Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin explains why she voted against Hegseth’s confirmation

(MADISON, WI) — The Democratic National Committee is set to announce on Tuesday its earliest-ever new election cycle investment into the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, which will see Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, the Democratic-backed candidate, take on Republican-backed Brad Schimel, a former state attorney general and current Waukesha County judge, ABC News has learned exclusively.

To help boost organizing on the ground, the Democratic Party will host phone banks and call more than 2 million Wisconsin voters in support of Crawford.

The DNC’s new investment will be used for on the ground operations, including organizing, peer-to-peer texting, and mobilizing thousands of volunteers to help the Wisconsin Democratic-coordinated campaign. Last month, DNC Chair Ken Martin was in Wisconsin canvassing for the Wisconsin Democratic coordinated campaign.

The April 1 election will decide who will take the open seat on the court and whether the bench will remain under control by the liberal justices or flip to a conservative majority, with major cases involving abortion, redistricting, and election laws being brought up.

The investment being made by the DNC comes on the first day of early voting in Wisconsin and marks the first investment by the organization since the 2024 election.

The race will also preview how voters in the battleground state feel a few months into President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump won the state by just under 30,000 voters in the 2024 election.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race is also seen as one indication of Elon Musk’s influence beyond Washington and how Democrats try to push back against the richest man in the world, linking him to Schimel, the Republican-backed candidate.

“With Wisconsin voters up against the world’s richest man, this is an all-hands-on-deck moment and we’re thrilled to have the support of the DNC in this fight,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “Elections in Wisconsin often come down to a hairsbreadth, and every voter we can turn out to support Judge Susan Crawford and Dr. Jill Underly on April 1 can make the difference between keeping Wisconsin on a path of progress or letting Elon Musk and Donald Trump drag us backwards.”

A conservative group linked to Musk, Building America’s Future, has spent more than $1.6 million on television ads in the race, while another, Musk’s super PAC America PAC, has spent over $6 million on get-out-the-vote efforts and digital media, according to state campaign finance records.

“When I went to Wisconsin to knock doors last month, folks told me they don’t want billionaires like Elon Musk running our federal government and they certainly don’t want him buying our elections,” Martin said in a statement.

But billionaires have also invested in support of Crawford, including George Soros and Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.

Although Trump has not endorsed Schimel, Musk urged on X last month for people to “vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud!”

The DNC is also working to support the Wisconsin Democratic coordinated campaign, with the state party recently announcing their “People vs. Musk” campaign to push back against Musk’s influence in the race.

The state’s Supreme Court race is the most expensive judicial race in US history, according to The Brennan Center, a nonprofit public policy institute.

As of Monday, more than $59 million has been spent in the race, which the think tank says breaks the record for the most spending in a state supreme court election, surpassing the estimated $56 million poured into the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump kicked off his second term with a flurry of executive actions on immigration, Jan. 6, health policy and more.

More orders are expected Tuesday amid fallout from his first moves, including his issuing pardons for more than a thousand rioters convicted in connection with the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and his effort to end birthright citizenship.

Meanwhile, lawmakers will continue to question and process the president’s Cabinet picks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been sworn in as other nominees, including Elise Stefanik for ambassador to the United Nations, face confirmation hearings.

Federal employee union sues over DOGE, pushes back on executive orders

In the hours after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union for federal employees filed a lawsuit against Trump and the Office of Management and Budget, while also calling on Congress to protect government workers’ jobs.

The lawsuit alleges that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

“DOGE has already begun developing recommendations and influencing decision-making in the new administration, even though its membership lacks the fair balance required by FACA and its meetings and records are not open to public inspection in real time,” the complaint alleges.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley has also gone on the offense over Trump’s flurry of executive orders to eliminate federal telework and diversity programs, to freeze federal hiring and to re-introduce at-will employment policies that would make it easier to fire some federal employees.

Kelley asked Congress to intervene to save federal workers from being fired at will.

“AFGE will not stand idly by as a secretive group of ultra-wealthy individuals with major conflicts of interest attempt to deregulate themselves and give their own companies sweetheart government contracts while firing civil servants and dismantling the institutions designed to serve the American people,” Kelley said in a statement.

He added, “This fight is about fairness, accountability, and the integrity of our government. Federal employees are not the problem—they are the solution. They deserve to have their voices heard in decisions that affect their work, their agencies, and the public they serve.”

