The Senate Finance Committee advanced prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services on a 14 to 13 party line vote Tuesday.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis (R), who was viewed as a possible “no’ vote ended up joining his Republican colleagues in supporting Kennedy’s nomination to be the country’s top health official.
Kennedy is an environmental lawyer who has made a career out of criticizing established science on vaccines and has spent years leading a prominent anti-vaccine advocacy group.
But, Tillis explained Tuesday that Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines is the only thing that could turn him against the prominent antivaxxer, after he voted to move the nomination forward.
“The only way that Bobby Kennedy and I will get crosswise is if he does actually take a position against the safety of proven vaccines,” Tillis said. “That will be a problem for me.”
Tillis added that he heard medical professionals concerns about Kennedy but still decided to support his nomination.
“He’s the first, I believe, and since I’ve been alive, who’s not been a health care professional in a scientific sense, but he is a professional in terms of carrying this forward,” Tillis said
“It is time to have a different kind of disruptor” overseeing HHS, he added.
With the advancement out of committee, Kennedy’s confirmation will move to the Senate floor where he needs to get at least 50 votes. Republicans can afford to lose just three votes to confirm him without support from Democrats.
