Conservative radio host Erick Erickson said Republicans in the Senate should block Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination as Health and Human Services secretary because his worldview does not align with Christian conservatism.
“Worldview matters, and because worldview matters, that is why the Senate Republicans should kill the nomination of Robert Kennedy Jr. because his worldview is not a worldview that any Bible-believing Christian should support,” Erickson said on his podcast, in a clip posted to the social platform X.
Erickson said Kennedy is a “progressive, pro-abortion, environmental nut job” that Republicans only like right now because he cares about what is put in food.
“Did you know that an entire quarter of the federal budget outside of Social Security, Medicare and debt service payments, a quarter of the federal budget is run through the Department of Health and Human Services, and you want to put a pro-abortion Kennedy, progressive womanizer in charge of that position because he questions the COVID vaccine and thinks we shouldn’t have red dye number five in food?” Erickson said.
He also slammed Kennedy over the death of his ex-wife, Mary Richardson, who committed suicide in 2012 after she split from Kennedy in 2010, and noted a scandal involving reporter Olivia Nuzzi, who was found to be having an inappropriate relationship with Kennedy.
Kennedy is just one of Trump's new Cabinet nominees facing skepticism and concern, though it's unclear if that opposition will extend to Senate Republicans, who can advance the picks without any Democratic support.
While most of the resistance to Kennedy's nomination is coming from the left, driven by fears of his antivaccine stance and other controversial public health views, Erickson is not the first prominent figure on the right to oppose Kennedy in part for his beliefs on abortion.
In a statement from his conservative nonprofit Advancing American Freedom last week, Former Vice President Mike Pence said Kennedy’s nomination “is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades.”
Kennedy has been inconsistent on his abortion position. When he launched his presidential campaign as a Democrat, Kennedy endorsed a ban on abortion after the first trimester but then quickly backtracked. He also suggested he opposed banning abortion before fetal viability, generally around 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
On his campaign website, Kennedy says he is “a firm supporter of the principles laid out 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade” and that “if the courts do not overturn Dobbs v. Jackson and restore abortion rights, he will support legislation to accomplish the same.”
The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.
