The latest confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees were packed with fiery exchanges with lawmakers, interruptions from protesters, and tearjerking testimonies that came as the Senate works to fill out the president’s administration.
Several candidates under consideration to head key positions in the Trump administration were grilled by lawmakers during their Senate confirmation hearings on Wednesday.
The hearings were off to a fiery start with the Senate Finance Committee’s questioning of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services. The Senate also held confirmation hearings for Howard Lutnick, Trump’s longtime friend, who he picked to head the Department of Commerce, and Kelly Loeffler, who is being considered to lead the Small Business Administration (SBA).
During the heated confirmation hearing of Kennedy, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., told the Trump nominee that he frightens people, specifically referring to his stance on vaccines.
“Americans are going to need to hear a clear and trustworthy recantation of what you have said on vaccinations, including a promise from you never to say vaccines aren’t medically safe when they, in fact, are, and making indisputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases that will keep people safe,” Whitehouse said during the hearing. “You’re in that hole pretty deep.”
Whitehouse then referenced a recent measles outbreak in Rhode Island as he pressed Kennedy on his vaccine stance.
“Frankly, you frighten people,” Whitehouse told the Trump nominee.
However, Kennedy pushed back on the claims that he is anti-vaccine, noting that all his children are vaccinated.
Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearing was disrupted by several protesters who snuck into the Senate Finance Committee hearing room.
After Kennedy told lawmakers that he is not against vaccines, one protester stood up and was heard shouting, “You lie.”
Howard Lutnick, who was introduced by Vice President JD Vance, shared an emotional story about his brother being tragically killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City.
Lutnick’s brother, Gary, was tragically killed while working at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, along with 657 of the Lutnick brothers’ friends at their financial firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, the commerce nominee described during the hearing.
Lutnick said that he took his son to kindergarten that day, sparing his life.
“The company was located on the top five floors of the World Trade Center. I still can’t say it without being emotional, sorry, but no one in the office survived,” he said on Wednesday, appearing to hold back tears.
“I made the decision that I’ve made enough money in my life,” Lutnick said. “I can take care of myself. I can take care of my family. It is now my chance to serve the American people.”
Kennedy and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., went back and forth after the Democratic senator claimed the Trump nominee previously likened the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to “Nazi death camps.”
“You compared the CDC work to Nazi death camps. You’ve compared it to sexual abusers in the Catholic Church. You’ve also said that many of them, as in the direct quote, belong in jail,” Warnock said during the hearing on Wednesday.
Asked if he stands by the statements, Kennedy refuted the claim.
“I don’t believe that I ever compared the CDC to Nazi death camps. I support the CDC. My job is not to dismantle or harm the CDC. My job is to empower the scientists,” Kennedy said. “I never said it.”
Warnock read a transcript of Kennedy’s remarks at a conference making the reference, but the HHS nominee further defended the intent of his statement.
“I was comparing the injury rate of children towards other atrocities,” Kennedy said. “I wouldn’t compare the CDC to Nazi death camps.”
SBA pick Kelly Loeffler got into a heated exchange with a member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee while defending Trump against Democratic claims that he “acted illegally” twice in the past week.
“The president has already acted illegally twice in the last 5 days. He fired the inspectors general. That was illegal, under the law. He froze all funding on Monday night. That was also against the law,” Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts claimed during his questioning of Loeffler.
“So it’s not as though he won’t ask you to do something that is illegal and unconstitutional, he’s been doing it all week. And this is the first week,” he added.
However, Loeffler immediately came to the defense of Trump and doubled down on her support of the president’s recent actions.
“If I could just, for the record, note that these were not illegal actions,” Loeffler told the committee. “I support the president’s actions. It’s in his right to select members of the executive branch, that’s what he’s doing. And he’s certainly in the right to stop wastefully spending as most presidents do when they come in to pause wasteful spending.”
Markey began speaking over Loeffler as she defended the president before changing the subject.
Fox News’ Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.
