As Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial cabinet nomination inches closer to a full Senate vote, Sen. Kevin Cramer revealed why he thinks the well-known anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist was able to sway senators to vote in his direction.
In an interview with Raw Story on Wednesday, Cramer said that Kennedy – President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services – has “done a pretty good job of articulating” his views.
The North Dakota Republican senator expressed confidence that despite Kennedy’s long history of amplifying conspiratorial suspicions around the world – including about vaccines, COVID-19 and AIDS – he would sail through confirmation to oversee the nation’s premier health agency.
“I think he’s clarified to most people’s satisfaction – it’s one thing to be anti-vaccine, it’s another thing to be pro-science and transparency and choice,” Cramer said in an interview Wednesday. “And I think he’s convinced most of us or all of us that that’s what he is, and I think he’s reasonable.”
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But not everybody on Capitol Hill is convinced.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told Raw Story he sees Kennedy as somebody who’s gone across the world “in order to cause disease outbreaks.”
“This is not one of those nominations that will age well,” Schatz said Wednesday. “It won’t be unclear why we have measles and mumps and rubella breakouts in 2025 in the United States of America, so this one is deeply, deeply dangerous. I hope I’m wrong.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said while there are Republican senators who “share my concern that this is an anti-science nominee,” he wouldn't say whether he thinks there would be enough to thwart the nomination.
“I’m telling my colleagues that this is a vote for a sicker America,” he told Raw Story. “It’s going to ripple through our country for years to come when you roll back the clock on policies like vaccines.”