Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s confirmation hearings began Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee. He appears before the Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee on Thursday.
Here’s the latest:
Recommended Videos
White House suspends order on federal grant freeze after widespread backlash and confusion
A two-sentence memo from the Office of Management Budget canceled a previous memo issued two days before that had directed federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.”
The move comes amid opposition from Democrats and advocates and lawsuits that have already been filed to oppose the original order.
Kennedy talks about trust
In a response to Wyoming Sen. Todd Young’s question about public skepticism of health care institutions, the HHS nominee said the reason people don’t trust health agencies is that they “haven’t been trustworthy”
He pledged to rebuild that trust through “radical transparency.”
Sen. Tina Smith called Kennedy ‘dangerous’ to abortion pill access
“The answers you have given tell me that the Trump administration is more than willing to restrict or even ban medication abortion without a single act of Congress and even in states where abortion is legal,” she said during his confirmation hearing.
Legal clinics pause help for poor taxpayers, worried about losing federal funds
Some legal clinics that help prepare returns have stopped accepting cases altogether.
The possibility of a suspension of federal aid is “deeply concerning,” said Beverly Winstead, director of the University of Maryland’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic.
“We fear that our ability to protect taxpayer rights may be compromised if a funding freeze is applied to the LITC or extended beyond the February 10 deadline,” Winstead said.
At the Erie County Bar Association' s Volunteer Lawyers Project in Buffalo New York, Executive Director Gretchen Gonzalez said it will be catastrophic for her organization if the feds permanently freeze the program’s 15 grants — including 3 that come from the federal government.
Republican senator tells Kennedy he has a ‘divine’ purpose
Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, told Kennedy that “God has a divine purpose for you” and that he looked forward to working with him to help “make America healthy again.”
The line drew some cheers and applause from those in the hearing room, reflecting how Kennedy has drawn enthusiastic support from many Christians skeptical of health authorities.
Kennedy’s pledge to include Native Americans in medical research runs into Trump actions
Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan pressed Kennedy about his commitment to studying drugs and other medical products in Native Americans to make sure they work.
Kennedy pointed to work by his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, on native issues, including the Indian Health Service.
As part of the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on government diversity initiatives, the FDA recently removed a long-awaited guidance designed to enhance drug testing in minority patient groups.
Under questioning from Lujan, Kennedy said he would make sure the guidance is implemented.
For decades, medical products have been tested primarily in white patients, leaving gaps in understanding about how they perform in other racial and ethnic groups.
Senators repeatedly question Kennedy’s shift on abortion after backing Trump
“I’ve never seen any major politician flip on that issue quite as quickly as you did when Trump asked you to be HHS secretary,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Kennedy repeatedly leaned on the phrase, “I have always believed abortion is a tragedy.”
President Trump appeals his New York hush money conviction
Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal Wednesday, asking the state’s mid-level appeals court to overturn his conviction last May on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The case, involving an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 Republican campaign, was the only one of his criminal cases to go to trial.
A notice of appeal starts the appeals process in New York. Trump’s lawyers will have an opportunity to expand on their grievances in subsequent court filings.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office will have a chance to respond in court papers. A message seeking comment was left with the office Wednesday.
Kennedy to Sen. Elizabeth Warren: ‘You’re making me sound like a shill’
The Massachusetts Democrat interrogated Kennedy about whether he’ll keep making money as a private lawyer off his work related to health care and drug companies.
It got heated. “You’re making me sound like a shill,” Kennedy said.
A particularly intense back-and-forth came when Warren asked Kennedy, who has profited from an arrangement with a law firm that specializes in suing drug companies, to commit to not earning money from such lawsuits while secretary and for four years afterward.
Kennedy said he would comply with all ethics rules but wouldn’t directly answer whether he’d forego the income after leaving office.
Baby onesies become a topic at the Senate confirmation hearing
“Are you supportive of these onesies?” Sen. Bernie Sanders sternly asked Kennedy.
It was a moment that drew a bit of laughter during an otherwise tense series of questions from Sanders, an independent from Vermont.
Sanders was pressing Kennedy on his evolving stances on childhood vaccines and a onesie the Children’s Health Defense, a group Kennedy chaired from 2015 and 2023, was selling for $26 and printed with anti-vaccine slogans.
Kennedy pointed out that he’s since resigned from the organization’s board in December and said he supports vaccines.
Kennedy has a years-long record of anti-vaccine activism despite saying he supports vaccines
Kennedy has said " COVID shots are a crime against humanity " while leading his anti-vaccine Children’s Health Defense nonprofit.
