‘Mr Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories’: prime Democrat slams Trump’s well being secretary choose at affirmation listening to – reside | Trump administration
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Democrat excoriates Kennedy for having ’embraced conspiracy theories’
The highest Democrat on the Senate finance committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon, delivered a scathing rebuke of Robert F Kennedy Jr in his opening assertion on the cupboard nominee’s affirmation listening to.
“The receipts present that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, and charlatans, particularly in relation to the protection and efficacy of vaccines,” Wyden stated.
“He’s made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage mother and father from getting their children life-saving vaccines. It’s been profitable for him and put him on the verge of actual energy. That is the profile of anyone who chases cash and affect wherever they lead, even when meaning the deaths of youngsters and different weak folks.”
Wyden famous that, if confirmed as the subsequent secretary of well being and human companies, Kennedy would play a key position in issuing medical suggestions for the nation, and the Democrat expressed worry that Kennedy would possibly use his authority to limit entry to the abortion medicine Mifepristone.
“Ladies should know if Mr Kennedy will abuse his energy as our nation’s chief well being officer to basically implement a nationwide abortion ban by proscribing entry to this secure and authorized medicine,” Wyden stated.
He concluded, “After a cautious evaluation of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s statements, actions, associations and views, I’ve reached the conclusion that he shouldn’t be entrusted with the well being and well-being of the American folks. When he’s taken each aspect of each problem, how can this committee and the American public imagine something he has to say?”
Key occasions
In response to questioning from Republican chair Mike Crapo, Robert F Kennedy Jr stated he was not seeking to place restrictions on meals choices, despite the fact that he has persistently expresssed alarm over Individuals’ diets.
“I don’t wish to take meals away from anyone,” Kennedy stated. “In case you like a McDonald’s cheeseburger and a Weight loss program Coke, which my boss loves, you need to be capable to get them.”
The remark, an acknowledgment of Donald Trump’s long-documented embrace of quick meals, was met with chuckles within the listening to room.
Kennedy continued, “If you wish to eat Hostess Twinkies, you need to be capable to try this, however you need to know what the impacts are on your loved ones and in your well being.”
Protester disrupts Kennedy’s opening feedback on vaccines
Robert F Kennedy Jr devoted most of his opening assertion to detailing his imaginative and prescient for addressing “continual illness” if confirmed because the secretary of well being and human companies, however he took a second to deal with his previous feedback attacking vaccines.
“Information reviews have claimed that I’m anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I’m neither,” Kennedy stated.
He was disrupted by a protester who appeared to yell in response, “You lie!”
The protester was escorted out of the listening to room, after which Kennedy was then capable of proceed his opening assertion, saying, “I’m pro-safety.”
Earlier than Robert F Kennedy Jr delivered his opening assertion, the Republican chair and Democratic rating member of the Senate finance committee shared a tense alternate on the Medicaid portal outage that occurred yesterday.
Medicaid cost portals have been down throughout the nation yesterday following Donald Trump’s announcement of a federal funding freeze, however a number of states reported that the portals have been again on-line final evening.
In his opening assertion, Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon pointed to the outage as an indication of what could also be to return if Kennedy is confirmed to steer the division of well being and human companies.
The chair of the committee, Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho, criticized Wyden’s feedback as a “false assault,” noting that the portals are actually operational, however Wyden retorted that the outage had created “bedlam throughout the nation”.
Democrat excoriates Kennedy for having ’embraced conspiracy theories’
The highest Democrat on the Senate finance committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon, delivered a scathing rebuke of Robert F Kennedy Jr in his opening assertion on the cupboard nominee’s affirmation listening to.
“The receipts present that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, and charlatans, particularly in relation to the protection and efficacy of vaccines,” Wyden stated.
“He’s made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage mother and father from getting their children life-saving vaccines. It’s been profitable for him and put him on the verge of actual energy. That is the profile of anyone who chases cash and affect wherever they lead, even when meaning the deaths of youngsters and different weak folks.”
Wyden famous that, if confirmed as the subsequent secretary of well being and human companies, Kennedy would play a key position in issuing medical suggestions for the nation, and the Democrat expressed worry that Kennedy would possibly use his authority to limit entry to the abortion medicine Mifepristone.
“Ladies should know if Mr Kennedy will abuse his energy as our nation’s chief well being officer to basically implement a nationwide abortion ban by proscribing entry to this secure and authorized medicine,” Wyden stated.
He concluded, “After a cautious evaluation of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s statements, actions, associations and views, I’ve reached the conclusion that he shouldn’t be entrusted with the well being and well-being of the American folks. When he’s taken each aspect of each problem, how can this committee and the American public imagine something he has to say?”
The Republican chair of the Senate finance committee, Mike Crapo of Idaho, praised Robert F Kennedy Jr as “a voice for an inspiring coalition of Individuals who’re deeply dedicated to bettering the well being and wellbeing of our nation”.
