RFK Jr. has detoured from his vibrant life of falconry and brain worms and reportedly sexting with reporters to embark on a quest to become the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. On Wednesday, he appeared before members of the Senate Finance Committee for a confirmation hearing, which turned out to be a little raucous. He was grilled, obviously, on his past statements vehemently opposing vaccines. (At one point, Bernie Sanders displayed a visual of two anti-vax onesies he said Kennedy’s organization had sold and shouted, “Are you supportive of these onesies?”) But Kennedy also faced tough questions on abortion, the intricacies of the Medicaid system, and whether his opposition to industrial agriculture would hurt American farmers.
At one point, Thom Tillis—a Republican from North Carolina—straight up asked Kennedy if he’s a conspiracy theorist, and the nominee replied that it’s a “pejorative” term meant to keep him from “asking difficult questions of powerful interests.” Then RFK Jr. began explaining that Red Dye No. 3 causes cancer and fluoride lowers IQ before Tillis cut him off. During the hearing, RFK Jr. suggested that an AI nurse developed by the Cleveland Clinic has the same diagnostic capabilities as human doctors. He discussed his history of heroin addiction, railed against SNAP benefits going toward sugary drinks, and echoed president Trump’s belief that “every abortion is a tragedy” while seeming open to Republican efforts to restrict abortion medication. A lot of the hearing was dry—Kennedy’s thoughts on pharmacy benefit managers, or dual eligibility for Medicaid and Medicare—but several moments were pretty off-the-wall. Here’s a roundup.
“Lyme Disease is highly likely a militarily engineered bioweapon”
.@SenatorBennet to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: “Unlike other jobs were confirming around this place, this is a job where it is life and death…it’s too important for the games that you’re playing Mr. Kennedy.” pic.twitter.com/VQZlA26o2V
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 29, 2025
Kennedy’s most difficult exchange was perhaps with Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, who asked about various alarming statements the nominee had made: that Covid was a “genetically engineered bioweapon that targets Black and white people but spares Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people,” that Lyme disease is “highly likely a militarily engineered bioweapon,” and that “exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender.” Kennedy did not rebut these claims with particular force. (“I didn’t say it was deliberately targeted,” he said about Covid. “I probably did say that,” he replied about Lyme. And while he denied the thing about pesticides, Bennet claimed to have receipts.) We are “truly through the looking glass this morning in the US Senate,” Bennet said, referring to someone with RFK Jr.’s beliefs being nominated for one of the most important health-care jobs in America.
Should Americans who take antidepressants be “sent to wellness farms”?
Tina Smith, Democrat from Minnesota, used much of her allotted time to interrogate RFK Jr. about his past statements on mental health—including his suggestion that school shootings are caused by antidepressants, and that Americans who take antidepressants are “addicts who need to be sent to wellness farms to recover.” In response, Kennedy said that Americans shouldn’t be compelled to go to wellness camps—they shouldn’t be sent “kicking and screaming”—but that such opportunities should be available, since getting off of antidepressants can be worse than heroin withdrawal. Smith countered that she has personal experience with antidepressants—they made her life better—and it’s his job to expand people’s healthcare options, not “spread lies and misinformation.”
Warnock presses him on “Nazi death camps”
Warnock: You have compared the CDC’s work to Nazi death camps. You’ve compared it to sexual abusers in the catholic church.
RFK JR: I never said it.
Warnock: Actually, I have a transcript. pic.twitter.com/d56nFEdbO8
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 29, 2025
“Mr. Kennedy, you have compared the CDC’s work to Nazi death camps,” said Raphael Warnock, Democrat from Georgia—home state of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “You’ve compared it to sexual abusers in the Catholic Church. You’ve also said that many of them belong—and this is a direct quote—‘many of them belong in jail.’” He called these “disturbing characterizations” of the CDC workers he represents, who are trying to keep the American public safe. RFK Jr. denied ever comparing the CDC to Nazi death camps, so Warnock pulled out a transcript to read from it directly. “Yeah, I was not comparing the CDC to Nazi death camps, I was comparing the injury rate to our children to other atrocities,” was the best explanation RFK Jr. could concoct. Warnock looked bug-eyed. “It sounds like you stand by those statements,” he said.
Senator Hassan asks about reproductive rights
Maggie Hassan, Democrat from New Hampshire, made a sneaky attack on RFK Jr.’s shifting stance on abortion rights. After blasting his “endorsement of radical fringe conspiracies” on vaccines, she shifted to “something we agree upon”: a woman’s right to choose. She presented him with a series of stridently pro-choice statements he’d made—that “it’s not the government’s place to tell people what to do with their bodies,” that “we need to trust women to make that choice”—then praised his “long record of fighting for women’s reproductive freedom.” Of course, it was a setup: “The question is, do you stand for that value or not?” she said. “When was it that you decided to sell out the values you’ve had your whole life in order to be given power by president Trump?” RFK Jr. retreated into his standard line, repeated throughout the hearing: That he agrees with the president that every abortion is a tragedy. She followed up, and he simply said it again.
RFK Jr. expresses compassion for farmers
“Something is poisoning the American people,” Kennedy told Roger Marshall, Republican from Kansas, “and we know that the primary culprit is our changing food supply, the switch to highly chemical-intensive processed foods.” Railing against McDonald’s french fries and Froot Loops “loaded with food dyes,” he said the United States needs to “fix our food supply” to combat chronic disease. Marshall—who represents oodles of Kansas farmers—looked like he’d swallowed a balloon. He invited the nominee to “take a second to share your compassion” for farmers and ranchers who merely “grow what the market is wanting them to grow.” Instead of saying that American obesity is not the fault of our patriotic farmers, RFK Jr. expressed alarm at disease clusters in farm country—implying that they’re a result of agricultural chemicals—then accused farmers of destroying the soil.
RFK Jr. looks shaky on Medicaid
There were a lot of splashy back-and-forths—on Nazi death camps and antidepressant recovery farms—but perhaps the most revealing of the day was with Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a former physician who’s one of RFK Jr.’s shakiest Republican votes. Cassidy has seemed spooked by Kennedy’s wackier medical beliefs, but he used his five minutes to ask a series of quite technical questions about how Medicare and Medicaid work. RFK Jr. seemed befuddled; he stumbled over words, failed to offer specifics, and at times seemed to confuse Medicaid and Medicare. Cassidy seemed fairly unimpressed.