Padilla asked Patel whether he thought background checks for firearms purchases were constitutional.
“I don’t know the in-depth of it but I think that’s what the Supreme Court has said,” Patel responded.
Patel added that “I can say whatever … the Supreme Court ruled is the rule of the land,” but said he wasn’t an expert on state laws and that universal background checks were “different.”
Padilla also asked whether Patel thought civilian ownership of machine guns was protected by the Second Amendment.
“Whatever the courts rule in regards to the Second Amendment is what is protected by the Second Amendment,” Patel said.
“Do you think a warrant requirement is a practical and workable, or even necessary, element of 702?” the lawmaker asked the FBI director nominee.
Citing his law enforcement and intelligence background, Patel said 702 facilitated a large amount of the intelligence that goes into the President’s Daily Brief, a top-secret document from the director of national intelligence outlining major threats and other sensitive matters.
“The issue, for me, is not with FISA and 702, the issue has been those that have been in government service and abused it in the past,” Patel said, calling on Congress to develop better protections for Americans. He said a warrant requirement would undermine efforts to keep Americans safe.
“As I've said before, that President Biden was certified and sworn in, and he was the president,” Patel told Welch at one point.
Welch responded in part by stating that “the other way to say it is he won.”
Later in their exchange, Welch asked Patel whether he could explicitly say that Biden won the election. Patel again responded that Biden was the president of the United States, which Welch said was different than saying Biden actually won.
When Welch asked whether the election was stolen, Patel said, “Millions of Americans expressed concern going back to multiple elections over election integrity.”
“Absolutely, senator,” Patel responded. “Child sex trafficking has no place in the United States of America, and I will do everything if confirmed as FBI director to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened in the past.”
Patel said he wanted his testimony to be released but that he couldn’t discuss the details.
Booker disagreed and said the law didn’t bind witnesses like himself to secrecy.
On Wednesday, Senate Democrats sent a letter to the Department of Justice, asking the agency to release the second volume of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report that pertained to Patel.
Kennedy replied that he intends to “make America healthier than other countries in the world.”
“Right now, we’re the sickest.”
He went on to suggest that Sanders and other members of the committee were allowing their financial interests to influence their positions on public health policy.
“You know, the problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies. It’s in Congress too,” Kennedy said. “Almost all the members of this panel are accepting—including yourself—are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, protecting their interests.”
Sanders interjected to assert that he received “millions of contributions” to his 2020 presidential campaign, but “not one nickel” came from pharmaceutical company executives.“They came from workers,” he said.
Kennedy fired back, saying that the senator was the single largest recipient of pharmaceutical money in 2020.
Sanders reiterated that the donations came from workers, not companies.
“Spike the Vax, order this homerun kit to rid your body of the harms of the vax,” he wrote in a Feb. 27 post to Truth Social.
In another, he wrote, “Mrna detox, reverse the vaxx n get healthy with @warrioressentials.”
When Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) asked whether Patel made money from promoting the supplements, Patel responded with another question.
“Senator, do you know of any individuals who died as a result of complications from the vaccine? Because I do,” he said.
In an exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patel suggested his promotion of the supplement was a way of offering people an opportunity to do something good for their families.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Klobuchar also pressed Patel on a statement he made about shutting down the FBI headquarters. During an interview on the “Shawn Ryan Show” in September 2024, Patel said he wanted to shut down the FBI Hoover Building and reopen it “as a museum of the deep state.”
In an exchange with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Patel said that he was trying to “highlight” a “significantly greater point” about the number of FBI employees who work in Washington. He went on to say that he was committed to having the workforce in Washington “go out into the interior of the country … and work with sheriff's departments and local officers.”
Coons responded: “If that had been your statement, that would be something that would be defensible. It's the rest of it, saying you're going to turn it into a museum of the deep state that causes repeated questions and concerns from people like myself.”
Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has inched one step closer to being the White House budget chief.
Following a closed Jan. 30 meeting, Senate Budget Committee Republicans voted 11–0 in favor of Vought’s nomination. His nomination will now be sent to the Senate floor in the coming days.