In his opening assertion, Crapo lamented that the US healthcare system has turn out to be a “dyfunctional maze” for a lot of Individuals, and he framed Kennedy’s potential affirmation as an “alternative to ship daring, transformative options”.
“No matter political get together, everybody on this room shares a typical recognition that our present system has fallen brief, in addition to a typical need to make our nation more healthy,” Crapo stated. “I look ahead to immediately’s dialog in addition to your testimony, Mr Kennedy.”
RFK Jr affirmation listening to begins
The chair of the Senate finance committee, Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho, has kicked off the affirmation listening to for Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of well being and human companies.
After Kennedy entered the listening to room, he walked up towards the dais to shake the fingers of committee members whereas photographers swirled round him to seize the scene.
The listening to will start with opening statements earlier than senators have the chance to query Kennedy, who has confronted intense criticism over allegations of sexual harassment and his shifting stance on vaccines.
Keep tuned.
Jessica Glenza
Anti-vaccine rhetoric and lawsuits have been a profitable enterprise for Robert F Kennedy Jr, main as much as his nomination to be secretary of well being – one he’s in search of to distance himself from as he enters affirmation hearings this week.
Final week, he promised to resign from his consultancies and chairmanship of Kids’s Well being Protection, a number one anti-vaccine nonprofit, if he’s confirmed. That’s chilly consolation to public well being consultants anxiously eyeing his affirmation.
“The plain fact is that vaccines have saved a whole bunch of tens of millions of lives,” stated Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) underneath Barack Obama, and now CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a public health-focused non-profit.
“When Mr Kennedy says issues like autism does come from vaccines” – a false declare – “that’s very problematic”.
Frieden continued: “That was a fraudulent declare from somebody who was aiming to revenue from it, and false claims like that not solely undermine our confidence in secure and efficient vaccines in addition they divert consideration from discovering the true reason for issues like autism that have an effect on so many individuals.”
Learn Jessica’s full report:
Robert F Kennedy’s affirmation listening to comes in the future after his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, shared a video on social media describing him as a “predator” who “preys on the desperation of fogeys of sick youngsters” by peddling misinformation on vaccines.
“I’ve recognized Bobby my entire life; we grew up collectively. It’s no shock that he retains birds of prey as pets as a result of he himself is a predator,” Caroline Kennedy stated within the video.
Her remarks have been additionally shared in a letter to senators, as she implored them to not verify RFK Jr as the subsequent secretary of well being and human companies.
She went on to say that her father, President John F Kennedy, and her uncle, former US legal professional normal Robert F Kennedy, can be “disgusted” by the actions of her cousin.
Extra on Caroline Kennedy’s feedback right here:
RFK Jr affirmation listening to getting underway quickly
The Senate affirmation listening to for Robert F Kennedy, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of well being and human companies, will get underway in about half-hour, and Democrats are anticipated to grill Kennedy on allegations of sexual harassment and his shifting stance on vaccines.
The Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon reviews: “Robert F Kennedy Jr, the environmental lawyer turned anti-vaccine activist, faces a watershed second this week because the Senate affirmation hearings start on his nomination because the US’s prime well being official, establishing what could possibly be essentially the most contentious cupboard battle of Donald Trump’s second administration.
“The 71-year-old Kennedy, whose nomination has sparked fierce resistance from the scientific institution, would take management of a sprawling $1.8tn healthcare equipment at a time when public belief in medical establishments stays deeply fractured alongside partisan traces.
“As well being and human companies secretary, Kennedy would oversee all the things from vaccine coverage to meals security, wielding monumental affect over public well being selections affecting tens of millions of Individuals. His controversial views – together with debunked claims about vaccines and autism, fluoride security and uncooked milk laws – have put him at odds with mainstream medical consensus.
“Kennedy advised NPR in December that as a member of the administration, he’s ‘not going to take vaccines away from anyone’, however he additionally added he wished folks to make ‘knowledgeable selections’.”
Learn Joseph’s full report:
Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and former Democratic vice-presidential nominee, argued that Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze intently mirrors lots of the proposals included in Challenge 2025.
“We have been getting ready for it. They wrote it out. In case you return and have a look at that now, you’ll see this go step-by-step,” Walz advised MSNBC final evening.
Walz described the funding freeze, which was paused by a federal choose yesterday, as “merciless” and “considerably buffoonish,” however he expressed concern that Trump could also be utilizing it as a trial balloon to see how far he can go along with his agenda.
“It’s such as you caught somebody they usually stole all the things out of your home. You caught them and also you advised them to place it again,” Walz stated. “And if you begin wanting, a few of it’s nonetheless gone. What they’re going to see is, oh, they didn’t elevate a stink about meteorologists or our of us who’re monitoring PFAS [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances] in our water, so let’s simply go on with that.”
