For Robert F. Kennedy Jr., it was divine intervention.
With his confirmation by the Senate on Thursday to helm the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy, one of President Donald Trump’s most divisive Cabinet picks, now will oversee the nation’s food and healthcare systems.
“The first thing I’ve done every morning for the past 20 years is to pray to God that he would put me in a position where I can end the chronic disease epidemic and protect our children,” he said during his confirmation hearing.
Those prayers were answered on Thursday: “God sent me President Trump” he said, after being sworn-in as health secretary in the Oval Office surrounded by his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, and other family members.
Kennedy, 71 is a longtime environmental lawyer with no professional background in medicine or health care. His promotion of conspiracy theories claiming vaccines cause autism, linking antidepressants to school shootings and even suggesting WiFi causes cancer have alarmed healthcare professionals and Democratic lawmakers. But his contention that chemical additives and food dyes are behind the “chronic diseases epidemic” and vow to take on “Big Pharma” have won support from a cross-section of the society, particularly mothers.
Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the only Republican to vote against Kennedy, said he had a “record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions,” in a statement after the vote.
To others, such as Vani Hari, a food activist and blogger, who attended both days of Kennedy’s confirmation hearings, it was a fresh start.
“This is a historic nomination that will change the course of American health,” she said Thursday.
In his first interview after his confirmation, with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Kennedy reacted to a criticism by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. that he lacked the qualifications to lead the health department.
Kennedy said the qualifications Schumer was talking about is “what got us to where we are today.”