Associated Press (AP) – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stormed Capitol Hill late Monday, as the anti-vaccine health guru from the famed political family reintroduced himself to senators, this time as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the nation’s health care system. and Department of Human Services.
It was a soft opening debut for Kennedy, whose broad views — yes to raw milk, no to fluoride, Ozempic and America’s favorite processed foods — are sounding alarms in the scientific community and beyond. In the Senate, he faces a mix of support, curiosity, skepticism and outright rejection among the senators who will be asked to confirm him to Trump’s Cabinet.
Kennedy’s first stop Monday was on potentially friendly territory, to the offices of Republican senators linked to Trump, the start of a weekslong trial.
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Ahead of the nominee’s visits, Trump said he is a “strong supporter” of polio vaccines and tried to allay fears about Kennedy, saying he will be “much less radical” than people think.
The man known simply as RFK, Jr., is the latest in the orbit of Trump rival-turned-partner, a former Democratic presidential candidate now in line to lead the world’s largest public health agency, with a budget of as much as $1.7 trillion, and part of the US’s most important public services.
HHS has a broad reach into the lives of Americans: It inspects the nation’s food, regulates medicine, and oversees research into diseases and cures. It provides health insurance for nearly half the country – poor, disabled and older Americans, including through Medicare.
Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called Kennedy “a truly dangerous” choice.
Besser said in an op-ed in U.S. News and World Report that the 70-year-old Kennedy stands out as “the single potential Cabinet member who could do the most damage to the lives of the American people.”
Ahead of Kennedy’s arrival, he took advice from one key voice: outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, who warned the candidate against anti-vaccine views.
“Anyone seeking Senate approval to serve in the next administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of involvement in such efforts,” McConnell said recently.
The new Republican leader, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, said Kennedy will have to answer questions about his views on the polio vaccine and other issues.
“Well, I think he should say something about that,” Thune said. “We’ll find out.”
But hardline Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a member of the House of Representatives who has no voice in the confirmation process, has been influential in supporting and reinforcing Kennedy’s views on vaccines.
And GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said his decision has not yet been made. “I’m open. I am not susceptible one way or another,” Tillis said Monday evening.
Kennedy’s nomination will test the country’s emerging political realignment as Trump expands his base with former Democratic voters moving elsewhere. Kennedy’s positions find support, but also opposition, from both sides of the political aisle.
Other Trump nominees are also expected back on Capitol Hill this week. The president-elect’s picks of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, Kash Patel as FBI director and others are all encountering turbulence from wary senators.
With Republicans taking control of the Senate in the new year, Trump’s nominees have a path to confirmation. But with only a 53-47 majority, each nominee could lose only a handful of Republican supporters, despite Democratic opposition.
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Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Stephen Groves contributed to this report
