U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine called Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a “danger” in a floor speech opposing President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next health and human services secretary.
Given his longstanding anti-vaccine stances, Kennedy initially was among the Trump nominees who looked like the most difficult to confirm. But he won over key Republicans including U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. The Senate has paved the way for his confirmation as soon as this week.
King lambasted Kennedy as “anti-qualified” for the job Wednesday evening on the Senate floor. He sarcastically described the nominee’s rejection of the anti-vaccine label as a “miraculous conversion” after he said in a 2023 podcast that vaccines are “inherently unsafe.”
“This is really a kind of surreal debate, because everybody in this chamber knows this man should not be secretary of health and human services,” King said.
With the backing of Trump, Kennedy has said he is “uniquely positioned” to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health. He has long criticized those agencies and vowed to fire 600 NIH employees last year.
Collins sidestepped many of his controversial stances in announcing her support for his nomination, noting that he has vowed to reexamine research funding cuts. During his confirmation hearing, she secured his commitment to help MaineHealth in its effort to develop a Lyme disease vaccine.
“He seemed to understand the concerns that I was raising about … what it would mean for more very important ongoing biomedical research including clinical trials,” Collins told CNN’s Manu Raju.
Last month, more than 15,000 physicians signed a letter, calling on the Senate to reject Kennedy’s nomination, including 150 in Maine.
“RFK Jr. has claimed with zero evidence that vaccines are tied to autism, despite evidence conveyed through studies over decades that have disproven such a claim,” Dr. Jay Maliboff, a retired OBGYN, said in January.
The Associated Press and BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.
