Spineless Republicans Cave to Trump and Advance RFK Jr. Confirmation

The Senate Finance Committee voted to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for secretary of health and human services Tuesday in a narrow 14–13 vote, with every Republican voting for the nomination and every Democrat voting against it.

Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican and medical doctor, announced his support for Kennedy Tuesday morning in a shocking X post after previously being open about his reservations. Kennedy has a reputation as a staunch anti-vaxxer, and Cassidy had urged the nominee to disavow comments that vaccines cause autism, which has been thoroughly debunked.

Now Kennedy’s nomination will go to the full Senate, where he will likely be confirmed, as no Senate Republicans have publicly spoken out against him despite numerous allegations of sexual abuse, including a new revelation Monday that he paid nearly $1 million to settle a sexual misconduct claim from an employee at his anti-vaccination nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, in 2020.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has been a staunch opponent of Kennedy’s nomination, attacking his wishy-washy views on abortion and even releasing a video montage last week highlighting Donald Trump’s criticisms of Kennedy when he was an independent candidate for president in early 2024.

In his confirmation hearings, though, Kennedy has hinted at restricting access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which indicates that he’s now fully behind Trump and the Republican Party’s anti-choice policies. That would be enough for Kennedy to be confirmed by the Republican-majority Senate, putting him in position to carry out his and the right wing’s extreme views on public health.

This story has been updated.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. paid nearly $1 million to settle a sexual misconduct case brought by one of the employees at his anti-vax nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense.

The woman who accused Kennedy was roped into a nondisclosure agreement in 2020, according to sources that spoke with Mediaite.

Kennedy was tapped by Donald Trump to head the Department of Health and Human Services. During his confirmation hearings last week, Kennedy categorically denied what he described as “frivolous, unfounded allegations” against him.

“I entered into confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements to prohibit these individuals from continuing to make these allegations,” Kennedy said at the time.

The 71-year-old was further pressed on the matter by Senate Democrats in a series of follow-up questions after the hearings. That’s when Kennedy plainly admitted to at least one incident in which he settled a case over inappropriate behavior.

Two of the questions submitted to Kennedy by Democrats read as follows:

“Yes or no, have you ever reached a settlement agreement with an individual or organization that accused you of misconduct or inappropriate behavior?”

“Yes or no, have you ever agreed to or been subject to a non-disclosure agreement with any individual or organization?”

Kennedy answered yes to each one, but volunteered no follow-up details.

It’s not the only time that sexual misconduct details have emerged about the conspiratorial political hopeful, however. In 2024, Kennedy was accused of (and sort of apologized for) groping his children’s babysitter, Eliza Cooney, in the late 1990s.

The myriad details of Kennedy’s private life—as well as his virulent anti-vax prerogatives—have given pause to a number of lawmakers on the Hill responsible for confirming him. Kennedy has publicly admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park, believed the 2004 presidential election was stolen from Democrat John Kerry, peddled conspiracies that the CIA killed his uncle, chainsawed off the head of a dead whale (per his daughter Kick Kennedy), and late last month was described by his cousin Caroline Kennedy as a “predator” who is “addicted to attention and power.”

In a disclosure form filed for his nomination, Kennedy claimed that he had resigned as chairman and chief legal counsel of Children’s Health Defense in December. He made roughly $326,000 for just three months of work at the nonprofit in 2023, according to the group’s 990 form that year. The same disclosure form revealed that the outspoken vaccine critic made roughly $10 million over the last year related to speaking fees, dividends from his vaccine lawsuits, and leading Children’s Health Defense.

China has retaliated with tariffs of its own on American products after Donald Trump’s 10 percent tariffs against the country went into effect Tuesday.

China’s Ministry of Finance announced the same day that it would levy a 15 percent tax on certain types of coal and liquefied natural gas, as well as a 10 percent tariff on agricultural machinery, crude oil, large-displacement cars, and pickup trucks coming from the United States.

In addition, China’s customs administration and Ministry of Commerce announced new export controls on several metal products and related technologies. These include tungsten, used in industrial and defense projects, and tellurium, which is used to make solar cells. The ministry also added two American companies to its unreliable entities list: the biotechnology firm Illumina and clothing company PVH Group, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.

Also, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said it had begun an investigation into Google for violating the country’s anti-monopoly laws. The search engine is not available in China and has minimal operations there.

While Trump’s tariffs target $450 billion worth of Chinese goods, China’s tariffs only target about $20 billion of American products, about 12 percent of the total imported from the U.S. to Beijing. Thus they appear to be more about sending a message to the U.S. and other countries. On Sunday, China pledged to take “corresponding countermeasures” by filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization and “resolutely defend its rights.”

On Monday, stocks took a slide as a result of Trump’s tariffs before Canada and Mexico secured one-month delays. The markets were volatile on Tuesday, although the full impact of China’s measures have yet to be felt. Trump said Monday that he would be speaking with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping soon and may either walk away claiming victory or vowing to take this trade war further.

Trump and Marco Rubio may soon put a penal colony in El Salvador.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Rubio and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced they’d reached an agreement to “outsource” U.S. prisoners to El Salvador’s mega-prison.

“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said in regard to foreign nationals detained for violating U.S. immigration laws. “And he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.” The agreement was initially supposed to cover alleged gang members.

“We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system,” Bukele wrote on X. “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”

While some cheered the move, others reacted with a mix of shock and horror. Salvadoran opposition party member Manuel Flores stated that El Salvador housing U.S. prisoners would show that the country is America’s “backyard to dump the garbage.”

“Bukele is an all-time supervillain. We haven’t had a comprador like this since Chiang Kai-Shek,” criminology lecturer Emmy Rākete wrote on X. “Turning your country into a private black site torture-for-profit operation is a world-historical kind of evil.”

El Salvador’s prisons have been noted for sweeping human rights violations, incarcerated labor, and inhumane conditions.

Elon Musk is now considered a “special government employee” by the White House. But exactly what kind of access that provides—and whether he has appropriate security clearance to access the nation’s most sensitive data—is still unclear to even top officials in the Trump administration.

CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins pressed the issue during a briefing Monday, grilling White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as to whether the world’s richest man had received a clearance or a background check to operate within the federal government.

“Can you confirm that Elon Musk is a special government employee?” Collins asked. “And what kind of security clearance does he have?”

“I can confirm he’s a special government employee,” Leavitt replied. “I can also confirm that he has abided by all applicable federal laws. As for his security clearance, I’m not sure, but I can check back with you.”

“Did he pass a background check, do you know?” Collins continued.

“I don’t know about the security clearance, but I can check,” Leavitt repeated.

Leavitt was also unaware as to whether Musk’s team—which consists of young people between the ages of 19 and 24—had received their own security clearances.

“I don’t, no, but again, I can check on that for you,” Leavitt said.

A special government employee is “anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period,” according to the Justice Department.

Musk and his staffers at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have had seemingly unfettered access to federal databases containing Social Security numbers, home addresses, medical histories, and other sensitive data.

Last week, Musk’s team was spotted installing a commercial email server into the Office of Personnel Management, in what many considered to be a massive security risk. The server gave the uncleared team potential access to onboarding, job performance reviews, and government employee health care details, which could violate HIPAA laws.

“China and Russia are literally trying to hack us every day, and we just gave all this data over to somebody that’s not been properly vetted,” an OPM staffer told the substack Musk Watch on Monday.

“What [Musk is] doing will put so many government employees at risk. It’s not at all what the office is intended for,” a former OPM director told the digital publication. “I just can’t believe what I’m seeing.”