U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., recently wrote an op-ed on his X account compelling his fellow senators to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. Tuberville’s arguments came after Kennedy was grilled by members of the Senate Finance Committee over his flip-flopping stance on the efficacy of vaccines and his approach to the abortion issue.
The Committee to Protect Health Care, an organization made up of thousands of physicians who advocate for health policy issues, recently urged the Senate to reject Kennedy’s nomination, saying that he is “unqualified to lead” and “actively dangerous.”
However, Tuberville has continued to proudly support Kennedy, championing the nominee as a key part of President Trump’s plan to “Make America Healthy Again.”
“One of the most important things RFK has done is shine a light on the fact that we have a public health crisis in this country. As he said in his Senate Finance hearing earlier this week, over 70 percent of adults and one-third of our children are overweight or obese,” Tuberville wrote on Thursday. “The rate of diabetes is ten times more prevalent than it was in 1960. Cancer among our young people is rising by one or two percent each year. Autoimmune diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders, and addiction rates are on the rise—and meanwhile, more Americans are reliant on pharmaceutical drugs than ever before.”
“To address some of these concerns, RFK Jr. has been an outspoken advocate for holistic, healthy living. As a result of his MAHA campaign, many Americans are now researching inexpensive and natural alternatives to medicine, which could end up saving taxpayers millions and helping Americans to live longer,” Tuberville continued. “While pharmaceuticals are certainly important and have saved millions of lives, we should also be looking to promote healthier lifestyles as part of our chronic disease prevention efforts.”
Tuberville himself has been highly critical of pharmaceuticals and has engaged in conspiratorial rhetoric, implying in a recent interview that prescription medications are responsible for the prevalence of school shootings in America.
“The school shooters… if you take a random sampling, almost all of them are on prescription medications,” Tuberville told Nicole Shanahan, an attorney and Kennedy’s former 2024 running mate.
Meanwhile, Kennedy has compared the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its work with vaccines to the death camps of Nazi Germany and to sexual abusers in the Catholic Church, as highlighted by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-GA, in Wednesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing.
However, Tuberville remained adamant that Kennedy is not actually anti-vax or opposed to the pharmaceutical industry.
“Both President Trump and RFK Jr. agree: the status quo isn’t working. Our national health agencies should be singularly focused on helping as many Americans be as healthy as possible. Health officials should want to heal our sick culture,” Tuberville continued. “Supporting transparency and consumer-choice in medications doesn’t make RFK anti-vax, anti-industry, or an enemy of food producers. He simply wants to help address America’s chronic disease epidemic.”
While Tuberville admitted that Kennedy “may not be the typical pick for the job,” he pointed to President Trump’s victory in November as being not only a mandate for Trump to be the nation’s next president, but for Kennedy to be its next HHS Secretary.
“The American people issued a mandate in November: they want President Trump’s agenda, and that includes MAHA,” Tuberville said. “As far as I’m concerned, RFK not being part of the health care establishment class is a good thing. Let’s answer the call of the American people by ushering in a New Golden Age of American Health.”
Kennedy returned to the Senate on Thursday for a second confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
