Image source, Reuters

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, says she has an "easy question" for RFK Jr and asks if he will commit to not take money from big pharmaceutical companies.

Among several tense moments, RFK Jr appears to relish the question by smiling and replying: "Yes."

"I don't think any of them want to give me money," he says with a chuckle.

But it then turns into a fiery back-and-forth as they both speak over the top of each other.

Warren says RFK Jr profits from partnering with a company that recruits people to sue vaccine makers.

She asks if he agrees that he "won't take any compensation from any lawsuits against drug companies while you are secretary, and for four years afterwards".

"You're asking me to not sue drug companies? No, I'm not going to agree," he says.

Image source, Getty Images

Sitting behind RFK Jr, and next to his actress wife Cheryl Hines, is a well known media personality - Megyn Kelly.

Kelly, formerly of Fox News, hosts her own podcast.

On Tuesday, she said:

"I would like to take a peek at what they do to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. I feel like this show and he have somewhat of a special relationship... I'll be down there tomorrow supporting him and watching to see what they throw at him."

Image source, Getty Images

Sitting behind Robert F Kennedy Jr at today's hearing is his wife, actress Cheryl Hines. Hines starred in HBO's satire Curb Your Enthusiasm.

When her husband suspended his campaign for president, she wrote on X: "I deeply respect the decision Bobby made to run on the principle of unity".

Hines said the experience showed the "vast majority of all parties are truly good people who want the best for our country and for each other" and called it an "eye-opening, transformative, and endearing journey".

RFK Jr gets a lot of heat for some of his more extreme positions, such as suggesting Wi-fi causes cancer, but his views on changing how Americans eat and drink have been more widely accepted.

His failed presidential campaign ran on a slogan of "Make America Healthy Again" and saw him advocate for eliminating ultra-processed foods - like frozen pizzas and sugary breakfast cereals - which are linked to health problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.

As US health secretary, RFK Jr would be in a position to enact some of his desired changes around how Americans eat.

And those positions - including reforming the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - have found support from health experts, lawmakers and concerned consumers alike, including some Democrats.

Last year, Colorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis wrote on social media, welcoming Kennedy's nomination, that "Kennedy will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and FDA".

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Kennedy just received some of the loudest applause he's received throughout this hearing - so far.

"President Trump has asked me to end the chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again," he says during an exchange with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada.

His family and friends, as well as some members of the public, cheer him on.

"President Trump has asked me because I'm in a unique position to end that and that is what I'm doing," he continues - going on to say there's an "existential threat" to the country's sense of wellbeing.

"It is a priority for President Trump and that's why he asked me to run the agency and if I'm privileged to be confirmed, that's exactly what I'll do," he says - at which point there's more loud applause.

This feels like a standout moment for Trump's pick to be health secretary.

Digging into Kennedy's previous claims about vaccinespublished at 16:51 Greenwich Mean Time 29 January

16:51 GMT 29 January

By Shayan Sardarizadeh

Robert F Kennedy Jr has repeatedly stated widely debunked claims about vaccinations.

One of his main false claims - repeated in a 2023 interview with Fox News - is that "autism comes from vaccines".

This theory was first popularised by discredited UK doctor Andrew Wakefield and has since become the main centrepiece of baseless theories made by anti-vaccine advocates around the world.

Multiple studies since, across many countries, have concluded there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Dr David Elliman, a consultant in community child health at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, said RFK Jr has perpetuated myths around vaccination with "an utter disregard for the evidence".

Kennedy has repeatedly denied that he is anti-vaccine and insists he wants to improve the science on vaccine safety which he believes has "huge deficits".

Image source, Getty Images

We're continuing to bring you the key lines from RFK Jr's confirmation hearing, as he hopes to become President Trump's health secretary. You can watch it live at the top of this page.

Next up, Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan turns to reproduction rights and RFK Jr's previous claims that he's pro-choice.

As she speaks, a sign quoting RFK Jr speaking about reproductive rights appears behind her - it says: "We need to trust the women to make that choice, because I don't trust government to make any choices. Well, particularly when it comes to bodily autonomy".

She asks RFK Jr when he decided to "sell out" on his pro-choice values in order to be given power by President Trump, to which he says he agrees with Trump that "every abortion is a tragedy".

Hassan accuses RFK Jr of being willing to go against science and his own values if Trump tells him to do so, calling it "unacceptable".

Republican Senator Steve Daines is up next and turns to agriculture - he asks RFK Jr to commit to collaborate with the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), relevant federal agencies, farmers and ranchers before implementing policies that may affect food supply.

RFK Jr says he can "absolutely" make that commitment, and that he doesn't want a single farmer to leave their farm for economic, regulatory or bureaucratic reasons under his watch.

As we've been reporting this morning, RFK Jr is currently answering questions as part of his confirmation to become the US's health secretary.

The hearing has not gone uninterrupted - as this video shows:

Republican Senator James Lankford, asking RFK Jr questions now, asks whether President Trump's pick for health secretary plans to bring back conscience protections for doctors who don't want to carry out abortions.

RFK Jr says forcing medical providers, who believe abortion is murder, to carry out the procedure "doesn't make any sense".

Lankford then asks if he will change the FDA policy on abortion drug mifepristone - the first of the two-pill regimen recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to end a pregnancy - which he says isn't transparent about its side effects.

Trump has made it clear he's not taking a detailed position on the drug, RFK Jr says, but he adds that the president wants him to look at any safety issues.

• Want to know more about mifepristone?This explainer, which our colleagues wrote last year, looks at what the drug does and where it is used.

Image source, Getty Images

Another Democratic senator is asking questions now. Michael Bennet accuses RFK Jr of peddling misinformation and half truths, before asking him a series of questions about his past statements.

