‘Mr Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories’: top Democrat slams Trump’s health secretary pick at confirmation hearing – live | Trump administration

Key events

In response to questioning from Republican chair Mike Crapo, Robert F Kennedy Jr said he was not looking to place restrictions on food options, even though he has consistently expresssed alarm over Americans’ diets.

“I don’t want to take food away from anybody,” Kennedy said. “If you like a McDonald’s cheeseburger and a Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them.”

The comment, an acknowledgment of Donald Trump’s long-documented embrace of fast food, was met with chuckles in the hearing room.

Kennedy continued, “If you want to eat Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that, but you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health.”

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Protester disrupts Kennedy’s opening comments on vaccines

Robert F Kennedy Jr dedicated most of his opening statement to detailing his vision for addressing “chronic disease” if confirmed as the secretary of health and human services, but he took a moment to address his past comments attacking vaccines.

“News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither,” Kennedy said.

He was disrupted by a protester who appeared to yell in response, “You lie!”

The protester was escorted out of the hearing room, and then Kennedy was then able to continue his opening statement, saying, “I am pro-safety.”

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Updated at 10.38 EST

Before Robert F Kennedy Jr delivered his opening statement, the Republican chair and Democratic ranking member of the Senate finance committee shared a tense exchange on the Medicaid portal outage that occurred yesterday.

Medicaid payment portals were down across the country yesterday following Donald Trump’s announcement of a federal funding freeze, but multiple states reported that the portals were back online last night.

In his opening statement, Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon pointed to the outage as a sign of what may be to come if Kennedy is confirmed to lead the department of health and human services.

The chair of the committee, Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho, criticized Wyden’s comments as a “false attack,” noting that the portals are now operational, but Wyden retorted that the outage had created “bedlam across the country”.

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Democrat excoriates Kennedy for having ‘embraced conspiracy theories’

The top Democrat on the Senate finance committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon, delivered a scathing rebuke of Robert F Kennedy Jr in his opening statement at the cabinet nominee’s confirmation hearing.

“The receipts show that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, and charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines,” Wyden said.

“He’s made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting their kids life-saving vaccines. It’s been lucrative for him and put him on the verge of real power. This is the profile of somebody who chases money and influence wherever they lead, even if that means the deaths of children and other vulnerable people.”

Wyden noted that, if confirmed as the next secretary of health and human services, Kennedy would play a key role in issuing medical recommendations for the nation, and the Democrat expressed fear that Kennedy might use his authority to restrict access to the abortion medication Mifepristone.

“Women deserve to know if Mr Kennedy will abuse his power as our country’s chief health officer to essentially implement a national abortion ban by restricting access to this safe and legal medication,” Wyden said.

He concluded, “After a careful review of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s statements, actions, associations and views, I have reached the conclusion that he should not be entrusted with the health and well-being of the American people. When he’s taken every side of every issue, how can this committee and the American public believe anything he has to say?”

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The Republican chair of the Senate finance committee, Mike Crapo of Idaho, praised Robert F Kennedy Jr as “a voice for an inspiring coalition of Americans who are deeply committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our nation”.

In his opening statement, Crapo lamented that the US healthcare system has become a “dyfunctional maze” for many Americans, and he framed Kennedy’s potential confirmation as an “opportunity to deliver bold, transformative solutions”.

“Regardless of political party, everyone in this room shares a common recognition that our current system has fallen short, as well as a common desire to make our country healthier,” Crapo said. “I look forward to today’s conversation as well as your testimony, Mr Kennedy.”

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Updated at 10.18 EST

RFK Jr confirmation hearing begins

The chair of the Senate finance committee, Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho, has kicked off the confirmation hearing for Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services.

After Kennedy entered the hearing room, he walked up toward the dais to shake the hands of committee members while photographers swirled around him to capture the scene.

The hearing will begin with opening statements before senators have the opportunity to question Kennedy, who has faced intense criticism over allegations of sexual harassment and his shifting stance on vaccines.

Stay tuned.

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Anti-vaccine rhetoric and lawsuits were a lucrative enterprise for Robert F Kennedy Jr, leading up to his nomination to be secretary of health – one he is seeking to distance himself from as he enters confirmation hearings this week.

Last week, he promised to resign from his consultancies and chairmanship of Children’s Health Defense, a leading anti-vaccine nonprofit, if he is confirmed. That is cold comfort to public health experts anxiously eyeing his confirmation.

“The plain truth is that vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives,” said Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under Barack Obama, and now CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a public health-focused non-profit.

“When Mr Kennedy says things like autism does come from vaccines” – a false claim – “that’s very problematic”.

Frieden continued: “That was a fraudulent claim from someone who was aiming to profit from it, and false claims like that not only undermine our confidence in safe and effective vaccines they also divert attention from finding the real cause of things like autism that affect so many people.”

