It didn’t take long for the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to turn contentious as Senate Democrats grilled him.

The verbal fireworks exploded minutes into the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday, the first of two straight days of congressional confirmation hearings for the controversial vaccine skeptic and environmental crusader who ran for the White House in 2024 before ending his bid and endorsing Trump.

Kennedy repeatedly insisted that he was not ‘anti-vaccine’ and slammed multiple Democrat senators for pushing a ‘dishonest’ narrative against him that he has ‘corrected’ on national television many times. Democrats on the committee pointed to a slew of past comments from the nominee in which he questioned or disparaged COVID shots and other vaccines.

‘The receipts show that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, and charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines. He’s made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting their kids life-saving vaccines,’ Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the panel, charged in his opening statement.

Moments later, as Kennedy delivered his own opening comments and said ‘news reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither. I am pro-safety,’ a protester shouted out ‘you lie.’

The heckler was led out of the hearing room by Capitol Police, as was a second protester minutes later.

And another protester was spotted in the audience holding a sign reading, ‘Vaccines Save Lives, Not RFK JR.’ 

Democrats on the committee repeatedly pointed to Kennedy’s controversial vaccine views, including his repeated claims in recent years linking vaccines to autism, which have been debunked by scientific research.

They also spotlighted Kennedy’s service for years as chair or chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit organization he founded that has advocated against vaccines and sued the federal government numerous times, including a challenge over the authorization of the COVID vaccine for children.

In his opening statement, which Fox News exclusively obtained ahead of the hearing, Kennedy spotlighted that ‘I believe vaccines play a critical role in healthcare. All of my kids are vaccinated. I’ve written books about vaccines. My first book in 2014, the first line of it is ‘I am not anti-vaccine’ and last line is ‘I am not anti-vaccine.’’

But he quickly faced a grilling from Democrats.

Wyden led off his questioning of Kennedy, the scion of the nation’s most storied political dynasty, by spotlighting a scathing letter from the nominee’s well-known cousin, Caroline Kennedy, which accused him of being a ‘predator’ and urged lawmakers to reject the nomination.

The senator also pointed to past Kennedy vaccine comments in podcasts, including one from 2020 when he said he ‘pay anything’ to be able to go back in time and not vaccinate his kids.

‘Are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine? Or did you lie on all those podcasts?’ Wyden asked.

Pushing back in a very heated exchange, Kennedy claimed that statements he made on podcasts have ‘been repeatedly debunked.’

And he vowed that he would do nothing to prevent Americans from obtaining certain vaccines.

‘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 anything,’ Kennedy emphasized.

The next Democrat to question Kennedy, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, accused him of peddling half-truths, peddling false statements.’

Benett grew heated as he asked Kennedy about other past comments, asking, ‘Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon?’

‘I probably did say that,’ Kennedy answered.

And Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has known Kennedy for decades – dating back to their days as law school students at the University of Virginia, told his friend ‘frankly, you frighten people.’

If confirmed, Kennedy would have control over 18 powerful federal agencies overseeing the nation’s food and health, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The 71-year-old Kennedy launched a long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination against President Joe Biden in April 2023. But six months later, he switched to an independent run for the White House.

Kennedy made major headlines again last August when he dropped his presidential bid and endorsed Trump. While Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy – who were both assassinated in the 1960s – Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders due in part to his high-profile vaccine skepticism.

Trump announced soon after the November election that he would nominate Kennedy to his Cabinet to run HHS.

In the two months since Trump’s announcement, it’s not just Democrats who’ve raised questions about Kennedy’s confirmation. Social conservative Republicans took issue with his past comments in support of abortion rights.

‘My belief is we should leave it to the woman. We shouldn’t have the government involved, even if it’s full term,’ Kennedy said as he ran for president. 

But since endorsing Trump, Kennedy has walked back his stance on abortion. And in an exchange Wednesday with Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Kennedy declared ‘I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy.’

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a former two-time Democratic presidential candidate, argued that Kennedy made a ‘major U-turn’ on abortion.

Kennedy was also questioned about how he would reform Medicare and Medicaid, the massive government health care programs used by millions of older, disabled, and low-income Americans.

‘I don’t have a broad proposal for dismantling the program,’ Kennedy said of Medicaid.

And he said that President Trump hadn’t asked him to cut the program but rather ‘asked me to make it better.’

Kennedy, whose outspoken views on big pharma and the food industry have also sparked controversy, vowed that ‘if confirmed, I will do everything in my power to put the health of Americans back on track.’

