RFK Jr. Proved Himself Out of His Depth—Even Under Friendly Republican Questioning

Democratic senators took turns on Wednesday hammering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his extreme, conspiracy-addled views on vaccines and other health matters. But one of the most revealing exchanges during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee was with Republican Bill Cassidy, a physician who has not indicated whether he would support Donald Trump’s controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

For much of the hearing, RFK Jr., a peddler of junk science whose own family has publicly warned about his character and conduct, often fell back on platitudes about setting aside political divisions “for the sake of a healthier America.” But when Cassidy asked him simple questions about Medicaid reform, Trump’s nominee stumbled and stammered, struggling to respond in any substantive way. “Medicaid is not working for Americans,” Kennedy said.

“What reforms would you recommend?” Cassidy repeatedly asked him. The most specific response Kennedy could muster was: “There are many things we can do.”

As the Democratic members persistently stressed, Kennedy is profoundly unqualified to serve in one of the most consequential health roles in the United States. He has made a lucrative career pushing dangerous medical conspiracy theories. He has, like President Trump and some of his nominees, faced sexual misconduct allegations. And Kennedy has engaged in erratic conduct that raises further questions about his judgment and capacity to serve.

But Cassidy’s questioning, which came early in Wednesday’s hearing, made clear that Kennedy is also an emperor with no clothes—a man who is not only deeply cynical but completely out of his depth.

Some Democrats did better than others in establishing that dynamic. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was a standout, as she pressed him to commit to not taking any money from drug companies or from lawsuits against drug companies—something he would not do. Kennedy “can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it,” Warren said at the conclusion of the fiery exchange. “Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in.”

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont progressive, also got a telling answer out of Kennedy when he asked him to simply answer yes or no to whether he views health care as a human right. Maybe not, Kennedy suggested, because, “If you smoke cigarettes for 20 years and you get cancer, you are now taking from the pool.”

These lines of questioning cut through Kennedy’s efforts to cast himself as a protector of the common good. “The first thing I’ve done every morning for the past 20 years is get on my knees and pray to God that He would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic,” he claimed in his opening statement. The more specific the question, the more directly it related to the potential consequences of his leadership, the more Kennedy flailed.

It was a bizarre hearing, fitting for one of Trump’s bizarrest nominees. Sitting before the committee in a narrow tie and gray suit, with his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, sitting behind him, Kennedy testified for more than three hours about everything from his views on abortion—which are, of course, all over the map—to his role in a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019. (“You will not find a single Samoan who said I did not get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy,” he claimed at one point.) He could be heard breathing heavily into the microphone throughout. And the proceedings, which came a day after Caroline Kennedy warned senators in a letter that her cousin is a “predator,” were disrupted at a few points by jeering protesters. Supporters in the room applauded several of his answers and cheered him as the meeting adjourned.

Democrats registered their agreement with Kennedy about the brokenness of the American health care system (“We spend the most and get the least,” Senator Peter Welch told Kennedy) before skewering his lack of substantive ideas to reform it and demonstrating how his leadership atop HHS could in fact worsen it. “The fact that you find it difficult to answer basic questions,” said Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, “is deeply troubling to me.”

Republicans on the committee, meanwhile, were almost uniformly friendly to Kennedy, portraying him as a man who simply believes kids should eat their vegetables and that the cost of health care is too damn high. Of course, that’s a wildly incomplete and misleading accounting of his beliefs—one that whitewashes the fringe claims he could soon inject into America’s top health department.

Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the committee, made it quite clear in his opening statement that Kennedy “should not be entrusted with the health and well-being of the American people.” Indeed, to confirm Kennedy to such a key post would be among the Republicans’ most shameful capitulations to Trump. And yet, at least in his first hearing, they gave little indication they would consider bucking their leader. “I have no doubt that you will be confirmed,” Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn told Kennedy, “and you are going to do such a solid job for the people of this country.”