Senate confirms RFK Jr. over opposition of Washington’s senators and ex-GOP leader McConnell

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services over the loud objections of Democrats, including both of Washington state’s senators.

The 52-48 vote was another example of President Donald Trump’s influence over GOP senators, some of whom voiced quiet concerns about letting the vaccine skeptic and former Democrat lead the nation’s health agencies before backing his confirmation. In the end, the only Republican to oppose Kennedy’s confirmation was Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former Senate GOP leader whose experience surviving polio as a child made him a strong supporter of vaccination.

Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Washington Democrats, took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to deliver speeches opposing Kennedy’s nomination, which the president made after the scion of one of America’s most famous political dynasties dropped his own bid for the presidency and endorsed Trump last year. As HHS secretary, Kennedy will oversee a nearly $2 trillion portfolio of health and biomedical research agencies.

“It is truly shameful that we even are debating this,” Murray said in a speech. “My colleagues should know better. They actually do know better. They are looking the other way. They are choosing to pretend like it is in any way believable that RFK Jr. won’t use his new power to do exactly the thing he has been trying to do for decades: undermine vaccines.”

After he was sworn in as a New York City prosecutor in 1982, Kennedy failed the bar exam the following year and soon thereafter was arrested and charged with heroin possession. After a stint in rehab, he began a long career as an environmental lawyer that earned him significant support on the political left, which he parlayed into a run for president in 2024, first as a Democrat and then as an independent.

In recent years, Kennedy has expressed doubts about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines while calling for a wholesale revamping of the nation’s health care and food supply, an approach he has recently summed up as “Make America Healthy Again.” In his confirmation hearings, he assured senators he was “pro-safety,” not anti-vaccine, but he stood by his claims – contrary to the scientific consensus – that vaccines cause autism.

Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, who led one of Kennedy’s two confirmation hearings as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters after the vote that he had worked to encourage his fellow Republicans to support the confirmation.

“First of all, he was President Trump’s nominee,” Crapo said in a brief interview. “Any nominee the president makes, I will give full consideration to. Secondly, he’s very focused on making sure that we deal with the chronic disease epidemic that we have in America, and I think we need that badly.”

Kennedy’s focus on the nationwide rise in obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases initially drew enough bipartisan support that some Democratic votes seemed possible, but the minority party stood in universal opposition after the confirmation hearings, the second of which took place in the Senate Health Committee, where Murray is a member and former chair.

After Kennedy was confirmed, Murray led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in a letter to the new secretary expressing alarm about the Trump administration’s cuts to funding for the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research across the country. According to Murray’s office, NIH funding supports nearly 12,000 jobs in Washington state.

Speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Cantwell said Democrats also think the nation’s health care system needs to get better – echoing Kennedy’s observation that Americans spend more on health care than any other wealthy nation for some of the worst outcomes – but she argued that his approach won’t fix that problem.

“We agree that we’re spending way too much and that we need better outcomes,” Cantwell said. “But rather than choose a new leader for the Health and Human Services agency that would lead us down that better path, President Trump’s nominee would get us stuck in conspiracy theories that would cost us lives.”

In a statement explaining his vote, McConnell echoed that perspective.

“Individuals, parents, and families have a right to push for a healthier nation and demand the best possible scientific guidance on preventing and treating illness,” the former GOP leader said. “But a record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions does not entitle Mr. Kennedy to lead these important efforts.”