While Democrats may find common ground with Kennedy’s aim to shift the focus of the agencies he would oversee toward promotion of a healthy lifestyle – including overhauling dietary guidelines and take aim at ultra-processed foods – and getting to the root causes of chronic diseases, Kennedy lamented that they oppose him because he’s Trump’s nominee.

Now they’re against me because anything that President Trump does, any decision he makes, has to be lampooned, derided, discredited, marginalized, vilified,’ Kennedy argued.

With Republicans controlling the Senate by a 53-47 majority, Kennedy can only afford to lose the support of three GOP senators if Democrats unite against his confirmation. During Wednesday’s hearing, no Republicans appeared to oppose the nomination.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina appeared to lean into the Democrats’ attacks on Kennedy, asking ‘I got a real quick question for you: Are you a conspiracy theorist?’ 

Kennedy answered that it ‘is a pejorative that’s applied to me mainly to keep me from asking difficult questions of powerful interests.’

GOP Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, a chemical engineer, spotlighted that there are several Republican doctors on the committee.

‘We believe in science. I’m thankful that you do, too,’ Daines said.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who said he had a ‘frank conversation’ with Kennedy about immunizations when they met earlier this month, didn’t ask about vaccines during the committee hearing. Instead, he kept his questions to federal healthcare programs, including Medicare.

Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin took aim at Democrats on the committee for what he claimed was ‘hostility on the other side… I’m disappointed with it.’

The hearing ended three and a half hours after it began, with Kennedy departing the committee room to cheers from supporters.

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, Howard Lutnick, told senators the argument that tariffs cause inflation is ‘nonsense’ during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

‘The two top countries with tariffs, India and China, do have the most tariffs and no inflation,’ Lutnick noted. 

‘A particular product’s price may go up,’ he conceded, while arguing that levies would not cause broad inflation. ‘It is just nonsense to say that tariffs cause inflation. It’s nonsense.’ 

Lutnick testified before members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee ahead of an impending committee and full Senate floor vote to confirm him to the Cabinet position. 

Inflation, which ticked as high as 9.1% in June 2022 under the Biden administration, became a defining issue in the 2024 election as Trump promised to bring household prices back down. 

Lutnick also said he prefers ‘across-the-board’ tariffs on a ‘country-by-country’ basis, rather than ones aimed at particular sectors or products. 

‘I think when you pick one product in Mexico, they’ll pick one product. You know, we pick avocados, they pick white corn, we pick tomatoes, they pick yellow corn. All you’re doing is picking on farmers.’

‘Let America make it more fair. We are treated horribly by the global trading environment. They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies. They treat us poorly. We need to be treated better,’ Lutnick went on. ‘We can use tariffs to create reciprocity.’

He said Trump, a longtime friend, was of a ‘like mind’ that tariffs need to be simple. ‘The steel and aluminum had 560,000 applications for exclusions,’ said Lutnick. ‘It just seems that’s too many.’ 

Trump recently signed an executive order directing the Commerce Department and the Office of the US Trade Representative to conduct a review of U.S. trade policy and tariff models, with a focus on China. Trump has said he intends to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1 amid concerns of mass migration and drug trafficking. He also said he would increase tariffs on China by 10%. 

Lutnick also sounded off about Europe treating the U.S. industry unfairly. 

I think our farmers and ranchers and fishermen are treated with disrespect overseas,’ he said.

‘Europe, for example, comes up with all these sort of policies, that our ranchers can’t sell steak. If you saw European steer and an American steer, it’s laughable. The American steers are three times this size. The steaks are so much more beautiful.

‘But they make up this nonsensical set of rules so that our ranchers can’t sell there.’ 

Lutnick said Chinese tariffs ‘should be the highest.’ 

‘But the fact that we Americans cannot sell an American car in Europe is just wrong. And it needs to be fixed,’ he said,

‘While they’re an ally, they are taking advantage of us and disrespecting us. And I would like that to end.’ 

His comments echoed those of Trump last week. 

‘The European Union is very, very bad to us,’ he said. ‘So they’re going to be in for tariffs. It’s the only way… you’re going to get fairness.’

The governments of Mexico, Canada and nations in Europe have prepared a list of their own U.S. imports that will face tariffs in a tit-for-tat trade war if Trump follows through on taxing their own goods as they’re brought into the U.S. 

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said Monday that European nations should unite to use their collective economic force against the U.S. if needed. 

