Robert F Kennedy Jr’s confirmation hearings in his bid to become US health secretary have begun in Washington, DC.
Mr Kennedy is seeking to lead a 1.7 trillion-dollar (£1.37 trillion) agency that will oversee vaccine recommendations as well as food inspections and health insurance for half the country in President Donald Trump’s administration.
As he entered the hearing room there was a standing ovation from supporters.
“Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!” they chanted as he came in with his wife Cheryl Hines.
“We love you, Bobby!” one man also yelled as people held their mobile phones aloft to get a photo or video.
To get to the US Senate for a vote on his nomination, Mr Trump’s pick Mr Kennedy needs to have two committee hearings, one before the Finance committee on Wednesday and another in front of the Health, Education, Labour and Pension committee on Thursday.
In his opening statement, Mr Kennedy rejected being ‘anti-vaccine’.
He told senators he’s not anti-vaccine, but has asked “uncomfortable questions”.
While Mr Kennedy has called vaccines unsafe, in his opening remarks he said all of his children are vaccinated.
“I believe that vaccines play a critical role in health care,” Mr Kennedy told the committee.
A protester momentarily disrupted the confirmation hearing when she jumped to her feet and yelled “he lies” when Mr Kennedy claimed he was not “anti-vaccine.”
Capitol police officers quickly removed the woman from the room, and several others in the hearing room applauded and said: “We love you, Bobby!”
Another protester stood up holding a sign that said “Vaccines save lives”.
The Senate Finance Committee chairman, Republican Senator Mike Crapo, responded by saying he could put the committee into recess if the hearing continues to be disrupted.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon warned Mr Kennedy’s embrace of “conspiracy theories” on vaccines make him unsuitable for the nation’s top health post.
“Peddling these anti-vaccine conspiracy theories as our nation’s chief health officer is going to endanger the lives of kids and seniors across the nation,” Mr Wyden said in his opening statement.
Mr Kennedy has previously said there’s “no vaccine that is safe and effective”.
In further remarks, Mr Wyden warned of the consequences of Mr Kennedy’s proposal to “freeze” federal research on infectious diseases for eight years.
“I’ve reached the conclusion that he should not be entrusted with the health of the American people,” Mr Wyden said.
Mr Kennedy has said “Covid shots are a crime against humanity” while leading his anti-vaccine Children’s Health Defence nonprofit.
He has often said he wants “safe” vaccines, while also using slanted information, cherry-picked facts and conspiracy theories to sow distrust of vaccines.
Mr Kennedy said in a podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” told FOX News he still believes in the debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism, and urged people in 2021 to “resist” CDC guidelines on when children should get vaccines.
“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated,” Mr Kennedy said.
Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, questioned Mr Kennedy’s shifting views on abortion by quoting his previous statements that abortion should be left up to the pregnant woman, not the government.
“I believe every abortion is a tragedy,” Mr Kennedy said in response before being cut off by Mr Bennet.
“I’ve never seen any major politician flip on that issue quite as quickly as you did when Trump asked you to be HHS secretary,” Senator Bernie Sanders told him.
Mr Kennedy repeated: “I have always believed abortion is a tragedy.”
Senator Bennet then pressed Mr Kennedy on a number of controversial claims he has made.
Reading from podcast transcripts and his own writings, Mr Bennet asked Mr Kennedy about his prior statement that Covid-19 was engineered to target white and black people while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
Mr Kennedy responded that he was citing federal research.
Mr Bennet also asked Mr Kennedy about a claim that Lyme disease is “likely a militarily engineered bioweapon”.
“I probably did say that,” Mr Kennedy responded.
“This is a job where it is life and death for the kids that I used to work in Denver public schools and for families all over this country that are suffering,” Mr Bennet said.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, told Mr Kennedy that “Americans are going to need to hear a clear and trustworthy recantation of what you have said on vaccinations,” including to “never say vaccines aren’t medically safe when they are and making it indisputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases where that will keep people safe”.
“You’re in that hole pretty deep,” Mr Whitehouse said. “We’ve just had a measles case in Rhode Island, the first since 2013, and frankly you frighten people.”
Later in the contentious confirmation hearing Mr Kennedy struggled to answer questions about how he would reform Medicaid or Medicare, the government health care programmes used by millions of disabled, poor and older Americans.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor and a key vote Mr Kennedy needs to win, repeatedly pressed the nominee on Wednesday to share ways he plans to reform Medicaid, a multibillion-dollar taxpayer-funded programme that covers health care for about 80 million people, including children.
Republicans have said they might need to make deep cuts to Medicaid to fund Mr Trump’s proposals.
“I don’t have a broad proposal for dismantling the programme,” Mr Kennedy said.
Mr Kennedy also inaccurately claimed that Medicaid is fully paid for by the federal government — it is not; states and federal taxpayers fund it. He also said most Americans have purchased a Medicare Advantage plan, when only about one in 10 Americans have.
His misstatements about the programme were peppered in between suggestions that he would seek to push privatisation of the programmes, repeatedly saying that most Americans like private insurance and that they dislike the government-run versions of the programmes.
Senator Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, told Mr Kennedy that “God has a divine purpose for you” and that he looked forward to working with him to help “make America healthy again”.
The line drew some cheers and applause from those in the hearing room, reflecting how Mr Kennedy has drawn enthusiastic support from many Christians sceptical of health authorities.