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RFK Jr’s view on vaccines comes under fire at contentious US Senate hearing

RFK Jr’s view on vaccines comes under fire at contentious US Senate hearing
By Nils Adler, Joseph Stepansky and Alice Speri
Published On 30 Jan 2025

This live page is now closed. You can read our key takeaways from the hearings here and here.

30 Jan 2025 - 20:29
 (20:29 GMT)

Thank you for joining us

This live page is now closed.

If you want key takeaways from Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing, see our story here. Or check out our story on the key moments from Gabbard’s hearing here.

And for the latest on another issue marking the United States today – the crash of a commercial plane and a helicopter near Washington, DC – see our explainer here.

30 Jan 2025 - 20:20
 (20:20 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

This live page will soon be closed. Here’s a look at what happened today:

  • US senators held three separate committee hearings for three of President Donald Trump’s top cabinet nominees: Kashyap Patel, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr.
  • Patel, nominated to lead the FBI, dodged questions about Trump’s January 6 pardons and rejected accusations he plans to weaponise the agency against perceived opponents.
  • Gabbard, a former congresswoman and Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, was pressed by lawmakers on her past support for whistleblower Edward Snowden.
  • Kennedy – known as RFK Jr – faced a second day of heated questioning over his past remarks sowing doubt on the efficacy of vaccines as he seeks to lead the top US health agency.
Gabbard during her Senate confirmation hearing [John McDonnell/AP Photo]
30 Jan 2025 - 20:08
 (20:08 GMT)
Developing

Patel confirmation hearing ends

The marathon hearing has come to an end, with little indication Patel will face any opposition from the committee’s Republican members.

30 Jan 2025 - 20:00
 (20:00 GMT)
Explainer

What is the FBI and how many employees does the director oversee?

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which Patel is nominated to lead, employs 38,000 people.

It is a law enforcement agency tasked with upholding federal law.

The bureau investigates “federal crimes and threats to national security”, gathers intelligence and assists other law enforcement agencies.

The FBI seal is seen on the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC [File: Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo]
30 Jan 2025 - 19:50
 (19:50 GMT)

Trump freeze on international aid continues to reverberate

As Patel’s confirmation hearing drags on, Trump’s freeze on international aid has continued to send “massive shocks” throughout the humanitarian community.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver on some critical assistance and life-saving medical aid.

Still, the scope of the order continues to cause widespread confusion.

Watch our video below.

30 Jan 2025 - 19:40
 (19:40 GMT)
Analysis

Confirmation hearings show Trump’s hold on party

US media has reported that the White House has been conducting a behind-the-scenes pressure campaign urging senators to vote in favour of Trump’s nominees.

Earlier this week, NBC news quoted a White House official who warned of a well-funded “consortium of outside groups and political actors” ready to “exact consequences … to those who do not support the president’s nominees and get them to the finish line”.

So far, the confirmation process has shown Trump’s hold on the Republican Party remains strong.

In past years, several of Trump’s nominees would likely have seen widespread bipartisan opposition given their lack of experience, concerns about their character, or engagement with conspiracy theories.

But Trump’s most controversial picks have not seen much opposition during the committee hearings.

When it comes to a wider Senate vote, Gabbard is considered the most embattled nominee, while major Republican opposition to Kennedy and Patel has yet to emerge.

Patel takes his seat as he arrives for his confirmation hearing on January 30 [Mandel Ngan/AFP]
30 Jan 2025 - 19:30
 (19:30 GMT)

Hearing for FBI director nominee Patel wrapping up

The contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is about to conclude. Here were some of the key takeaways:

  • Republicans show a largely unified front, portraying Patel as the victim of an unfair smear campaign who has fought for “unpopular but righteous causes”.
  • Democrats point to a large body of interviews and social media posts in which Patel endorsed conspiracy theories, promoted the notion that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and suggested that political opponents should be targeted for retribution.
  • Patel appears to distance himself from Trump’s blanket pardon of January 6, 2001, US Capitol rioters, saying he believed anyone who assaults law enforcement should face consequences.
  • The nominee also pledges independence at the FBI, seeking to distance himself from the “enemies list” he published in his book and his previous statement that he would turn the agency’s headquarters into a “museum”.
Patel during his Senate confirmation hearing [Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]
30 Jan 2025 - 19:20
 (19:20 GMT)

WATCH: Senator pushes RFK Jr on HPV vaccine remarks

Watch the heated exchange between Kennedy and Democrat Patty Murray in the video below.