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Federal judge sets hearing on Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order

President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order on birthright citizenship will face its first legal test in a Seattle courtroom on Thursday morning.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour scheduled a 10 a.m. hearing on Thursday to consider a request made by four states to issue a temporary restraining order against Trump’s executive order.

Earlier Tuesday, the attorneys generals of Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Illinois sued Trump over the order, which they said would disenfranchise more than 150,000 newborn children each year.

They described Trump’s executive order as the modern equivalent of the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott decision. The 14th Amendment repudiated Scott establishing what the plaintiffs called a “bright-line and nearly universal rule” that Trump now seeks to violate.

“President Trump and the federal government now seek to impose a modern version of Dred Scott. But nothing in the Constitution grants the President, federal agencies, or anyone else authority to impose conditions on the grant of citizenship to individuals born in the United States,” their emergency motion said.

Coughenour — who was nominated to the bench by former President Ronald Reagan — will likely be the first judge to weigh in on Trump’s executive order.

-ABC News’ Laura Romero and Peter Charalambous

Federal government directed to put DEI employees on leave

All federal employees working on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives must be put on paid administrative leave by Wednesday at 5 p.m., according to an Office of Personnel Management memo obtained by ABC News.

The decision comes as the Trump administration shuts down the relevant DEI offices and programs across the federal government.

The directive follows President Donald Trump’s signing of executive orders Monday to dismantle federal DEI programs, as part of Trump’s larger campaign vow to reverse and upend the diversity efforts across the country, in the public and private sectors.

-ABC News’ Ben Siegel

DC Police Union dismayed by Jan. 6 pardons

The Washington, D.C., Police Union, which represents officers from the Metropolitan Police Department expressed “dismay” over the recent pardons granted to those who violently attacked police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“As an organization that represents the interests of the 3,000 brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities, our stance is clear – anyone who assaults a law enforcement officer should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, without exception,” the union said in a statement.

“We remain steadfast in our mission to protect the rights and interests of all police officers and to ensure that justice is applied fairly and consistently,” the statement continued.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Trump set to meet with moderate House Republicans

President Donald Trump is set to meet with a group of moderate House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon at the White House, multiple sources told ABC News.

Some of the members who will attend include Nebraska Rep. Don Baco and New York Rep. Mike Lawler, among others.

-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Lauren Peller

Trump says he pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht

Trump said he signed a “full and unconditional pardon” for Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for running the black market site Silk Road.

“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbright [sic] to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” Trump said on Truth Social. “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”

Ulbricht, who ran Silk Road between January 2011 and October 2013, was found guilty of allowing users to buy illegal drugs, guns and other unlawful goods anonymously. Prosecutors said the narcotics distributed through the site, which the FBI called the”Amazon of illegal drugs,” were linked to the deaths of at least six people.

Trump looking at whether to ‘turn off the tap’ on weapons to Ukraine

When asked whether he will “turn off the tap” when it comes to sending weapons to Ukraine, Trump told reporters Tuesday that he is “looking at that.”

“We’re talking to Zelenskyy. We’re going to be talking with President Putin very soon, and we’ll see what, how it all happens,” Trump said during a briefing in the Roosevelt Room.

Trump added that the European Union should be supporting Ukraine more, saying the war affects them more than the United States.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

Kash Patel hearing tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29

The Senate Judiciary Committee has tentatively scheduled a confirmation hearing for Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to be the FBI director, on Jan. 29, committee ranking member Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters Tuesday.

Durbin stressed he will not be voting to advance Patel’s nomination following an in-person meeting with the nominee and a reading of his book, “Government Gangsters.”

“After meeting with him and doing this study, I’ve come to the conclusion that Kash Patel has neither the experience, the judgment or the temperament to serve as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to take on this awesome responsibility to keep America safe,” Durbin said.

Durbin said he was also concerned with Patel’s recounting of Jan. 6 during their meeting.

“His description of what happened in this Capitol building on Jan. 6 defies reality. I tried to pin him down on some of the things he said,” Durbin said, noting that after Trump’s pardons of the rioters on Monday, he didn’t know if the FBI would continue to track and monitor them — particularly the ones who were recently released.

