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The allies of Robert F. Kennedy JR fear that he had not convinced enough senators to confirm him as the senior health officer of President Donald Trump, according to the persons familiar with the matter.
kennedyKnown as RFK JR, meetings with Democrats and Republicans held two days ago of the survey by the Senate’s financial and health committees later this week. He has met more than 60 senators since his appointment.
“There is more fear than ever before,” said one person near Kennedy. “This is a big week: if the vote were today, it would be doubtful. This week we really have to consolidate the dynamics to overcome the entire negativity that existed. “
The opposition to Kennedy’s nomination emerged from influential conservative voices, including the editorial committee of the Wall Street Journal and the American Advancing Freedom, a group that was co -founded by the former Vice President Mike Pence, who is concerned about the support of the former democrat for the support of the Democrats said for the support of the Democrat Abortion rights.
“What is strange with RFK is the mere volume of the Maybes that we have to watch and see where they come down – he is undoubtedly one of the two most endangered candidates,” said Chris Meekins, an analyst of the investment bank in Washington, Raymond James .
The Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are considered obvious candidates to oppose Kennedy’s nomination. All three voted against Trump’s Defense Minister Pete Hegseth last week when he secured himself Confirmation of the Senate With just a single disturbing coordination of Vice President JD Vance.
But Kennedy’s support for abortion rights and his endeavor to call up the food industry and the biomedical research financing were also potential sources of republican opposition that recognize people in his warehouse.
Pro-life senators such as James Lankford, Republican Senators such as Todd Young and Thom Tillis, who historically stand close to the pharmaceutical industry, and those with a large agricultural industry in their states like John Hoeven were risks for Kennedy, the people who People, people, people, people, people, people, said.
A Young spokesman said that the Senator of Indiana had a “very positive” meeting with Kennedy in December. Representatives of the others did not respond to inquiries about comments.
“These are the most consequent hearings for confirmation for every secretary (health and human services), which we probably saw in many decades,” said Meekins.
Kennedy, a skeptic and critic of the pharmaceutical industry, would control a extensive department with 13 divisions and agencies and a budget of 1.8 participants if it is confirmed.
A representative of Kennedy said that they had the “full trust” that he would win the coordination of the Senate.
Prediction Market Polymarket gives Kennedy an 80 percent chance of being confirmed, compared to almost 100 percent for candidates such as Scott Bessent, Trump’s election for finance minister. Tulsi Gabard, his candidate as a secret service manager, had only 51 percent.
Kennedy has excited controversy for his earlier opposition to some children’s vaccines, MMR shots and the Covid-19-Jab, although he has alleviated these positions on curry favor with senators.
He has also earned $ 11.6 million from vaccine plans in the past two years and said he would do it Keep a share of 10 percent In every windfall from legal disputes against Merck’s Gardasil vaccine. One of his closest advisors – lawyer Aaron Siri – also directed a lawsuit to revoke the most frequently used polio vaccine.
McConnell, a polio survivor, has questioned with Kennedy’s Antivax comments and warns in December that trust in “proven remedies” was “dangerous”. Representatives of McConnell and co -trees for the Hegseth votes Murkowski and Collins did not answer inquiries about comments.
Kennedy’s vows to ban corn syrup with high fructose had also taken care of senators with states in the core agricultural land, said people near him.
Democratic senators such as Sheldon Whitehouse and John Fetterman flirted with the nomination of Kennedy, which may be complicated. None of the senator answered on inquiries about comments.
Washington insiders noted the one -week delay of Kennedy’s hearing of the Senate that he did not have enough support.
“When everything is Kumbaya, it is in your incentive to drive the hearings forward. Delay is not her friend, ”said David Bowen, the former director of health policy of the Senate Health Committee. “At best, he will sneak through a tight voice.”