As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes the rounds on Capitol Hill, talking this week with Republican senators about his contentious nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, and as the media continues to unearth even more highly controversial statements the anti-vaccine advocate has made, almost 20 GOP lawmakers have begun to voice their support for the Trump nominee, while Democrats, widely expected to vote against confirmation, by comparison have been less vocal and less definitive.

The Washington Post is tracking the positions of all senators on RFK Jr.’s confirmation.

Currently, there are 19 Republicans indicating a “yes” vote or leaning to “yes,” and 18 Democrats indicating a “no” vote or leaning to “no.” Of the 19 Republicans, nine have already stated they will vote “yes.” Of the 18 Democrats, only four have said they will vote “no.”

U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) is among the nine GOP lawmakers who are backing the Kennedy scion’s bid to lead HHS.

On Tuesday, Scott issued a strong statement of support.

“Very impressive,” Scott, a former top healthcare executive, told Fox Business (video below). “I mean, here’s a guy that wants to focus on health. It’s called Health and Human Services. Health. Not sickness. So he wants to make us healthy. That’s exactly what we ought to do. I ran the biggest hospital company. I know we got to figure out how to get people healthy, that’s what he’s going to do. I think he’s going to do a great job.”

“With regard to vaccines, if you listen to what he says, he is pro-vaccine,” Scott continued, despite RFK Jr. stating just last year, “there is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.”

RELATED: ‘This Is a Lie’: RFK Jr. Criticized by Experts, Including Trump Surgeon General

“What he wants is, give you information so you can decide what you put into your body, or your child’s body. It makes all the sense in the world to me.”

Rick Scott describes RFK Jr as “very impressive” and claims “he’s pro-vaccine” pic.twitter.com/eUGwFGl157

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 17, 2024

As head of the nation’s largest for-profit health care facility operator, Rick Scott’s company several decades ago defrauded federal government programs including Medicare and Medicaid. Scott, under pressure, resigned during the investigation. The company was convicted of 14 felonies and ultimately was forced to pay $1.7 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the nation’s history at the time.

In 1997, The New York Times called Scott the “executive who became the most visible symbol of profit-driven medical care,” and reported that he had “stepped down … as the top officer of the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation, amid a criminal investigation of whether the company’s pursuit of profits has stretched beyond the legal limits.”

Rick Scott describes RFK Jr as “very impressive” and claims “he’s pro-vaccine” pic.twitter.com/eUGwFGl157

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 17, 2024

The four Democratic Senators who have voiced a hard “no,” according to The Post, are: Patty Murray of Washington, Alex Padilla of California, Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

“We can’t let the conspiracy theorists drive this debate and undermine public health,” Senator Murray remarked, according to The Post.

“His nomination to lead HHS is a threat to children and families everywhere,” Senator Padilla observed.

“He is totally unqualified for this job,” Senator Durbin declared.

“What we cannot do is sign off on nominees who would be a danger to the public health,” Senator Markey said.

Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) vowed to “vet him very, very closely,” but has not indicated which way she is voting or leaning.

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), leaning no, said: “I’m not going to really take any kind of advice [from] a dude that chainsaws whale heads and delivers dead bears into a park.”

Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), also leaning no, remarked, “Just what we need. A guy with brain worms running the Department of Health and Human Services.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who is listed as “leaning no,” by The Post, has recorded two videos against RFK Jr.’s confirmation, including one early Tuesday evening.

Just a reminder that in 2019, RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine misinformation campaign helped cause a measles outbreak in Samoa that killed 83 people, mostly kids.

Do you really want him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services? pic.twitter.com/NlW7CvP69X

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 17, 2024

RELATED: RFK Jr., Embracing Far-Right, Spoke at Fundraiser for Anti-Government Group With J6 Ties

But even some Republican Senators have voiced apprehension:

“I’m very concerned, being the incoming chairman of agriculture,” Senator John Boozman (R-AR) said.

“I have never flinched from confronting specious disinformation that threatens the advance of lifesaving medical progress,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who fought polio as a child, remarked.

“Our Iditarod race was all about getting the diphtheria vaccine to save a whole community,” Senator Lisa Murkowski declared.

“If he has a different point of view [on vaccines], then he’ll have to explain,” said Senator Mike Rounds.

In addition to his statements against vaccines, including comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust, Kennedy’s confirmation process is also expected to be challenging given his lack of relevant experience, his promotion of conspiracy theories, and public scrutiny over his personal life.

“In addition to his lack of credentials or relevant experience in medicine, science, public health, or administration,” 77 Nobel laureates wrote in a letter earlier this month, “Mr. Kennedy has been an opponent of many health-protecting and life-saving vaccines, such as those that prevent measles and polio; a critic of the well-established positive effects of fluoridation of drinking water; a promoter of conspiracy theories about remarkably successful treatments for AIDS and other diseases; and a belligerent critic of respected agencies (especially the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health).”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Should Be Looked At’: Trump Again Speaks Against Mandates for Childhood Diseases Vaccines

Image via Reuters

Correction: This article has been updated to correctly spell the Congressman’s last name.

