Mike Pence, the former vice president, urged Senate Republicans on Friday to reject Donald Trump’s choice of Robert F Kennedy Jr. as health secretary — even though he cited Kennedy’s support for abortion rights, while other critics are most outraged by his anti-vaccine stance.
Pence’s comments came as public alarm grew among Democrats and in health circles about Kennedy, amid bipartisan warnings that another of Trump’s picks, far-right Congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general, faces an “uphill battle” for confirmation available in the US. Senate, despite the fact that the Republicans have won the majority in the upper chamber of Congress.
Pence cited his conservative views on abortion for his opposition to Kennedy’s elevation to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“The Trump-Pence administration was unapologetically pro-life during our four years in office. There are hundreds of decisions made every day at HHS that either move our nation toward respect for life or away from it, and HHS under our administration has always been pro-life,” Pence said in a statement released by his conservative nonprofit Advancing. American freedom.
“I believe that the appointment of RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from our administration’s pro-life record and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades. .”
Prominent medical professionals have joined leading Democrats in speaking out against Kennedy, who has embraced a host of debunked health-related conspiracy theories, and whose proposed elevation to the government’s top health care job “poses a clear and present danger to the nation’s health.” ” means. a catastrophe,” say some critics.
“I think this is an extremely bad choice. He does not intend to rely on evidence and rigorous analysis to make decisions, but instead uses his own ideas,” Dr. Ashish Jha, Covid-19 coordinator for the Biden White House and dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, told CNN.
Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the powerful US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told the network that Kennedy’s views on criticizing childhood vaccines, including the false claim that they cause autism, were “dangerous.”
“To be honest, I find it horrifying. He has done so much to undermine the confidence people have in this incredible intervention,” he said.
Trump has assembled a Cabinet for his second term, made announcements this week from his Florida residence, and on Thursday named Kennedy to lead HHS and its affiliated agencies.
He praised the politician, a former independent presidential candidate and outcast of the Democratic Kennedy political dynasty, during a black-tie gala at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday evening.
“If you like health and people living long, that’s the most important position,” he said. Addressing Kennedy directly, who was in the ballroom of Trump’s residence and private resort club at Mar-a-Lago, he added: “We want you to come up with things and ideas that you’ve been talking about for a long time. ”
Democrats were quick to express their outrage. California Rep. Robert Garcia called it “damn insane” and described Kennedy as “a tinfoil conspiracy theorist.”
Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss vowed to “fight back in Washington to protect the integrity” of federal public health agencies if Kennedy is confirmed by the Senate.
“RFK Jr is a conspirator and quack who threatens the health of Americans. He’s not just looking for more sun and exercise (nobody agrees with that). He is trying to overthrow evidence-driven, peer-reviewed research into medicine and more,” Auchincloss wrote to X.
Shares of several of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and vaccine makers, including Moderna, AstraZeneca and GSK, tumbled on Friday in response to the news.
Kennedy has previously said that “there is no vaccine that is safe and effective,” but told NBC in a post-election interview that he “will not take anyone’s vaccines away.”
Trump on Thursday nominated a vocal ally of his as Secretary of the Interior: Doug Burgum, the Republican governor of North Dakota. The role would put him in charge of national parks and public lands, and he has strong ties to the fossil fuel industry, where many companies have a strong need for government permits to drill and mine on federal land.
Republicans will have a majority of at least 53 to 47 seats in the House in the next Congress, but two other Trump picks are already facing a bipartisan backlash: Gaetz and the former Democratic congresswoman turned Republican Tulsi Gabbard, named after director of national intelligence service. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once described her as a “favorite of the Russians.”
Gaetz resigned Wednesday as U.S. representative for Florida, effectively suspending Friday’s planned release of a House of Representatives Ethics Committee report on allegations of sexual misconduct, including that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl , which he has denied. His appointment as the nation’s top law enforcement officer was seen by some as a direct challenge from Trump to the incoming Republican Senate majority to defy his authority.
“To me, the message to the administration is simply that Matt Gaetz has a very long, steep hill to get over the finish line and it’s going to take a lot of capital,” North Dakota Republican Senator Kevin Cramer told the Washington Post .
“That ethics report will clearly become part of the file.”
On Friday, Joni Ernst, the Republican senator for Iowa, also said the report was expected to feature prominently in a confirmation hearing. “We’ll definitely talk about it, but I know he’s going to have an uphill battle [for confirmation],” she told NBC News.
Other Republicans demanded the report’s release, including Washington Congressman Dan Newhouse and Texas Senator John Cornyn.
Meanwhile, former Defense Secretary and Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel published an op-ed in the New York Times challenging Trump’s controversial nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, as a potential “danger” to political independence, good ethics and progress towards equality in the US military. . He also doubted Trump could bypass Senate confirmations.
Trump has indicated he might resort to rare recess appointments, the archaic process that allows a president to install his nominees while Congress is not in session.
