Robert F Kennedy Jr came to prominence and broke away from just being his famous father’s namesake on the back of his promotion of the idea that vaccines cause autism.
Kennedy has met with multiple Republicans throughout the week about his confirmation to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. This also came the week that President-elect Donald Trump said “There’s something wrong” about the increase in autism rates and that “we’re going to find out about it.”
That earned a rebuke from Sen Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who will be chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“It’s not true and it’s been widely shown that it’s not true,” he told The Independent on Tuesday.
Republican senators who worked as physicians previously told The Independent they wanted to speak with Kennedy about his views on autism and vaccines. However, many Republicans are not asking Kennedy about his promotion of the debunked idea.
“I think there are fair questions,” Sen James Lankford of Oklahoma told The Independent. “What I’ve heard President Trump say is ‘Hey there are questions that are out there, let’s go get answers.’ So I haven’t heard him take a position to say that the two are connected. He said, ‘People talk about this, so let’s go find out.’”
Trump has openly speculated about a potential link between vaccines and autism long before he ran for president. Kennedy shifted his career from being a prominent environmental lawyer to pushing the link between the two, which has been repeatedly debunked.
Sen Thom Tillis of North Carolina on Wednesday said he planned to discuss Kennedy’s views.
“I know, I’m sure some of these members can do this, but I’m not capable of having a 30-minute meeting, gathering information and forming an opinion,” he told The Independent. “I gather information that I’m now going to form an opinion on, and we go from there.”
Tillis faces a potential primary challenge from a more conservative Republican as he faces re-election in 2026.
But Sen Roger Marshall of Kansas, a physician himself and a pro-Trump Republican, told reporters vaccines did not come up in their meeting.
“We did not speak one lick about vaccines,” he said on Tuesday. “I think there’s just other priorities out there that we need to be focused on…food is medicine.”
Sen Rand Paul of Kentucky, an opthalmologist, brushed said he wanted answers after Trump’s remarks.
“I think autism needs to be studied,” he told The Independent. “It’s unknown as to what the cause is. I know a lot of parents with kids with autism, and frankly, we don’t know what causes it, but we certainly should keep looking.”
Incoming Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, another physician, said he and Kennedy had a wide-ranging discussion.
“We had a whole ranging discussion on health care, making America healthy again, and vaccines were part of our discussion,” he told The Independent. “As you know, I’m pro-vaccine and anti-mandate.”
Barrasso said that Kennedy told the Wyoming Republican that he supported the polio vaccine.
Sen Tommy Tuberville of Alabama had a similar response.
“ I talked to him a lot about vaccines, and he said, we’re gonna go by the science,” Tuberville, a former college football coach, told The Independent. “He’s we’re not gonna use people as guinea pigs. We’re gonna go by the science. We’re gonna find the ones that work. If they don’t work, we’re gonna make sure they’re not harmful to people.”
Sen Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has said in the past that she supports vaccines. The Alaska Republican has frequently criticized Trump and criticized Elon Musk’s influence in tanking a continuing resolution to keep the government open, forcing Congress to start from scratch.
“Yes, I did,” Murkowski told The Independent as she entered an elevator ahead of votes on Friday morning.