MAGA U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) is blasting Mike Johnson over the Speaker’s bipartisan legislation to keep the government running past the Friday midnight deadline and through the middle of March, calling it a “total dumpster fire” and “garbage.”

Asked about the continuing resolution (CR), which includes $100 billion in disaster relief for areas hit hard by hurricanes Helene and Milton, Congressman Burlison declared, “it’s a total dumpster fire.”

“I think it’s garbage,” he said in remarks aired by C-SPAN (video below).

“I think that it’s it’s shameful that people that celebrate DOGE coming in, and yet we’re gonna vote for another billion dollars to be added to the deficit,” Burlison added, referring to the new “Department of Government Efficiency,” which is not an actual federal government agency.

“And so um it it’s ironic,” Burlison continued. “Um, personally, I’m disappointed.”

READ MORE: ‘This Is a Lie’: RFK Jr. Criticized by Experts, Including Trump Surgeon General

The Missouri Republican also criticized the Speaker’s performance. CNN reports that Burlison has refused to commit to backing Johnson for Speaker next month.

“I think that he he can do better. Um, he can communicate better. The fact that we haven’t seen the language [on the bill] today, and we’re supposed to vote on it this week is is unacceptable,” Burlison added.

Burlison also talked to Newsmax, effectively attacking Speaker Johnson as no different than Nancy Pelosi when she was Speaker of the House, claiming she dropped legislation on Congress with not enough time to read it.

“I was frustrated before I came here,” Burlison said. “Now I’m more frustrated that I’m here and I see how how horrific and and and how much of a disaster that our fiscal situation is, and the lack of that appetites actually to do anything about it, is is disgusting to me. And so, I, I expected more from my Republican colleagues.”

“I expect more from from my Speaker, to be the conservative that I thought that he was, but instead, we’re gonna push through, um, you know, a hundreds of billion dollar package that’s gonna add more debt to the to the to our debt, our deficit to our debt, and it’s and we’re gonna you know, continue this reckless process — look, we we complained about Nancy Pelosi dropping thousands of pages of an omnibus bill before Christmas. How is this any different?”

The continuing resolution keeps the federal government running, avoids a costly and disruptive shutdown right before the Christmas and New Year holidays, and in addition to hurricane relief aid, gives farmers $10 billion in aid.

“Agricultural aid had emerged as a key sticking point in recent days and the agreement comes after some Republicans threatened to vote against the stopgap measure if it did not include economic assistance for farm families,” The Hill reported.

READ MORE: ‘Should Be Looked At’: Trump Again Speaks Against Mandates for Childhood Diseases Vaccines

Congressman Burlison earlier this month posted a “message to GOP Senators who don’t want to confirm Trump’s nominees.”

“Trump took a bullet to the head and then dragged you into the majority. The American people sent a mandate and the American people are watching.”

Watch the videos below or at this link.

pic.twitter.com/VqHVG6Sbt6

— Rep. Eric Burlison (@RepEricBurlison) December 17, 2024

GOP Rep. Eric Burlison: “I expect more from my Speaker to be the conservative that I thought he was.” pic.twitter.com/h3YXooecve

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 17, 2024

READ MORE: ‘Trump ’28, Come on, Man!’: Bannon Calls for Third Term

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

Medical experts, including Donald Trump’s first-term Surgeon General, are questioning Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services and urging the Senate to uphold its “obligation” to conduct a thorough vetting process, following resurfaced remarks RFK Jr. made last year about the polio vaccine, suggesting it “killed many, many more people” than polio ever did. Some experts are flat-out accusing Kennedy of promoting “grotesque misinformation” or lies about the polio vaccine.

Before the polio vaccine, thousands in the U.S. died during outbreaks. In the 1916 epidemic, about 5000 people in the U.S. died, including over 2000 in New York City.

In 1952, “during the worst polio outbreak in U.S. history, 57,000 people were infected, 21,000 were paralyzed and 3,145 died, most of them children,” History.com reported. “Pools and movie theaters were shuttered, and panicked parents kept their kids at home, haunted by black-and-white images of toddlers in leg braces and rows of infants sealed in iron lungs.”

The CDC estimates that since 1988, decades after the first polio vaccine was created, “global polio cases have decreased by more than 99%. As a result, an estimated 20 million people who would have been paralyzed by the disease are walking today, and more than 1.5 million lives have been saved.”

READ MORE: ‘Should Be Looked At’: Trump Again Speaks Against Mandates for Childhood Diseases Vaccines

Now, resurfaced video (below) of RFK Jr. from a podcast just last year declaring “there is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective,” has gone viral on social media. It was also the subject of FactCheck.org report showing he incorrectly claimed to have never made that statement.

“I have never said that,” Kennedy in a PBS Newshour interview from November, 2023. “You are wrong. And you’re making something up.”

“If you are reading reports about me in the mainstream media, including this network, they’re almost all inaccurate,” Kennedy also alleged, according to FactCheck.org.

Kennedy is an environmental lawyer, an anti-vaccine activist, and has a “history of trafficking in conspiracy theories.” He is not a physician or infectious disease scientist.