He’s often said he wants “safe” vaccines, while also using slanted information, cherry-picked facts and conspiracy theories to sow distrust of vaccines.
Kennedy said in a podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” told FOX News he still believes in the debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism, and urged people in 2021 to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccines.
“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said he was called ‘conspiracy theorist’ for ‘red dye causes cancer’
“And now the FDA has revoked it,” he said.
The FDA recently banned the color additive known as Red 3 because of evidence that it causes cancer in male laboratory rats.
The agency took the long-awaited action because of a federal statute known as the Delaney Clause, which prohibits additives that cause cancer in animals or people.
However, the evidence shows that the way the dye causes cancer in rats doesn’t occur in humans.
Tens of thousands of refugees in the US at risk of losing money for food and rent
Refugee resettlement agencies are scrambling after the Trump administration halted their federally funded work. It’s unclear how they’ll continue supporting refugees already in the United States.
Religious organizations shoulder the bulk of U.S. refugee resettlement work.
“President Trump has said he will defend persecuted Christians,” said Matthew Soerens of World Relief, an evangelical resettlement agency. “And the U.S. refugee resettlement program is one of the primary ways that the U.S. government protects Christians and others fleeing persecution.”
The federal refugee program, a form of legal migration to the U.S., assists those who’ve escaped war, natural disaster or persecution.
Republican senator: ‘We need to heal and unify this divided nation’
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who was vocal in criticizing vaccine requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, framed his comments to Kennedy around unity.
He brought up a conversation he had with Kennedy when the former Democrat was considering joining forces with Trump. The senator called it an answer to his prayers.
“We need to heal and unify this divided nation,” Johnson said. “Can’t we come together as a nation and do this?”
Trump to sign order establishing task force to plan ‘grand celebration’ of 250th independence anniversary
Trump, during his campaign, had said his “Salute to America 250” celebration would be “the most spectacular birthday party.”
The order is also expected to revive plans to create a “National Garden of American Heroes” with statues memorializing 250 historical figures. It will commission artists for the first 100.
During his first term, Trump had curated a list of who was to be included — Davy Crockett, Billy Graham, Whitney Houston, Harriet Tubman and Antonin Scalia, among others — but no site was selected and the garden was never funded by Congress.
Kennedy seemed unaware of federal law that guarantees emergency room help
The longstanding federal law ensures any person who presents at an emergency room in the U.S. is offered stabilizing treatment.
Sen. Cortez Masto asked how Kennedy would enforce that law when it came to pregnant women living in abortion ban states who need the procedure to save their health or life.
Kennedy struggled to answer, finally saying: “I don’t think we have a law enforcement branch at HHS.”
HHS does, in fact, enforce the law, called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act and can levy hefty fines for emergency rooms that don’t comply with it.
Democrats say Trump assistance freeze puts bipartisan budget talks in ‘jeopardy’
Democrats kicked off Day 2 of protesting Trump’s decision to halt federal assistance programs with a news conference highlighting the “avalanche” of calls they’re receiving from constituents and local leaders in their state about the decision.
As part of their response, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed that protesting certain Trump Cabinet nominees was on the table for his members if the administration did not backtrack on its decision.
Sen. Patty Murray, a top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, also indicated that Trump’s move could affect Democrats' willingness to come to the table and negotiate with Republicans ahead of the March deadline to fund the government.
Sen. Lankford misstates facts surrounding abortion pill mifepristone
While questioning Kennedy, Lankford said Biden’s Food and Drug Administration eliminated requirements that doctors report side effects with the drug in virtually all cases, “unless she dies.”
Mifepristone was first approved in 2000 under a highly restrictive set of regulations that required doctors to report all negative reactions with the drug. That’s different than almost any other medication, where only serious injury and death are required to be reported by doctors.
In 2016, the FDA determined mifepristone was safe enough to be subject to the same safety regime as other drugs. The FDA continues to get reports of both serious and non-serious side effects from the drug’s manufacturer, which is required to regularly submit them to regulators.
Kennedy urged to support emergency abortion access
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada urged Kennedy to recognize that a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act would require emergency rooms to provide emergency abortions when a woman’s health or life is at stake — a position taken by the Biden administration.
“You will be enforcing EMTALA laws, and it’s important you understand their impact and don’t play politics with the patient presenting at the ER based on a position this administration has taken,” she said.
Trump executive order would redirect federal education money to private school vouchers
The order Trump is expected sign Wednesday tells several agencies to repurpose federal money to expand school choice initiatives.
