RFK Jr. grilled at second hearing: Key Senate Republican ‘struggling’, more concerns over vaccines

Sen. Bill Cassidy’s website touts his work as a physician, including his efforts to help 36,000 people in Baton Rouge to get the hepatitis B vaccine, at no cost.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced more tough questions about his views on vaccines in the second hearing on his bid to become the next U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services.

Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, now serves as the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He holds one of the critical votes that will decide if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becomes the next U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

At his committee’s hearing on Kennedy’s nomination Thursday, Cassidy questioned Kennedy about his past statements about vaccines and the enormous influence he would have if confirmed to lead the nation’s health department.

“I've been struggling with your nomination,” Kennedy said at the close of Thursday’s hearing. He told Kennedy he would likely be reaching out to him over the weekend for more information.

Kennedy faced questions about his long history of disparaging vaccines during his second hearing on his bid to serve as health secretary. He also was pressed about his record during his first hearing on his nomination Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee.

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On Thursday, Democrats blasted Kennedy over his past statements on vaccines, and other controversial statements he’s made about public health.

But Cassidy, while acknowledging that he supports Kennedy’s focus on chronic diseases and processed food, posed pointed questions. He raised concerns about Kennedy’s past statements on vaccines and unwillingness to stand behind overwhelming science backing the safety of vaccines.

He also mentioned in his concluding remarks that a colleague informed him about two children who died in a Louisiana hospital “from vaccine preventable diseases.”

Cassidy said he worries that if Kennedy is confirmed and undermines confidence in vaccines, it could lead to people dying.

“Now my responsibility is to learn, try and determine if you can be trusted to support the best public health, a worthy movement called MAHA, to improve the health of Americans, or to undermine it, always asking for more evidence and never accepting the evidence that is there,” Cassidy said.

Citing Kennedy’s long and public record on vaccines, Cassidy said he’s wondering if a man “who spent decades criticizing vaccines and who's financially vested in finding fault with vaccines, can he change his attitudes and approach now that he'll have the most important position influencing vaccine policy in the United States?”

Cassidy asked Kennedy, if he is confirmed, “Will you reassure mothers, unequivocally and without qualification, that the measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism?”

Kennedy began to say, “I am not going into the agency with any kind of ….”, and then Cassidy interrupted him. “That’s kind of a yes or no question,” Cassidy said.

Kennedy responded by saying “if the data is there,” a phrase he has used repeatedly in two days of questioning, when Cassidy cut him off again. “The data is there,” Cassidy said.

“Now what concerns me is that you've cast down on some of these vaccines recently, I mean, like the last few years, but the data, and I could quote some of it, the data has been there for a long time,” Cassidy added.

Cassidy’s vote is critical to Kennedy’s confirmation. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. If all Democrats vote in opposition, and many have voiced objections to his nomination, Kennedy could only lose a few Republican votes and be confirmed.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, also emphasized her support of vaccines, which are especially important in her rural state.

“I care deeply about making sure that our vaccines are safe, the efficacy of them, the availability of them, how we disseminate them, is particularly important in a very, very rural state like mine,” she said.

Murkowski said she found Kennedy’s focus on chronic diseases appealing, but she also suggested that fighting infectious diseases can’t be put on the backburner.

“I am asking you … on the issue of vaccines, specifically to please convey, convey with a level of authority and science, but also with a level of conviction and free of conflict and free of political bias, that these are measures that we should be proud of as a country,” she said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Republicans, engaged in one of the most heated exchanges with Kennedy. Sanders blasted him for his past statements of vaccines.

Sanders said that repeated studies have shown no link between vaccines and autism, and asked if Kennedy would agree with that statement.

Kennedy said he would review those studies if Sanders would share them with him.

“That is a very troubling response, because the studies are there,” Sanders said. “Your job was to have looked at those studies as an applicant for this job.”

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Maryland Democrat who was just elected to the Senate, questioned Kennedy about statements saying that Black Americans shouldn’t be given the same vaccine schedule as white Americans, since Black Americans have greater immunity.

She cited a 2021 interview where Kennedy said, “We should not be giving black people the same vaccine schedule that's given to whites, because their immune system is better than ours.”

Kennedy said some studies show a difference, saying, “There's differences in reaction to different products by different races.”

Alsobrooks responded, “That is so dangerous … I will be voting against your nomination because your views are dangerous to our state and to our country.”

Many healthcare leaders have assailed Kennedy’s nomination, owing to his long record of disparaging comments of the safety of vaccines. Critics have said Kennedy is a “dangerous” choice to lead the health department.

Supporters, including Republicans over the past two days, have praised Kennedy for raising more attention on chronic diseases, obesity and the dangers of ultra-processed foods. Republicans lauded Kennedy for his commitment to improving the health of rural communities. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he will vote to confirm Kennedy.

Cassidy said as a loyal Republican, he wants to ensure President Trump succeeds and has the best legacy possible. But he also says that he worries that Kennedy, if he discourages vaccinations and people die as a result, “will cast a shadow over President Trump's legacy.”