The remarks he made just after declaring no vaccine is safe and effective are also concerning medical experts.

FactCheck.org’s report says, Kennedy “misleadingly suggested that the polio vaccines given to his generation caused cancer — despite a lack of evidence that this is true.”

“The polio vaccine contained a virus called simian virus 40, SV40,” Kennedy says in the video. “It’s one of the most carcinogenic materials that is known to man. In fact, it’s used now by scientists around the world to induce tumors in rats and guinea pigs in labs. But it was in that vaccine — 98 million people who got that vaccine, and my generation got it, and now you’ve had this explosion of soft tissue cancers in our generation that killed many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did.”

“So if you say to me, ‘The polio vaccine, was it effective against polio?’ I’m going to say, Yes. And if you say to me, ‘Did it kill more people … did it caused more death than averted?’ I would say, ‘I don’t know, because we don’t have the data on that,'” Kennedy also said, according to FactCheck.org. The organization also determined another statement of his was “incorrect or misleading on several fronts.”

RFK Jr.,Trump’s nominee to lead the HHS, suggested that the Polio vaccine “killed many, many more people” than polio ever did. pic.twitter.com/jhpCHykBzl

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 17, 2024

Dr. Angela Rasmussen is a virologist and research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO). Her bio says she focuses “on highly pathogenic emerging viruses that cause the most severe disease, such as Ebola virus, influenza viruses, and SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19.”

Responding to the video of RFK Jr. suggesting the polio vaccine “killed many, many more people” than polio, Dr. Rasmussen declared, “This is a lie. And it’s an abhorrent lie because the goal of this lie is to prevent polio vaccination and kill even more people.”

Dr. Neil Stone, an infectious diseases doctor and clinician-scientist on Tuesday wrote that RFK Jr. claiming that the polio vaccine “killed many more people than polio ever did…is simply not true.”

“Either he grossly misunderstands the topic,” or, “he does understand it and is lying.”

“Either way this is grotesque misinformation,” Dr. Stone concluded.

Dr. Benjamin Mazer is an assistant professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologist, and an editor at the peer reviewed journal BMJ Oncology.

READ MORE: ‘Trump ’28, Come on, Man!’: Bannon Calls for Third Term

Last month at The Atlantic, he wrote that during the COVID pandemic, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was indeed spreading misinformation with a fire hose. (For example, he has falsely said that the COVID shots are the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”)

And on Monday, responding to a social media post from CNN’s Manu Raju about RFK Jr. telling reporters, “I’m all for the polio vaccine,” Dr. Mazer wrote: “His strategy is to lie.”

“Here’s what he actually said about the polio vaccine: their harms ‘dwarf’ the harms of polio itself. (Obviously not true.) Oh and RFK Jr also suggested that doctors and scientists drummed up the AIDS epidemic because polio wasn’t a problem anymore.”

Dr. Dena Grayson is a physician and researcher with a lengthy medical résumé.

On Friday, not specifying any particular remarks, Dr. Grayson wrote: “In the face of #polio—a virus that can kill you or lead to a lifetime of paralysis—it’s INSANE that RFK Jr wants to ban a safe and effective vaccine.”

Dr. Jerome Adams is a former Indiana state health commissioner who served as President Donald Trump’s Surgeon General from September, 2017 to the end of Trump’s term. He holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on chronic disease prevention.

On Tuesday Adams made statements responding to the RFK Jr. video, urging the Senate thoroughly vet Kennedy.

“No one is perfect, and as such, every political appointee has pros and cons that the Senate has to explore when considering confirmation. RFK is on the record – a lot. And the Senate will have to determine if someone who has said ‘no vaccine is safe and effective,’ and who doesn’t know ‘if the polio vaccine killed more people than it has saved,’ is qualified and suitable to be America’s secretary of Health,” Dr. Adams remarked.

“I personally like a lot of RFKs talk of improving the safety and nutrition of our food supply. But again the Senate will have to ask themselves if a healthy and respected America can have someone who has said HIV doesn’t cause AIDS leading health policy,” Dr. Adams added, pointing to this video:

Unearthed: RFK Jr. pushed HIV/AIDS denialism, attributing AIDS not to HIV, but to a “gay lifestyle” and recreational drugs:

“There were people that were part of a gay lifestyle, they were burning the candle at both ends, …there were poppers on sale everywhere at the gay bars.” pic.twitter.com/BK2WXxjyg8

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) June 20, 2023

Adams concluded, “America voted for Trump- and he has the right to nominate whoever he wants. The Senate has an obligation to vet these nominations before they consent. And as an American citizen and physician, I hope Senators at least ask RFK to explain- on the record- his many concerning past statements that seem inconsistent with making America healthy again. We all deserve that insight and clarity from the confirmation process.”

Over the weekend, without mentioning anyone specifically, Dr. Adams remarked: “In Scotland they’re working on elimination of cervical cancer via vaccines- and they’ve almost achieved their goal. I worry that in America some are working on a reintroduction of polio- and they’ve almost achieved their goal.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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Image via Reuters