Robert Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as the next secretary of health of human services, the latest of controversial Donald Trump cabinet nominees to survive with only Republican votes.
Kennedy was confirmed 52-48, with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joining with all Democrats in opposition. McConnell also opposed the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence and Pete Hegseth to be the secretary of defense.
Kennedy was confirmed despite pleas from his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, to reject him. She wrote to lawmakers that her cousin was a “predator” and that he “preys on the desperation of parents of sick children vaccinating his own children while building a following hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.”
Yet even Republicans who were critical of Kennedy’s efforts to sow doubt about the safety of vaccines eventually came around to his side. During a confirmation hearing last month, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said that he was troubled that Kennedy had not renounced his views linking vaccines to autism. But Cassidy later said that he was going to vote in favor of Kennedy, noting that he gave him assurances that he would “work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems, and not establish parallel systems.”
During his confirmation hearings, with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, seated behind him, Kennedy was confronted by Democrats with a bevy of past health claims. That included a 2023 podcast interview in which Kennedy said that “no vaccine is safe and effective.” But Kennedy said that he meant to add that no vaccine was safe “for every person.”
But The Washington Post noted at least 36 media appearances in which he linked vaccines to autism, even though numerous studies have long debunked such claims, per FactCheck.org.
Kennedy emphasized the the high cost of health care in the U.S., but that more than half the population is chronically ill. He pledged to “make sure our tax dollars support healthy foods,” including scrutiny of additives in the food supply.
