Trump rescinds order pausing federal grants and loans
The White House Office of Management and Budget has rescinded Donald Trump’s order that put a pause on federal grants and loans, which sparked confusion and concern across the country.
According to Reuters, a White House official confirmed the order had been rescinded. The news comes one day after the federal judge temporarily halted the funding pause.
Key events
Senator Bernie Sanders went on to mock Robert F Kennedy Jr over his flip-flopping on the issue of abortion access, as the cabinet nominee has embraced Donald Trump’s anti-abortion stance in recent weeks.
Echoing other Democrats on the finance committee, Sanders quoted Kennedy’s own words from 2023, when he said that the government should not interfere with a woman’s bodily autonomy.
“I have never seen any major politician flip on that issue quite as quickly as you did when Trump asked you to become HHS secretary,” Sanders said. “Tell me why you think people should have confidence in your consistency and in your word when you really made a major U-turn on an issue of that importance in such a short time.”
Kennedy replied, “Senator, I believe and I’ve always believed that every abortion is a tragedy.”
It is a line that Kennedy has returned to over and over again as Democrats hammer the cabinet nominee on his long record of support for abortion access.
RFK Jr dodges Sanders’ question on health care being a human right
Senator Bernie Sanders attempted to get Robert F Kennedy Jr on the record about whether he believed that health care is a human right, but the cabinet nominee repeatedly dodged the question.
“Do you agree with me that the United States should join every other major country on earth and guarantee health care to all people as a human right? Yes, no?” Sanders asked.
Kennedy replied, “Senator, I can’t give you a yes or no answer to that question.”
Warren raises ethical concerns about Kennedy’s nomination
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, highligted Kennedy’s pledge to keep corruption and corporate influence out of the department of health and human services and asked him about his post-government plans.
“Here’s an easy question. Will you commit that when you leave this job, you will not accept compensation from a drug company, a medical device company, a hospital system or a health insurer for at least four years, including as a lobbyist or a board member?” Warren asked.
Kennedy asked Warren to repeat the question before asking, “Who? Me?”
“Yes, you,” Warren said, as some laughs broke out in the hearing room.
Kennedy then said that he would commit to that pledge, prompting Warren to ask, “Will you also agree that you won’t take any compensation from any lawsuits against drug companies while you are secretary and for four years afterwards?”
“I’ll certainly commit to that while I’m secretary,” Kennedy said, before launching into a defense of his record without addressing his post-government plans.
Warren again pressed Kennedy on not taking compensation from lawsuits, and he continued to quibble with her questioning, avoiding a concrete answer to her queries.
“If you get confirmed, you could influence every single one of those lawsuits,” Warren said. “And I am asking you to commit right now that you will not take a financial stake in every one of those lawsuits so that what you do as secretary will also benefit you financially down the line.”
“I’ll comply with all of the ethical guidelines,” Kennedy said.
“That is not the question,” Warren shot back. “No one should be fooled here.”
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat of Nevada, pressed Robert F Kennedy Jr on whether he, as a lawyer, believed that pregnant women in life-threatening situations should be allowed to have emergency abortions even in states where the procedure is banned.
“You would agree also as an attorney that federal law protects her right to that emergency care, correct?” Cortez Masto asked.
Kennedy replied, “I don’t know.”
Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat of New Hampshire, suggested that she and Robert F Kennedy Jr actually agree on the issue of abortion access, citing his many past comments in support of reproductive rights.
As she questioned Kennedy, Hassan’s staff displayed posters highlighting Kennedy’s past remarks in support of abortion access. One poster quoting Kennedy read, “I’m pro-choice … I don’t think the government has any business telling people what they can or cannot do with their body.”
“You said that, right?” Hassan asked.
“Yes,” Kennedy tersely replied.
“It is remarkable that you have such a long record of fighting for women’s reproductive freedom and really great that my Republican colleagues are so open to voting for a pro-choice HHS secretary,” Hassan said.
She then asked Kennedy, “You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values. The question is: do you stand for that value or not? When was it that you decided to sell out the values you’ve had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?”
Kennedy reiterated, “Senator, I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy.”
RFK Jr echoes Trump on abortion and pledges to study ‘safety issues’ of Mifepristone
Although Robert F Kennedy Jr has previously identified as “pro-choice,” he fully backed Donald Trump’s view on abortion during his Senate confirmation hearing.
“I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion,” Kennedy told Republican senator James Lankford.
