RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing Day One - The Highlights

The confirmation hearings for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were broken up into two days. This first hearing was held by the United States Senate Committee on Finance. The original broadcast was three and half hours long.

This transcript is of a 53-minute edit that mostly features Democratic senators.

I do not include most of Kennedy’s answers because he lied repeatedly and denied saying things senators could easily verify with documentation, transcripts, and video evidence.

If you want to know some of the more dramatic moments from the hearing but you don’t have 3.5 hours to spend - this edit is for you!

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Wyden: To begin my questions, I'd like to start by entering into the record, a letter the committee received from Ambassador Caroline Kennedy outlining what she believes Mr. Kennedy's lack of personal fitness for the office. Mr. Kennedy, you have spent years pushing conflicting stories about vaccines. You say one thing and then you say another. Your testimony today under oath, you denied that you were anti-vaccine.

(During this first round of questions the sound of someone breathing could be heard under Wyden’s questions. I’ve gone through these clips more than once and my best guess is that the sound was coming from Kennedy’s microphone.)

Wyden: But during a podcast interview in July of 2023, you said, quote, ‘no vaccine is safe and effective.’ In your testimony today, in order to prove you're not anti-vax. You note that all your kids are vaccinated. But in a podcast in 2020, you said, and I quote, you would do anything, pay anything to go back in time and not vaccinate your kids. Mr. Kennedy, all of these things cannot be true. Let's be clear about what you've actually done then. Since you want to deny your statement, for example, you have a history of trying to take vaccines away from people. In May of 2021, you petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to not only block Americans from having access to the Covid vaccine, but to prevent any future access to the lifesaving vaccine. Are you denying that your name is on the petition? Kennedy.

(There was an outburst from someone in the audience. It’s unclear what the person said. The person was removed by security.)

Wyden: My third question to you is, you made almost $5 million from book deals, mostly promoting junk science in 2021, in a book called ‘The Measles Book.’ You wrote that parents had been, quote, ‘misled into believing that measles is a deadly disease’ and that measles vaccines are necessary, safe and effective. The reality is measles are in fact deadly and highly contagious. Something that you should have 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 did not answer the question directly.

Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO)

Bennet: Did you say that Covid-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets black and white people, but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?

Kennedy: I didn't say it was deliberately targeted. I just I just quoted an NIH funded, and a NIH published study.

Bennet: Did you say that it targets black and white people, but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?

Kennedy: I quoted a study. I quoted a NIH study that showed that certain races .

Bennet: I’ll take that as a yes. Did you say that Lyme disease is, is highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon? I made sure I put in the highly likely. Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon?

Kennedy: I probably did say that.

Bennet: Did you say that? I ant all of our colleagues to hear it, Mr. Kennedy. I want them to hear it. You said yes. Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender?

Kennedy: No, I never said that.

Bennet: Okay, I have the record that I'll give to the chairman, and he can make his judgment about what you said. Did you write in your book? And I. It's undeniable that African and African AIDS is an entirely different disease from Western AIDS. Yes or no? Mr. Kennedy.

Kennedy: I'm not sure if I said that.

Bennet: I'll give it to the chairman. Mr.. Mr. Kennedy, in my final question, did you say on a podcast and I quote, I wouldn't leave it abortion to the States. My belief is we should leave it to the woman. We shouldn't have the government involved, even if it's full term. Did you say that? Mr. Kennedy?

Kennedy: Senator, I believe every abortion is a tragedy.

Bennet: Did you say it, Mr. Kennedy? I think it matters. It doesn't matter what you come here and say that isn't true. That's not reflective of what you really believe that you haven't said over a decade after decade after decade. Because unlike other jobs, we're confirming around this place. This is a job where it is life and death. For the kids that I used to work for in the Denver Public Schools and for families all over this country that are suffering from living in the richest country of the world, that can't deliver basic health care and basic mental health care to them. It's too important for the games that you're playing, Mr. Kennedy. And I hope my colleagues will say to the president, I have no influence over him. I hope my colleagues will say to the president, out of 330 million Americans, we can do better than this.

Kennedy answered a question from a Republican Senator

Kennedy: Americans don't, by and large, do not like the Affordable Care Act. People are on it. They don't like Medicaid. They like Medicare, and they like private insurance. We need to listen to what people they would prefer to be on private insurance for.

