Bill Cassidy: The anti-Trump Republican senator from Louisiana who may sink RFK, Jr.'s confirmation as secretary of HHS

The second Senate committee hearing last week on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to serve as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services started off strangely.

The chairman of the committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, made a sharp remark to a photographer who had his back to him and was busy snapping photos of Kennedy, who was seated at the table.

“I think y’all have about every angle you can get of the witness,” Cassidy said with obvious annoyance.

With that, he started the hearing, saying “Bobby, I see your family behind you. I like your family except for the nephew who’s a Florida Gator. We’ll let that go…”

It was meant to be a joke, but the comedic timing was off. Maybe because the senator wasn’t really in a jokey mood.

He started off saying he agreed with Kennedy on the need to address ultra-processed food and deal with obesity…BUT…had reservations about Kennedy’s “past positions” on vaccines and a couple of other issues. But he didn’t feel like talking about Kennedy anymore.

“And so, we know a lot about you, I’ll tell you a little bit about myself,” he said, taking the opportunity to tout his own credentials.

Before he got into politics, he practiced medicine, he said, specializing in liver disease, “…dedicating my life to saving lives. That is, being a doctor.”

Then he told a story about an 18-year-old girl he treated who was sick with Hepatitis B and had to be airlifted to a hospital in another city for a liver transplant.

“And as she took off, it was the worst day of my medical career,” said Cassidy. “Because I thought: Fifty dollars of vaccines could have prevented this all.”

He said that after this experience, he formed a public-private partnership to vaccinate 36,000 kids in Louisiana.

He then turned back to Kennedy, asking: “What will you tell the American mother? Will you tell her to vaccinate her child? Or to not?”

Putting the squeeze on Kennedy on the issue of vaccines was Cassidy’s goal that day. No one was supposed to be questioning the 73 doses of 17 vaccines on the CDC’s schedule of recommended childhood vaccinations and the strange fact of the rise in childhood diabetes, asthma, allergies and neurodevelopment disorders that has tracked with the increase in the number of vaccines American children are given.

He wasn’t going to allow it.

But thankfully, Sen. Rand Paul stepped in, railing against those like Cassidy who insist that all newborn babies must get a Hepatitis B vaccine even though Hepatitis B is only spread in two ways: by intravenous drug use and through sexual intercourse.

“I think the discussion over vaccines is so oversimplified and dumbed down that we never really get to real truths and it’s why people up here are so separated from real people at home,” he began.

“So we talk about Hepatitis B. It’s a terrible disease. It can lead to liver failure, as the chairman said. But the reason you have distrust from people at home, why they don’t believe anything you say and they don’t believe government at all is you’re telling my kid to take a Hepatitis B vaccine when he’s one day old….that’s not science.”

The two senators — Cassidy and Rand Paul, both of them doctors — went back and forth on the issue of the Hepatitis vaccine, with Cassidy finally agreeing that when the mother has tested negative for Hepatitis B while pregnant, there really is no need to vaccinate her newborn.

Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on articles of impeachment in February of 2021 for encouraging patriots to walk up to the U.S. Capitol and peacefully protest outside the building known as the “People’s House.” Then in 2024 he knocked Trump for his statements on illegal immigration and refused to endorse him for president, even in the general election.

The committee he chairs in the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, is not voting on the nomination of RFK, Jr. to serve as secretary of HHS. But the other committee that held a hearing on Kennedy’s nomination — the Senate Finance Committee — is. And Cassidy also sits on that committee, where the balance is 14 Republicans to 13 Democrats. If all Democrats vote “No” and all of the other Republicans vote “Yes,” as is expected, Cassidy would be the deciding vote. If he joins Democrats in voting “No,” the nomination will not likely advance to the Senate floor.

The vote is Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. before the Senate Finance Committee. You can watch on C-Span or here at C-Span.org.

There is nothing to be done now but to watch and see what happens.

In the meantime, you might check out some of the messages people are leaving for Sen. Cassidy on his official X account. There are some powerful messages from parents, if he’s willing to listen.

If he’s not, it looks like he may have a hard time holding on to his Senate seat.