‘As the United States shifts to a more transactional approach, Europe needs to close ranks,’ she said at a news conference in Brussels. ‘Europe is an economic heavyweight and geopolitical partner.’

The Senate will vote Wednesday on whether to confirm former Rep. Lee Zeldin to head the government’s leading agency on environmental rules and regulations.

President Donald Trump tapped Zeldin, who previously served as a congressman from New York’s 1st Congressional District from 2015 to 2023, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under his administration. During his tenure in Congress, Zeldin, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, launched a campaign for governor in New York, when he trailed only five percentage points in the largely Democratic state.

Zeldin underwent a confirmation hearing earlier this month, when he was questioned on climate change by members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

The Senate held a cloture vote for Zeldin on Wednesday afternoon, which ended the debate over his nomination. The chamber will now proceed to a final floor vote. 

If confirmed on Wednesday, Zeldin will head the agency that surveys environmental issues, provides assistance to wide-ranging environmental projects, and establishes rules that align with the administration’s views on environmental protection and climate change. 

During his confirmation hearing, Zeldin pledged that if confirmed, he would ‘foster a collaborative culture within the agency, supporting career staff who have dedicated themselves to this mission. I strongly believe we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of our environment for generations to come.’

The latest round of voting comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., continues to advance the confirmation process to push through Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., was blasted by conservatives on social media on Wednesday over his contentious line of questioning toward President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

‘Frankly, you frighten people,’ Whitehouse told Kennedy while seemingly linking Kennedy’s skepticism of some vaccines to the first case of measles in Rhode Island since 2013. 

Americans are going to need to hear a clear and trustworthy recantation of what you have said on vaccinations, including a promise from you never to say vaccines aren’t medically safe when they, in fact, are, and making indisputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases where that will keep people safe,’ Whitehouse said. ‘You’re in that hole pretty deep.’

Whitehouse, who attended law school with Kennedy where the two were friends, used the majority of his time to list concerns about Kennedy, allowing the HHS hopeful a small window at the end to address the line of questioning.

Whitehouse’s comments quickly drew criticism from conservatives on social media. 

‘Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) beginning his confirmation ‘questioning’ of RFK Jr. by saying ‘I’m very experienced, so you’re just going to have to listen,’  then talking for 7 minutes nonstop is such a perfect picture of why Democrats are failing around the nation right now,’ Daily Signal columnist Tony Kinnett posted on X. 

‘You know what would be good?’ columnist John Podhortez posted on X. ‘Sheldon Whitehouse going away forever to an island. And not Rhode Island, which isn’t an island. More like St. Helena.’

‘Whitehouse delivers a droning monologue then tells RFK he’s out of time, can respond in writing,’ National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin posted on X. 

‘What a jacka–,’ Twitchy.com editor Samantha Janney posted on X. ‘RFK Jr. should ask Sheldon about his membership at multiple whites-only clubs.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Whitehouse’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Opposition to Kennedy’s nomination has been fierce, with advocacy groups running ad campaigns urging senators to vote against his confirmation mainly due to his past skepticism of some vaccines. 

‘I want to make sure the Committee is clear about a few things. News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. Well, I am neither; I am pro-safety,’ Kennedy said in his opening statement in front of the Senate Finance Committee.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s former presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan called out various senators by name, warning that she will fund primary challenges against them if they oppose confirming RFK Jr. to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services.

‘Dear U.S. Senators, Bobby may play nice; I won’t,’ she wrote in a post on X.

In a video, Shanahan said that in 2020 she ‘cut large checks to Chuck Schumer to help Democrats flip two Senate seats in Georgia from red to blue.’ Peach State Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff both initially took office after winning runoff contests in early 2021.

Shanahan bluntly warned the two senators, ‘please know I will be watching your votes very closely. I will make it my personal mission that you lose your seats in the Senate if you vote against the future health of America’s children.

She then proceeded to call out Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, Bill Cassidy, R-La., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., James Lankford, R-Okl., Cory Booker, D-N.Y., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.

‘While Bobby may be willing to play nice, I won’t. If you vote against him, I will personally fund challengers to primary you in your next election. And I will enlist hundreds of thousands to join me,’ she declared.

Shanahan, who urged people to reach out to their senators to press them to support RFK Jr.’s nomination, followed up her video with a post tagging each of the 13 senators she had mentioned — the post also included phone numbers.

Kennedy, a Democrat-turned-independent presidential candidate, ultimately dropped out and backed then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2024 White House contest.

