Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid to lead the Department of Health and Human Services could come down to one senator. That senator, Bill Cassidy (R-La.), said he was deeply torn about his vote during a hearing of the Senate committee in charge of health policy on Thursday.
Cassidy, the panel’s chair and a gastroenterologist before entering politics, spoke of his own experience with life-saving vaccines and repeatedly asked Kennedy to disavow his past anti-vaccine advocacy.
Kennedy said he’d review the evidence and “apologize for any statement that misled people” if proven wrong, but also indicated he didn’t think he was wrong when he spent years linking vaccines to rising autism and chaired an anti-vaccine advocacy group.
Appearing frustrated, Cassidy said, “I’ve got to figure that out for my vote” and said he might reach out to Kennedy over the weekend to talk about it more.
Cassidy’s vote is critical because he also sits on the Finance Committee, which heard Kennedy’s testimony yesterday and will decide whether to recommend Kennedy’s confirmation to the Senate. The Republicans have a one-seat edge there, so if all the members of the Democratic caucus oppose Kennedy, Cassidy could deny him the panel’s recommendation.
Cassidy could also allow Kennedy’s nomination to proceed to the Senate floor without the Finance panel’s recommendation, but Majority Leader John Thune told Semafor earlier this week that it wouldn’t be ideal to bring another one of President Donald Trump’s nominees — Tulsi Gabbard, who is also facing confirmation hearings to lead the nation’s intelligence agencies this week — to the floor without a favorable committee vote.
When Cassidy asked for a “yes” or “no” as to whether Kennedy would unequivocally say hepatitis B and measles vaccines do not cause autism, Kennedy qualified his answer: “If the data is there, I will absolutely do that.”
At the end of the hearing, Cassidy returned to the question, reading the title of a study that found no link between vaccines and autism.
Cassidy seemed to plead with Kennedy to renounce his past claims: “Convince me,” Cassidy said.
But Kennedy declined. “You and I can meet about it,” he said — adding that he would bring his own studies, some of which show “the opposite.”
Over the course of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, Kennedy said he would make declarations on vaccine safety “if the data is there” or if presented with further evidence.
Democrats on Cassidy’s health panel pointed out that there’s a consensus among scientists about the safety of the vaccines Kennedy has long questioned and argued that the vociferousness of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views belied the assurances he was offering Cassidy about studying the data.
“There have been, as I understand, dozens of studies done all over the world that make it very clear that vaccines do not cause autism,” the panel’s ranking member, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said. “I heard you just say, if the evidence is there. The evidence is there.”
Democrats also raised Kennedy’s shaky responses on Medicare and Medicaid, arguing that he didn’t understand the programs he would be in charge of managing. Cassidy had questioned Kennedy about the programs when the Finance Committee heard from Kennedy yesterday.
But Republicans on the committee made the case that Kennedy’s desire to disrupt the public health establishment and concentrate on finding and combating the root causes of disease — the focus of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement — were refreshing.
Some also argued Kennedy’s skepticism about vaccines was healthy and that the nation’s top health official should be willing to question scientific dogma.
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul turned toward Cassidy and argued that in some cases government guidance on vaccination was debatable, citing the recommendation that all infants receive the hepatitis B vaccine and that children and healthy, young people get Covid shots. “You’re not going to let him have the debate because you’re just going to criticize and say, ‘It is this and admit to it or we’re not going to appoint you.’”
That prompted an exchange with Cassidy over the necessity of infant vaccination for hepatitis B, with Cassidy arguing it was.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) later commended Kennedy for questioning the vaccine schedule. “An issue that I have as a father of six is that when my kids come out from getting their vaccines they look like a freakin’ pin cushion,” he said. “When you start looking at the rise of autism, why wouldn’t we be looking at everything?”
Kennedy at times tried to assuage concerns about his anti-vaccine history, saying he would “restore vaccine uptake.” He repeatedly suggested that government leaders aren’t trustworthy and argued that is the reason many people refuse vaccines.
Democrats looked united in their opposition to Kennedy, but it wasn’t clear whether they could hope for any Republican allies beyond Cassidy.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), who have both shown a willingness to break from Trump, voting last week against his choice to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, suggested concern about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work.
Murkowski was one of few senators to attend the entire hearing, but didn’t ask Kennedy about vaccination, and ended by questioning Kennedy about health care in Alaska. After the hearing, she said she didn’t think there was anything “brand new” from the hearing and declined to elaborate on how she’d vote.
Asked whether she was convinced Kennedy is not a vaccine skeptic, Murkowski said she was ignoring the question. But she went on to say that some questions were “telling,” that he seemed skeptical of the safety of some vaccines but not others.
“When the science has been out there for a long time and been proven, do you need to continue being the skeptic?” she asked after the hearing.
Collins arrived late to the hearing and asked Kennedy whether he’d invest in finding a vaccine for Lyme disease and whether he backed polio vaccination. Kennedy said yes.
Robert King contributed to this report.