It directs the Education Department to use its discretionary money to prioritize school choice and to issue new guidance to states exploring how to use federal funds for K-12 voucher programs.
It also directs other agencies to find ways to help states and families use federal money for private schooling and other school choice options.
The order says traditional public schools have failed the nation’s students and the Trump administration will reverse course “by opening up opportunities for students to attend the school that best fits their needs.”
Anti-vaccine advocates are celebrating Kennedy’s committee appearance as a ‘historic’ event
The anti-vaccine nonprofit group Kennedy used to lead, Children’s Health Defense, live-streamed it on its website. In a post she made to X, CEO Mary Holland encouraged people to “Listen to history being made.”
Kennedy’s former running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said the hearing represented a “pivotal moment in our nation’s history,” in a post on X.
She also threatened to personally fund primary challengers to any senator — Democrat or Republican — who votes against Kennedy’s confirmation. Shanahan, who was formerly married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, helped finance Kennedy’s run for president.
In a tense exchange, Sen. Maggie Hassan grilled Kennedy about his shifting views on abortion
“Mr. Kennedy, I’m confused,” she said. “You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values. The question is: Do you stand for this value or not? When was it that you decided to sell out the values you’ve had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump”
In response, Kennedy repeated again that he agrees with Trump that “every abortion is a tragedy.”
Democratic senator tells Kennedy ‘frankly you frighten people’
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, told Kennedy that “Americans are going to need to hear a clear and trustworthy recantation of what you have said on vaccinations,” including to “never say vaccines aren’t medically safe when they are and making it indisputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases where that will keep people safe.”
“You’re in that hole pretty deep,” Whitehouse said. “We’ve just had a measles case in Rhode Island, the first since 2013, and frankly you frighten people.”
Kennedy says he’ll implement Trump’s policies on the abortion pill mifepristone
Sen. Steve Daines of Montana questioned Kennedy about his views on access to the abortion pill mifepristone. The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 as a safe and effective way to end early pregnancies, yet access to the drug and its FDA approval has been threatened in legal battles.
“President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone,” Kennedy said. “He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies.”
‘Remarkably poor judgment’: Wall Street Journal criticizes Trump’s moves
Conservative media has been enthusiastic overall for Trump’s first week back in office, but Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is hitting some brakes.
The Journal has editorialized against Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 rioters, called Kennedy “dangerous to public health,” suggested Trump give up trying to end birthright citizenship and said he’s wrong to strip protection of former officials threatened by Iran.
It said Trump showed “remarkably poor judgment” in selling $Trump brand crypto coins and described as “illegal amnesty” his order delaying implementation of a law to shut down TikTok.
The Murdoch-owned Fox News Channel meanwhile explored Monday whether Trump should be carved into Mount Rushmore.
▶ Read more about Trump and the media
Sen. John Fetterman, a cosponsor of the Laken Riley Act, will attend Trump’s signing ceremony Wednesday
“I believe a secure border creates a more secure nation and it’s just common sense,” Fetterman said in a statement, adding that he was elected “to work with both sides of the aisle.”
Once signed into law, the legislation will require federal officials to detain any immigrant in the U.S. illegally who’s arrested or charged with crimes like theft or assaulting a police officer, or offenses that injure or kill someone.
It’s set to be the first piece of legislation signed by Trump this term, who was elected promising a sharp crackdown on illegal immigration to the U.S.
Kennedy distances himself from a campaign email celebrating Trump’s pause on health agency reports
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, questioned Kennedy about a fundraising email his campaign sent Monday celebrating Trump’s freeze on many federal health agency communications.
The email came from an address used by Kennedy’s presidential campaign and was labeled as paid for by his candidate committee.
“This pause will prevent unelected bureaucrats from further undermining our health freedom,” the email read. Then it directed recipients to “chip in” to reduce $2 million in Kennedy’s campaign debt. A hyperlink went to a donation webpage.
Kennedy denied his campaign sent the email, saying, “I don’t think my campaign exists anymore, senator.”
“Somebody’s out there soliciting money for it,” Warner said. “Maybe you ought to find out who is.”
Kennedy agrees to support Trump’s Title X policies
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford questioned Kennedy on how he would approach the family planning program Title X.
The previous Trump administration prohibited Title X grantees from referring clients for abortion services — a policy reversed by President Joe Biden.
“I’m going to support President Trump’s policies on Title X,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy added that he agrees with Trump that “the states should control abortion.”
Sen. Bennet pressed Kennedy on a number of controversial claims he’s made
Reading from podcast transcripts and his own writings, Bennet asked Kennedy about his prior statement that COVID-19 was engineered to target white and Black people while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
Kennedy responded that he was citing federal research.
