund will be denied to any American for benefits in any program. ”
Where democrats and Kennedy found ordinary terrain
Namely, Rhode Island’s Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who attended the University of Virginia Law School with Kennedy, used the time he was dedicated to asking a speech instead of asking Kennedy.
Despite the overall tension of the audience, which included interruptions by protesters, the Democrats implied that they had found a common point when Kennedy exposed their points of view on the chronic disease epidemic and the way he intends to implement a plan of prevention of nourishing oriented diseases.
Even Bennet, who questioned Kennedy, also admitted that “Mr. Kennedy is right” with regard to the decline of health in the United States and the poor quality of food offered to children.
No democrat said they will support Kennedy, but some have suggested they are open to it.
“I found myself with him and this is part of continuous dialogue,” Democratic Senator John Fetterman told Pennsylvania told CNN when asked if he could support Kennedy.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said Kennedy is “exactly right” about the food industry.
Senator Ron Wyden, the main democrat of the Senate Finance Commission, told CNN that he does not believe that any of his fellow Democrats on the Apoie Kennedy panel after his hearing.
“I can’t see that. I think he was so unworthy of trust and unprepared, ”Manu Raju told CNN, when they asked him if he thought any democrat would vote for Kennedy’s appointment to a plenary vote.
“I do not believe that any Democrat of the Commission supports you and I will do everything within my reach to ensure that we have the opportunity to ask additional questions and reach the back of some of the many areas in which it dodged and found ways to get around.” , continued.
