President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., received a positive reception in a poll released Sunday, even as Republican senators have raised questions about his stances on abortion and vaccines.
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3. That's how many Republican votes Kennedy can afford to lose if he wants to be confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services by the Senate, assuming all Democrats vote against him.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 70, is the son of late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy. He is also the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy. He worked for most of his career as an environmental lawyer, but drew attention as a proponent of anti-vaccine claims, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. He claimed Dr. Anthony Fauci and billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates exaggerated the scope of the pandemic to promote vaccines, and has since launched a "Make America Healthy Again" campaign advocating for less government oversight in medicine, claiming the Food and Drug Administration "suppresses" advancements in health by overregulating things like access to raw milk. Kennedy ran for the 2024 Democratic nomination for president and launched an independent bid, but ultimately dropped out in August and endorsed Trump. In mid November, Trump announced Kennedy as his nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump tapped Marty Makary, a pancreatic surgeon who opposed vaccine mandates during the pandemic, to work under Robert F. Kennedy as the Food and Drug Administration commissioner. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the FDA had "lost the trust of Americans" and needs Makary to "course-correct and refocus" the agency. Makary and Kennedy will "evaluate harmful chemicals poisoning our nation's food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our nation's youth" while addressing the "childhood chronic disease epidemic," Trump said. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Makary was an advocate of natural immunity -- becoming immune to a disease by being infected with it -- and claimed it was "at least" as effective as immunity provided by vaccines. Makary also claimed the Covid-19 vaccine increases the risk of myocarditis, a rare heart condition, though this has been disproven in several studies and is a rare occurrence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In an interview with Fox News last week, Makary defended Kennedy's nomination to lead HHS while saying Kennedy is the least "scary" thing happening in the U.S. health care system, adding Kennedy intends to "address corruption in health care and corruption in our government health agencies."
Kennedy's vaccine views are seen as a primary deterrent to his chances of being confirmed by the Senate. He has promoted the debunked theory that childhood vaccines can cause autism and claimed the government knew but "knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children." He has also made the claim that COVID-19 was "targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people" and has implied HIV might not be the cause of AIDS. Trump has refused to rule out bans on certain vaccines as president and said he would consult Kennedy and others before making a decision, but Kennedy last month said he would not "take anyone's vaccines away" and just wants people to be aware of "the risk profile and the efficacy of each vaccine." Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told The Washington Post if Kennedy "has a different point of view" on vaccines that "he'll have to explain that to us."
The Kennedy campaign in November told The Washington Post he supports legal access to the procedure and supports codifying Roe v. Wade, which established a fundamental right to abortion before it was overturned in 2022. Kennedy "supports a woman's right to choose," his campaign said, adding he "believes it is not up to the government to intervene in these difficult medical and moral choices." In August 2023 he suggested he would support a 15-week federal ban but later backtracked. He also supports access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Some Republican senators, like Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., have raised concerns about Kennedy's abortion stance while others have defended him. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said she doesn't " think it matters what [Kennedy]
Kennedy has said the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates medications, food, cosmetics and other industries, wages a "war on public health" by suppressing access to products that "advance human health and can't be patented by" the pharmaceutical industry. Kennedy has also promoted peptides, a potentially dangerous growth hormone, and unproven Covid-19 treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Kennedy has promised to upend the food industry, including potential restrictions on artificial food dyes, and said he wants to remove fluoride from drinking water, claiming it is associated with arthritis, bone cancer, IQ loss and other health problems. He has also called on the U.S. to revisit its standards for pesticides and genetically modified foods. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said he wants "to make sure" Kennedy "understands the realities" of American farmers and ranchers before he starts to regulate longstanding agricultural practices.
The United States has been adding fluoride to public water supplies since the 1940s and, today, about 77% of Americans have fluoride in their water. The CDC touts it as a practical and cost-effective way to improve oral health and says it results in fewer fillings, pulled teeth and dental visits. Kennedy, however, has referred to fluoride as a "dangerous neurotoxin" and has said it reduces IQ in children, a claim the National Toxicology Program of HHS says it has "moderate confidence" in. Kennedy said he would not force water districts to remove fluoride, but that he would advise they do so. Stock in dental supply companies rose slightly after Kennedy was nominated to head HHS, CNBC reported, as traders anticipated a boom in dental visits if fluoride is removed from water. Kennedy has also supported similar efforts in other countries: Montreal officials voted to no longer include fluoride in two of the city's six treatment plants that use the chemical, after a petition by a resident who said he received "moral support" from Kennedy.