Read Jessica’s full report:

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Robert F Kennedy’s confirmation hearing comes one day after his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, shared a video on social media describing him as a “predator” who “preys on the desperation of parents of sick children” by peddling misinformation on vaccines.

“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” Caroline Kennedy said in the video.

Her remarks were also shared in a letter to senators, as she implored them not to confirm RFK Jr as the next secretary of health and human services.

She went on to say that her father, President John F Kennedy, and her uncle, former US attorney general Robert F Kennedy, would be “disgusted” by the actions of her cousin.

More on Caroline Kennedy’s comments here:

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RFK Jr confirmation hearing getting underway soon

The Senate confirmation hearing for Robert F Kennedy, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, will get underway in about 30 minutes, and Democrats are expected to grill Kennedy on allegations of sexual harassment and his shifting stance on vaccines.

The Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon reports: “Robert F Kennedy Jr, the environmental lawyer turned anti-vaccine activist, faces a watershed moment this week as the Senate confirmation hearings begin on his nomination as the US’s top health official, setting up what could be the most contentious cabinet battle of Donald Trump’s second administration.

“The 71-year-old Kennedy, whose nomination has sparked fierce resistance from the scientific establishment, would take control of a sprawling $1.8tn healthcare apparatus at a time when public trust in medical institutions remains deeply fractured along partisan lines.

“As health and human services secretary, Kennedy would oversee everything from vaccine policy to food safety, wielding enormous influence over public health decisions affecting millions of Americans. His controversial views – including debunked claims about vaccines and autism, fluoride safety and raw milk regulations – have put him at odds with mainstream medical consensus.

“Kennedy told NPR in December that as a member of the administration, he is ‘not going to take vaccines away from anybody’, but he also added he wanted people to make ‘informed choices’.”

Read Joseph’s full report:

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Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and former Democratic vice-presidential nominee, argued that Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze closely mirrors many of the proposals included in Project 2025.

“We were preparing for it. They wrote it out. If you go back and look at that now, you’ll see this go step by step,” Walz told MSNBC last night.

Walz described the funding freeze, which was paused by a federal judge yesterday, as “cruel” and “somewhat buffoonish,” but he expressed concern that Trump may be using it as a trial balloon to see how far he can go with his agenda.

“It’s like you caught someone and they stole everything out of your house. You caught them and you told them to put it back,” Walz said. “And when you start looking, some of it’s still gone. What they’re going to see is, oh, they didn’t raise a stink about meteorologists or our folks who are monitoring PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in our water, so let’s just go on with that.”

Walz acknowledged that many Americans are fatigued after a grueling presidential election, but he implored them to not give up the fight in the face of Trump’s return to the White House.

“I would tell people, stay focused. Don’t take the bait on the distractions,” Walz said. “Surround yourself with people who understand this and recognize the things they went after today are basically a big chunk of what society does. People like to have clean water and hospitals and safety and roads and airports, all the things they’re going after.”

He concluded, “I think we have to find that voice. We have to push back.”

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The Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas reports:

Selena Gomez – the Texas-born pop star and actor whose paternal grandparents are from Mexico – has laughed off a failed Republican US Senate hopeful’s call for her to be deported from the country after she recorded a video of herself expressing sympathy for people affected by Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Responding to a comment from the former candidate that she should be “deported” over her video, Gomez took to social media and wrote in part: “Thanks for the laugh.”

Gomez nonetheless deleted the video amid a social media pile-on primarily driven by conservatives in favor of deportation raids that Trump’s administration has been carrying out early in his second presidency, which began on 20 January.

The clip in question showed the 32-year-old Gomez wiping away tears as she remarked: “I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry. All my people are getting attacked, the children. I don’t understand.

“I wish I could do something, but I can’t. I’ll try everything. I promise.”

Read the full report:

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Democrats have expressed outrage over reports that Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s new secretary of defense, has removed the security detail and clearance of Mark Milley, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff who has fiercely criticized Trump in the past.

According to Fox News, Hegseth has also instructed the acting inspector general to investigate whether Milley should be stripped of one of his stars for allegedly undermining the chain of command during Trump’s first term.

“Pete Hegseth pledged to the Senate that he’d protect the independence of the Department of Defense’s watchdog for waste, fraud, and abuse,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement.

“But after President Trump illegally fired the Pentagon’s Inspector General, the Defense Secretary is going back on his word and weaponizing government investigations to go after Trump’s perceived political enemies. It’s a clear warning sign that Secretary Hegseth is focused more on political retribution than national security.”

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Over on Capitol Hill, Republicans are struggling to cobble together a plan to pass a major bill that is expected to include provisions on taxes, immigration and spending cuts.

Congressional Republicans have debated for weeks about whether the legislation – which they plan to pass using a process called reconciliation to avoid the Senate filibuster – should be split into one bill or two bills. After a two-day House Republican retreat, lawmakers are no closer to finding a path forward, one member reported.

“We have only been presented with the same policy and budget cut proposals that we have been presented with for a month now at all our meetings and at a full Saturday conference meeting earlier this month,” representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, wrote on social media.

