In a Senate hearing, Senator Bernie Sanders pushed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. again on his past support for unsupported claims that vaccines caused autism.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of the most famous of Trump’s nominees, and certainly one of the most contentious. But the first day of his confirmation hearing wasn’t oriented around the kinds of personally agonizing questioning that defined Pete Hegseth’s confirmation process.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump ’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, spent much of his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday downplaying his role in the anti-vaccine movement. But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was unconvinced.

The two went back and forth in a near-shouting match, at which point Senator Markwayne Mullin complained Sanders was “battering the witness.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, asked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to disavow baby onesies with anti-vaccination slogans. The clothes are sold by a nonprofit Mr. Kennedy co-founded.

Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday as he seeks confirmation as the nation's health secretary.

The 83-year-old senator from Vermont has filed with the FEC to run for his seat again in 2030, after winning reelection in 2024.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was asked about anti-vaccine onesies sold by a nonprofit he formerly chaired, and recently resigned from, during his confirmation hearing Wednesday.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services testifies during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing for his pending confirmation, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington.

Alsobrooks is right. Experts say there is no validity to the study RFK Jr references. And furthermore, racial bias in pain diagnosis, or the assumption that Black people are inherently stronger or more tolerable to pain, has been hurting Black Americans for decades.

Kennedy appeared on Wednesday and Thursday in front of the Senate’s finance and health committees, giving independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat, a chance to weigh in.