- The Washington Times - Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Senate Republicans who met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week are not raising alarms about the health secretary nominee’s history of vaccine skepticism or plans to shake up the food industry, saying they appreciate his willingness to question conventional wisdom.

Mr. Kennedy, a former Democrat, ran an independent presidential campaign before dropping out and endorsing Republican Donald Trump. The president-elect has returned the favor and nominated Mr. Kennedy to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. Kennedy began one-on-one meetings with the 53 incoming Senate Republicans whose votes will be key to his confirmation. He’s already won several of them over. 

“It couldn’t have went better,” Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican and one of the few doctors in Congress, said of his meeting with Mr. Kennedy.  

Mr. Marshall said he is excited about Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, in particular his stated desire to end the chronic disease epidemic.

“This is something I’ve been working on since I was a freshman medical student,” the senator said. “So as we’ve seen, the instance of chronic disease double, triple in this country, it’s great to try to figure out why and what we can do to make a difference.” 

Mr. Marshall said he plans to vote to confirm Mr. Kennedy and that he didn’t spend time questioning the nominee on his past comments about vaccines or abortion. 

Other Republican senators who did ask Mr. Kennedy about his record of vaccine skepticism said the nominee wants to study their efficacy but did not have any plans to shake up vaccine policies without more data. 

“He’s very supportive of vaccines, but I agree with him: We need to get way more information so people can make informed decisions,” said Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican who is backing Mr. Kennedy’s nomination.  

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma Republican, another supporter, said Mr. Kennedy “has the right to question” whether vaccines are working as intended and do not contribute to adverse heath outcomes.

Mr. Kennedy said on Fox News in July that he believes “autism does come from vaccines.” In his meetings with senators, he’s not shying away from his interest in studying the issue even though scientists have already conducted research finding no link between vaccines and autism. 

“He brought up the autism. In his age and his time, it was 1 in 10,000 kids had autism. One in 34 now, and 1 in 22 males,” Mr. Mullin said. “The only population base in the U.S. that you don’t see that, where they don’t have any autism at all, is Amish, and they give no vaccines. I’m not anti-vaccination. All my kids got vaccinated. But I don’t think there’s any problem with questioning it.” 

Mr. Trump during a press conference Monday said Mr. Kennedy would look into the reasons for rising autism rates. 

“There’s something wrong. And we’re going to find out about it,” the president-elect said.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, avoided a direct comment when asked about Mr. Kennedy linking vaccine use to autism. 

“I think all of us are committed to making sure that all these nominees get a fair process, and he’ll have an opportunity in the course of his meetings to answer those questions and in front of the committee of jurisdiction,” Mr. Thune said. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican and incoming chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the notion of a connection between vaccines and autism has already been debunked. 

“It’s not true. It’s been widely shown it’s not true,” he said. 

Mr. Cassidy has not met with Mr. Kennedy yet. Other senators who have yet to meet with the nominee said his views on vaccines will certainly come up in their conversations. 

“Where I haven’t satisfied for my own self that it’s just mischaracterization, I’m asking specific questions, particularly on the whole vaccine trajectory,” Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican who is scheduled to meet with Mr. Kennedy on Wednesday, told The Washington Times. 

Mr. Tillis and other senators also said they want to question Mr. Kennedy about his views on food and agriculture policies overseen by the Food and Drug Administration, which falls under HHS.

“It’s going to be really important for our farmers and ranchers that I have a chance to sit down and talk to him about the practical realities of what it takes to produce that food supply,” said Sen. John Hoeven, North Dakota Republican. “They’ve got to be able to use modern farming techniques. That involves a lot of things, not only really sophisticated equipment, but also fertilizers and pesticides and things like that.”

For example, Mr. Kennedy has previously expressed a desire to eliminate pesticides and end genetically modified foods. 

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said he would talk to Mr. Kennedy about his positions on food and agriculture — “pigs and [genetically modified organism] corn and that stuff” — but “they aren’t primary in my mind.” 

“Maybe he doesn’t have the right answers for me on that, but I know he’s going in and [plans to] shake up a department that needs to be shaken up,” he said. “And we have a mandate from the last election, and he fits well into that category.”

Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who already declared his support for Mr. Kennedy before meeting with him later this week, said he is not familiar with the nominee’s specific positions on GMOs, pesticides and other agricultural issues. 

“But I understand broadly that he’s got concerns about the things that Americans are ingesting and how that affects our health,” he said. “I think it’s good that he’s asking questions.”

One issue that Republicans surprisingly have little concern about is Mr. Kennedy’s pro-choice views on abortion. That’s because Mr. Kennedy has committed to putting his personal beliefs aside and following Mr. Trump’s lead when it comes to abortion policy. 

“What he said is that he’s serving at the will of the president of the United States, and he supports his policies on this. That’s good enough for me,” Mr. Mullin said. 

Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, said Mr. Kennedy gave him a “pretty clearly yes” when asked if he would overturn Biden administration policies related to abortion and implement pro-life protections Mr. Trump had in his first term. 

But Mr. Lankford said he still has more follow-up questions for Mr. Kennedy after their meeting. 

“Obviously, he’s made lots of comments over the years about lots of things,” he said, noting the confirmation process allows senators to clarify where the nominee stands on those issues now.

• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.

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