Democrats on the panel boycotted the vote, criticizing their Republican colleagues for not making the meeting accessible to the public.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), flanked by Democratic lawmakers, urged Vought to return to the committee “to give the American people some honest answers.”
“I fully support the committee’s decision not to participate in this sham process,” Schumer said.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, said Vought “is dangerously unfit” to serve at the OMB and “a threat to democracy.”
“This nomination is so troubling that certainly the discussion between the public, between members of the committee should be held in public, and we should benefit from each other’s concerns and perspectives before a vote is held,” Merkley said.
According to Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), the U.S. public was “left out of the room.”
“That’s only going to create more chaos and more confusion,” he said.
“What are they trying to hide? What are they afraid [of]?” Sen. Alexa Padilla (D-Calif.) said. “And so yes, we are here in this room today because this kind of behavior cannot be business as usual.”
Leading up to the committee’s vote, Democratic lawmakers urged Republicans to postpone it.
“We have a constitutional crisis,” Merkley said.
“I am urging the Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fellow appropriator, to hold Russ Vought’s nomination that’s supposed to occur this Thursday,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking Democrat member on the Appropriations Committee, said at a Jan. 29 press conference. “Republicans should not advance that nomination out of committee until the Trump administration follows the law.”
Power of the Purse
Their objection to Vought’s nomination emanates from the controversy surrounding the power of the purse.
Matthew Vaeth, acting OMB director, released a memo on Jan. 27 ordering a freeze on all federal programs and grants to allow agencies ample time to review programs and determine whether they comply with the president’s agenda.
The memo was challenged by nonprofit organizations, and a federal judge imposed an injunction to block the move.
The OMB later rescinded the memo.
“OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have any questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel,” Vaeth said in a new memo issued on Jan. 29.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) celebrated the reversal.
“It’s a long war,” Schumer said. “This may be a small victory, but it’s a long war, and we’ve still got to fight it.”
However, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed on social media platform X that it was “not a rescission of the federal funding freeze” but “simply a recission of the OMB memo.”
“The President’s EO’s [executive orders] on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented,” Leavitt said.
Impounding congressionally approved funding has been a primary subject of discussion during Vought’s two confirmation hearings.
Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee expressed concern that Vought would abandon the Impoundment Control Act—a 1974 law that prevents presidents from withholding funds that Congress had appropriated—because he considers it unconstitutional.
“No, I don’t believe it’s constitutional,” Vought told Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) during a confirmation hearing earlier this month. “The president ran on that view. That’s his view, and I agree.”
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8–7, along party lines, on Jan. 20 to move Vought’s nomination to the Senate floor. However, the Senate Budget Committee then needed to hold its own confirmation hearing and vote.
“American kids did not suddenly get gluttonous and lazy. Something is poisoning them, and we need to figure that out, and then we need to end those exposures,” Kennedy told Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
Banks had noted that 70 percent of American youth are ineligible to serve in the U.S. military, partly due to their weight.
Kennedy said the nation now has a unique opportunity to address that problem under the Trump administration.
“And we know what we have to do,” he said. “We have to study the additives.
“We have to end the conflicts of interest on the nutrition panels and on the drug panels that are loaded with people who have … corrupt entanglements with the industries they’re supposed to regulate that have turned these agencies into sock puppets for the industries they’re supposed to regulate.”
Kennedy added that the new administration is attracting top talent to achieve those goals, “not because they want the position, but because they actually want to change things and give us gold-standard science and make America healthy.”
He cautioned, however, against treating new “miracle” GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy as the first line of intervention for childhood obesity.
“They have all kinds of bad side effects,” he said, noting that they can “eat away” at muscle mass.
The memo was retracted in 2023.
“I have no interest, no desire, and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,” Patel replied. “There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken by any FBI, should I be confirmed as the FBI director.”
Kennedy vowed to rescind a policy that requires health providers to offer gender transition treatments to transgender children.
He also said he would follow President Donald Trump’s policy on the abortion drug mifepristone. On Wednesday, Kennedy said that Trump had asked him to study the drug’s safety.