Bennet also asked Kennedy about a claim that Lyme disease is “likely a militarily engineered bioweapon.”
“I probably did say that,” Kennedy responded.
“This is a job where it is life and death for the kids that I used to work in Denver public schools and for families all over this country that are suffering,” Bennet said.
Kennedy says his 2019 trip to Samoa had ‘nothing to do with vaccines’
He visited the nation as health officials were trying to get the vaccine program back on track after vaccine rates plummeted following the deaths of two children who died when injected with a vaccine that was improperly mixed with a muscle relaxant.
While there, Kennedy met with government officials as well as with anti-vaccine activists, including an anti-vaccine influencer who posted a photograph of herself and Kennedy on her Instagram. She called the meeting “profoundly monumental” for the movement.
A few months later, a measles epidemic broke out, killing 83 people, mostly infants and children in a population of about 200,000.
Kennedy said he ‘absolutely’ supports a US program that brings HIV medicines to low-income countries
The program is credited with saving more than 25 million lives. That program, PEPFAR or the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, was started under Republican President George W. Bush but it was part of a Trump administration freeze on foreign spending last week — until apparently getting a reprieve.
A waiver announced Tuesday allowed for the distribution of HIV medicines to resume at least temporarily but its future remains uncertain. If treatment stops, the International AIDS Society says not only will people die but HIV will re-surge, increasing the threat worldwide.
During questioning, Kennedy says ‘every abortion is a tragedy’
Sen. Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, questioned Kennedy’s shifting views on abortion by quoting his previous statements that abortion should be left up to the pregnant woman, not the government.
“I believe every abortion is a tragedy,” Kennedy said in response before being cut off by Bennet.
Kennedy points to a crisis in children’s health
Experts generally agree and have been concerned about this for years, especially rising rates of obesity and diabetes.
About 20% of children and adolescents have obesity and rates of diabetes among children continue to rise between 2% and 5% a year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy’s plans on addiction are informed by personal experience
Asked by Sen. John Cornyn about equipping primary care doctors to address addiction and substance abuse, Kennedy spoke about his heroin addiction as a young man.
“This is a priority for me,” said Kennedy, who said he still goes to 12-step meetings daily. “Addicts almost always go through a cycle where there is a moment where they hit periodic bottoms where they’re ready to go into treatment. But it’s fleeting and it’s momentary and we have an opportunity to save their lives.”
Kennedy proposed using Graduate Medical Education funding to help medical school students better understand addiction care.
Kennedy vows not to restrict the measles vaccine
Sen. Ron Wyden honed in on Kennedy’s work in the island nation of Samoa, where doctors say he and his anti-vaccine allies campaigned against childhood inoculations, leading to a measles epidemic that killed dozens of infants and children.
Kennedy rejected this alleged involvement in the measles outbreak and said he supports measles and polio vaccines.
“I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines,” he said.
Ranking Democrat says Kennedy ‘should not be entrusted’ with Americans' health
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon warns Kennedy’s embrace of “conspiracy theories” on vaccines make him unsuitable for the nation’s top health post.
“Peddling these anti-vaccine conspiracy theories as our nation’s chief health officer is going to endanger the lives of kids and seniors across the nation,” Wyden said in his opening statement.
Kennedy has previously said there’s “no vaccine that is safe and effective.”
In further remarks, Wyden warned of the consequences of Kennedy’s proposal to “freeze” federal research on infectious diseases for eight years.
“I’ve reached the conclusion that he should not be entrusted with the health of the American people,” Wyden said.
Another protester stood and decried Kennedy’s activism on vaccines
She was holding a sign that said, “Vaccines save lives.”
The Senate Finance Committee chairman, Republican Sen. Mike Crapo, responded by saying he could put the committee into recess if the hearing continues to be disrupted.
In his opening statement, Kennedy rejected the ‘anti-vaccine’ label
He told senators he’s not anti-vaccine, but has asked “uncomfortable questions.”
While Kennedy has called vaccines unsafe, in his opening remarks he said all of his children are vaccinated.
“I believe that vaccines play a critical role in health care,” Kennedy told the committee.
A protester momentarily disrupted RFK’s confirmation hearing
The single protester jumped to her feet and yelled “he lies” when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed he’s not “anti-vaccine.”
Capitol police officers quickly removed the woman from the room, and several others in the hearing room applauded and said, “We love you, Bobby!”
Conservatives, anti-abortion groups mixed on Kennedy’s abortion stance
Kennedy’s views on abortion have also drawn criticism from conservatives and anti-abortion groups, including Former Vice President Mike Pence.