Walz acknowledged that many Individuals are fatigued after a grueling presidential election, however he implored them to not quit the combat within the face of Trump’s return to the White Home.
“I might inform folks, keep centered. Don’t take the bait on the distractions,” Walz stated. “Encompass your self with individuals who perceive this and acknowledge the issues they went after immediately are mainly a giant chunk of what society does. Individuals prefer to have clear water and hospitals and security and roads and airports, all of the issues they’re going after.”
He concluded, “I believe we now have to search out that voice. We have now to push again.”
The Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas reviews:
Selena Gomez – the Texas-born pop star and actor whose paternal grandparents are from Mexico – has laughed off a failed Republican US Senate hopeful’s name for her to be deported from the nation after she recorded a video of herself expressing sympathy for folks affected by Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Responding to a remark from the previous candidate that she must be “deported” over her video, Gomez took to social media and wrote partly: “Thanks for the snicker.”
Gomez nonetheless deleted the video amid a social media pile-on primarily pushed by conservatives in favor of deportation raids that Trump’s administration has been finishing up early in his second presidency, which started on 20 January.
The clip in query confirmed the 32-year-old Gomez wiping away tears as she remarked: “I simply wished to say that I’m so sorry. All my persons are getting attacked, the youngsters. I don’t perceive.
“I want I may do one thing, however I can’t. I’ll strive all the things. I promise.”
Learn the complete report:
Democrats have expressed outrage over reviews that Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s new secretary of protection, has eliminated the safety element and clearance of Mark Milley, the previous chair of the joint chiefs of employees who has fiercely criticized Trump up to now.
In accordance with Fox Information, Hegseth has additionally instructed the appearing inspector normal to analyze whether or not Milley must be stripped of considered one of his stars for allegedly undermining the chain of command throughout Trump’s first time period.
“Pete Hegseth pledged to the Senate that he’d shield the independence of the Division of Protection’s watchdog for waste, fraud, and abuse,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, stated in a press release.
“However after President Trump illegally fired the Pentagon’s Inspector Common, the Protection Secretary goes again on his phrase and weaponizing authorities investigations to go after Trump’s perceived political enemies. It’s a transparent warning signal that Secretary Hegseth is concentrated extra on political retribution than nationwide safety.”
Over on Capitol Hill, Republicans are struggling to cobble collectively a plan to move a serious invoice that’s anticipated to incorporate provisions on taxes, immigration and spending cuts.
Congressional Republicans have debated for weeks about whether or not the laws – which they plan to move utilizing a course of referred to as reconciliation to keep away from the Senate filibuster – must be cut up into one invoice or two payments. After a two-day Home Republican retreat, lawmakers aren’t any nearer to discovering a path ahead, one member reported.
“We have now solely been offered with the identical coverage and price range minimize proposals that we now have been offered with for a month now in any respect our conferences and at a full Saturday convention assembly earlier this month,” consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, wrote on social media.
“Subsequent time we meet, I hope to know a framework of our plan and I hope this doesn’t flip into one other invoice with hundreds of pages dumped on us with lower than 72 hours to learn all of it earlier than we now have to vote on the eve of one other authorities shutdown. However why would I anticipate totally different?”
Home Republicans are working with a razor-thin majority, in order that they don’t have any room for error as they work to get their invoice throughout the end line.
Government order restricts gender transition for under-19s
President Trump has issued an govt order proscribing gender transition therapy for folks underneath 19.
The order stated medical professionals throughout the nation have been “maiming and sterilizing a rising variety of impressionable youngsters underneath the unconventional and false declare that adults can change a toddler’s intercourse by way of a collection of irreversible medical interventions”.
“Numerous youngsters quickly remorse that they’ve been mutilated and start to know the horrifying tragedy that they may by no means be capable to conceive youngsters of their very own or nurture their youngsters by way of breastfeeding,” it stated.
“Furthermore, these weak youths’ medical payments could rise all through their lifetimes, as they’re usually trapped with lifelong medical issues, a dropping battle with their very own our bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.
“Accordingly, it’s the coverage of the USA that it’s going to not fund, sponsor, promote, help, or assist the so-called ‘transition’ of a kid from one intercourse to a different, and it’ll rigorously implement all legal guidelines that prohibit or restrict these harmful and life-altering procedures.”
The order additionally directed the US well being secretary to “take all acceptable actions to finish the chemical and surgical mutilation of youngsters, together with regulatory and sub-regulatory actions”.
An awesome majority of individuals in Greenland are not looking for the island to turn out to be a part of the US, in response to a ballot.
President Trump has repeatedly stated he needs the US to regulate Greenland, which is strategically situated and believed to have important untapped assets. Trump has refused to rule out utilizing tariffs or power to accumulate the territory from Denmark.