“He calls it a haphazard riot. What the hell is a haphazard riot? That’s how he describes Jan. 6,” Durbin said. “I said I was here. … Unfortunately for the law enforcement, there were a lot of injuries and some death.”

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

Trump says he’ll impose tariffs on the European Union

During his AI infrastructure announcement, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on the European Union, as he has done with Canada, China and Mexico.

“It’s not just China. China is an abuser, but the European Union is very, very bad to us,” Trump told reporters after the announcement. “They treat us very, very badly. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our cars at all. They don’t take our farm products. Essentially, they don’t take very much. We have a $350 billion deficit with the European Union.”

“They treat us very, very badly, so they’re going to be in for tariffs.”

Trump says looking at Feb. 1 date for tariffs

Trump said he is eyeing Feb. 1 as the date to start implementing his tariffs on China and Mexico.

Trump defends pardoning Jan. 6 convicts

Trump was asked about pardoning the Jan. 6 rioters during a news conference Tuesday and dodged a question about pardoning violent Jan. 6 convicts, including one who admitted to attacking an officer.

The president dodged the question, claiming he would look into it, before changing the subject to murders around the country that he claimed yielded no arrests.

He repeated his claim that the people pardoned were unjustly prosecuted, including the head of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

“The cases that we looked at, these were people that actually love our country, so we thought a pardon would be appropriate,” he said.

Trump was asked about the pardons again, as well as Vice President J.D. Vance’s statement last week in which he opposed pardoning rioters who assaulted officers, but the president again claimed the rioters were unfavorably treated.

CEOs tout ‘Stargate’ joint AI infrastructure project with Trump

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Larry Ellison joined President Donald Trump at the White House to tout the $500 billion investment in the “Stargate” venture.

“We will immediately start deploying $100 million … because of your success,” Son said.

The businessmen said they plan on using artificial intelligence for various projects, including medical research.

“I’m thrilled we get to do this in the United States of America,” Altman said.

Trump said he will be helping “a lot through emergency declarations because we have an emergency — we have to get this stuff built.”

Trump meets with GOP leadership

The meeting between President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune started around 3:20 p.m. ET in the Oval Office, according to the White House.

Trump is still expected to take more executive actions on Tuesday, as well as make an infrastructure announcement.

Tech billionaires to visit White House, per source

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Larry Ellison are expected to be at the White House Tuesday afternoon, according to a source familiar with the matter.

President Trump is set to announce $500 billion in private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure. It’s a joint venture of three companies — OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle — collectively called Stargate.

Last month, Trump announced with SoftBank’s Son in Mar-a-Lago that SoftBank would invest $100 billion in US projects over the next four years, creating 100,000 jobs. Those investments will focus on infrastructure that supports AI, including data centers, energy generation, and chips, according to a source.

The new announcement Tuesday has “overlap” with SoftBank’s previous commitment of $100 billion, according to a source, who clarifies that this is not an entirely separate commitment.

– ABC’s Selina Wang

Trump’s 1st sit-down interview will air on Wednesday

President Donald Trump’s first sit-down interview of his second term will be with Fox’s Sean Hannity in the Oval Office.

It will air on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET, the network announced.

During the interview, Trump will “discuss the executive orders he’s signed thus far, his first 100 days in office and news of the day,” according to the release from the news channel.

During his first term, Trump sat down with ABC News’ David Muir for his first interview. That interview took place just five days after he was sworn into office in 2017.

-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart

Trump’s tariff plans are still taking shape, despite pledges for Day 1 action

Tariffs were not in the executive orders Trump signed on Monday night and he suggested he’s still undecided on how far they might go — which investors are reading as a good sign, reflected by the rallying market on Tuesday.

Trump said he was now targeting Feb. 1 as a potential target date for tariffs to take effect against Mexico and Canada, which he said could be as high as 25%. He said any plans for blanket tariffs are “not ready” just yet.

Trump has a history of using the threat of tariffs as a governing style.

Urging Mexico to crack down on border crossings in 2019, Trump threatened to slap a tariff on the country within 10 days through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) but relented after Mexico committed to specific measures.

-ABC’s Cheyenne Haslett and Elizabeth Schulze

Capitol Police chief sends internal memo praising officers after Biden, Trump pardons

Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger sent an internal memo praising officers following the pardons made by President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden. The memo was obtained by ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott.

Manger said that “when there is no price to pay for violence against law enforcement, it sends a message that politics matter more than our first responders.”