Kennedy has been largely quiet on the issue since backing Trump. Still, some conservative U.S. senators, including Oklahoma Republican James Lankford, who sits on the Senate Committee on Finance, said Kennedy is committed to anti-abortion policies after a December meeting.
Kennedy pushed to clarify murky position on abortion
Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, argued that “from abortion to universal health care, Mr. Kennedy has changed his views so often it’s nearly impossible to know where he stands.”
Trump’s decision to tap Kennedy to lead the top health agency has garnered criticism from abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion forces alike. Kennedy supported abortion rights during his presidential bid, though he also voiced support for a national 15-week or 21-week ban in a 2023 interview before a spokesperson said he misheard the question.
Why does Robert F. Kennedy Jr. get two confirmation hearings?
To get to the U.S. Senate for a vote of his nomination, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. needs to have two committee hearings, one before the Finance committee on Wednesday and another in front of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee on Thursday.
Oversight of the U.S. Health and Human Services agencies is shared between the two committees. The finance committee is involved because the sprawling $1.7 trillion agency is responsible for a huge part of the nation’s economy — overseeing insurance for nearly half the country, funneling billions of dollars to the states for Medicaid and providing health insurance for the nation’s older Americans through Medicare.
Meanwhile, the HELP committee also has oversight of the agency’s program and agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has entered the hearing room to a standing ovation from supporters
“Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!” they chanted as he came in along with his wife Cheryl Hines.
“We love you, Bobby!” one man also yelled as people held their cellphones aloft to get a photo or video.
The room is filling up ahead of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s Senate confirmation hearing
Many are Kennedy’s supporters in “Make America Healthy Again” hats, as well as people donning white lab coats.
Kennedy’s two days of hearings on Capitol Hill are drawing plenty of attention, including from senators on both sides of the aisle who’ve said they’ll look to what Kennedy says in the hearings to decide whether to support his confirmation.
Kennedy will be in the finance committee Wednesday and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Thursday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson endorses buyouts for federal workers
“I think it’s the right move,” Johnson said.
Johnson weighed in Wednesday during the House Republican annual policy retreat being held at one of Trump’s golf resorts in South Florida.
“The president is thinking outside the box. His team is thinking outside the box,” Johnson told reporters.
Johnson said one estimate has projected that 5% to 10% of the federal workforce “will take their golden parachute.”
“We could save $100 billion for taxpayers just with that downsizing of the size and scope of government,” Johnson asserted.
Lawmakers question Tulsi Gabbard’s meeting with Syria’s then-president Bashar Assad
When Gabbard returned to Washington from the clandestine sit-down with Assad eight years ago this month, she was greeted with a flurry of criticism.
Lawmakers and civil society groups chastised Gabbard, then a Hawaii congresswoman, for her meeting with an avowed U.S. adversary whose administration has been credibly accused of war crimes and major human rights abuses. A Republican congressman even called the meeting a “disgrace.”
At the time, Gabbard defended the trip by saying she had gone to try to find a peaceful resolution to a long and bloody conflict. But the details of what the pair discussed remain a mystery — dogging Gabbard to this day and has taken on new salience as rebels have swept Assad from power and Trump has nominated her to be the nation’s spy chief.
Calling her cousin a ‘predator’ Caroline Kennedy urges Senate to reject RFK Jr.‘s nomination
Among the details in her letter to senators, Caroline Kennedy described her cousin’s basement, garage and dorm as being centers for drug use, where he would also put baby chickens and mice in blenders to feed to his hawks.
“It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence,” she wrote. She also read the letter in a video recording, sharing it on social media. Attempts to reach Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for comment were not immediately successful.
Kennedy now “preys on the desperation of parents of sick children,” she told senators, noting that he’s vaccinated his own children while discouraging others from vaccinating theirs.
What US adults think of RFK Jr. and his views on vaccines and raw milk
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s anti-vaccine advocacy is outside the mainstream. His previous statements on abortion could alienate Republicans. But a new poll finds that not all of his controversial health goals are unpopular.
As Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearings begin Wednesday, his bid to become the nation’s top health official could depend on how staunchly he sticks to these personal beliefs during questioning. He has already softened some of his long-held views.
A new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows only about 3 in 10 US adults approve of Trump nominating him to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. About 4 in 10 disapprove, while about one-quarter are either neutral or don’t know enough to say.
___
An item that incorrectly said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were law school roommates has been removed. Whitehouse said Wednesday he roomed with Kennedy’s brother Michael not with the nominee.