In a ballot revealed by Denmark’s Berlingske and Greenland’s Sermitsiaq newspapers, 85% of residents of the island stated they might not again the transfer, whereas 6% have been in favour and 9% have been undecided.
Some 45% noticed Trump’s curiosity as a “risk”, 43% noticed it as an “alternative”, and 13% have been undecided.
A day after Trump’s inauguration this month, Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede insisted that Greenlanders “don’t wish to be American”.
UN businesses have begun chopping their world assist operations following the 90-day suspension of all international help ordered by President Trump.
Filippo Grandi, the pinnacle of the organisation’s refugee company, UNHCR, despatched out an in a single day e-mail to workers ordering a right away clampdown on expenditure, together with a 90-day delay in ordering new provides apart from emergencies, a hiring and contract freeze, and a halt to all worldwide air journey.
UNHCR is accountable for offering life-saving help to the 122 million folks at present displaced from their properties throughout 136 nations.
The brand new US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, beforehand claimed the freeze wouldn’t have an effect on life-saving assist, which he outlined as “core lifesaving medication, medical companies, meals, shelter, and subsistence help, in addition to provides and cheap administrative prices as essential to ship such help”.
He stated its targets have been assist programmes involving abortion, household planning, and “gender ideology”.
The US offered £2bn ($2.49bn) in funding to the UNHCR, in response to the most recent figures for 2024 – a fifth of the company’s whole price range.
Learn the complete story right here:
Trump gives US federal employees buyouts to resign
In one other a part of its efforts to reshape the US authorities, the Trump administration has provided federal employees buyouts value greater than seven months’ wage to depart their jobs.
A memo circulated on Tuesday night set out 4 necessary directives, together with a full-time return to the workplace for many workers. It additionally stated that the federal workforce can be subjected to “enhanced requirements of suitability and conduct” and warned that almost all businesses can be downsized.
It stated the supply to depart would stay open till 6 February.
The US authorities is roughly the nation’s Fifteenth-largest workforce, with greater than 3 million workers. Challenge 2025, the conservative manifesto that has guided a lot of Trump’s coverage objectives, requires mass firings of federal employees and suggests changing many with political appointees.
Denouncing the supply, the president of the American Federation of Authorities Workers union, Everett Kelley, stated it was a part of an try to stress employees not thought-about loyal to the brand new administration to depart their jobs.
“Purging the federal authorities of devoted profession federal workers can have huge, unintended penalties that may trigger chaos for the Individuals who rely on a functioning federal authorities,” a press release learn.
Learn the complete story right here:
What we all know concerning the block on Trump’s funding freeze
Extra now on the information {that a} federal choose has blocked a transfer by President Trump to pause trillions of {dollars} in federal loans, grants, and different monetary help.
Federal grants and loans attain into nearly each nook of Individuals’ lives, with a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} flowing into training, healthcare and anti-poverty programmes, housing help, catastrophe reduction, infrastructure, and a number of different initiatives.
A two-page inside memo which had been because of take impact at 5pm jap time on Tuesday advised all federal businesses to “briefly pause all actions associated to obligations or disbursement of all federal monetary help”.
{Photograph}: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The memo was met with widespread confusion in Washington, the place civil servants struggled to grasp its full extent scope and utility.
The US structure offers Congress management over spending issues, however Trump has stated he believes the president has the facility to withhold cash for programmes he dislikes.
A letter from senior Democrats on the Home Committee on Appropriations expressed “excessive alarm concerning the Administration’s efforts to undermine Congress’s energy of the purse”, including that this and different directives had “sown immense confusion throughout the nation, with some reviews indicating that they may instantly halt all federal funding for any grant or mortgage”.
US district choose Loren AliKhan granted the momentary halt after a number of advocacy teams argued the freeze would devastate programmes starting from healthcare to street development. The courtroom will revisit the difficulty on Monday.
Opening abstract
Good morning and welcome to our reside protection of all the most recent developments from US politics.
We begin with the information {that a} federal choose has briefly blocked a transfer by President Donald Trump to pause trillions of {dollars} in federal loans, grants, and different monetary help.
A two-page inside memo had advised all federal businesses to “briefly pause all actions associated to obligations or disbursement of all federal monetary help” and that “using Federal assets to advance Marxist fairness, transgenderism, and inexperienced new deal social engineering insurance policies is a waste of taxpayer {dollars}”.
The directive was seen as a part of Trump’s need to finish applications associated to range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI). The courtroom order got here moments earlier than it was because of take impact and can stop it from being carried out till no less than subsequent Monday, 3 February.
The executive keep got here in response to a lawsuit filed by 4 teams representing non-profits, public well being professionals and small companies through which they stated the directive was unlawful and would have a “devastating impression on a whole bunch of hundreds of grant recipients who rely on the influx of grant cash”.
Stick with us for extra on that and all the most recent updates all through the day.
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