Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the new secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), hours after being confirmed in the Republican-controlled Senate Thursday by a close vote of 52-48 that was almost entirely along party lines.
Kennedy stood in the Oval Office alongside his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, and accompanied by his children, while he placed his hand on a Bible and swore the oath of office. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch swore in Kennedy.
After the ceremony, Kennedy told attendees about his first visit to the Oval Office.
‘My first time in this Oval Office was in … 1962. I came here, and I had a meeting with my uncle who was president then, where we talked about the environment. He was involved very deeply, as we all know, in restoring physical fitness in this country.
‘For 20 years, I got on my knees every morning and prayed that God would put me in a position where I could end the childhood chronic disease epidemic in this country,’ Kennedy said.
‘On Aug. 23 of last year, God sent me President Trump. He’s kept every promise he’s made to me. He’s kept his word in every account and gone way beyond it. … I’m so grateful to you, Mr. President.’
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against Kennedy’s nomination. McConnell, the former longtime GOP Senate leader, had polio as a child and is a major proponent of vaccines.
Kennedy, the well-known vaccine skeptic and environmental crusader who ran for the White House in 2024 before ending his bid and endorsing Trump, needed a simple majority to be confirmed by the Senate.
‘I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,’ McConnell said after the Kennedy vote.
Kennedy, whose outspoken views on Big Pharma and the food industry have also sparked controversy, has said he aims to shift the focus of the agencies he would oversee toward promotion of a healthy lifestyle, including overhauling dietary guidelines, taking aim at ultra-processed foods and getting to the root causes of chronic diseases.
The push is part of his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ campaign.
Trump regularly criticized Kennedy during his independent presidential bid, accusing him of being a ‘radical left liberal’ and a ‘Democrat plant.’
Kennedy fired back, claiming in a social media post that Trump’s jabs against him were ‘a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims.’
However, Kennedy made major headlines again in August when he dropped his presidential bid and endorsed Trump.
Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, who were both assassinated in the 1960s. Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders due in part to his high-profile vaccine skepticism.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report