Bennet:Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon?

RFK Jr:I probably did say that

Bennet: Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender?

RFK Jr denies saying this.

Bennet then asks RFK Jr about his comments on abortion: Did you say on a podcast that we should not leave abortion to the state, we should leave it to women?

Kennedy begins to the answer the question; Bennet presses him to give a yes or no answer.

The committee then moves on to the next question.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Image source, Getty Images

That was a heated exchange between Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the committee, and RFK Jr - which we reported on a little earlier.

Both spoke over each other several times during the exchange, with Wyden becoming animated while accusing Kennedy of lying about his stance on vaccines.

I noticed some members of the audience shaking their heads in disapproval and doubt as Kennedy attempted to insist he is pro-vaccine.

Capitol Police are keeping a close eye on the audience - which is completely full - in anticipation of more protesters. And the room remains tense.

Cornyn then asks about training primary care doctors to help people with mental health and substance abuse issues, to which RFK Jr says tackling substance abuse is a "priority" for him, speaking about his own experience of heroin addiction.

There's a "short window" when addicts are willing to go into care, RFK Jr says, which is when the government must make sure they get treatment.

We're continuing to bring you the key lines from RFK Jr's confirmation hearing, as he hopes to become President Trump's health secretary. You can watch it live at the top of this page, or follow along for text updates.

It's now the turn of Republican Senator John Cornyn, who begins by talking about the responsibility of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) - which he says some people might be surprised to learn falls under the health secretary's remit.

Roughly 500,000 unaccompanied minors were placed with sponsors under the previous administration, Cornyn tells the hearing, going on to say tens of thousands of them are now unaccounted for. He says he looks forward to working with RFK Jr to find those children.

RFK Jr agrees, calling these missing children a "blight on America's moral authority".

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

Senators questioning RFK Jr’s nomination just mentioned a measles outbreak in the Pacific island nation of Samoa (see our last post).

In July 2018, two nurses there mistakenly gave children a muscle relaxant along with the combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Two children died and the nurses were charged with manslaughter.

In the wake of that incident, already-low vaccination rates in the country plummeted. RFK Jr visited the following year, after an invitation from a Samoan anti-vaccination activist. And months later, there was an outbreak of measles which killed 83 people.

Kennedy insists he never told anyone not to get vaccinated and health authorities have said the reasons behind the measles outbreak were complex, including existing vaccine hesitancy, poverty and a run-down health system.

RFK Jr’s role is far from certain and he denies having anything to do with the deadly outbreak.

Image source, Getty Images

The next question for RFK Jr, during his hearing to be confirmed as President Trump's health secretary, comes again from Democratic Senator Wyden. It focuses on Kennedy's previous comments about measles.

Wyden says Kennedy has claimed in a book that people were misled that measles was a deadly disease and that vaccines for it aren't necessary.

He then says RFK Jr's lies contributed to the deaths of 83 people in Samoa after a measles outbreak there - and asks: "Is measles deadly, yes or no?"

Kennedy claims most of the 83 people who died did not have measles, at which point Wyden interjects - saying again that RFK wrote a book that claimed people have been misled into believing measles is deadly.

• For context: This exchange refers to a 2019 trip Kennedy took to the island nation of Samoa, before it experienced a measles outbreak. We'll bring you more on that in our next post.

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

RFK Jr just said that when he told a podcast in 2023 "there is no vaccine that is safe and effective", his words were taken out of context.

The podcast in question is an episode of the Lex Fridman show which was released in July 2023.

In it, Kennedy says: "I think some of the live virus vaccines are probably averting more problems than they’re causing. There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective."

He's then interrupted by Fridman, who says: "Those are big words".

Kennedy goes on to outline what he calls safety problems with several common vaccines, including the polio vaccine. Later in the show, apparently quoting former President Ronald Reagan, he calls vaccines "inherently unsafe".

• Want more on this? You can see a full transcript of the podcast here, external - the relevant section is about one hour and 55 minutes in.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Image source, Getty Images

A second protester interrupted the hearing just as Kennedy was asked about signing a petition over the Covid-19 vaccine.

A woman, wearing a mask, stood up and shouted. She held a sign that read: "Vaccines save lives".

Capitol Police dragged her out of the room, like they did the last protester.

We can still hear the woman yelling from outside the chamber.

Next, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden asks if RFK Jr is lying about being "pro-vaccine".

RFK Jr says the claim that he's anti-vaccine has been "repeatedly debunked", and that a statement he once made on a podcast is a "fragment" of what he actually said.

Instead of saying "there are no vaccines that are safe and effective", RFK Jr says he was going to continue to say "for every person" - but claims he was interrupted by the podcast presenter. The pair then engage in a fiery back and forth:

RFK Jr accuses Wyden of being dishonest for asking the question.

Wyden brings up a petition that tried to refrain Americans having access to the Covid vaccine - pointing out that Kennedy's name is on it.

RFK Jr says the petition was brought after some experts said Covid vaccines were "inappropriate" for six-year-old children.

We're continuing to bring you the key lines from RFK Jr's confirmation hearing, as he vies to become President Trump's health secretary.

Mike Crapo, a Republican Senator, asks the first question - about why RFK Jr is passionate about nutrition-orientated disease prevention.

He responds by referring to the differences between his time growing up and children now - saying 66% now have chronic disease and 77% kids can't qualify for military service. As for diabetes, he says 38% of teens are diabetic or prediabetic.

He refers to an "explosion" in autoimmune diseases and allergic diseases, calling it a "spiritual" and "moral" issue, and tells the committee the US is "writing off an entire generation of kids".