30 Jan 2025 - 19:20
 (19:20 GMT)

Republican says Trump’s January 6 pardons ‘sucked’

Trump’s blanket pardon of about 1,600 January 6 rioters, including those convicted of assaulting police officers, has put his GOP allies who claim to support law and order in a tough spot.

To date, many have only offered metered criticism of the move.

But speaking during Patel’s confirmation hearing earlier, Senator Thom Tillis took a harsher line.

“I actually thought the pardon of these people who did harm to police officers sucked,” he said.

30 Jan 2025 - 19:00
 (19:00 GMT)
Analysis

Nominees pledge to advance Trump’s vision

With Trump’s top cabinet picks facing questions from lawmakers over the past weeks, all of them have shared a pledge to advance the Republican leader’s vision for the US.

Trump has acted swiftly since taking office on January 20 to enact his “America First” plan.

He has taken a slew of executive actions that crack down on immigration and curtail government initiatives, including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes, American foreign aid, and funding for federal healthcare and education programmes.

Trump’s nominees have promised to fall in line with his priorities if confirmed to their roles.

30 Jan 2025 - 18:50
 (18:50 GMT)
Explainer

Has Patel supported Trump’s claim that 2020 election was ‘rigged’?

Democrats have repeatedly sought to pin down Patel’s views on the 2020 election.

Under questioning from Democratic Senator Peter Welch, Patel repeatedly avoided saying that Biden won the vote.

Instead, he acknowledged that Biden’s victory was later certified and he became president.

Public Citizen, a progressive consumer advocacy organisation, has documented several instances in which Patel referred to the election as “rigged”.

Most notably, in December 2023, Patel pledged that he will “go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media”.

“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” he said.

30 Jan 2025 - 18:40
 (18:40 GMT)

More from the RFK Jr Senate hearing

Kennedy has faced another contentious hearing in the US Senate. Here are some highlights of what’s been said:

  • “Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, tells the nominee. “I have constituents who partly credit you for their decision to not vaccinate their child.”
  • Kennedy reiterates his pledge to address rapidly increasing rates of chronic disease. “Our country is not going to be destroyed because we get the marginal tax rate wrong. It is going to be destroyed if we get this issue wrong,” he said, adding that he is “in a unique position to be able to stop this epidemic”.
  • Supporters of Kennedy wearing “Make America Healthy Again” hats have crowded into the committee hearing room while some opposing his nomination wore “Reject RFK Jr” stickers on their shirts.
Kennedy has been questioned about his stance on vaccines [Rod Lamkey Jr/AP Photo]
30 Jan 2025 - 18:30
 (18:30 GMT)
Explainer

What is the ‘Nunes memo’?

The “Nunes memo” has loomed large during Patel’s hearing with Republicans repeatedly referencing it as evidence of political overreach by the FBI.

What is it exactly?

The memo was a four-page report prepared by former Representative Devin Nunes, a close ally of Trump. It claimed that the FBI had used “politically motivated or questionable sources” to attain warrants in the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia.

Nunes hired Patel as special counsel to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and he was involved in authoring the memo.

While an inspector general report identified significant problems with FBI surveillance during the Russia investigation, it found no evidence that the FBI had acted with partisan motives in conducting the probe.

30 Jan 2025 - 18:20
 (18:20 GMT)
Developing

Patel questioning continues

Kashyap Patel’s confirmation committee hearing has resumed.

So far, Patel has sidestepped several topics on which he had previously been vocal.

When asked if he would open an investigation into former Attorney General William Barr, and former FBI directors Christopher Wray and James Comey, he declined to give a definitive response, instead saying he had no intention of “going backwards”.

