Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Urging Senate Republicans To Reject Conspiracy Theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As Secretary Of Health And Human Services
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to warn of the dangers of confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, emphasizing that his confirmation would endanger public health, undermine vaccine science, threaten access to affordable healthcare, and serve only to advance Donald Trump’s extreme agenda. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Unfortunately, and sadly, we are witnessing an alarming abdication of duty from Republicans here in the Senate.
The job of the Senate, when it comes to nominees, is very simple: when a nominee is obviously qualified and experienced, we should consider them seriously – even if we don’t agree with their political views or ultimately vote for them.
But when a nominee comes before the Senate who is obviously unqualified, who is obviously fringe, whose views are obviously detrimental to the wellbeing of the American people, Senators have a duty to reject them and to tell the president to send us someone better.
We were faced with one such nominee earlier today in Tulsi Gabbard, and now we are faced with one such nominee right now.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not remotely qualified to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.
In fact, I might go further. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be one of the least qualified people the president could have chosen for the job.
It’s almost as if Mr. Kennedy’s beliefs, history, and background were tailor-made to be the exact opposite of what the job demands.
A few weeks ago, it seemed like maybe Senate Republicans would have drawn the line on nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard.
But the past few days have been a stunning capitulation by Senate Republicans. At this point they’re just rubber-stamping people, no matter how fringe they are.
If the Senate had a secret ballot, I bet you that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would never have come close to confirmation.
His unfitness for the job is simply too obvious and too glaring.
HHS is an agency that depends on science, on evidence, and impartiality to ensure the wellbeing of over 330 million Americans.
HHS ensures we eat safe food, purchase reliable medications, oversees Medicare benefits, and approves the use of life-saving vaccines.
Most importantly, a good HHS Secretary makes sure the American people have access to affordable, high quality health care.
Mr. Kennedy, unfortunately, is not qualified to oversee any of these things.
He is neither a doctor nor a scientist nor a public health expert nor a policy expert of any kind.
If Mr. Kennedy is confirmed, given that lack of background, it’s my deep fear that he will rubber stamp Donald Trump’s war against health care.
That means we will see more of the disastrous funding cuts of the past few weeks.
That means people will lose health coverage.
That means the interests of for-profit corporations and big pharma will come before the needs of working Americans.
Now, when I saw Mr. Kennedy and asked him certain views, like on abortion, he said, "well, I'm going to defer to the president." On something as personal, as heartfelt, as talked over within ourselves – even as abortion – he will follow the whims, the wishes of the president?
Well then, how do we know he won't do it on everything else? Even in the places he might try to tell someone – like in an interview – that he is different from the president, how do we know he will not just follow the president, given he said that on one of the most fundamental views a person can hold?
I'm so troubled by this nomination.
Already, as we have seen, community health centers across the country have been locked out of the funding they need to serve their patients.
And I fear it will get worse under RFK Jr.’s watch.
Already, the CDC has gutted valuable public health care data from its websites, before the courts stepped in.
As we speak, DOGE has basically hacked into the payment data of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which tens of millions of people rely on for secure benefits. I fear all of that will get worse, worse, under RFK Jr.’s watch.
Now, it would be bad enough that a vote to confirm RFK Jr. is a vote to weaken America’s health care system.
But it gets even worse when you remember that a vote for RFK Jr. is also a vote to elevate a conspiracy theorist to the top health care job in the country.
Mr. Kennedy has made a living not by promoting public health, but by actively fighting it.
RFK is the face of the modern anti-vaccine movement.
He has spent decades profiting off vaccine misinformation, undermining public trust in a medical practice that has saved tens of millions of lives – if not hundreds of millions or more – for more than a century.
We need to take a moment to truly reckon with the dangers of putting a vaccine skeptic in charge of HHS.
Simply put, weakening vaccine standards could mean more people will die. More people will die.
A vaccine skeptic in charge of HHS could defund vaccine awareness campaigns that are led by organizations like the CDC.
A vaccine skeptic in charge of HHS could reshape the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Board, and alter which kinds of vaccines are required to be covered by insurance companies.
A vaccine skeptic in charge of HHS would make our schools less safe.
If fewer kids are required to be vaccinated against things like measles, the result will be sicker classrooms across America.
