Mario H. LopezAs the Senate debates Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services, it would benefit conservatives to question whether handing the reigns of an entire federal agency to a career Democrat is in their own political best interests.
RFK Jr.’s abrupt party realignment and Trump endorsement certainly raised eyebrows this summer on both ends of the political spectrum. From the outset, Kennedy’s calculated pivot from a long career as an advocate for enacting liberal policies as a card-carrying Democrat was met with justifiable skepticism.
Kennedy’s ideology is reflected in both his political legacy and professional career. As he said himself during a town hall event earlier this year, “You know, people have said to me, ‘why don’t you run it as an independent’ … and I say ‘because I’m a Democrat,” even going so far as to invoke the likes of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a model.
Even as Kennedy criticized current Democrat leadership and lamented the current state of the party, he made it clear he still identifies with the party’s larger agenda. That positioning is not reflective of someone who has undergone a fundamental transformation in ideology and is ready and willing to implement any sort of conservative agenda.
The motivation behind Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump has raised questions across the nation’s capital. Federal Election Commission filings reveal that the Trump campaign paid $100,000 to a law firm employing Kennedy just weeks after he dropped out of the race and threw his support behind Trump.
While such payments are not inherently illegal, they do suggest that financial incentives may have played a role in Kennedy’s decision to withdraw and endorse Trump. For conservatives, this raises troubling possibilities about whether Kennedy’s endorsement was a matter of principle or political convenience.
Just how eager RFK Jr. has been in pursuit of gaining political influence and visibility in Washington? Before maneuvering to join a future Trump administration, he made first made highly public overtures about a similar Cabinet position to Vice President Kamala Harris, and waited until she rejected him before moving on to court Trump.
Apart from the shady optics of his abrupt realignment, Kennedy’s private wealth has been built on a history of plaintiff work as a mass tort litigation attorney. His career as an environmental lawyer and staunch advocate for stringent regulations reflects a worldview at odds with the deregulatory priorities of GOP senators.
RFK Jr.’s deep ties to trial lawyers — a constituency notorious for opposing common-sense legal reforms favored by conservatives — further underscore his alignment with liberal interests.
In 2023 alone, Kennedy received over $5 million in a partnership role at the trial firm Kennedy & Madonna—the firm that famously made millions undercutting the coal mining industry in West Virginia, hurting job creation and economic opportunity, making life difficult for West Virginians.
If confirmed as HHS Secretary, Kennedy would wield immense power over a department tasked with shaping health care policy for millions of Americans. With Republicans finally controlling the Senate, House, and White House, there is a historic opportunity to enact market-based reforms across health care, the economy, and the greater regulatory space.
Even if one were to ignore Kennedy’s claims about vaccines — including the correlation between vaccines and conditions like autism, as well as his involvement and deceit about the vast amount of money he made cashing in as he was advocating against the polio vaccine — his long-standing post as a liberal Democrat could easily threaten to undermine the execution of meaningful reforms at HHS.
From pushing for increased environmental oversight to advocating for expansive nanny-state-style health care regulations, there is valid reason for concern that Kennedy’s instincts will align more closely with his past liberal priorities than with conservative principles.
Senators would do well to take a hard look at Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s long record. Confirming a career Democrat with deep ties to the left requires very careful contemplation before making a decision that could squander an opportunity to implement constructive changes at HHS.
Mario H. Lopez is the president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, a public policy advocacy organization that promotes liberty, opportunity, and prosperity for all.
Bob Maistros
Mr. Lopez writes on reasons for conservatives not to confirm RFK, Jr as HHS Secretary. But he gives no reasons why we should even consider the approval.
The main reason, at least for this elderly conservative, is that he recognizes the problems of this country’s (and especially our children’s) chronic health problems.
He was right (no pun intended) about COVID vaccines and our “experts” idiotic and tyrannical mandates and rules and Kennedy’s knowledge, experiences on health and Big Pharms use, advertising and funding of what seems to be their anti-health agenda is a big plus.
Should he do things outside of the realm of his responsibilities which impinge and go against conservative values (like in regulations), Trump can simply fire him.
It’s really “the devil or the deep blue sea” proposition. Chronic health problems is a very big and very real problem. Kennedy has been at the forefront of trying to point out this problem.
I don’t know of any other Conservative who has addressed this problem as thoroughly or ably as Kennedy.
As I said if he does go off the tracks, Trump can fire him.
We have been going downhill as far as our health problems since the food table pyramid recommended carbs to reduce cholesterol and heart troubles. This was in-I believe-in the 60’s, when-coincidentally?-the big food producers of breakfast cereals began recommending that a big breakfast was the most necessary meal of the day.
So, Big Ag, continued, eat a lot of surgary cereal. The extra sugar will give you energy.
Our citizens have since experienced an increase in heart problems, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancers. Also, a lot of joint (and who knows what other inflammations inside our bodies and affecting our immune systems). And the COVID shot (which Big Pharm endorsed and is now being given-unscrupulously-I’d say) to children and toddlers and even younger. This has perhaps increased the likelihood of generations of problems in our birth cycles.
Kennedy may go off the tracks (hopefully, our President can control his ideological gyrations), but at least he’s going in the right direction.
I was on board with him as HHS secretary. And then I watched the hearing.
When he agreed with Bernie Sanders that climate change is an existential threat (after Sanders bloviated at length how climate change was a health issue), he then said him and Trump have agreed to disagree on that point.
He’s also a pro-abortionist. HHS makes rules about funding abortions. What do you think he’s going to do on that issue? Who knows. Does Trump?
There are other contentious issues that he stands firm on. When there are leaks to the press about the inner workings of the administration, will they be from RFK jr or one of his surrogates? I don’t know. But I don’t want to risk it. I personally find his views akin to nails on a chalkboard. The more I heard the less I liked about him.
Lopez makes a lot of good points that should be read in earnest. There are plenty of Republican health officials (doctors even!) that Trump could’ve chosen so any excuse that he was the best option is silly.
This looks more and more like a transaction. And those tend to fall apart when the glue holding them together is no longer needed. What’s holding this partnership together seems about as tenuous as a winter tan.