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WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate on Thursday morning approved Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Health and Human Services Department, marking another victory for one of President Donald Trump’s controversial cabinet picks.
Lawmakers voted to confirm Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer and son of Robert F. Kennedy, on a 52-48 vote. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell joined all Senate Democrats in voting against the nominee.
Kennedy has for months faced scrutiny for his past statements and support for anti-vaccine causes. He has long promoted misinformation about vaccines and is a founder of Children’s Health Defense, a vaccine skeptic group — though he stepped away from the nonprofit in 2023. The nominee’s history of vaccine skepticism prompted some in Congress to worry that he might challenge the safety or efficacy of immunizations as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Those concerns bubbled to the surface during Kennedy’s January nomination hearing in the Senate Committee on Finance, where Democrats demanded that he answer for his past statements on vaccines as well as his views about the origins of illnesses such as Lyme disease, measles and polio.
The nominee, for his part, insisted that he was anti-vaccine, telling lawmakers that he supported immunizations for measles and polio and said that if confirmed he would not do anything “that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking them.”
He also rejected charges that he was a conspiracy theorist, calling the term a “pejorative” that had been leveled against him because he was asking “difficult questions of powerful interests.”
Ultimately, worries about Kennedy’s views on what experts view as settled medical science were not enough to sway crucial Republican votes for the nominee. In a Wednesday post on X, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said that she would support his nomination, framing her decision as part of an effort to bring down the cost of health care.
“This is the appeal of RFK, and many Alaskans have shared that view with me,” she wrote. “Chronic conditions are a significant source of illness and major drivers of public debt: he recognizes this and is committed to addressing it.”
Murkowski acknowledged that she still had concerns about Kennedy’s views on vaccines and scientific studies, but that he had made “numerous commitments” to her that he would work with Congress to maintain public access to vaccine information and to base vaccine recommendations on “data-driven, evidence based and medically sound research.”
Kennedy has a long history of questioning the efficacy of vaccines. During a 2023 appearance on the Lex Fridman Show podcast, he argued that no vaccines are “safe and effective.” He has since argued that his comments were taken out of context, and that he would have added that some people are sensitive to certain vaccines.
The nominee also participated in a 2021 petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration demanding that the agency block access to the Covid-19 vaccine. But Kennedy has also defended this move, saying he signed onto the petition after the Centers for Disease Control recommended the vaccine for children as young as 6.
Experts largely agree that the Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective.
Kennedy, now confirmed, is the latest Trump nominee to survive a Senate vote despite initial bipartisan skepticism. Lawmakers on Wednesday approved former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence — rising above concerns from senators about the one-time presidential candidate’s views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and her 2017 meeting with then-Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Senate last month also approved former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense. Hegseth faced a similar path to confirmation, with lawmakers on both sides at first expressing concern about his past comments on women in the military and charges of alcohol abuse. The Republican holdouts, however, eventually fell in line to back Hegseth.
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