The Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday as secretary to President Donald Trump’s Cabinet Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The Republican-controlled Senate voted almost entirely along the party line to confirm Kennedy. The final showdown against his controversial nomination was set a few hours ago after another party line vote was held on Wednesday afternoon.
Kennedy, a well-known vaccine skeptical and environmental crusader who finished his bid in 2024 and ran for the White House in 2024 before supporting Trump, is a simple majority confirmed by the Senate. I needed it.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against Kennedy’s nomination. Former longtime GOP Senator McConnell suffered from polio as a child and is a leading advocate for the vaccine.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the candidate to serve as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, will be on a pending confirmation health, education, labor and pension hearing at Capitol Hill on Thursday, Jan. 30. He testified before a Senate committee. 2025 Washington DC (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Kennedy survived a back-to-back flammable Senate confirmation hearing late last month. Trump’s candidates have led 18 powerful federal agencies overseeing the country’s food and health, facing controversial fireworks from the past. Autism has been exposed by scientific research.
During the hearing, Democrats also lit the spotlight of Kennedy’s service as the chairman or chief legal counsel of child health defense for many years. The nonprofit he founded defended the vaccine and sued the federal government multiple times. 19 vaccines for children.
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The spotlight was Sen. Bill Cassidy, the physician and chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as Democrats on the Senate Committee voted not to move Kennedy forward (help). ).
Cassidy announced his final approval before the committee-level vote, giving Kennedy a Party-Line 14-13 victory, moving his confirmation to the full Senate.
The candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Center and President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, discusses with committee chairperson Sen. Bill Cassidy, and in the top left, follows testimony from the Senate Committee on Health. An Education, Labor and Pension Hearing for his pending confirmation at Capitol Hill on Thursday, January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Cassidy emphasized at Kennedy’s confirmation hearing that “it concerns me with a past that undermines my confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments.”
But after speaking again with the candidate, Cassidy rattled off the long list of commitments Kennedy had made to him, including a quarterly hearing before the Help Committee. Meetings multiple times a month. The help committee can choose a committee or representative of the committee to consider the safety of the vaccine. 30-day notification and hearing for changes to vaccine safety reviews.
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“These commitments and my hopes that we can have a great working relationship to make America healthy again are the basis of my support,” the senator said.
Split image of RFK Jr. and Trump (Getty Images)
Earlier this week, Republican senators who had reserved on Kennedy’s confirmation announced their support for the candidate.
“After extensive public and private questions and a thorough investigation into his appointments, I will support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins announced Tuesday, announced Tuesday. did.
Another Republican on the fence, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, also voted to advance Kennedy’s nomination.
Murkowski said he was “concerned about Kennedy’s views on vaccines and the selective interpretation of scientific research,” but the candidate said, “giving a lot of commitment to me and my colleagues and working with Congress.” “They said they are committed to ensuring public access. Information-driven, evidence-based, medically sound research information and basic vaccine recommendations.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell, a leading supporter of the vaccine, also voted to advance Kennedy’s nomination.
The candid views on Big Pharma and the food industry also sparked controversy, and Kennedy is the focus of the agency he oversees to promote a healthy lifestyle, including overhauling dietary guidelines and objectives for ultra-highly processed foods. He said he aims to change the It reaches the root cause of chronic disease.
Push is part of his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
“We won’t destroy our country because the small tax rates are wrong. If this issue is wrong, it will destroy,” Kennedy said, pointing to chronic illness. “And I’m in a unique position to stop this trend.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak at this independent presidential bid campaign event in Brooklyn’s New York City Autonomous Borough on May 1, 2024. (Fox News – Paulsteinhauser)
The 71-year-old mentor of the country’s most renowned political dynasty launched a long shot campaign in April 2023 for the Democratic presidential nomination against then-President Joe Biden. However, six months later he switched to an independent run. White House.
Trump regularly looted Kennedy during his independent presidential bids, accusing him of being a “radical left liberal” and a “Democrat plant.”
Kennedy in a social media post claimed that Trump’s jab against him was “a barely consistent barrage of wild, inaccurate claims.”
Then-President Former Donald Trump will be holding Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on stage at a campaign rally at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia on October 23, 2024. (Anna Money Maker/Getty Images)
However, Kennedy dropped the president’s bid last August and made another big headline when he supported Trump.
Kennedy has long been identified as a Democrat and repeatedly called his late father, former Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, both of which were assassinated in the 1960s. However, in recent years, Kennedy has developed a relationship. A far-right leader, partly due to his famous vaccine skepticism.
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A few months after criticising him, Trump called Kennedy “the guy who was an incredible champion of many of these values that we all share.”
Trump announced that he would nominate Kennedy to the Cabinet to run the HHS shortly after the November election.
The final vote for Kennedy’s nomination came one day after another controversial pick from national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed by the Senate with a vote of 52-48.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.
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