“Next time we meet, I hope to know a framework of our plan and I hope this doesn’t turn into another bill with thousands of pages dumped on us with less than 72 hours to read it all before we have to vote on the eve of another government shutdown. But why would I expect different?”

House Republicans are working with a razor-thin majority, so they have no room for error as they work to get their bill across the finish line.

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Executive order restricts gender transition for under-19s

President Trump has issued an executive order restricting gender transition treatment for people under 19.

The order said medical professionals across the country were “maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions”.

“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” it said.

“Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.

“Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

The order also directed the US health secretary to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children, including regulatory and sub-regulatory actions”.

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Updated at 07.54 EST

An overwhelming majority of people in Greenland do not want the island to become part of the US, according to a poll.

President Trump has repeatedly said he wants the US to control Greenland, which is strategically located and believed to have significant untapped resources. Trump has refused to rule out using tariffs or force to acquire the territory from Denmark.

In a poll published by Denmark’s Berlingske and Greenland’s Sermitsiaq newspapers, 85% of residents of the island said they would not back the move, while 6% were in favour and 9% were undecided.

Some 45% saw Trump’s interest as a “threat”, 43% saw it as an “opportunity”, and 13% were undecided.

A day after Trump’s inauguration this month, Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede insisted that Greenlanders “don’t want to be American”.

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Updated at 07.34 EST

UN agencies have begun cutting their global aid operations following the 90-day suspension of all foreign assistance ordered by President Trump.

Filippo Grandi, the head of the organisation’s refugee agency, UNHCR, sent out an overnight email to employees ordering an immediate clampdown on expenditure, including a 90-day delay in ordering new supplies except for emergencies, a hiring and contract freeze, and a halt to all international air travel.

UNHCR is responsible for providing life-saving assistance to the 122 million people currently displaced from their homes across 136 countries.

The new US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, previously claimed the freeze would not affect life-saving aid, which he defined as “core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance”.

He said its targets were aid programmes involving abortion, family planning, and “gender ideology”.

The US provided £2bn ($2.49bn) in funding to the UNHCR, according to the latest figures for 2024 – a fifth of the agency’s total budget.

Read the full story here:

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Updated at 07.33 EST

Trump offers US federal workers buyouts to resign

In another part of its efforts to reshape the US government, the Trump administration has offered federal workers buyouts worth more than seven months’ salary to leave their jobs.

A memo circulated on Tuesday evening set out four mandatory directives, including a full-time return to the office for most employees. It also said that the federal workforce would be subjected to “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct” and warned that most agencies would be downsized.

It said the offer to leave would remain open until 6 February.

The US government is roughly the nation’s 15th-largest workforce, with more than 3 million employees. Project 2025, the conservative manifesto that has guided much of Trump’s policy goals, calls for mass firings of federal workers and suggests replacing many with political appointees.

Denouncing the offer, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees union, Everett Kelley, said it was part of an attempt to pressure workers not considered loyal to the new administration to leave their jobs.

“Purging the federal government of dedicated career federal employees will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” a statement read.

Read the full story here:

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Updated at 07.33 EST

What we know about the block on Trump’s funding freeze

More now on the news that a federal judge has blocked a move by President Trump to pause trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants, and other financial assistance.

Federal grants and loans reach into virtually every corner of Americans’ lives, with hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into education, healthcare and anti-poverty programmes, housing assistance, disaster relief, infrastructure, and a host of other initiatives.

A two-page internal memo which had been due to take effect at 5pm eastern time on Tuesday told all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”.

The memo was met with widespread confusion in Washington, where civil servants struggled to understand its full extent scope and application.

The US constitution gives Congress control over spending matters, but Trump has said he believes the president has the power to withhold money for programmes he dislikes.

A letter from senior Democrats on the House Committee on Appropriations expressed “extreme alarm about the Administration’s efforts to undermine Congress’s power of the purse”, adding that this and other directives had “sown immense confusion across the country, with some reports indicating that they could immediately halt all federal funding for any grant or loan”.

US district judge Loren AliKhan granted the temporary halt after several advocacy groups argued the freeze would devastate programmes ranging from healthcare to road construction. The court will revisit the issue on Monday.

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Updated at 06.34 EST

Opening summary

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of all the latest developments from US politics.

We start with the news that a federal judge has temporarily blocked a move by President Donald Trump to pause trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants, and other financial assistance.

A two-page internal memo had told all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance” and that “the use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars”.

The directive was seen as part of Trump’s desire to end programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The court order came moments before it was due to take effect and will prevent it from being implemented until at least next Monday, 3 February.

The administrative stay came in response to a lawsuit filed by four groups representing non-profits, public health professionals and small businesses in which they said the directive was illegal and would have a “devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”.

Stay with us for more on that and all the latest updates throughout the day.

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Updated at 07.32 EST