RFK Jr. Confirmed As Trump's Health Secretary

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will lead the United State's Department of Health and Human Services after he was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday.

Kennedy garnered 52 favorable votes, all coming from the Republican Party. One Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell, voted no alongside 45 Democrats and two Independents.

Kennedy has long connected himself to the discussion surrounding health through his vaccine skepticism. He tried to distance himself during hearings this week, though it's clear it did little to help him with Democrats.

"Putting RFK Jr. in charge of the nation’s public health is a huge mistake," said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. "When dangerous diseases resurface and people can’t access lifesaving vaccines, all Americans will suffer — and RFK Jr.’s family could keep getting richer thanks to his serious conflicts of interest."
Still, he didn't need any votes from the left, and gained enough confidence with the Republican Party to clear the Senate.

Kennedy's process to clear nomination, however, was an uneasy one.

Caroline Kennedy, his cousin, sent a letter to senators a day before his hearings calling him a "predator" whose actions "have cost lives".

"It's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator," the two-page letter said. "His basement, his garage, and his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence."

Kennedy was also the subject of a short-lived investigation into whether he decapitated a beached whale on Cape Cod, tied it to the top of the family van, and transported it back to New York in 1994.

Now, Kennedy will be at the helm of the organization as discussions about cuts to Medicaid and Medicare continue.

There are also questions about future vaccine policies, given Kennedy's history.