RFK Jr. faces high-stakes vote in bid to become Trump’s health secretary
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(WASHINGTON) — The Senate Finance Committee will vote on Tuesday on whether to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump.
It would take just one Republican to oppose Kennedy for his nomination to be potentially sunk, assuming all Democrats vote against him — as is expected.
All eyes will be on Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and longtime physician who, during last week’s hearings, expressed deep concerns about the impact of Kennedy’s past comments casting doubt on vaccines, including saying on a 2023 podcast that “no vaccine is safe and effective.”
Cassidy told Kennedy he was “struggling” with his nomination as those proceedings came to a close. The two spoke more over the weekend, according to one person familiar with the discussion, though it’s unclear what was said.
On Monday, Cassidy would not engage with questions on that conversation or on how he will vote on Tuesday.
“I really am not discussing RFK, I just keep saying that,” Cassidy told reporters.
While Kennedy’s nomination hinges on a single Republican vote in the committee, it’s possible the Senate Finance Committee could hold a second vote to send the nomination to the floor. Such a move would enable the full Senate to decide if Kennedy should be confirmed.
If Kennedy fails to get the support he needs to be reported favorably out of the Senate Finance Committee, there are two other options. The panel could report his nomination out of committee unfavorably or without recommendation, though that, too, would require a majority vote. Or, Senate Majority Leader John Thune could try to advance his nomination on the floor — but that would require an even higher threshold of 60 votes, which Republicans are not likely to get.
Trump said on Monday he’s called senators who have concerns about Kennedy. Vice President JD Vance has also been quietly lobbying senators to line up behind Kennedy, ABC News previously reported.
Questions have continued to swirl around Kennedy’s views on vaccines. He said several times during the hearings last Wednesday and Thursday that he supports vaccines and is not “anti-vaccine” but “pro-safety.”
However, Kennedy has openly questioned the widespread administration of both measles and polio vaccines, and has falsely linked the former vaccine to autism, despite several high-quality studies finding no such link.
He also pointed to a flawed paper to suggest there is evidence to claim that vaccines cause autism. Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said he saw problems with the paper’s methodology upon first look.
Kennedy also cast doubt on the lifesaving benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines, saying he doesn’t think that “anybody” can say the vaccines saved millions of lives.
A 2022 study from the Yale School of Public Health and University of Maryland Medical School estimated the vaccine saved 3 million lives and prevented 18 million hospitalizations.
Senators were also befuddled by comments Kennedy made in the past. Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado read aloud alleged past comments made by Kennedy, including unfounded claims about transgender children.
Kennedy denied making such comments despite repeated an unfounded conspiracy theory during an episode of his podcast in 2022, suggesting endocrine disruptors, including phthalates — which make chemicals more durable — and pesticides, can influence sexual orientation or gender identity.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(PARIS) — President-elect Donald Trump kicked off his first foreign trip since his reelection with a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace.
Ahead of the meeting, Macron welcomed Trump, saying, “It’s a great honor for the French people to welcome you five years later.”
Macron thanked Trump for his “solidarity” and “immediate action” during his first presidency: “You were at the time the president, the first time, and I remember the solidarity and your immediate action. Welcome back again. Thank you. We are very happy to have you here.”
Trump in return celebrated the “great success” the United States and France had together on “defense and offense” during his first term and said they will talk about how the world is “going a little crazy right now.”
“Thank you very much. Very great honor. And we had a great relationship. As everyone knows, we accomplished a lot together,” he said. “And the people of France are spectacular. I guess it’s one of our largest groups in the United States, French people, and we respect them and we love them. Very talented people, extremely energetic people, as you know very well, yeah, and it’s an honor to be here.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined Macron and Trump at about 11:34 a.m. Eastern time. However, he did not offer remarks ahead of the meeting.
Trump is in France to partake in the reopening ceremonies for Notre Dame more than five years after a fire severely damaged the cathedral. First lady Jill Biden is also among the representatives from around the world attending the ceremonies.
The meeting comes at a time when Macron’s government is undergoing a political crisis after his prime minister, Michel Barnier, resigned after facing a no-confidence vote. Macron, who became president in 2017, has vowed he will serve until the end of his term in 2027 despite facing calls from some to resign.
