Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a grilling from Democrats over his past as an anti-vaccine activist and his waffling stance on abortion, but Republicans went easy on President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services during his confirmation hearing Wednesday, foreshadowing a path to confirmation on the Senate floor.
Over more than three hours of contentious questioning from Democrats and mostly softballs from Republicans, Kennedy stumbled over basic health care questions, and at times displayed limited knowledge of the complexities of the nearly $2 trillion agency he was nominated to run.
Kennedy tried to distance himself from his past statements, even as Democrats quoted them back to him.
“In my advocacy I have often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions. Well, I won’t apologize for that,” Kennedy said. “We have massive health problems in this country that we must face honestly.”
Under pointed questions, he often fell back on his stated desire to fix the chronic disease epidemic.
“It is the human tragedy that moves us to care. President Trump has promised to restore America’s global strength and to restore the American dream. He understands we can’t be a strong nation when our people are so sick,” Kennedy said.
Still, there were no signs the hearing changed the calculus among Senate Republicans. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote in the coming days to send his nomination to the floor.
“You have gone through the most thorough vetting process that any committee in this Congress puts anybody through, and I think that you have come through well and deserve to be confirmed,” Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said at the conclusion of the hearing.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) praised Kennedy for his decision to drop his own presidential campaign and support Trump.
“I think I’ve come to know what’s in your heart,” Johnson said. “I think I know the personal and political price you’ve paid for this decision.”
If only one Republican votes against Kennedy in committee, it will sink his nomination. If he moves to the floor, he can afford to lose up to three Republicans if all Democrats oppose him.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) suggested Kennedy’s nomination was in trouble after the hearing.
“I don’t think it went well for him today,” he said Wednesday afternoon.
However, Republicans during the hearing said they shared Kennedy’s vision and praised him for wanting to shake up the health system.
“I have no doubt you will be confirmed and will do such a solid job for the people of this country,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said.
Kennedy also tried to assuage GOP concerns regarding abortion, given his statements as recently as 2023 that indicated he supported broad access to abortion.
“I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies,” Kennedy said.
Still, it was a line of detailed questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that seemed to trip Kennedy up the most.
When asked about how he’d oversee Medicare and Medicaid, Kennedy seemed to confuse the two. The programs together are responsible for covering more than 150 million Americans.
Kennedy described Medicaid as “fully paid for by the federal government,” when in reality it is financed by a mix of state and federal funding.
Kennedy also claimed Medicaid enrollees were unhappy and frustrated by high costs.
“Most people on Medicaid are not happy. The premiums are too high, the deductibles are too high, the networks are narrow,” Kennedy said.
But most Medicaid beneficiaries don’t pay any premiums or deductibles; federal law even prohibits cost sharing for people in the lowest income brackets.
Cassidy, the chair of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, will have another opportunity to question Kennedy when his panel holds a hearing Thursday.
From the get-go, Kennedy tried to address the vaccine concerns, saying in his opening statement: “News reports complain that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither.”
His response drew a protest from a woman in the audience: “He lies!” she shouted as security escorted her out.
Democrats brought up public remarks and quoted from Kennedy’s books in which he called vaccines dangerous and ineffective, made misleading claims about their safety and falsely linked them to autism.
They invoked his visit to Samoa in 2019, following the death of two children due to an improperly prepared vaccine. Five months after Kennedy’s visit, Samoa declared a measles emergency due to low vaccination rates amid an outbreak that killed 83 people.
In a heated exchange, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) hammered Kennedy over his role in that situation.
“Clearly I had nothing to do” with the measles outbreak, Kennedy insisted. “You cannot find a single Samoan who will say ‘I didn’t get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy.’”
Wyden also pressed Kennedy on leading a petition to the Food and Drug Administration in 2021 to revoke the authorization of the coronavirus vaccine.
Kennedy claimed he did it because of the speed with which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the vaccine for children under 6.
“You have a history of trying to take vaccines away from people,” Wyden said.