Manger cited the pardons from Trump for Jan. 6 rioters and from Biden for commuting the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a man convicted of the murder of two FBI agents in 1975.

“Police willingly put themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities. When people attack law enforcement officers, the criminals should be met with consequences, condemnation and accountability,” Manger said.

DOGE gets official government website

The page currently consists of a simple landing page displaying a logo featuring the iconic Shiba Inus from the original “doge” meme.

The official page comes after President Donald Trump’s executive order on Monday night creating the now solely Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. The order notably stated that the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) will be renamed the U.S. DOGE Service and placed under the Executive Office of the President.

DOGE will terminate on July 4, 2026, as Musk has previously detailed, and each agency in the Trump admin must create a DOGE Team, according to the order.

– ABC’s Will Steakin

Trump to meet with Republican leaders at White House

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House at 2 p.m., sources told ABC News.

At 3 p.m. ET, other GOP leaders from both chambers — including Steve Scalise, Lisa McClain and John Barrasso — will meet with Trump as well at the White House, sources said.

The White House has not yet formally released a schedule for Trump.

-ABC’s Katherine Faulders, Rachel Scott, Lauren Peller and Allison Pecorin

Trump’s 1st executive orders quickly face lawsuits

Eighteen states and the city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit challenging the president’s executive order to cut off birthright citizenship Tuesday, calling it a “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”

The lawsuit accused Trump of seeking to eliminate a “well-established and longstanding Constitutional principle” by executive fiat.

A union representing thousands of federal employees also sued the Trump administration Monday evening over an executive order that makes it easier to fire career government employees, alleging the directive would violate the due process rights of its members.

“The Policy/Career Executive Order directs agencies to move numerous employees into a new excepted service category with the goal that many would then be fired,” the lawsuit alleged.

– ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Peter Charalambous

Coast Guard commandant fired in part over DEI efforts: Source

Admiral Linda Fagan, who served as the Coast Guard Commandant and was the first woman to lead a U.S. armed forces branch, was “relieved of her duties” by Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman.

A source with knowledge of the decision said Fagan was fired in part because of her Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the Coast Guard.

“She has served a long and illustrious career and I thank her for her service,” according to a memo to the workforce obtained by ABC News.

Admiral Kevin Lunday is now acting commandant.

Trump promised to go after who he called “woke” generals in the military during his 2024 campaign. His nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said he will follow through on that issue.

-ABC’s Luke Barr

Reverend urges Trump to have ‘mercy’ on LGBTQ community, migrants

The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, during the prayer service at Washington National Cathedral, directed a message for President Donald Trump, who was seated in the front row.

“Let me make one final plea. Mr. President, millions have put their trust in you. And as you said, you have felt the providential hand of our loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said.

Budde said there are LGBTQ citizens of all political creeds who now ‘fear for their lives.” She also referenced migrants who may not be in the U.S. legally but are devoted neighbors, workers and parents.

“Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land,” she said.

Stefanik backs US withdrawing from WHO, pushes for UN reform

Rep. Elise Stefanik is facing senators for her confirmation hearing to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The ideological divide between Republicans and Democrats over the utility of global organizations has taken center stage. Stefanik zeroed in on reform.

“Our tax dollars should not be complicit in propping up entities that are counter to American interests, antisemitic or engaging in fraud, corruption, or terrorism,” she said. “We must invest in programs to strengthen our national security and deliver results to increase the efficacy of U.N. programs. We must drive reform.”

She also defended Trump’s decision to withdraw from another global body: the World Health Organization.

“I support President Trump’s decision to walk away from WHO,” she said, arguing it had “failed on a global stage in the Covid pandemic for all the world to see, and instead spewed CCP talking points that I believe led to not only false information, but dangerous and deadly information across the globe.”

As Trump attends service, Episcopal Church leaders express concern about immigration actions

Episcopal Church leaders on Tuesday released a letter urging Trump to “exercise mercy” in his approach to immigration policy.

While the service Trump is currently attending incorporates many faiths, the National Cathedral itself is part of the Episcopal Diocese in Washington.

“Even as we gave thanks for a peaceful transfer of power, we learned from news reports that the new presidential administration has issued a series of executive orders that are a harbinger of President Trump’s pledge to deport undocumented immigrants at a historic scale, restrict asylum, and direct other immigration actions,” the church leaders wrote in a letter.