“We had a good time together, and we had a lot of lot of success, really great success, working together on defense and offense too,” Trump said of the U.S.-French relationship in his first administration. “And it certainly seems like the world is going a little crazy right now, and we’ll be talking about that.”
Trump arrived at the Elysee Palace around 10:41 a.m. and met with Macron outside before walking into the building around 10:43 a.m. Eastern time. He was also set to meet with Prince William, the Prince of Wales, for the first time since 2019, but their meeting before the Notre Dame ceremony was canceled.
(WASHINGTON) — Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson, whose “shaken baby syndrome” murder conviction in the death of his 2-year-old daughter has come under scrutiny, has been ordered to appear before the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Friday over the state’s so-called “junk science” law.
The legislation, passed in 2013, creates a pathway for people to challenge their convictions if new scientific evidence or developments would have impacted the outcome of their case. However, some legislators say they are concerned that the state law may not adequately address these issues and it is now being investigated by the House committee.
“Robert is eager to testify and grateful for the chance to be heard,” said Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney. “We will do all we can to cooperate, and I profoundly hope that his ability to appear is not obstructed by those who, for whatever reason, do not want the lawmakers and the public to hear from him directly about his experience trying to communicate his innocence.”
Roberson was set to become the first person in the U.S. executed for a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis murder conviction on Oct. 17 before the court intervened and a state House committee issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify on the law on Oct. 21, halting the execution. However, Roberson did not testify that day.
A new execution date has not yet been scheduled, according to Roberson’s legal representatives. In November, the Supreme Court of Texas noted that a subpoena could not block a scheduled execution.
Roberson was found guilty of the 2002 murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in part based on the testimony of a pediatrician who described swelling and hemorrhages in her brain to support a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. He was tried and convicted of capital murder in 2003 and sentenced to death.
Roberson’s legal team argued that evidence not presented at the trial found that Nikki had pneumonia and had been prescribed respiratory-suppressing drugs by doctors in the days leading up to her death, leading to a case of severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis and then septic shock.
Additionally, Roberson’s team says his autism affects how he expresses emotion; investigators noted Roberson’s lack of emotion during his arrest.
Roberson’s fight for clemency has been backed by a bipartisan group of more than 80 state lawmakers, as well as medical, scientific and criminal justice advocates who have questioned the legitimacy of the use of the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis in his case based on newer scientific evidence. The lead detective on Roberson’s case at the time, Brian Wharton, also now argues that missing evidence hindered the case.
However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other state officials have argued that “Roberson was lawfully sentenced to death” and that he has “exhausted every legally available appellate avenue” — noting that the case was heard once more by a trial court in 2021 in a dayslong evidentiary hearing after his execution was first halted, and earlier this year, Roberson’s team requested that a district court reopen his case.
Paxton also argued that the jury did not convict Roberson solely based on the controversial shaken baby syndrome diagnosis, though Roberson’s attorneys said that “shaken baby” was referred to by prosecutors and witnesses throughout the jury trial.
(WASHINGTON) — The bipartisan House Ethics Committee on Monday released a scathing report concluding its yearslong investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, finding “substantial evidence” that he had sex with a 17-year-old in 2017 in violation of Florida’s statutory rape law, and engaged in a broader pattern of paying women for sex.
The report also detailed evidence of illegal drug use, acceptance of improper gifts, granting special favors to personal associates, and obstruction, after Gaetz refused to comply with subpoenas and withheld evidence from the committee.
A woman testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her in 2017, when she was 17 and had just completed her junior year of high school, and Gaetz was in his first year in Congress. Identified only as “Victim A” in the report, the woman told investigators she received $400 in cash from the then-congressman that evening, “which she understood to be payment for sex,” according to the report.
“The Committee received credible testimony from Victim A herself, as well as multiple individuals corroborating the allegation,” the report says. “Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”
While many of the allegations in the committee’s report have been previously reported, this is the first time the woman’s direct testimony about Gaetz having sex with her when she was a minor has been made public, along with corroborating testimony from others.
Investigators noted that while the former Florida congressman has “suggested that the allegations against him have been manufactured” and had called into question Victim A’s credibility, “the Committee found no reason to doubt the credibility of Victim A.”