“Every investigation will be subject to the same legal standard,” Patel said.

He also refused to give a clear answer as to whether Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.

Instead, he said: “President Biden’s election was certified, he was sworn in and he served as the president of the United States.”

[Ben Curtis/AP Photo]
30 Jan 2025 - 18:10
 (18:10 GMT)

Anti-Trump group slams all three nominees

The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump organisation, has released a new ad denouncing Patel, Kennedy and Gabbard.

Addressing the US Senate, the ad says that lawmakers were facing “three of Trump’s most alarming picks”.

“We understand defying Trump is tough. But you’ve already given him [Pentagon chief Pete] Hegseth; that’s enough.”

30 Jan 2025 - 18:00
 (18:00 GMT)
Explainer

What is the path to confirmation for the nominees?

Republicans currently control 53 seats in the 100-seat US Senate.

For cabinet nominees to be confirmed, they need a simple majority. The vice president casts the decisive vote in the event of a tie.

That means the three Trump nominees having confirmation hearings today – Kennedy, Gabbard and Patel – can afford to lose only three Republican votes.

Gabbard may have the longest odds with Politico reporting that at least four Republican senators have not publicly said how they plan to vote.

When it comes to Kennedy, Senator Mitch McConnell will be closely watched. He is the only polio survivor currently in the chamber and may take issue with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism.

McConnell was one of three Republicans who voted against Trump’s pick to head the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, but he was ultimately confirmed.

Republican moderates could vote against Kennedy as well. That is also true for Patel although Republican senators have so far been supportive during his committee hearing today.

30 Jan 2025 - 17:45
 (17:45 GMT)
Developing

Gabbard hearing concludes

The senators will be convening for a closed section on Gabbard’s nomination in the next 30 minutes, Senator Tom Cotton says.

Here’s some more of what took place during the hearing:

  • Gabbard, who was pushed on her position towards Russia, affirms that President Putin started the war in Ukraine in 2022.
  • Senators also questioned her on her position on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a government authority that raises privacy concerns; She once sought to repeal the section but reversed her stance after she was nominated for the intelligence post.
30 Jan 2025 - 17:40
 (17:40 GMT)

As hearings continue, Trump responds to DC plane crash

As the hearings for his cabinet nominees continue, Trump has responded to the collision between a military helicopter and commercial plane in Washington, DC which is believed to have killed 67 people.

Trump quickly reverted to his recent political talking points when responding to the crash, which he called “a tragedy of terrible proportions”.

He blamed the crash on diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under previous administrations, but provided no evidence to back his claim. Instead, he said it was a matter of “common sense”.

It was not immediately clear if air traffic control agents or the military personnel conducting the training exercise were responsible for the incident.

Trump also claimed, without providing evidence, that a recent air traffic control system update was inadequate.

“They spent a lot of money renovating a system, spending much more money than they would have spent if they bought a new system for air traffic controllers, meaning the computerised systems. There are certain companies that do a very good job. They didn’t use those companies,” he said.

[Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters]
30 Jan 2025 - 17:30
 (17:30 GMT)
Explainer

What did Gabbard previously say about Snowden?

As we’ve reported, the former congresswoman’s past support for the US whistleblower has come under scrutiny during today’s hearing.

In 2020, Gabbard co-sponsored a House resolution urging the US government to drop all charges against Snowden.

That same year, she urged then-President Trump to pardon him and “those who, at great personal sacrifice, exposed the deception and criminality of those in the deep state”.

In a post on X before today’s hearing began, Snowden commented on the confirmation process.

“Tulsi Gabbard will be required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation today. I encourage her to do so. Tell them I harmed national security and the sweet, soft feelings of staff. In DC, that’s what passes for the pledge of allegiance,” he wrote.

30 Jan 2025 - 17:20
 (17:20 GMT)

WATCH: Key moments from RFK Jr’s first Senate hearing

As we’ve been reporting, Kennedy is facing a second straight day of questioning by US lawmakers as they assess his nomination to head the Health and Human Services (HHS) agency.

Check out key moments from his first day of testimony in our video below.