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RFK Jr. fields questions, criticisms in confirmation hearing


Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Associated Press / Photo by Ben Curtis

RFK Jr. fields questions, criticisms in confirmation hearing

President Donald Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday. Committee Chairman Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, expressed optimism about Kennedy’s vision for combating bureaucracy in healthcare, preventing diseases, and making the United States healthier.

Committee Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., criticized Kennedy’s viewpoints on vaccines, accusing him of discouraging parents from vaccinating their children. Wyden also accused Kennedy of making millions of dollars off of books promoting junk science. Kennedy denied that he was opposed to vaccines, saying he supported the measles and polio vaccines.

What topics did the hearing touch on?

  • Kennedy told Senators he wanted to educate Americans about the relationship between the food they consume and their health. Even so, he said he didn’t want to take away from Americans the foods they enjoyed.

  • The U.S. population has the highest percentage of chronic diseases in the world, Kennedy said. He said he hoped to address that issue and reduce the massive healthcare burden placed on the government.

  • Primary care physicians should understand how to treat addiction, Kennedy said. He spoke about his own addiction to heroin, which he said he’d kicked 42 years before.

  • Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., grilled Kennedy about comments he made about the COVID-19 pandemic and which ethnic groups it may have targeted. Bennet also grilled Kennedy about comments he made about whether Lyme disease was a biological weapon.

  • Kennedy told senators the Medicare system was failing Americans—especially poorer Americans, whom the program was originally intended to help. He added that the government needed to experiment with new pilot programs to develop a better healthcare system for Americans.

  • Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., asked whether Kennedy would reinstate rules allowing physicians not to perform certain procedures they harbored moral disagreements with.

  • Lankford, and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., both asked Kennedy whether he would be more transparent than the Biden administration about the harmful side effects of abortion drugs such as mifepristone.

  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked Kennedy whether he would commit to not working for drug companies or accepting a percentage of recovered damages while suing them after he left his post as health secretary. This prompted a sparring match between Kennedy and Warren that lasted several minutes. Kennedy evaded the question, and insisted he would never agree not to sue drug companies.

Dig deeper: Listen to The World and Everything in It podcast about how Kennedy’s pro-choice views will mesh with the Trump administration.


Josh Schumacher

Josh is a breaking news reporter for WORLD. He’s a graduate of World Journalism Institute and Patrick Henry College.


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