Trump later announced Kennedy as his pick to serve as HHS secretary. 

But the HHS nominee still needs to earn enough support in the Senate to clear the confirmation hurdle.

Shanahan voted for Trump during the 2024 presidential election.

HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden were involved in a tense exchange on Capitol Hill where Kennedy accused the senator of intentionally misrepresenting his past comments.

Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee which held a confirmation hearing for Kennedy on Wednesday, pressed the nominee on comments made on podcasts in recent years. 

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,’ Wyden said to Kennedy. 

‘Mr. Kennedy, all of these things cannot be true. So are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine or did you lie on all those podcasts? We have all of this on tape, by the way.’

Kennedy took issue with Wyden’s comments and pointed out that the comment about ‘no vaccine’ being safe and effective was said before he was cut off in the interview, with podcaster Lex Fridman, before he could finish. 

Yeah, Senator, as you know, because it’s been repeatedly debunked, that the statements that I made on the Lex Fridman podcast was a fragment of the statement,’ Kennedy responded. 

‘He asked me, and anybody who actually goes and looks at that podcast and will see that he asked me, are there vaccines that are safe and effective? And I said to him, some of the live virus vaccines. And I said, there are no vaccines that are safe and effective and I was going to continue for, every person. Every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines.’

Kennedy continued, ‘He interrupted me at that point. I’ve corrected it many times, including on national TV. You know about this, Sen. Wyden, so bringing this up right now is dishonest.’

A transcript from the interview with Fridman shows Kennedy saying, ‘I think some of the live virus vaccines are probably averting more problems than they’re causing. There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective. In fact.’ 

Kennedy is then cut off and the conversation goes elsewhere. 

Kennedy has corrected the record on subsequent shows, including in an interview with HBO’s Bill Maher, where he explained he was interrupted and assured the public, ‘I would never say that.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Wyden’s office but did not immediately receive a response. 

Opposition to Kennedy’s nomination has been fierce, with advocacy groups running ad campaigns urging senators to vote against his confirmation.

‘I want to make sure the Committee is clear about a few things. News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. Well, I am neither; I am pro-safety,’ Kennedy said in his opening statement in front of the Senate Finance Committee.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

Two former Trump administration Cabinet secretaries are launching a nationwide coalition to back the president’s ‘energy dominance’ agenda, which aims to boost oil and gas production and scale back climate change policies.

Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt are launching the Restoring Energy Dominance Coalition on Wednesday, which will rally conservatives behind President Donald Trump’s broad energy approach, a central theme of his 2024 campaign.

According to the nonprofit’s website, the organization is made up of ‘a group of concerned citizens and policy experts who understand that American energy production — of all kinds — is essential for unleashing domestic energy dominance.’

Brouillette said the coalition will ensure Trump garners the support he needs for his all-of-the-above energy agenda, which is ‘essential to lowering costs, creating good-paying jobs, and bolstering America’s national security.’ 

All of the above energy involves a mix of energy sources, like fossil fuels, nuclear energy and renewable energy, to promote energy independence.

‘The first step to improving our economy and lowering the cost of living for American families is to restore our energy dominance,’ Bernhadt said in a statement. ‘President Trump is spot on about needing all forms of energy to meet our current challenges and America’s new golden age will only be possible if we make the president’s energy platform from his 2024 campaign a reality.’

Following Trump’s campaign promise to ‘drill, baby drill,’ Trump issued an executive order on Inauguration Day declaring a national energy emergency, invoking the National Emergencies Act, to bolster domestic energy production and reduce reliance on foreign energy sources. The Trump White House argues it will lower energy costs. 

The order directs federal agencies to ‘expedite the leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources,’ including on federal lands.

‘The policies of the previous administration have driven our Nation into a national emergency, where a precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply, and an increasingly unreliable grid, require swift and decisive action,’ the executive order reads. ‘Without immediate remedy, this situation will dramatically deteriorate in the near future due to a high demand for energy and natural resources to power the next generation of technology.’

Trump also issued a sweeping executive order rolling back environmental regulations – which sought to reduce emissions 61-66% by 2035 – that the Biden administration created in December. The order reverses several climate-focused policies and prioritizes fossil fuel expansion, mineral extraction and deregulation.

The directive calls for increased oil, gas and coal production on federal lands and waters, while revoking multiple executive orders that supported renewable energy initiatives. It also eliminates the federal electric vehicle (EV) mandate, removes subsidies favoring EVs, and prevents states from imposing stricter emissions standards.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.