The Senate on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00If confirmed, I fear greatly that Mr. Kennedy will take steps that severely undermine public health,
00:07weaken safety standards, and put the needs of for-profit corporations
00:15ahead of the needs of American families. And sooner or later, public backlash is going to build,
00:23and Republicans will have wished they hadn't signed their names for such a troubled nominee.
00:33So one final time, one final time, I implore my Republican colleagues to reject the nomination
00:40of Kennedy to be Secretary of HHS. A vote to confirm Mr. Kennedy is a vote I truly believe
00:49many, many Republicans, and most Americans, will eventually very deeply regret.
00:57I rise today in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination to be Secretary of the U.S.
01:02Department of Health and Human Services, and to urge my colleagues to vote in favor of his
01:07confirmation. Contrary to the attacks that have constantly been made on him, he has made it very
01:13clear that he will support safe vaccinations, and just wants to see that the research on them
01:21is done and done well. On this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 48. The confirmation is confirmed.
01:33Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid
01:36upon the table, and the President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.