The nominee also promised to bar Title X funding for programs that provide or promote abortion. Under the Biden administration, such funding—meant for family planning programs—was denied to states that refused to refer patients for abortions.
She said that she did not get any concessions from him.
One of the reforms includes requiring warrants for surveillance, including for Americans. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows for the intelligence community to collect information on non-American citizens abroad. Gabbard acknowledged that it is up to Congress to pass these reforms.
Gabbard said she would also seek reform for security clearances “to limit access to our nation’s secrets.”
Paul, coming to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s defense, said vaccinations should not be treated as “one size fits all.”
“The reason you have distrust from people at home, why they don’t believe anything you say, they don’t believe government at all, is you’re telling my kid to take a hepatitis B vaccine when he’s one day old,” Paul, an ophthalmologist, said in response to comments Cassidy had made.
Paul noted that hepatitis B is contracted through drug use and sexual activity, “but you're telling me my kid has to take it at one day old. That’s not science.”
Cassidy, however, said that a mother’s hepatitis B status is not always known at the time of her child’s birth.
“A vaccine on day one of life prevents chronic hepatitis B 95 percent of the time,” he said. “So, it really depends upon ... the knowledge of the mother’s hepatitis B status.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) noted Gabbard’s past comments in support of Snowden, in which she called him “brave” and said the charges against Snowden should be dropped.
“I cannot imagine a director of national intelligence that would say that kind of behavior is okay,” Warner said.
Kennedy, reiterating a response he gave to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), said he would accept that as true if shown those studies.
“That is a very troubling response because the studies are there,” Sanders replied. “Your job was to have looked at those studies as an applicant for this job.”
The senator then pressed Kennedy on why he filed a lawsuit seeking the revocation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s emergency authorization for the COVID-19 vaccines.
“Senator, I filed that lawsuit after CDC recommended the vaccine for 6-year-old children, without any evidence that it would benefit them and without testing on 6-year-old children,” Kennedy said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Was the vaccine—COVID vaccine—successful in saving millions of lives? I don’t know. We don’t have a good surveillance system,” Kennedy said.
Sanders said it was “really problematic” that Kennedy was casting doubt on whether the COVID-19 vaccines saved lives.
“I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” Patel said.
Patel, Trump’s nominee for FBI director, went on to condemn President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents. Biden’s commutation will allow Peltier to serve out his life sentence in home confinement rather than prison without absolving him of the underlying conviction.
“I'll begin by leading, by example, checking my own personal views at the door, and committing to delivering intelligence that is collected, analyzed, and reported without bias, prejudice, or political influence,” she said.
Gabbard called out to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who appeared to be on the fence over the nomination, noting that the senator voted in favor of creating the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Gabbard said that, if confirmed, she would “end the politicization of the intelligence community.” She cited examples such as the letter by former intelligence officials that the story about the laptop of Hunter Biden, former President Joe Biden’s son, was Russian disinformation.
Gabbard also addressed criticisms of her.
“You may hear lies and smears that challenge my loyalty to and love for our country,” she said.
“Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States, accusing me of being Trump's puppet, Putin's puppet, Assad's puppet, a guru's puppet, Modi's puppet; not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters,” she continued, referring to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ernst described Gabbard’s life as “Duty, honor, service.”
The senator emphasized Gabbard’s military service as a reason for her to be confirmed as the head of the intelligence community.
“Tulsi exemplifies what it means to rise above partisanship, putting the needs of the American people over political divisions,” Ernst said.
“She put her own life on the line in combat operations, and now has set aside partisan differences as a former Democrat member of Congress to answer the call to serve in a Republican administration.”
“I worked for 40 years to raise awareness about mercury and other toxins in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish,” Kennedy noted.
“All my kids are vaccinated. I believe vaccines have saved millions of lives and play a critical role in health care.”
The nominee added that he is not against the food industry, either, but wants to work with food producers to remove some of the regulatory red tape that stifles “American ingenuity.”