Kennedy has said he only drinks raw, or unpasteurized, milk, which the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say can lead to unsafe exposure to E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria. The process of pasteurization, heating milk to a specific temperature for a certain amount of time to eliminate human pathogens, has been the federal standard since the late 1980s, but a recent resurgence among naturalists and influencers has repopularized the concept of drinking unprocessed milk. Advocates say raw milk contains more beneficial nutrients than pasteurized milk, but food scientists have argued there is no meaningful difference -- other than risk -- between the two products. The bacteria in raw milk is considered particularly dangerous for pregnant women, children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.
Trump said Kennedy would stop Americans from being "crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation when it comes to Public Health." He called Kennedy a "great guy," adding "He wants to do some things and we're going to let him go do it." In the week before the election, Trump promised Kennedy would have a "big role in health care." Before Kennedy joined the Trump team, however, the president-elect was critical of Kennedy and called him "not a Republican." He called his then-opponent "fake" and a "radical left liberal," adding the Kennedy family is "a bunch of lunatics."
Before the pair's alliance, Kennedy had even harsher words for Trump. He called him a "terrible president" in July, said his policies in his first term were "absurd and terrifying" and said his efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election were "appalling." In 2016, Kennedy supported descriptions of Trump's base as "belligerent idiots" and suggestions that some were "outright Nazis" and "spineless fellow travelers," CNN reported. He also reportedly said Trump was not like Hitler in at least one way, because "Hitler was interested in policy." When he dropped out and endorsed Trump, Kennedy said the decision was "agonizing for me because of the difficulties it causes my wife and my children and my friends, but I have the certainty that this is what I'm meant to do. And that certainty gives me internal peace, even in storms." In the final weeks of the campaign, Kennedy appeared at multiple Trump rallies.
Kennedy has 10 siblings, several of which criticized his presidential run. When he dropped out and endorsed Trump, five issued a statement distancing themselves from the decision and endorsing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Kerry Kennedy, his sister, called his comments about the Covid-19 virus "deplorable and untruthful" and Joseph Kennedy II, his brother, told The Boston Globe the statements were "morally and factually wrong." Earlier this week, his cousin and outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy labeled his views on vaccinations as "dangerous." She said the Kennedy family is "united" in their support for improving the public health sector and infrastructure in America, but acknowledged, "Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views." Actress Cheryl Hines, Kennedy's wife, distanced herself from her husband's views in 2022 after he suggested Anne Frank, who was murdered by Nazis as a teenager, was better off than Americans whose jobs require them to get vaccinated. She issued a statement thanking those who worked on her husband's campaign when it ended, and was reportedly seen at a Mar-a-Lago event last week celebrating Kennedy's nomination.
A former live-in nanny for Kennedy's family, Eliza Cooney, has said she was sexually assaulted by the former presidential candidate while working for the Kennedys out of college in 1999. She recently told USA Today she moved into the family home in Mount Kisco, New York, and was "shocked" by how quickly Kennedy started acting inappropriately. She detailed several interactions, including one in which she says he blocked her in a kitchen pantry while groping her and another when he started rubbing her leg under the kitchen table -- allegations first raised in a Vanity Fair story. After she spoke to Vanity Fair about her experience in July, Cooney said she received a text from Kennedy in which he said he had "no memory" of the incidents but apologized "for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable or anything I did or said that offended you or hurt your feelings." Kennedy addressed Cooney's allegations on the "Breaking Points" podcast in July on which he said, "I am not a church boy" and, when asked if he was denying the assaults, said, "I'm not going to comment on it."
Kennedy is one of several men who have been accused of sexual misconduct to be tapped by Trump for cabinet positions in his second administration. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz -- who was nominated to be attorney general but withdrew Thursday -- is facing allegations of paying for sex, having sex with an underage 17-year-old and illicit drug use, both of which he denies. Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, tapped by Trump to lead the Defense Department, was accused of physically blocking a woman from leaving a hotel room before sexually assaulting her in 2017. Elon Musk, who will co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, has denied reports that he settled a sexual misconduct claim with a SpaceX employee who accused him of improperly touching her and asking for oral sex while she worked as a flight attendant.