Three of President Donald Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominees appeared in front of Senate panels for their confirmation hearings this week. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee for secretary of Health and Human services, is one of them.
The other two are Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Kash Patel for FBI director. Kennedy is the only one in the trio to have his hearing spread across two days.
Kennedy, a former Democrat turned independent who endorsed Trump in 2024, received sharp scrutiny from both sides of the aisle at his Thursday hearing, but especially from Democrats, over the subject of vaccines as he appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP committee.
On Wednesday, Kennedy received a stamp of approval from Senate Finance Committee chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who argued Kennedy endured a rigorous selection process and deserved to be confirmed.
But the Thursday hearing showed some of Crapo’s GOP colleagues on the HELP committee may still have questions. Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, a physician, took the lead on asking Kennedy questions related to vaccines and public safety.
The Louisiana senator said he’s been “struggling” with Kennedy’s nomination.

“Now my responsibility is to learn, try and determine if you can be trusted to support the best public health,” Cassidy said with a sigh. “A worthy movement called MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) to improve the health of Americans — or to undermine it, always asking for more evidence and never accepting the evidence that is there.”
“You may be hearing from me over the weekend,” Cassidy told Kennedy.
Kennedy, a known critic of vaccines, refrained from voicing distrust in vaccines during his two days of hearings.
Instead, he repeatedly said he supports vaccines and isn’t looking to take them away, while labeling himself as pro-safety instead of anti-vaccine. But, Kennedy added, he is interested in forcing transparency in the pharmaceutical industry and reforming the food supply chain.
Autism and vaccines
Cassidy opened Thursday’s hearing by speaking about his personal experiences as a doctor and his work to advocate for disease-preventing vaccines. “My phone blows up with people who really follow you, and there are many who trust you more than their own physician,” said Cassidy in his opening statement. “What do you do with that trust?”
Acknowledging Wednesday’s hearing, where Kennedy said he is pro-vaccine, Cassidy asked if he would advise a mother to vaccinate her child, and whether “unfounded and misleading” arguments against vaccines are a part of his past.
During the line of questioning, Cassidy asked the HHS nominee whether he is convinced of the safety of the measles and hepatitis B vaccines, and would say they don’t cause autism.
“If the data is there, I will absolutely do that,” Kennedy responded.
Cassidy gave Kennedy a chance to backtrack from previously expressed views about vaccines being linked to autism. (Scientific studies show no such links.)
“If the data is brought to you ... will you ask, ‘No, I need more,’ or will you say, ‘No, I see this. It’s the test of time, and I unequivocally and without qualification say that this does not cause autism.‘”
Kennedy responded, “Not only will I do that, but I will apologize for any statements that misled people otherwise.”

Cassidy later clashed with fellow Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., over whether newborn children should be given the hepatitis B vaccine, revealing the diversity of opinion on the issue.
Meanwhile, Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., grew emotional when she shared her worries as a mother who spent decades wondering whether a vaccine caused her 36-year-old son’s cerebral palsy after coming across a study that suggested the same. But the study was later discredited.
“When you continue to sow doubt about settled science, it makes it impossible for us to move forward,” she said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the ranking member of the HELP committee, during his turn, picked up where Cassidy left off, saying, “Your job was to have looked at those studies as an applicant for this job.”
Sanders made headlines Wednesday after he pressed Kennedy to answer whether he supported baby onesies with anti-vaccine slogans sold by Children’s Health Defense, an organization Kennedy founded.
On Thursday, Sanders raised the possibility of cuts to Medicaid and strongly advised Kennedy to hold fast against such a proposition, and follow in the footsteps of his uncle President John F. Kennedy and his father Robert F. Kennedy, a senator from New York — both of whom believed that “health care is a human right.”
Alongside his criticism, Sanders gave Kennedy props for the phrase “Make America Healthy Again” and agreed, “we are a very unhealthy society.”
Does Kennedy have enough support?
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who, like Sanders, grilled Kennedy on both days, said he’d prefer an HHS secretary who isn’t afraid to ask hard questions.
“I think it’s important to question science, but you’re not questioning science. You’ve made up your mind. You have spent your entire career undermining America’s vaccine program.”
Senators from the other side of the aisle raised similar questions. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska didn’t display full confidence in Kennedy following the two hearings, coming to his defense but admitting there are points of concern. She revealed she hasn’t decided how she plans to vote.
“I think what we’re trying to do is ascribe a label. I think he answered the issue of vaccines multiple different times trying to say that he’s pro safety, follow the science,” she said after the Senate panel’s session ended, as CNN reported. “I think that there were some questions that were particularly telling that when the science has been out there for a long time and has been proven, do you need to continue being the skeptic?”
It’s unclear when the Senate Finance and Health committees will vote on his nomination, but no matter when they vote it appears Kennedy faces a bumpy road ahead. He needs 51 votes to be confirmed, and the Senate Republicans hold a 53-seat majority. Kennedy can only afford to lose three Republicans or he will have to lean on Democrats to be confirmed.