During Day 2 of RFK Jr. hearings, some GOP concerns

WASHINGTON — A key Republican senator Thursday said he was struggling with whether to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be head of the Health and Human Services Department, reflecting some of the widespread concerns lawmakers have as they approach Kennedy’s confirmation vote.

During a fiery and sometimes emotional Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Kennedy’s nomination, Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician, pressed Kennedy repeatedly to refute his prior claims that vaccines cause autism.

“Convince me that you will become the public health advocate, but not just churn old information so that there’s never a conclusion,” Cassidy pleaded.

But Kennedy, an attorney who has made millions fighting vaccine companies, refused to do so, instead saying he would apologize to people he may have misled on the issue of vaccines and autism “if the data is there.”

“The data has been there a long time,” Cassidy retorted.

While the HELP Committee will not vote on Kennedy’s nomination — its hearing was more of a courtesy hearing — the Senate Finance Committee, which held its confirmation hearing Wednesday, will vote on Kennedy. Cassidy is a member of both panels. The Finance Committee has 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats.

Kennedy can afford to lose only three GOP votes in the full Senate — with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie — to be confirmed. Two other Republicans on the HELP panel — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — have also expressed concerns about Kennedy’s vaccine views, though, like Cassidy, neither has indicated how they’ll vote.

“I want President Trump’s policies to succeed in making America and Americans more secure, more prosperous, healthier,” Cassidy said. “But if there’s someone that is not vaccinated because of policies or attitudes you bring to the department … who dies of a vaccine-preventable disease … it’ll be blown up in the press.

“The greatest tragedy will be her death. But I can also tell you an associated tragedy, well, that will cast a shadow over President Trump’s legacy, which I want to be the absolute best legacy it can be.”

Cassidy cited a May 2023 study by researchers at Brigham Young University and Campbell University published in the journal Vaccines revealing that fear of autism is a major factor driving people who choose not to vaccinate their kids against measles — a myth that Kennedy himself helped perpetuate in his roles at anti-vaccine advocacy group Children’s Health Defense.

Cassidy repeatedly underscored Kennedy’s bully pulpit and expressed concern that confirming him as HHS secretary could further amplify those messages and said he would likely hear from him over the weekend.

“There are many who trust you more than they trust their own physician,” Cassidy told Kennedy. “What will you do with that trust, whether it’s justified or not?”

The theory that vaccines were linked to autism stemmed from a study carried out by British researcher Andrew Wakefield in 1998, which was later retracted over ethical issues with the study and misrepresentations of the children’s conditions.

“Vaccines are definitely linked to autism, for sure,” Kennedy said during his presidential run last January on TV personality Howie Mandel’s podcast.

Thursday’s hearing was the clearest opportunity yet for the public to hear from key senators about their concerns about Kennedy — and for Kennedy to reassure them.

Yet Kennedy doubled down on his distrust of the HPV vaccine and his role as a consultant in ongoing litigation against Merck, the maker of Gardasil, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for most kids starting at around age 11 or 12.

Asked by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., about Kennedy’s past comments that Gardasil is dangerous and defective, he replied: “Those questions will be answered by a jury at that trial.” But he also said he supports the CDC vaccination recommendations.

Kennedy also appeared to downplay the threat of measles infections, questioning why Democrats continued to ask him about that, when more people die of chronic diseases.

“We need to refocus if we’re going to save our country,” he said. “This is existential.”

Murkowski did not ask Kennedy about vaccines, but emphasized their importance to her state, which has experienced measles and whooping cough outbreaks in recent years.

“I’m asking you to focus on how you can use your position to provide for greater levels of confidence to the public when it comes to these life-saving areas,” said Murkowski, who unlike many other senators, sat throughout the entire hearing and heard Kennedy’s responses to questions about vaccines.

Kennedy said he would focus on health care for native Americans, a key issue for Murkowski.

Collins, meanwhile, highlighted Kennedy’s past statement that the National Institutes of Health should take an eight-year break from studying infectious diseases.

Asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan to define Medicare Part A versus parts B, C and D, Kennedy appeared to struggle. But he disputed that his answers were incorrect, arguing that Hassan, D-N.H., only added more information to his description.

She remained unconvinced.

“You want us to confirm you to be in charge of Medicare, but it appears that you don’t know the basics of this program,” she said.

GOP support

But Kennedy found support from several Republican senators.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., an ophthalmologist, defended Kennedy and pilloried Cassidy’s comments about vaccines not causing autism.

“We don’t know what causes autism, so we should be more humble,” Paul said to applause from an audience full of “Make America Healthy Again” advocates.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., reiterated the claim that Kennedy has repeatedly made that children receive 72 vaccines. The CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule recommends vaccines to immunize against 12 pathogens for most children between birth and 15 months. The exact number of shots kids are recommended to receive depends on their age and personal health history.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., meanwhile, said his granddaughter “won’t be a pincushion” for vaccines and the parents have “done their research.”

Transgender health

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pressed Kennedy on guidance issued under former President Joe Biden laying out federal enforcement policy for nondiscrimination based on gender identity.

Kennedy said he believed the rule was “anti-science” and he would work to rescind it.

“Their sexuality is still in formation,” he said. “To allow them to make judgments that are going to have life-changing forever implications for the rest of their life at that age is unconscionable.”

“People who have gender differences should be respected. They should be loved,” Kennedy said. “Sometimes love means saying no to people.”