Anti-vaccine No More? Rfk Jr. Is Remaking His Image To Serve Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a message that seems to be resonating in the Senate: He’s changed his mind.

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is assuring the Republican senators who will decide whether he gets the job that he’s “all for” polio inoculations and that he won’t take away anyone’s vaccines. He has also told them he merely wants to make safety and efficacy data more readily available, lawmakers who’ve talked with Kennedy tell POLITICO.

Even though Kennedy has previously said, in defiance of public health consensus, that the measles vaccine causes autism, that the polio vaccine might have “killed many, many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did,” and that the Covid-19 shot was “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” many GOP senators seem to believe he’s reconsidered. If that’s the case, he could win confirmation with only GOP votes.

“He told me he is not anti-vaccine. He is pro-vaccine safety, which strikes me as a rational position to take,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sits on the Finance Committee that will decide whether to send Kennedy’s nomination to the floor.

After Trump in the run up to Election Day said that he planned to let Kennedy “go wild on health,” then named him to lead HHS, his confirmation seemed iffy. The top Republican in the Senate at the time, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, issued a stinging defense of vaccination and the new chair of the Senate committee that oversees the government’s health agencies, Bill Cassidy (R-La.), issued a tepid statement suggesting concern about Kennedy’s vaccine views.

But Kennedy’s effort to remake his image is winning Republicans over.

Asked whether he was concerned about Kennedy’s history of casting doubt on widely accepted vaccines, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said: “I don’t keep up with all that.”

Tuberville said he talked with Kennedy for more than an hour and that Kennedy said he supports vaccines, as long as they’re safe and work as intended.

Even Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who sits on the Senate panel that oversees HHS and, as one of the chamber’s most moderate Republicans is seen as a critical vote on confirmation, said she had a long conversation with Kennedy about vaccines and that he portrayed his views on them as skeptical but not opposed.

“He thinks people should be informed,” she said.

Murkowski said she would use Kennedy’s confirmation hearing to question him more before deciding how to vote.

In their meetings, Kennedy has not trumpeted his lucrative career as an anti-vaccine activist, in which he sought to convince people to forgo vaccination, claimed vaccines are responsible for a slew of medical problems and earned more than $1 million from the advocacy group he chaired, Children’s Health Defense. The group continues to suggest that vaccines are related to autism, asthma and developmental delays.

Kennedy’s team declined to comment on his changing message.

Kennedy’s flip-flopping is likely to be a centerpiece of his confirmation hearings — expected in the coming weeks — and Republican senators’ willingness to overlook it will test the power of Trump and his populist appeal in a party that in other circumstances may have found such a record, for a longtime Democrat nominated to serve a Republican president, disqualifying.

Some GOP senators said they are aware of Kennedy’s past statements and that they see common ground.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), an OB-GYN, said he read two of Kennedy’s books and listened to his previous podcast appearances and remained “absolutely” confident in his ability to lead HHS.

“I had to put all of the pieces together,” said Marshall, who last month created a Make America Healthy Again Caucus to push Kennedy’s core messages on Capitol Hill. “We don’t agree on everything, but we agree on a lot of things.”

This back and forth wouldn’t be dissimilar from how Kennedy has spoken in public interviews before, often following up a disproven claim about vaccines by insisting he’s pro-science. For example, in 2023, he said on Fox News that he did “believe that autism comes from vaccines,” before adding that “all I’ve said about vaccines is we should have good science.”

Not everyone is convinced.

Democrats are trying to keep the focus on Kennedy’s past positions on vaccines and plan to raise them at his confirmation hearings. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who leads the Democrats on the Senate health committee, plans to livestream on X his meeting Wednesday with health care providers and experts in which he plans to discuss the importance of vaccines.

After meeting with Kennedy last week, Patty Murray (D-Wash.) went to the Senate floor and spoke about the relief her family felt as a child when the polio vaccine was introduced. “I will not be shy about making my concerns quite plain with the American people,” she said. “He founded a nonprofit entirely focused on attacking vaccines.”

It’s unclear how McConnell and Cassidy will vote.

McConnell, whose legs were permanently weakened by a case of childhood polio, last month defended the polio vaccine and said “efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous.”

In a social media post following his meeting with Kennedy, Cassidy said they had had a “frank” conversation and that the two spoke “at length” about vaccines.

Both senators have since declined to comment.