A vaccine skeptic in charge of HHS could weaken protections for vaccine and drug makers form frivolous lawsuits.
These are just some of the dangers that come with putting a vaccine skeptic in charge of American‘s health care policy. It will set American healthcare back dramatically.
Of course, during his hearings, RFK Jr. tried to run away from his fringe views.
We heard the usual excuses you might expect from a nominee forced to answer for his terrible record.
He suggested that perhaps he was misquoted here and there, or that he had been misunderstood, or that he never meant to come across as anti-vaccine at all, and that of course he would follow the science.
Well, give me a break.
Are Senators supposed to believe that someone who has spent decades writing books and giving speeches and making trips around the world undermining vaccines has suddenly had this epiphany and come around on vaccines?
That suddenly, now that he has been nominated to lead HHS, he is fully on board with vaccines and that we have nothing to worry about when it comes to his views?
How convenient. Again – give me a break.
We should look less at RFK Jr.’s eleventh-hour conversion, and instead examine the things he has said again and again, going back decades.
We should look at the way RFK Jr. has used his powerful platform to spread misinformation for years.
Like in 2023, not very long ago, when Mr. Kennedy went on Fox News and said “I do believe autism does come from vaccines.”
When Mr. Kennedy gave a speech at a conference linking the CDC vaccine division to “fascism.”
Or like in 2021, when he said on a podcast that “Our job is to resist and to talk about [vaccines] to everyone. If I see someone on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, ‘Better not get vaccinated.’”
And, of course, you could read Mr. Kennedy’s numerous books against vaccines.
Like the one claiming that parents have been “misled” on the measles vaccine.
Or you could go to the online store of one of his anti-vaccine groups and check out the merchandise they sell for kids
Like the onesie that that says “unvaxxed and unafraid.” A little onesie, for a little one, putting this propaganda on him or her.
This last example is pretty revealing.
Because it’s not just that Mr. Kennedy embraces pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.
It’s that he has in fact profited off spreading misinformation.
He’s been involved with no fewer than five lawsuits filed by anti-vaccine groups against drug companies.
In fact, his primary source of income from the past year came from the fees he collected by referring clients to a civil lawsuit against vaccines.
And by the way, he didn’t originally disclose those connections to ethics officials.
Worse, he refused to give up his financial stake in any settlement agreement that comes from one of these lawsuits.
That is stunning.
That means right now, Republicans are on the brink of confirming a nominee to HHS who will be in charge of vaccine regulations in America, and who, at the same time, stands to benefit financially from lawsuits against vaccines.
Well, Donald Trump says he wants to get rid of the swamp, this is a textbook definition of the swamp.
To benefit from lawsuits against vaccines, while you’re HHS Secretary and have power over which vaccines are needed and how they are distributed and talked about to the American people.
Now, let me repeat what I said a few weeks earlier: it fills me with such sadness, as well as a great deal of frustration and even anger.
A few weeks ago, it seemed like maybe Senate Republicans would have drawn the line on nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard.
But, unfortunately and again sadly, the past few days have been a stunning capitulation by Senate Republicans.
If the Senate had a secret ballot, I’ll bet you that Tulsi Gabbard would have got fewer than ten votes, and that Robert F. Kennedy would not have come close to confirmation.
My guess is a majority of the party on the other side would have voted against him as well. As are all of us.
But instead, Donald Trump is tightening his vice grip even further on Senate Republicans.
What we are witnessing is leadership form one branch of government withering under pressure from another, even to the point of confirming dangerously unfit individuals to positions of immense responsibility.
My Republican colleagues should think very carefully before they roll the dice on Mr. Kennedy.
But there is a very serious risk that, if confirmed, Mr. Kennedy will take steps that severely undermine public health, and then sooner or later, public backlash is going to build and Republicans will have wished they didn’t sign their names to this troubling nominee.
So I implore my Republican colleagues, reject the nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of HHS.
There are certainly better individuals for the job, even if many on our side may not agree with them politically.
But a vote to confirm Mr. Kennedy is a vote to make America sicker.
It’s a vote to let pseudoscience dictate health care policy.
It’s a vote that will endanger the lives of the American people.
And it is a vote I truly believe many, many Republicans will eventually deeply regret.
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