“My advocacy has often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions, and I’m not going to apologize for that,” Kennedy said.
“We have massive health problems in our country that we must face honestly, and the first thing I’ve done every morning for the past 20 years is to pray to God that he would put me in a position where I can end the chronic disease epidemic and protect our children,” he said.
"That’s why I’m so grateful to President Trump [for] the opportunity to sit here before you today and seek your support and your partnership in this endeavor.”
“Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,” said Cassidy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee.
“Can I trust that that is now in the past? Can data and information change your opinion, or will you only look for data supporting a predetermined conclusion? This is imperative.”
Cassidy, a physician, said he has constituents who credit Kennedy’s statements questioning the safety of vaccines as the reason they decided not to vaccinate their children.
“I think you’ll tell us today, as you did in Finance Committee yesterday, that you’re pro-vaccine. So what will you tell the American mother? Will you tell her to vaccinate her child or to not?”
Cotton said that Gabbard would be a fresh voice to go against “conventional” thinking that has included getting the United States involved in Egypt and Libya, overthrowing authoritarian leaders there.
Meanwhile, the committee’s vice chair, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), told Gabbard that he has “significant concerns” about her judgment and qualifications “to meet the standard set by law.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) introduced Patel, stating that he possessed significant expertise and was an “outstanding choice to lead the FBI.”
After Tillis’s statement, Patel was sworn in. He started by offering prayers for the victims of the plane crash at Reagan National Airport. Patel’s parents and sister were present behind him.
“Protecting the rights of the Constitution is of the utmost importance to me,” he said.
Patel pledged to remain focused on the FBI’s core mission and recounted his national security experience in both President Barack Obama’s administration and that of Trump during his first term.
Patel used his opening statement to call attention to low trust in the FBI. He proposed to focus on tackling violent crime as well as allowing congressional oversight as ways to restore trust.
Kennedy will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee starting at 10 a.m. ET.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), will be a key vote to securing Kennedy’s confirmation. Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, grilled the former presidential candidate at his hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday about his proposals for reforming Medicare and Medicaid. Kennedy did not have any specifics to share.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are two other Republicans who could swing either way.
Republicans currently hold a 53–47 vote majority in the Senate. Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote leaves room for just three GOP defections if Kennedy is to be confirmed without any Democrat support.
Kennedy fielded tough questions about his views on vaccines, abortion, and the food industry on Wednesday. He is likely to face similar questions during the second hearing.
The Senate will hold hearings on Jan. 30 to consider President Donald Trump’s nominees to lead the U.S. intelligence community and the FBI, key national security appointees that are likely to face intense scrutiny before they can proceed to a confirmation vote.
Trump has nominated Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence (DNI) to oversee the various U.S. intelligence and national security agencies, including the FBI.
Gabbard, who currently serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, represented Hawaii’s second congressional district from 2013 to 2021 as a Democrat.
Trump has nominated Kash Patel to serve as director of the FBI.
Patel has worked as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division. During Trump’s first administration, Patel also worked as a counterterrorism adviser on the White House National Security Council and as a principal deputy in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in 2020 under then-acting DNI Richard Grenell.
After the first Trump administration, Patel hosted a show on EpochTV.
Government Weaponization
The political views of the next FBI director could be a key concern as the Senate considers Patel for the leadership role.
Some Republicans have alleged that the last FBI director, Christopher Wray, allowed the bureau to become unfairly politicized and weaponized against conservatives and other ideological opponents of former President Joe Biden while providing preferential treatment to the Biden family.
Patel has also expressed concerns about corruption and politicization within the intelligence and national security community, including efforts specifically targeting Trump.
In a September 2024 interview on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” Patel said if he were put in charge of the FBI, he‘d shut down its Washington headquarters on his first day and then reopen it the next day “as a museum of the ’deep state.'”
While Trump and other Republicans might see Patel as the change agent needed to counter their concerns about politicization within the FBI, some Democrats have raised concerns that Patel would bring his own brand of political bias to the bureau.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised objections to Patel’s nomination in a Senate floor speech last week, arguing that Patel “is a staunch political loyalist who has repeatedly peddled false conspiracy theories and threatened to retaliate against those who have slighted him personally and politically.”
Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, speaks during a campaign event for Republican candidates in Tucson, Ariz., on July 31, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Democrat Objections
Democrats have accused Patel of promoting views about the 2020 election and the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that amount to unfounded conspiracy theories. They’ve also accused him of promoting QAnon, a conspiracy theory movement focused on claims that powerful individuals operate child sex trafficking rings and are involved in a secret cabal influencing the actions of the U.S. government.
In a Jan. 16 letter, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called on Patel to answer about whether he believes that FBI informants instigated violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In his letter, Blumenthal also asked Patel about his views on the QAnon movement and quoted Trump’s nominee as saying, “I disagree with a lot of what that movement says, but I agree with what a lot of that movement says.” During the confirmation hearing, Blumenthal has called on Patel to explain the specific ideas of the QAnon movement to which he ascribes.
A supporter holds up a QAnon sign to the media as attendees wait for President Donald Trump to speak at a campaign rally at Atlantic Aviation in Moon Township, Pa., on Sept. 22, 2020. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
Domestic Surveillance
As she sits before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard is likely to face questions about her views on the U.S. government’s domestic surveillance laws, such as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Section 702 of FISA allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect the communications data of foreign nationals without a warrant and to collect communications between U.S. nationals and foreign nationals already under surveillance.
In 2018, as FISA authority came up for renewal, Gabbard shared a social media post describing the intelligence-gathering provision as a “blank check” to trample Americans’ civil liberties. She also joined Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in sponsoring legislation in 2020 to repeal the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act.
In a statement earlier this month, Gabbard signaled that her views had changed over FISA Section 702. She said the provision has been sufficiently reformed since her time in office and now “must be safeguarded.”
Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee may call on Gabbard to explain her shifting views. Lawmakers could also ask about her past calls for Trump to pardon Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency who exfiltrated and helped publish documents on the agency’s digital surveillance practices before fleeing to Russia.
Foreign Conflicts
Senators are also likely to question Gabbard on her views of U.S. foreign policy and interventions abroad.
In a 2016 interview with the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, Gabbard described herself as a “hawk” when it comes to U.S. military operations against terrorist groups, but a “dove” when it comes to “counterproductive wars of regime change.”
Tulsi Gabbard speaks at the Rage Against the War Machine rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Feb. 19, 2023. (Courtesy of Liberty Speaks)
Gabbard has previously spoken out in opposition to U.S. actions targeting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who relinquished power and fled to Russia in December 2024. In 2017, she argued that Trump should have waited for a full investigation on claims that Assad had ordered a chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib province instead of immediately ordering missile strikes targeting the Assad government.
“This Administration has acted recklessly without care or consideration of the dire consequences of the United States attack on Syria without waiting for the collection of evidence from the scene of the chemical poisoning,” she said in a 2017 statement.
Gabbard also spoke at a 2023 rally calling for a negotiated settlement to the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war.
In a Jan. 29 Senate floor speech, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused Gabbard of spreading false claims and acting in support of Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Given her history, it’s not unreasonable to ask if Ms. Gabbard would use the DNI job to push false intelligence for political ends,” Schumer said.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has refuted attacks on Gabbard’s loyalty to the United States.
“This is a woman who served 21 years in uniform, who’s passed five background checks. I reviewed the latest one last week. It’s clean as a whistle,” Cotton said in a Jan. 29 interview with Fox Business.
Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii is escorted by police as she moves between meetings with senators in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 18, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Gabbard and Patel will likely also face accusations that they aren’t qualified to serve in the positions that Trump has nominated them for.
Despite her military service, Gabbard doesn’t have an extensive background in intelligence.
In his letter earlier this month, Blumenthal noted that former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr—Trump’s second attorney general—had written that Patel “had virtually no experience that would qualify [him] to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency.”