The report details that between 2017-2020, records obtained by the committee show Gaetz paid nearly $100,000 dollars to 12 different women and to Joel Greenberg, his one-time close friend who pleaded guilty to numerous crimes, including sex trafficking Victim A.
While all the women who testified to the committee described their sexual encounters with Gaetz as consensual, according to the report, one woman raised concerns that drug use at the parties and events may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.” Another woman told the committee, “When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
The report alleges that Gaetz “took advantage of the economic vulnerability of young women to lure them into sexual activity for which they received an average of a few hundred dollars after each encounter.”
“Such behavior is not ‘generosity to ex-girlfriends,’ and it does not reflect creditably upon the House,” the report reads, referencing the former congressman’s previous statement dismissing the allegations as someone “trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.”
“Based on the above, the Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report says.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The Justice Department declined to charge him last year after a yearslong investigation into similar allegations.
Earlier Monday Gaetz filed a lawsuit against the Ethics Committee in an effort to stop the committee from releasing its report.
“This action challenges the Committee’s unconstitutional and ultra vires attempt to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations,” the filing from Gaetz said.
Gaetz in the filing asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to block the release of the report or any findings, which he says would cause “damage to his reputation and professional standing” that would be “immediate and severe.”
“The threatened release of information believed to be defamatory by a Congressional committee concerning matters of sexual propriety and other acts of alleged moral turpitude constitutes irreparable harm that cannot be adequately remedied through monetary damages,” the filing stated.
Gaetz’s lawsuit highlights that he is now a public citizen and claims he did not receive “proper notice” of the report’s impending release.
“After Plaintiff’s resignation from Congress, Defendants improperly continued to act on its investigation, and apparently voted to publicly release reports and/or investigative materials related to Plaintiff without proper notice or disclosure to Plaintiff,” the complaint states.
President-elect Donald Trump last month tapped Gaetz to serve as attorney general in the incoming administration, and Gaetz resigned his congressional seat shortly after. Gaetz subsequently withdrew his name from consideration for AG, saying his confirmation process was “unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”
The Ethics Committee was in the final stages of its probe into Gaetz when Trump tapped him for attorney general. The committee generally drops investigations of members if they leave office, but Gaetz’s resignation prompted a fiery debate on Capitol Hill over whether the panel should release its report to allow the Senate to perform its role of vetting presidential nominations.
Following indications last week that the committee would release its report, Gaetz took to X in a lengthy post, writing in part that when he was single he “often sent funds to women” he dated and that he “never had sexual contact with someone under 18.”
“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now,” he posted. “I’ve never been charged. I’ve never been sued. Instead, House Ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body.”
In its report, the committee concluded that it did not find substantial evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, finding that while Gaetz “did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex,” investigators did not find evidence “that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the Committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion.”
According to the report, the committee conducted over two dozen interviews, issued 29 subpoenas, reviewed nearly 14,000 documents, and requested information from multiple government agencies as part of its extensive investigation into the allegations.
The committee also received written testimony from Greenberg but, due to credibility concerns, investigators said they would “not rely exclusively on information provided by Mr. Greenberg,” according to the report.
The committee also accused Gaetz of obstructing its investigation by ignoring subpoenas, withholding documents, and declining to answer questions about the allegations.
“Representative Gaetz continuously sought to deflect, deter, or mislead the Committee in order to prevent his actions from being exposed,” the report reads. “His actions undermine not only his claims that he had exculpatory information to provide, but also his claims that he intended to cooperate with the Committee in good faith. It is apparent that Representative Gaetz’s assertions were nothing more than attempts to delay the Committee’s investigation.”
The committee had been investigating allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, according to sources.
Earlier this year, the committee released a statement that it would continue its probe but would no longer pursue allegations that Gaetz “may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.”
According to the report, while several committee members did not support its release, a majority of its members voted in favor of its release on Dec. 10. In a statement at the conclusion of the report, House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest reiterated his stance against the release of the report on behalf of the dissenting members while acknowledging that he and other members do not dispute the report’s findings.
“We believe and remain steadfast in the position that the House Committee on Ethics lost jurisdiction to release to the public any substantive work product regarding Mr. Gaetz after his resignation from the House on November 14, 2024,” Guest wrote.