“We read this news with concern and urge our new president and congressional leaders to exercise mercy and compassion, especially toward law-abiding, long-term members of our congregations and communities; parents and children who are under threat of separation in the name of immigration enforcement; and women and children who are vulnerable to abuse in detention and who fear reporting abuse to law enforcement.”

Trump and Vance attend interfaith prayer service

President Trump and Vice President Vance are attending an interfaith prayer service at Washington National Cathedral.

It’s the first public appearance for Trump since Monday night’s inaugural festivities.

First lady Melania Trump, second lady Usha Vance and Trump’s children are there as well.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Rep. Mike Lawler are some of the lawmakers in attendance.

Trudeau responds to Trump tariff threats

Standing alongside his cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed President Trump’s proposed tariffs, stating firmly that if the U.S. proceeds with the measure, Canada will not hesitate to respond in kind.

“Everything is on the table,” Trudeau said adding, “We are prepared for every possible scenario.”

ABC News’ Aleem Agha

‘For us and the whole world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico’: Mexican president

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Trump’s various decrees issued after the inauguration in a point-by-point statement.

Sheinbaum said Trump’s decrees concerning the emergency zone of the southern border and the Migrant Protection Protocols were no different than the orders made during Trump’s first term.

“We will always act in the defence of our independence, the defense of our fellow nationals living in the U.S. We act within the framework of our constitution and laws. We always act with a cool head,” she said in her statement.

Sheinbaum however pushed back on Trump’s decree to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

“For us and the whole world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico,” she said.

-ABC News’ Anne Laurent and Will Gretsky

Rubio promises State Department will focus on making America ‘stronger,’ safer,’ and ‘more prosperous’

After being sworn in as the nation’s 72nd secretary of state, Marco Rubio promised that every action taken by the department would be determined by the answer to three questions: “Does it make us stronger? Does it make us safer? And does it make us more prosperous?”

Rubio gave remarks in Spanish as well, giving thanks to God, his family present and not present, including his parents, who he said came to the U.S. in 1956 — and that the purpose of their lives was that their children could realize dreams not possible for them.

“It’s an incredible honor to be the secretary of state of the most powerful, best country in the world,” he continued in Spanish, giving thanks to Trump for the opportunity.

Rubio also echoed themes from Trump’s inaugural address and reiterated the president’s agenda.

“As far as the task ahead, President Trump was elected to keep promises. And he is going to keep those promises. And his primary promise when it comes to foreign policy is that the priority of the United States Department of State will be the United States. It will be furthering the national interest of this country,” Rubio said.

– ABC News’ Shannon Kingston

Confirmation hearing begins for Trump’s VA pick

Doug Collins, Trump’s choice to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, will face questions from lawmakers as his confirmation hearing gets underway.

Collins, a former congressman, is a Navy veteran who currently serves as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command.

He was the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment, and had defended the president.

Rubio is sworn in by JD Vance as secretary of state

After being unanimously confirmed by the Senate on Monday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was officially sworn in by Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday morning.

Rubio joined ABC’s “Good Morning America” ahead of the ceremony, where he discussed Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, TikTok and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Rubio sidestepped directly weighing on the pardons, saying his “focus needs to be 100% on how I interact with our counterparts, our adversaries, our potential enemies around the world to keep this country safe, to make it prosperous.”

When asked about Trump’s campaign pledge to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on Day 1, Rubio contended the matter is more complex and that negotiations would not be played out in public.

“Look this is a complex, tragic conflict, one that was started by Vladimir Putin that’s inflicted a tremendous amount of damage on Ukraine and also on Russia, I would argue, but also on the stability of Europe,” Rubio said. “So the only way to solve these things, we got to get back to pragmatism, but we also get back to seriousness here, and that is the hard work of diplomacy. The U.S. has a role to play here. We’ve been supportive of Ukraine, but this conflict has to end.”

White House signals Trump will make announcement on infrastructure

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this morning that Trump will be making a a major announcement on infrastructure at 4 p.m. ET.

“I can confirm that the American people won’t be hearing from me today,” she wrote, indicating she would not hold a press briefing. “They’ll be hearing from the leader of the free world,” Leavitt said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“Once again, President Trump will be speaking to the press later this afternoon at the White House, and we will have a big infrastructure announcement,” she added.