Context - Do Americans Hate the ACA?

According to a survey conducted by the KFF (The Kaiser Family Foundation) from Jan 17, 2025.

This chart shows that 64% of Americans who answered the survey said they had a favorable opinion of the ACA.

I’d also like to correct Kennedy as his statement made it seem that the ACA provides government insurance. With the exception of Medicare and Medicaid most health insurance plans sold on the ACA state exchanges are group health plans sold by private insurers.

Lower and middle income Americans can qualify for a subsidy that covers part of the cost of premiums for various health insurance plans sold on the ACA state exchanges. The size of the subsidy is based on a person’s income.

For most states the ACA also expanded the amount of low income Americans who qualify for Medicaid.

Senator Robert Warner (D-CO)

Warner: Literally hundreds of thousands of Virginians. Medicaid is what prevents them from health crisis is on a daily and weekly basis, and some imaginary new plan. And if there was a new plan, that was would be the basis of what Trump was going to do when repealing Obamacare, I would have thought by now we'd have seen it. I'm going to tell you.

Warner: Mr..Kennedy, I got questions. I appreciate our visit. I know you you take your views seriously, and I don't reflexively vote. I voted for four of President Trump's nominees. I got a lot of grief from folks on this panel, but I got to tell you, I saw an email that you put out Monday night or your campaign did in a funding fundraising email. Your presidential campaign celebrated that the freeze on all new regulations, guidance and announcements is a way to protect unelected bureaucrats from further undermining our health freedom. Then you ask your donors to help pay for your campaign debt. Did your campaign and you put out that?

Kennedy: I don't think my campaign exists anymore.

Warner: Well, listen, I got to tell you this. Somebody is out there soliciting money for it. Maybe you ought to find out who is. So the fact that you celebrate this freeze. Do you think that was a good idea to put all of this on hold for 90 days? Funding and any kind of further work. NIH research.

Kennedy: As a as chairman. Crapo pointed out.

Warner: I’m not asking for that. I love Mike Crapo. I'm asking you. You are a very, very important position.

Kennedy: As he pointed out, Senator. The portals was that we're closed. We're not closed as a result of the Trump administration.

Warner: Excuse me, sir, I'd like you to explain to a domestic violence center in Richmond. It's saying because this freeze, they may have to close down where those battered women to go? Or a rural nonprofit? I've got national values saying that the freeze is going to potentially shut down their ability to operate. So I don't I guess if you deny or don't know what you're campaign spending on, you don't know if you raised a lot of money Monday night with the email.

Kennedy: It's hard for any Americans under Medicaid and Medicare, and I do not want that.

Warner: The freeze is affecting beyond Medicare and Social Security. I would hope you would have known that to be able to answer some of this.

Warner: Now, we're looking at potentially the president's illegal offer to try to buy out federal employees, which I would say to any federal employees, think twice. Has this individual in his business role ever fulfilled his contracts or obligations to any workers in the past? But if you are in this position, will you pledge that you will not fire federal employees who work on food safety, work on trying to prevent things like salmonella?

Kennedy: Senator there are 91,000 employees.

Warner: So I take that as I take as a yes or no question. I'm going to take that as a no.

Senator James Lankford (R-OK)

Lankfored: Under the Biden administration changed the rules for the chemical abortion drug and said, you no longer need to see a physician. So if you have an ectopic pregnancy or all kinds of I don't even go anymore to see a physician. But they also changed an area that has been something has been very particular. You've talked about a lot in this transparency. They changed the position and said, don't tell us if there's a side effect on this drug unless she dies. But other than that, don't tell us anymore. Literally don't give transparent information to the American people or to the women who take this drug anymore. We don't want that reported. My question to you is, will FDA move to be able to actually give transparency to the American people and to say this drug is no different than any other drug? We don't I can't protect it just because it's political for some folks. People should know side effects on this drug and there should be reporting.

Kennedy: Yeah, I mean, it's against everything we believe in this country that patients or doctors should not be reporting adverse events. We need to know what adverse events are. We need to understand the safety of every drug. Mifepristone and every other drug. And President Trump has made it clear to me that one of the things he 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 and FDA to do that.