He added, “I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies.”
Asked about access to the abortion medication Mifepristone, Kennedy suggested that federal agencies should examine potential “safety issues” related to the drug.
“We need to understand the safety of every drug – Mifepristone and every other drug,” Kennedy said. “[Trump] is not taking a position yet on Mifepristone, a detailed position, but he’s made it clear to me that he wants me to look at the safety issues, and I’ll ask NIH [the National Institutes of Health] and FDA [the Food and Drug Administration] to do that.”
RFK Jr suggests HHS personnel decisions will be ‘based upon my opinion’
Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat of Virginia, pressed Robert F Kennedy Jr on whether he would move to dismiss longtime staffers at the Department of Health and Human Services, as Donald Trump’s other cabinet picks have already started doing at other agencies.
“I will commit to not firing anybody who is doing their job,” Kennedy said.
Warner asked, “Based upon your opinion, or your political agenda, or Mr Trump’s political agenda?”
“Based upon my opinion,” Kennedy replied.
Warner remarked, “So I guess that means a lot of the folks who have had any type of views on vaccines will be out of work.”
Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado, continued his rapid-fire questioning of Robert F Kennedy with more quotes from Kennedy’s past writings and interviews.
Bennet asked, “Did you say that Lyme disease is highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon?”
Kennedy replied, “I probably did say that.”
Bennet asked, “Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender?”
Kennedy replied, “No, I never said that.”
Bennet challenged that claim, saying he would submit the record to the committee chair. He then asked, “Did you write in your book, and I quote, ‘it’s undeniable that African Aids is an entirely different disease from western Aids’?”
Kennedy replied, “I’m not sure.”
Bennet concluded his questioning by reminding Kennedy of the importance of the job he is seeking, noting that Americans rely on the Department of Health and Human Services to provide accurate medical information.
“This matters. It doesn’t matter what you come here and say that isn’t true, that’s not reflective of what you really believe,” Bennet said. “Unlike other jobs that we’re confirming around this place, this is a job where it is life and death.”
Democrat’s rapid-fire questioning puts RFK Jr on defense
Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado, said that he agreed with Robert F Kennedy Jr on some of his criticism of the US healthcare system, but he painted Kennedy as woefully unqualified to lead the department of health and human services.
“What is so disturbing to me is that out of 330 million Americans, we’re being asked to put somebody in this job who has spent 50 years of his life not honoring the tradition that he talked about at the beginning of this conversation, but peddling in half-truths, peddling in false statements, peddling in theories that create doubt about whether or not things we know are safe are unsafe,” Bennet said.
Bennet then launched into a series of damning, rapid-fire questions about Kennedy’s past comments on a range of healthcare topics, including the coronavirus pandemic and AIDS.
“Did you say that Covid-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets Black and white people, but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?” Bennet said.
Kennedy replied, “I didn’t say it was deliberately targeted. I just quoted an NIH-funded and NIH-published study.”
As Democrat Ron Wyden’s questioning time ran out, Robert F Kennedy Jr attempted to clean up his record on vaccines, saying, “Senator, I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.”
Wyden shot back, “Anybody who believes that ought to look at the measles book you wrote saying parents have been misled into believing that measles is a deadly vaccine. That is not true.”
Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate finance committee, also pressed Robert F Kennedy Jr on his role in a deadly measles outbreak that struck Samoa in 2019.
The measles outbreak in Samoa – which claimed the lives of 83 people, most of them young children – came just months after Kennedy visited the island nation.
Quoting Kennedy’s book that raised doubts about the potential lethality of measles, Wyden said, “The reality is measles are in fact deadly and highly contagious – something that you should’ve learned after your lies contributed to the deaths of 83 people, most of them children, in a measles outbreak in Samoa. So my question here is: Mr Kennedy, is measles deadly, yes or no?”
Kennedy replied that the death rate from measles has historically been quite low, and he again denied any role in the Samoa outbreak.
“I went there nothing to do with vaccines. I went there to introduce a medical and thematic system that would digitalize records in Samoa,” Kennedy said. “I never taught or gave any public statement about vaccines. You cannot find a single Samoan who will say, ‘I didn’t get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy.’”
He concluded, “I went in June of 2019. The measles outbreak started in August. So, clearly I had nothing to do with the measles.”
That final comment seemed curious given that reports have pointed to the timeline of Kennedy’s visit as potentially incriminating, considering the outbreak followed just a couple of months later.
