Dem Senators Side With Big Pharma Over RFK Jr.’s MAHA Agenda

The Trump transition team’s hopes for a bipartisan confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary were likely put to rest on Wednesday when Democrats greeted the nominee with hostile interrogations over vaccines and abortion.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democrats’ ranking member on panel, opened his questions of Kennedy by entering into the congressional record a hysterical letter filled with personal attacks by Kennedy’s cousin Caroline Kennedy. The letter, sent to lawmakers on the eve of Kennedy’s first hearing by the former U.S. ambassador to Australia, condemned RFK Jr. as someone who “preys on the desperation of parents and sick children.”

“It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” the letter read, going on to condemn Kennedy’s supposed “crusade against vaccination,” which became the center of Democrats’ objections to his nomination.

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“It’s time to make sure that we blow the whistle on actually what your views are, at least for starting,” Wyden said.

Kennedy immediately disputed the characterizations of him as opposed to vaccines for diseases such as measles and polio.

“I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine,” Kennedy said. “I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.”

Kennedy preemptively addressed the concerns surrounding his previous criticisms of vaccines in his opening statement, which he delivered to a panel of lawmakers who’ve received roughly $7 million from the pharmaceutical industry alone.

“News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither,” Kennedy said, before a brief interruption from protestors. “I am pro-safety. I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish. And I believe … that vaccines play a critical role in health care. All of my kids are vaccinated.”

Democrats throughout the hearing, however, were near unanimous in their impulsive hostility toward the environmental lawyer who endorsed Trump after the Democrat Party derailed his efforts to compete with President Joe Biden for the White House nomination. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, delivered a lecture to Kennedy instead of offering a legitimate inquiry.

“I only have five minutes with you,” Whitehouse said. “So you’re just gonna have to listen.”

“Frankly, you frighten people,” the senator said, after demanding a newfound endorsement for vaccines as medically safe “when they in fact are.”

Kennedy spoke for 30 seconds following Whitehouse’s speech, pledging to work with the Rhode Island lawmaker on issues related to government transparency.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman,” Sen. Whitehouse said, “one of the things I’ve learned in my tenure in the Senate is that a nominee saying that they’re willing to work with me amounts to exactly zero.”

Bernie Sanders, the far-left socialist senator from Vermont, pressed Kennedy about a pair of onesies with anti-vaccine messages being sold by a group supporting Kennedy.

“Can you tell us now that you will — now that you are pro-vaccine — that you are going to have your organization take these products off the market?” Sanders said. “Are you supportive of these onesies?”

Kennedy denied he was behind the group selling the merchandise and reaffirmed a commitment to vaccination.

“I am supportive of vaccines,” Kennedy said repeatedly.

Sanders had previously spoken favorably of Kennedy’s slogan to “Make America Healthy Again.” In December, the Vermont senator released a statement outlining a series of reforms and said, “Yes. In the wealthiest country on earth let us Make America Healthy Again.”

“But when I asked Robert F. Kennedy if health care is a human right,” Sanders wrote on X after Wednesday’s hearing, “he couldn’t give me an answer.”

Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts seemingly flipped the script of her usual anti-corporation playbook by asking Kennedy not to sue drug manufacturers. Warren demanded Kennedy promise not to “go to work suing the drug companies and taking your rate out of that while you’re secretary and for four years after.”

Kennedy said he would not take any fees while serving as HHS secretary, but refused to say he would refrain from suing pharmaceutical corporations following his tenure.

“You’re asking me to not sue drug companies, and I’m not going to agree to that, Senator,” Kennedy said.

Warren opened her questions by asking Kennedy not to profit from any drug companies over the next eight years if confirmed.

“I don’t think any of them want to give me money,” he said, which provoked laughter within the room.

Democrats also complained about Kennedy’s apparent about-face on abortion. Kennedy shifted from being a Democrat who supported the deadly procedure through all nine months of pregnancy to recently endorsing limits more aligned with President Trump’s position on the issue. At Wednesday’s hearing, Kennedy recommitted to implementing Trump’s first-term abortion agenda at HHS while being questioned by Republican Sen. James Lankford from Oklahoma, and he told Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, the agency would investigate the safety of mifepristone.

“He has not yet taken a stand on, on how to regulate it,” Kennedy said of the abortion pill, adding that “whatever he does, I will implement those policies.”

Kennedy’s support for Trump’s first-term abortion platform will likely blunt criticism from a group backed by former Vice President Mike Pence, Advancing American Freedom, which has targeted the HHS nominee as an abortion extremist. The group, however, according to CNN, has also received a six-figure donation from a pharma-funded foundation built on an empire of sugar substitutes and birth control pills.

Kennedy’s realignment on abortion enraged Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who accused him of being a “sellout.”

“You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values,” Hassan said. “Do you stand for that value or not?”

“Senator, I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy,” Kennedy said.

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who told The Federalist earlier this month he was optimistic Kennedy would not only be confirmed but could even earn Democrat support, seemed shocked at the Democrats’ animosity throughout Wednesday’s hearing.

“Can’t we come together as a nation and do this? … Aren’t you getting tired of this?” Johnson said while staring at his colleagues on the panel. “I’m getting tired of this.”

Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and the co-author of “Fat and Unhappy: How ‘Body Positivity’ Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself).” He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here. Buy “Fat and Unhappy” here.