Robert Kennedy Jr. has been appointed by the Senate to head the Department of Health and Human Services, despite facing criticism from liberals regarding his qualifications and previous statements against vaccines.

His confirmation followed a challenging process that even caused some concerns among Republicans. However, with the support of Donald Trump, he secured enough votes for confirmation with a 52-48 tally.

The only Republican senator to vote against RFK Jr.’s confirmation was Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has a long history of opposition to Trump. Interestingly, McConnell also voted against the appointments of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence and Pete Hegseth as Pentagon chief.

Trump tapped the 70-year-old former Democrat to be the country’s top health official with the mandate to ‘Make America Healthy Again.’ 

But Kennedy was put under the microscope ahead of the vote for his past controversial stances on vaccinations, abortion and for promoting conspiracy theories. 

The vote came after Kennedy cleared a procedural hurdle early Wednesday where senators voted directly along party lines to advance his nomination. 

But his entire confirmation path was rocky as the nominee faced pushback from Democrats who accused him of being anti-vaccine and anti-science.

Some members of his famous Kennedy family also came out against his confirmation with scathing attacks on his character.

Leading up to the vote on Thursday, several Republican senators had still not shared how they planned to vote. 

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced Wednesday afternoon that she would support him with a lengthy statement in which she noted the U.S. spends more on healthcare per capita than other countries but without better health outcomes. 

‘Instead of focusing on who covers our exorbitant healthcare costs, we need to reduce these costs by directing our attention to prevention and keeping people healthy,’ she said. ‘This is the appeal of RFK, and many Alaskans have shared that view with me.’

Murkowski said she still has concerns about Kennedy’s views on vaccines and his ‘selective interpretation of scientific studies, which initially caused my misgivings about his nomination.’

She said Kennedy made ‘numerous commitments’ to her and colleagues ‘promising to work with Congress to ensure public access to information and to base vaccine recommendations on data-driven, evidence-based, and medically sound research.’

Kennedy needed the support of every Republican on the Senate Finance Committee for his nomination to advance out of committee last week. 

The nomination barely squeaked through with every Republican voted in favor of advancing his nomination while every Democrat voted against it.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician, had major concerns with Kennedy’s ever-changing position on vaccines, but in the end, he was convinced by Kennedy and MAGA allies to back the known vaccine skeptic. 

‘Mr. Kennedy and the administration committed that he and I would have an unprecedentedly close, collaborative working relationship if he is confirmed,’ Cassidy said on the floor of the Senate after advancing his nomination. 

‘We will meet or speak multiple times a month. This collaboration will allow us to work well together and therefore to be more effective,’ Cassidy claimed. 

Kennedy faces two brutal confirmation hearings last month on Capitol Hill. 

The first was before the Senate Finance Committee where lawmakers raised his past anti-vaccine work, and he was slammed by Democrats for promoting conspiracy theories. 

Senators also raised questions about how he would handle Medicare and Medicaid and expressed concerns after he appeared to confuse key details about the programs.

Some Republican senators also pressed him for reassurances about his stance on abortion after the former Democrat previously said he was pro-abortion rights and completely reversed course after throwing his support behind Trump.

Kennedy assured Republicans he would leave the issue of abortion access to states and follow Trump’s lead. 

One day later, Kennedy went before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee for a second hearing. 

In both hearings, Kennedy insisted he was pro-vaccine and pro-science and would follow the data. 

But some lawmakers were not convinced as Kennedy refused to state the data was already there leaving room for doubt.

Cassidy, who chairs the HELP Committee, grilled Kennedy over his stance on vaccines and pressed him to deny there were a link between vaccines and autism, but Kennedy would not unequivocally say it.

At the end of the hearing, the senator said he was ‘struggling’ with Kennedy’s over his past statements which undermined confidence in childhood vaccines. 

Kennedy was not Trump’s only controversial nominee to be confirmed in the Senate this week.

Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was also confirmed as Director of National Intelligence with a vote 52 to 48. 

Every Democrat voted against her confirmation along with Senator Mitch McConnell, who was the lone Republican to vote ‘no.’