President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services met with at least 10 Republican senators Monday and Tuesday, defending his views on vaccine safety and abortion to a largely friendly list of GOP lawmakers.
Many senators remain mum about whether they would support Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and say they are waiting for the Senate confirmation hearing, which is likely to take place in the new year. But Kennedy told CQ Roll Call he feels “hopeful” about his confirmation process.
GOP senators appeared assured by Kennedy’s private comments about abortion, which he previously said he supported, as well as modern agricultural practices, which he has criticized.
“He is very supportive of what the president’s positions are on [abortion],” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., referring to his conversation with Kennedy Tuesday. Lankford said Kennedy understands Trump’s desire to have “a pro-life administration.”
Kennedy’s first series of meetings was with senators expected to vote in favor of his confirmation, including Lankford, incoming Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Rick Scott of Florida, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
He’s scheduled to meet with Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Thom Tillis of North Carolina on Wednesday and staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Thursday.
Meetings with senators considered harder to win over, like incoming Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Susan Collins of Maine have not yet been scheduled.
Collins said they would likely meet in January and she won’t “prejudge him” because “I’ve never even met him,” but added that she has voted against presidential nominees in the past.
“I’ve always given a lot of deference to the president’s choices, because I believe, in general, the president should be able to assemble his own team, but I have voted against a few of them in the past, and we’ll see what happens,” she said.
Thune was noncommittal when asked about Kennedy’s vaccine views but promised a “fair process.”
“He’ll have an opportunity through the course of these meetings to answer those questions in front of the committee of jurisdiction,” Thune said of Kennedy’s vaccine-skeptical statements. “Those things are all going to be part of the confirmation process. I would expect the nominee to have answers to those questions.”
Vaccines
Mullin was optimistic following his meeting Monday with Kennedy, adding he got to know him well during the Trump campaign. He said they had already had “really deep conversations” prior to their meeting Monday. They discussed vaccines and addiction issues.
“He brought up autism, and in his age and his time, it was one in 10,000 kids had autism,” said Mullin, adding that those rates have changed significantly since then. The only U.S. population that doesn’t “have any autism at all is Amish, and they give no vaccines,” he said.
But this is not true. Studies have documented that cases of autism spectrum disorder in Amish communities are similar to the general population, despite varying rates of vaccine uptake.
Florida Sen. Scott said after his meeting with Kennedy on Monday that he plans to vote in favor of Kennedy’s nomination. He said they both want more transparency in health care so that people can make “informed decisions.”
“I think he wants to create transparency with vaccines, which I agree with,” Scott said. “He wants to make the industry something that we can afford, but really the most important thing is his focus on keeping people healthy.”
Scott told reporters after the meeting that while the two discussed transparency around vaccines, they didn’t specifically discuss the polio vaccine. The New York Times reported last week that Kennedy’s lawyer had previously petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of the vaccine for polio, a disease that can cause paralysis and death in young children.
“We need to know exactly with all vaccines what has been the research and do they work? And what’s your risk? Like what you should know as a human, if you were going to get a vaccine yourself,” Scott said.
Tuberville, who supports Kennedy’s nomination, said Kennedy shares his concerns about giving children too many vaccines.
“He and I both grew up, and we have three vaccines — tuberculosis, polio and smallpox,” he said. “And that’s how much it’s grown. … Now we get dozens and dozens,” Tuberville said. “At the end of the day, he doesn’t believe that we all need to be guinea pigs, that we need to find out that it actually worked first.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday that he hadn’t yet met with Kennedy. Responding to Trump’s comments Monday on rising autism rates, Paul said there needs to be more research into what’s contributing to the increase.
“It’s unknown as to what the cause is,” he said. “I know a lot of parents with kids with autism, and frankly, we don’t know what causes it, but we certainly should keep looking.”
While a study in 1998 suggested a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) and autism spectrum disorder, that study was later retracted and the author was banned from practicing medicine because of falsified information. Numerous subsequent studies have since debunked any link between vaccinations and autism spectrum disorder.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has yet to meet with Kennedy but said she has questions about preserving access to vaccines given the recent measles outbreak in her state.
“As a parent, I want to make sure that we have the benefits of modern medicine,” Murkowski said last week when asked about Kennedy.
Abortion
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said she will ask Kennedy about abortion when she meets with him this week.
“One of the questions I will be asking him is obviously the preservation of the Hyde Amendment,” said Britt, referring to an annual appropriations rider that prohibits federal spending on abortion in most circumstances. “That’s very important to me.”
Scott of South Carolina said in an Instagram post Monday that he discussed preventing federally funded abortion during his meeting with Kennedy that evening.
Tuberville, meanwhile, told reporters he pressed Kennedy on his history of supporting abortion rights during their meeting Tuesday. The Alabama Republican said Kennedy agrees with Trump that abortion should be a states’ issue, and the two men did not discuss abortion pill regulation.
Other policy issues
Marshall, meanwhile, was one of the few senators who said he discussed health care delivery with Kennedy. The Kansas Republican and Kennedy discussed access to primary care and the work Marshall has done with Cassidy and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to expand access to community health centers.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” Marshall said after the meeting.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, wants to talk to Kennedy about genetically modified organisms and the corn industry. Kennedy has said seed oils, like canola, are unhealthy and the U.S. should turn to other fat sources, like beef tallow. Kennedy also opposes genetically modified organisms, which could disrupt the agriculture industry.
Grassley’s state is one of the biggest corn producers in the country and its economy relies on agriculture.
“If you’re going to feed 9 billion people on the face of this Earth, genetics is how it’s going to stop the starvation. I want him to understand that,” Grassley said of his upcoming meeting with Kennedy. “I am more concerned about what he is going to do about shaking up the department. He might not give me the answers I want on those subjects, but I’m more concerned about people who are going to help me with my constitutional role of oversight.”
Tuberville said that agriculture and food safety came up in his meeting with Kennedy.
“He understands our farmers are in trouble,” Tuberville said. “We want to make sure that we have farmers that can make a living.”
Responding to a reporter’s question, Tuberville said Kennedy doesn’t want to do away with high fructose corn syrup, but he wants to crack down on ultraprocessed foods.
Walking into his meeting with Tuberville Tuesday afternoon, Kennedy gave minimal details about his conversations but told reporters that his meetings so far have been “really productive.”
Responding to a reporter’s question, Kennedy said he would meet with Democrats but didn’t say which ones.
Caitlin Reilly contributed to this report.
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