Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for health secretary, continued his meetings with Republican lawmakers on Tuesday to ease concerns over his record as an anti-vaccine activist who has supported abortion access.
This week, Mr. Kennedy is expected to meet with more than 20 senators, many of them receptive to his case to run the Health and Human Services Department. On Monday, he held sessions with Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, one of his most enthusiastic backers, and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who said in a post on X that the two had a “productive discussion” about the nation’s health care system.
Mr. Trump on Monday told reporters that Mr. Kennedy was “much less radical than you would think.”
“I think he’s got a very open mind or I wouldn’t have put him there,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “He’s going to be very much less radical.”
There were signs that Mr. Kennedy was working to align himself with, or at least accommodate, anti-abortion Republicans, after former Vice President Mike Pence called on Republican senators to reject Mr. Kennedy over his past support for abortion rights.
Mr. Kennedy said during his presidential campaign that abortion should be unrestricted until “the baby is viable outside the womb,” and that he would “allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy.”
Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who met with Mr. Kennedy on Monday, said that Mr. Kennedy had promised to “support the Trump pro-life agenda.”
Mr. Scott noted that he had discussed “preventing taxpayer-funded abortion” with Mr. Kennedy. But he declined to endorse Mr. Kennedy’s selection, a sign that Mr. Kennedy may have to do more to persuade different factions of the Republican conference.
“President Trump won a sweeping victory and should have the latitude to choose the cabinet he feels will best serve the American people,” Mr. Scott said. “I look forward to learning more and further considering his nomination during his upcoming confirmation hearing.”
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