An organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is ramping up a pressure campaign to convince Republican senators to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to become President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Pence — who served as Trump’s vice president in his first term — is opposed to RFK Jr. due to his previous support for abortion.
“Whatever the merits of RFK Jr’s Make America Healthy Again initiative—indeed, whatever other qualities a nominee might possess—an HHS Secretary must have a firm commitment to protect unborn children, or else bend under the pressure and pushback surrounding these daily, critical decisions,” Advancing American Freedom President Tim Chapman and Board Chairman Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff, wrote in a letter to senators.
“While RFK Jr. has made certain overtures to pro-life leaders that he would be mindful of their concerns at HHS, there is little reason for confidence at this time,” they wrote.
This marks the second formal effort by Pence and his organization to block Kennedy’s confirmation. Shortly after Trump announced Kennedy’s nomination, Pence issued a statement urging senators to reject him due to his past support for abortion, The Hill reported.
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Kennedy, who initially launched a 2024 presidential campaign as a Democrat, had endorsed a ban on abortion after the first trimester but soon backtracked. He also expressed opposition to banning abortion before fetal viability, generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
On his campaign website, Kennedy said he is “a firm supporter of the principles laid out 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade” and that “if the courts do not overturn Dobbs v. Jackson and restore abortion rights, he will support legislation to accomplish the same.”
GOP senators appear unfazed by his past statements and have largely supported Kennedy after meeting with him.
And Kennedy has been attempting to reassure Republicans by stating that his personal views are irrelevant and that he will implement all the anti-abortion policies from the first Trump administration.
Republican senators who were thinking about voting against President Trump’s nominees to lead key three-letter agencies got blunt advice from Vice President JD Vance: “You don’t get to make these decisions.”
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Vance did an interview from the nation’s capital with Fox News host Sean Hannity, just one day before the Senate held hearings to confirm Kash Patel as director of the FBI and Tulsi Gabbard as director of the DNI.
Gabbard, Patel, and Trump’s choice to lead the HHS, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK), are seen as the most controversial picks by the administration and could have a hard time getting confirmed.
Vance said he thinks all three will get through the process in the end, but Republicans will “have to fight for each one.”
He said that Senate Republicans were “freethinking” and “independent,” but he said that the president should choose who serves in his Cabinet.
“…The president has made his selections and the advice and consent power of the United States Senate should not be used to block people because you have one policy disagreement on one issue,” Vance told Hannity Thursday. “You don’t get to make these decisions. President Trump gets to make these decisions, and he already has.”
“Donald Trump won an imposing mandate because he got a different group of people to vote Republican than had ever voted Republican. We have to give those parts of the coalition some wins, too. So, yes, we’ve got a lot of traditional Republicans in the administration. We’ve got a lot of traditional national security hawks in the administration. But we’ve also got some new people, some people who bring a fresh perspective,” said Vance.
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