WASHINGTON — Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., cast doubt Thursday over whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is qualified to be the next leader of the government’s largest and most powerful health agency.
Cassidy, a doctor, has emerged as a key swing vote in Kennedy’s bid to be the secretary of health and human services. Cassidy chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and sits on the Finance Committee, the two panels Kennedy testified before this week.
Cassidy had been tight-lipped about his views on Kennedy, who has a long history of anti-vaccine activism, in the weeks since President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate him.
At the end of Thursday’s hearing, Cassidy said he was “struggling” with Kennedy’s nomination.
“Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,” Cassidy said. “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?”
The inquiries came one day after Kennedy tripped up over a line of questioning from Cassidy about Medicaid.
Cassidy’s reservations are a potential complication for Kennedy. As the chair of the committee, Cassidy carried the tone of the Thursday’s hearing, repeatedly questioning Kennedy’s past stances, particularly concerning vaccines. He homed in at times on Kennedy’s statements linking vaccines to autism and repeatedly gave him opportunities to state that vaccines don’t cause the complicated neurological and developmental condition.
“I can say that I’ve approached it using the preponderance of evidence to reassure and you’ve approached using selected evidence to cast doubt,” Cassidy said.
The underlying question, Cassidy said, is whether Kennedy could, as a 71-year-old man “who spent decades criticizing vaccines and is financially vested in finding fault with vaccines,” change his ways “now that he’ll have the most important position influencing vaccine policy in the United States.”
It was a question Kennedy wouldn’t answer directly. He grew emphatic at times with regard to autism, asking why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hadn’t done more to look at what was causing the condition.
“Why don’t we know what’s causing this epidemic? Why hasn’t the CDC been looking at other hypotheses to determine … why we’ve had this dramatic, 1,000% increase in this disease that is destroying our kids? It is probably the biggest issue,” Kennedy said. “Why don’t we know the answer after 30 years of a steady rise in the autism rate? Why don’t we know the answer to that? We should know the answer.”
Scientists and advocates agree there should be more research into the cause of autism, but they have signaled that Kennedy’s dwelling on a debunked link to vaccines only risks steering precious research dollars into the only theory that has been ruled out.
Doctors have long known that genes play a large role in autism. Research suggests that the increased incidence of autism is due in part to the changing definition over time, which today encompasses a vast range of abilities. There are also increased awareness of and earlier screening for the condition.
After Thursday’s hearing, Kennedy wouldn’t respond to an NBC News reporter’s questions about whether he had seen enough science to refrain from saying vaccines cause autism. At the hearing’s conclusion, Kennedy walked over to Cassidy, quietly conveyed something to him and shook his hand.
“You may be hearing from me over the weekend,” Cassidy told him.
Cassidy’s caution about Kennedy is significant. As a member of the Finance Committee, he will vote on whether to advance the nomination to the full Senate.
Kennedy can afford to lose the support of only three Senate Republicans on the floor if all Democrats are united against him. So far, no GOP senators have publicly opposed his nomination.
Cassidy, who was among the few Senate Republicans to vote to convict Trump in the impeachment trial in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, has already drawn a potential primary challenger if he decides to seek re-election in 2026.
Vaccines have been a central part of Cassidy’s political work. In the 1990s, he helped establish a partnership in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that boasted providing 36,000 children with free vaccines against hepatitis B.
As a senator, he introduced bipartisan bills to improve vaccination rates among pregnant women. He has supported vaccination requirements in public schools.
Cassidy opened Thursday’s hearing with a story about the “worst day of my medical career,” recounting his experience treating a young woman with hepatitis B on her way to a liver transplant. As he was loading her into an ambulance, Cassidy said, he was struck.
“I thought $50 of vaccines could have prevented this all. And that was an inflection point in my career, and since then, I’ve tried to do everything I can to make sure I never have to speak to another parent about their child dying due to a vaccine-preventable disease.”
When Cassidy asked Kennedy whether he would unequivocally reassure mothers that measles and hepatitis B vaccines don’t cause autism, Kennedy said that, on the condition that he saw supporting data, he would go beyond reassurance.
“Not only will I do that, but I will apologize for any statements that misled people otherwise,” Kennedy said. “I just want to pledge to you that I will never stick on a point if somebody shows me data that says I’m wrong.”
Kennedy at one point countered that he saw recent research undermining the notion that there was no link between autism and vaccines.
Cassidy paused his questioning and seemed to look up the study while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took over questioning.
“I looked into the article,” Cassidy said upon his return. “It seems to have some issues.”
Cassidy closed Thursday’s hearing by imploring Kennedy to further distance himself from his past comments on vaccines.
“Man, if you come out unequivocally vaccines are safe, it does not cause autism, that would have an incredible impact,” Cassidy said. “That’s your power. So what’s it going to be? Will it be using the credibility to support lots of articles, or will it be using the credibility to undermine?”
“I got to figure that out for my vote,” Cassidy said. He said he wants to promote Trump’s agenda but has real concerns that Kennedy’s false vaccine claims will cast a troublesome shadow over Trump’s second-term legacy.