Durbin has also called for the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and ODNI to turn over records of alleged misconduct by Patel while he worked for those departments and offices. The Illinois Democrat has raised allegations that Patel politicized the declassification process when he worked at the ODNI during Trump’s first term in order to declassify documents that he felt were favorable to Trump.
Patel has said Trump had directly declassified records that the FBI recovered in a raid of the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2022.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance for his first confirmation hearing as President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Jan. 29.
Kennedy, who ran for president as a Democrat and then an independent before ending his White House bid and backing Trump in August 2024, entered the chamber to applause from supporters in the audience and shook hands with lawmakers before taking a seat.
The hearing showcased a sharp division between the parties over Kennedy’s views. Most Republicans praised Kennedy for his past advocacy work and his emphasis on addressing the nation’s chronic disease epidemic, while Democrats criticized the founder of the Children’s Health Defense for his stance on vaccine efficacy.
Democrats and Republicans on the panel also questioned Kennedy on his abortion views.
Fighting chronic disease, improving children’s health, and addressing corporate influence on government agencies have been vital parts of Kennedy’s platform.
If confirmed, he would head a department that manages 13 agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy will appear at another hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Jan. 30, but only the Senate Committee on Finance will vote on whether to advance him to a full Senate floor vote.
Kennedy must get a simple majority to gain confirmation. Republicans hold a 53–47 majority in the chamber.
1. Questioning Vaccine Stance
In his opening statement, Kennedy said: “Reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry.
“I am neither; I am pro-safety.
“I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish.
“I believe that vaccines play a critical role in health care. All of my kids are vaccinated.”
Kennedy engaged in a heated exchange with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, when Wyden asked the nominee about his view on the measles vaccine.
Wyden brought up a 2023 podcast with Lex Fridman in which Kennedy said, “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.”
Kennedy said his statements to Fridman had been taken out of context and clarified that he told the interviewer that there is no vaccine that is safe and effective for every person.
“Every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines, right?” Kennedy said.
He added that he would not prevent U.S. citizens from getting vaccines.
“I support the measles vaccine,” he said. “I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking [vaccines].”
Kennedy reiterated that he believes vaccines are an integral part of health care and that he advocates for science-based studies to improve vaccine safety.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) asked Kennedy if he was a conspiracy theorist.
“That is a pejorative, senator, that’s applied to me, mainly to keep me from asking difficult questions of powerful interests,” Kennedy said.
He noted that he was called a conspiracy theorist for saying that the COVID-19 vaccines did not prevent infection or transmission of the disease. “And now everybody admits it,” he said.
Kennedy said he also was labeled a conspiracy theorist for saying that Red Dye 40 causes cancer. “And now FDA has acknowledged that and banned it,” he said.
2. Democrats Go on Offense
Democrats portrayed Kennedy as an unscrupulous profiteer who has changed his position on vaccines and abortion in order to gain political power.
“Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines,” Wyden said. “It has been lucrative for him, put him on the verge of immense power.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) continued the attack on Kennedy’s credibility and trustworthiness by pointing out that he is pro-choice but is seeking a role in a pro-life administration.
“When was it that you decided to sell out the values you’ve had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?” Masto asked.
Kennedy answered, “Senator, I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) appeared to suggest that Kennedy was profiteering based on his involvement with a law firm that has brought suits against drug companies, saying that he had “raked in two and a half million dollars” in compensation.
Warren asked Kennedy if he would agree not to take compensation from lawsuits against drug companies while in office and for four years after.
“You’re asking me to not sue drug companies?” Kennedy said, adding that he was not going to agree to refrain from bringing lawsuits as secretary.
3. Kennedy Supports Administration’s View on Abortion
Kennedy affirmed that he would follow the administration’s policies on abortion despite being a longtime supporter of abortion access as an advocate for bodily autonomy.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) noted that the Biden administration had denied his state federal funds under Title X—a program that funds family planning services—over its refusal to publicize an abortion referral hotline.
Lankford, who is pro-life, acknowledged that he disagreed with Kennedy on when life begins. He asked the nominee how he would handle Title X funding as HHS secretary.
