WASHINGTON — Moderate Republican senators, some of whom have bucked President-elect Trump in the past, are reluctant to criticize Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who could be nominated for a Senate-confirmed health care leadership role in the next Trump administration.
Kennedy has recently tried to distance himself from the anti-vaccine rhetoric that’s made him famous, claiming he just wants more data about vaccines. But for decades, Kennedy has pushed the unfounded theory that vaccines cause autism.
He started a nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, to promote the same message, which has now broadened to link vaccines to other conditions including autoimmune disease, allergies, and ADHD. It’s unclear whether that pivot would make him palatable enough to survive confirmation in the Senate — even when Republicans control it by a few votes.
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