America Senate has authorized former environmental lawyer Robert F Kennedy Jr to steer the federal authorities’s Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS), within the newest controversial vote over a cupboard nominee picked by President Donald Trump.
However Thursday’s vote was slender, given Kennedy’s historical past of embracing anti-vaccine views and health-related conspiracy theories.
Fifty-two of the 100 members of the Senate voted sure, all of them members of Trump’s Republican Social gathering. Democrats and independents lined as much as supply 48 “nay” votes.
Nonetheless, there was one notable Republican defection: Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a childhood polio survivor and former chief of the celebration within the Senate. He had previously warned Trump nominees to “steer clear” of “efforts to undermine public confidence in confirmed cures”.
The chief of the Democrats within the Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York, sought to enchantment to Republicans within the minutes earlier than the vote. He referred to as the prospect of Kennedy main a federal division tasked with guaranteeing public well being “harmful”.
“ My colleagues on the Republican facet, you already know the results of what you’re doing. My colleagues on the Republican facet, you know the way harmful that is. My colleagues on the opposite facet, you already know you aren’t placing your constituents — their well being, their households — first while you vote sure,” Schumer stated.
Republicans, nonetheless, have a small however stable majority within the Senate, holding 53 seats.
And Trump has thus far been profitable in getting all his nominees to high-level authorities positions confirmed, regardless of controversies over a few of them.
That features Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who was confirmed on Wednesday regardless of previous statements expressing sympathy for Russia’s “reliable safety issues” because it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, in the meantime, was authorized in January, though the Senate was evenly break up, 50-50, over his nomination.
Questions had arisen over allegations that Hegseth had engaged in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour in previous management roles. Vice President JD Vance in the end solid the tie-breaking vote.
Kennedy himself confronted no scarcity of controversy within the lead-up to Thursday’s vote.
His cousin, former US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, issued an open letter calling him a “predator” who has continued to “lie and cheat his method by means of life”.
Democrats have additionally sought to focus on his historical past of vaccine scepticism and his lack of expertise within the medical discipline.
Though he testified in his affirmation hearings that his personal youngsters had been vaccinated, Kennedy has publicly unfold debunked conspiracy theories, together with that vaccination was linked to autism.
In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, he additionally made false statements claiming that the virus might have been manufactured to focus on sure teams.
“There may be an argument that it’s ethnically focused. COVID-19 assaults sure races disproportionately,” Kennedy was quoted as saying within the New York Publish at a public occasion. “COVID-19 is focused to assault Caucasians and Black individuals.”
As well as, in June 2019, Kennedy visited Samoa shortly earlier than a measles outbreak claimed 83 lives on the island.
Whereas Kennedy has denied his journey was about vaccines, an Instagram account showed him embracing a fellow vaccine sceptic throughout his go to with a caption that included the hashtag “examine earlier than you vaccinate”.
Samoan well being officers, together with Director-Basic of Well being Alec Ekeroma, have since accused him of serving to to unfold doubt concerning the efficacy of vaccination as a prevention software.
Republicans nonetheless stood by Kennedy, who was a candidate within the 2024 presidential election. Kennedy initially entered the race as a Democrat, solely to splinter off in October 2023 and announce he would run as an impartial.
Final August, nonetheless, Kennedy ended his presidential bid and threw his help behind Trump, who promised to let him “go wild on well being”.
Kennedy, in flip, joined Trump on the marketing campaign path, providing his personal spin on the “Make America Nice Once more” slogan: “Make America Wholesome Once more.”
Republicans on Thursday had been fast to dismiss the issues which have hounded Kennedy’s nomination.
“Opposite to the assaults which have consistently been made on him, he has made it very clear that he’ll help secure vaccinations and simply desires to see that the analysis on them is completed and executed effectively,” stated Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho.
He added that Kennedy would carry a “contemporary perspective to healthcare”.
“ I agree with him. We’ve received to get into the enterprise of creating America wholesome once more.”
However within the last remarks earlier than Thursday’s vote, Schumer warned Republicans in opposition to following Trump’s lead and approving Kennedy for the high-level well being place, calling it “unsuitable, very unsuitable”.
He inspired Republicans to buck the celebration management and vote with their conscience.
“ At the moment, the query in entrance of this physique just isn’t merely to substantiate RFK to run the nation’s well being division. The query earlier than us may be very easy: Which is extra necessary to you? The well being and wellbeing of your constituents, or blindly obeying orders?”
