RFK Jr.’s Senate Panel Hearing Highlights Deep Partisan Divisions

After Robert F. Kennedy’s tense three-hour listening to on his nomination as secretary of the Division of Human Well being and Companies, Republican and Democratic senators stay fiercely divided over the well being activist who now represents a big a part of President Donald Trump’s coalition.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., emerged from the listening to to inform the press that after hours of Kennedy being grilled on his proposals for well being coverage, he didn’t imagine Kennedy had been forthright with the Senate Finance Committee.

“After we tried to get out among the specifics, like his many anti-vaccination statements together with his few pro-vaccination statements, and we requested him to elucidate this—I imply, what approach was he mendacity—he principally served up a giant plate of phrase salad.”

Requested by a CNN reporter if he thought any Democratic senators would vote to verify Kennedy—who was a lifelong Democrat—Wyden rejected this concept.

“I can’t see it. I feel that he was so untrustworthy and unprepared, I don’t imagine any Democrats on the committee will help him.”

However Republicans had their very own bone to select with Democrats.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who was one of many committee’s fiercest defenders of Kennedy, instructed The Every day Sign he was dissatisfied by Democrats’ hostile questioning of the HHS nominee.

“It’s simply so disappointing to see the hostility from the Democrat aspect,” mentioned Johnson.

“I perceive what’s in [Kennedy’s] coronary heart, what he desires to perform. It’s fully nonpartisan and that’s what’s so disappointing. This can be a fully nonpartisan difficulty. You understand, how will we deal with continual sickness? How do we discover out what’s inflicting autism? American folks wish to know that. Whether or not they’re Democrat or Republican, they wish to know that.”

Johnson, though a supporter of Kennedy, was as uncertain as Wyden about him receiving Democratic votes within the Senate.

“It’s form of exhausting to say … They got here in with their minds closed, it appeared wish to me.” 

The senator additionally responded to Democratic accusations that Kennedy would function a mere “rubber stamp” for Trump’s agenda and argued that his relationship with the president can be cooperative.

“I feel there’s a mutual respect between the 2 of them,” mentioned Johnson. “They’re each clever people. They each might be led by the science of what the reality is. They’ll have the ability to affect one another’s opinions on issues.”

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., was additionally an ally of Kennedy within the listening to.

Daines instructed The Every day Sign he was impressed by Kennedy’s efficiency and dissatisfied by Democrats’ opposition.

“I assumed he did very, very properly beneath indignant Democrats attacking him relentlessly, oftentimes not permitting him to even converse. That is about listening to from the nominee, not about rants from the senators,” mentioned Daines.

“What caught out to me is he mentioned he desires the HHS to be the gold commonplace of science and data-driven. We want extra of that. Take away the partisan politics.”

Requested if he thought Kennedy had gained the votes of any Democratic senators together with his efficiency on the listening to, Daines chuckled and replied, “Most likely not.”

The stakes of the listening to had been palpable within the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing, as quite a few Kennedy supporters had gathered to observe the listening to. Kennedy’s health-oriented motion has develop into a brand new and enormous a part of the Republican coalition since he joined the president’s marketing campaign in August 2024.

Andrea Levinson, who traveled from Columbia, Maryland, to observe the listening to, instructed The Every day Sign Trump was the primary Republican she ever voted for and mentioned Kennedy is the explanation she grew to become politically energetic.

“The day that RFK declared he was working for president, I knew I received a calling from an even bigger place, the next place. I’ve by no means been an activist earlier than in my life, however the day he declared he was working I grew to become an activist, and I’m for all times now.”