The man who hopes to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary said he needed to see data showing vaccines are safe, but when an influential Republican senator did so, he dismissed it.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, concluded Thursday's hearing by saying he was "struggling" with the nomination due to Kennedy's vaccine positions. Kennedy notably refused to say vaccines don't cause autism as he faced pointed question from lawmakers.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be the nation’s top health official is uncertain after a key Republican joined Democrats to raise persistent concerns over the nominee’s deep skepticism of routine childhood vaccinations that prevent deadly diseases.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the US Department of Health and Human Services, countered sharp criticisms from Democratic Senators over his past questioning of vaccine safety by saying he would not stop anyone from getting polio and measles vaccines.

One of President Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet picks, Robert Kennedy Jr., repeatedly insisted that he was not “anti-vaccine” even as Democrats presented a bevy of past comments in which he sowed doubt or disparaged Covid shots and other inoculations.

A tense exchange unfolded on Capitol Hill Wednesday when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clashed over the latter’s controversial anti-vaccine stance during Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services.