Kennedy said he agreed with Trump on several aspects of the abortion debate and would follow the president’s lead.
“I agree with [President Trump] that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year,” Kennedy said. “I agree with him that the states should control abortion.
“President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions, and he wants to protect conscience exemptions, and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions here or abroad. ... I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies.”
Kennedy also said Trump had asked him to investigate the safety of the abortion drug mifepristone if confirmed as HHS secretary.
“We need to understand the safety of every drug—mifepristone and every other drug,” Kennedy said when asked whether medical professionals should be required to report adverse effects from the drug.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) challenged the need to study the matter.
“Here are the safety studies that tell us mifepristone is safe and effective,” she said, producing a stack of documents. “The safety is proved. The science is there.”
4. Ending Chronic Disease
Ending the chronic disease epidemic was a key part of Kennedy’s presidential campaign, and it has served as a widely discussed platform issue in his Make America Healthy Again movement.
During the hearing, Masto suggested that Kennedy would be a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s agenda. Kennedy pushed back, saying that he was nominated because he is uniquely positioned to end the nation’s “chronic disease epidemic.”
“Senator, all of the other disputes we have about who’s paying and whether it’s insurance companies, whether it’s providers, whether it’s HMOs, whether it’s patients or families—all of those are moving deck chairs around on the Titanic,” Kennedy said. “Our ship is sinking.”
Medicaid spending has skyrocketed in recent years, Kennedy said, “and no other nation in the world has what we have here.”
“We have the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world,” he said.
Kennedy has criticized the use of certain ingredients in food products, such as Froot Loops cereal, and has said that ingredients in Europe are better than those in the United States. He has also criticized fast-food giant McDonald’s for making its french fries in seed oils instead of tallow.
During the hearing, Kennedy said the increase in chronic disease is tied to ingredients in food. He added that his “boss” likes to eat a McDonald’s cheeseburger washed down with a Diet Coke.
“You should be able to do that,” Kennedy said, drawing some laughter from the gallery. “But you should know what the impacts are on your family and your health.”
Kennedy said that the United States “had 16 percent of the COVID deaths in a country [that has] 4.2 percent of the world’s population” and that U.S. citizens who died with COVID-19 had, on average, several chronic diseases.
“This is an existential threat economically, to our military, to our health, to our sense of well-being, and it is a priority for President Trump,” he said. “And that’s why he asked me to run the agency, and if I’m privileged to be confirmed, that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
5. ‘Radical Transparency’
Kennedy has promised significant changes throughout HHS.
He has repeatedly said little will change until the influence of giant or private corporations on the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture is addressed.
He has pledged to ensure transparency, a topic that was raised during the hearing.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) noted that he had difficulty extracting information from HHS and its Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under the Biden administration.
“I expect you to produce to me the records and data I’ve requested and instruct HHS contractors to fully cooperate with my investigation,” Grassley told Kennedy.
“I also expect HHS to not retaliate against any whistleblowers, including those who identify ORR’s failures in vetting sponsors of unaccompanied [minors].”
The ORR is responsible for taking care of unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally and for placing them with a sponsor within the United States. During fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, more than 400,000 unaccompanied children crossed the U.S. border illegally, according to federal data.
Kennedy replied that his approach as HHS secretary would be “radical transparency.”
“If members of this committee or other members of Congress want information, the doors are open,” he said.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) requested that 11 letters of support, signed by thousands of physicians, be entered into the record. He also noted that he had written more than 70 oversight letters to federal health agencies under the Biden administration.
He said he has received redacted materials and has “issued a subpoena now to cover the information“ that he ”requested in 70 oversight letters.”
Johnson asked Kennedy if he would honor these requests from Congress and make HHS transparent.
“My approach for HHS, as I said before, senator, is radical transparency,” Kennedy said. “Democrats and Republicans ought to be able to come in and get information that was generated at taxpayer expense that is owned by the American taxpayer. It shouldn’t get redacted documents.
“Public health agencies should be transparent. If we want Americans to restore trust in the public health agencies, we need transparency.”