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(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to go before the Senate on Wednesday in his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Donald Trump.

Kennedy has frequently promoted views at odds with the consensus of public health researchers and the mainstream scientific community, including falsely claiming that certain vaccines cause autism and calling for fluoride to be removed from drinking water, claiming it harms adolescent development.

The environmental attorney has vowed to crack down on dyes in the food industry and has called for restrictions on ultra-processed foods.

During a charity dinner last year in New York City, Trump pledged Kennedy would “go wild on health” and that Kennedy “wants healthy people, he wants healthy food.”

Here’s a look at where Kennedy stands on several health issues:

Questioning vaccine safety

Although Kennedy has denied he is “anti-vaccine” and has said his children have been vaccinated, he has promoted views on vaccines that experts have refuted.

During a 2023 interview on Fox News, Kennedy said he believes autism comes from vaccines, a myth born from a now-debunked paper from the U.K. in 1998 that claimed the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine caused autism.

The paper has since been discredited by health experts, retracted from the journal in which it was published, and its primary author, Andrew Wakefield, lost his medical license after the paper was discredited and an investigation found he had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in conducting his research. More than a dozen high-quality studies have since found no evidence of a link between childhood vaccines and autism.

Kennedy has also spread what the medical community has considered to be vaccine misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, falsely claiming the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous.

During a December 2021 Louisiana House of Representatives meeting discussing a proposal to require schoolchildren to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Kennedy falsely called the vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”

In the same year, Kennedy petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to revoke its authorization of all COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA denied the petition three months later.

Health officials say COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective following clinical trials that involved tens of thousands of people, and have since helped save millions of lives.

Removing artificial dyes from foods

Kennedy has been vocal about his opposition to artificial dyes, calling for them to be removed from foods and beverages.

“The first thing I’d do isn’t going to cost you anything because I’m just gonna tell the cereal companies: Take all the dyes out of their food,” about actions he’d take as a member of the Trump administration, according to a social media post from the non-profit Children’s Health Defense, of which Kennedy is a founder.

Kennedy has frequently cited Froot Loops as an example of a food with potentially harmful dyes, saying the version of the Kellogg’s cereal sold abroad is healthier and has fewer ingredients compared to the U.S. version.

Kellogg’s has insisted its products are safe for consumption, saying the ingredients meet the federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Kennedy was wrong about the number of ingredients — Canadian Froot Loops have 17 ingredients compared to 16 in the U.S. However, the two cereals differ when it comes to the use of dyes.

American Froot Loops contain artificial food dyes such as Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Blue 1 while Canadian Froot Loops are colored with concentrated watermelon juice and blueberry juice.

A 2018 report from New York University and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change found artificial food colors may affect children’s behavior and exacerbate symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Recently the FDA said it was moving to ban the use of Red 3 dye in food products, beverages and ingested drugs, in response to a 2022 petition from health groups and activists.

Processed foods and chronic disease

Kennedy has criticized the U.S. food industry and the proliferation of ultra-processed foods, blaming them as one reason for the rise of chronic disease in the U.S.

“Hundreds of these chemicals are now banned in Europe, but they’re ubiquitous in American processed foods,” he said during a September 2024 roundtable discussion on health led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. “We are literally poisoning our children systematically for profit.”

A 2021 joint study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of São Paolo in Brazil found that people who consumed more calories from ultra-processed foods had lower scores on tests measuring cardiovascular health.

Kennedy has also railed against seed oils, calling them “one of the driving causes of the obesity epidemic” and has called on fast food restaurants to fry their products with animal fats instead.

Seed oils contain certain types of healthy fats that are good for the heart when used in moderation, decades of research shows.

Claims that fluoride affects children’s development

In an interview with NPR in November, Kennedy doubled down on his promise that the Trump administration will recommend that local governments remove fluoride from their water supplies.

He has claimed that fluoride in drinking water affects children’s neurological development and that other countries that have removed fluoride from their water supplies have not seen an increase in cavities. Some health professionals have expressed concerns about excessive fluoride intake and potential toxicity.

However, high-quality studies show fluoride prevents cavities and repairs damage to teeth caused by bacteria in the mouth. Fluoride also replaces minerals lost from teeth due to acid breakdown, according to the CDC.

ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

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