Kennedy refused to say vaccines don't cause autism during his hearings.
President Donald Trump has promised he'd let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "go wild" on health, food and medicine as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy, a Democrat who ran as an independent but ended up supporting Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign, was grilled by senators over his views on vaccines, abortion, Medicaid and more during two days of confirmation hearings.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, concluded Thursday's hearing by saying he was "struggling" with the nomination due to Kennedy's vaccine positions. Kennedy notably refused to say vaccines don't cause autism as he faced pointed question from lawmakers.
Kennedy's past comments on vaccines is a point of skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans.
Since being nominated to lead HHS, he's attempted to clean up his stance. He did so again in the final moments of his opening statement, noting he and his children have been vaccinated.
"News reports have claimed that I'm anti-vaccine or any industry. I am neither. I am pro-safety," he said.
A group of protesters shouted after RFK Jr. repeated his claim that he was not anti-vaccine.
"You are," protesters shouted before being taken out of the hearing.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said in his opening statement that Kennedy has "virtually no knowledge or experience in handling these issues."
Kennedy is a longtime environmental lawyer who has not worked in public health administration or medicine.
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo, chairman of the committee, took a moment before Kennedy's opening statement to speak on Kennedy's background, noting his education from Harvard and the London School of Economics as well as his involvement in different advocacy groups.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking member on the committee, used his opening statement to come out against RFK especially with his stances on vaccines.
The Democratic senator cited Kennedy's role with working with officials with Samoa during a 2019 measles outbreak. Wyden said 83 Samoans died in that outbreak.
"Americans can not afford to import this experiment to our great nation," Wyden said.
