Washington (AP) – The support of the Republican Senator Bill Cassidy was of crucial importance for the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a secretary for health and human services. In view of the shooting walls and resignations in the centers for the control and prevention of diseases, which are now concerned about a collapse of the leadership with the leading public health authority of the country, the legislator and the doctor in Louisiana is in a close position.
The two-term senator, who commented publicly about Kennedy’s anti-vaccination positions before he agreed to confirm him, has taken care of “serious allegations” on the CDC and asked for the supervision without accusing Kennedy.
But he chose his words carefully when he returned to Washington this week after the Senate’s August break and prepared to question Kennedy during a financial committee meeting planned for Thursday. Cassidy said reporters that he had not yet decided to ask Kennedy and said: “I would like to carefully frame the question.”
The tension underlines competing pressure: a senator with responsibility for a massive federal authority and a Republican who is aiming for re -election next year. Cassidy, who voted against Donald Trump after his impact on 2021, already has a cold relationship with the president. And his chances of re -election would deteriorate if Trump publicly resisted him.
“He is in a cucumber,” said Republican Senator Alan Seabaugh about Cassidy.
Chaos at the CDC
The recent turbulence on the CDC was the forced departure from Susan Monarez, a long -time government scientist who has been CDC director for less than a month. Her lawyers said she had refused to “stamp unscientific, ruthless guidelines and fire experts from rubber”. In the middle of Kennedy’s efforts to redesign the country’s vaccine guidelines in order to correspond to his many years of suspicion of security and effectiveness of long -established shots.
Last month, Cassidy said after Kennedy’s June Rest of June of the CDC consulting committee for immunization practices. Cassidy had found “serious allegations” about the external group of experts, which Kennedy, a leading anti-access activist, was redesigned before becoming the country’s highest health officer.
Cassidy was asked on Tuesday what information he will search for at the hearing on Thursday by Kennedy.
“I would like to carefully hire the question. The problem is about the health of children. There are rumors and accusations that the health of children who questioned here could be in danger through some of the decisions that are supposed to be made,” said Cassidy in capital.
“I don’t know what is true. I am not quite sure that I just said it, just as I should express it. I know that we have to get there,” he said.
Cassidy was equally careful with regard to the allegations of those who have resigned that Kennedy put politics on science.
“Shouldn’t we find out? You don’t assume that you are right. You do not assume that you are wrong,” he warned. “You do it as both sides have the chance to say, and then we can judge.”
Cassidy’s public concern about the immunization policy reminded of his hesitation to determine the vote on confirmation from Kennedy in February.
Cassidy told Kennedy during his hearing in January that he had to “fight” with his nomination. “Her past, which undermines trust in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, affects me,” he told Kennedy during his hearing.
Nevertheless, Cassidy voted for Kennedy and later described intensive discussions with the candidate and the Vice President JD Vance, which showed the administration’s “serious obligations”.
Cassidy’s re -election offer 2026
Cassidy has already confronted a crowded field of republican primary challengers and works with Little Wiggle Room.
A group that supports Cassidy’s candidacy has broadcast advertisements that promotes the support of the Senator for Trump’s agenda, while Trump himself, who was famed to condemn others who voted to condemn it, was placid.
Trump treats Cassidy friendlier than others who have previously rejected him publicly because the president needs the vote in a narrowly controlled Senate, said the Rep. Mike Bayham from Louisiana.
“He would have a lot of hotter water if he had defied Trump. If he had torpedoed RFK, Trump weren’t neutral, but would openly work against Bill,” said Bayham. “Cassidy has to vote on Trump’s way because of his own political self -interest, and Trump doesn’t even have to say thank you. Thank you very much.”
In fact, Trump was silent because a field of Republicans started gathering to gather in the first area code of the state in 16 years in view of the legislation issued this year. The treasurer of Louisiana, John Fleming, Senator Blake Miguez, and the public service representative, Eric Skrmetta, have announced that it would run for the seat.
Republican governor Jeff Landry spoke to Trump’s idea of the US representative Julia Letlow, who is considering a campaign by the Senate, as possible Cassidy Challenger.
Cassidy announced his candidacy for a third term in the past month and reported over 9 million US dollars on his campaign account, while a Super -Pac, which supported him, reported a total of far more than its combined competition with 2.5 million US dollars.
The majority leader of the Senate, John Thune, a Republican in South Dakota, and Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina, chairman of the National Republican Senator Committee, approved Cassidy for re -election last month.
But with a newly enacted electoral system in which only registered Republicans and politically non -associated voters can take part in the GOP primary school, Cassidy will probably have a harder time than in the earlier system.
In the past 16 years, congress candidates of all parties who were looking for the same office, regardless of party affiliation, have been on the same ballot. In these so -called jungle forecasts, only one candidate who received 50% of the vote would win the office immediately. If nobody reached the threshold, the two upper finisher would face each other in a drain.
The partisan area area will create a GOP-stricter electorate for the Senate in a state of Trump with 60 percent of the votes in 2024.
“Cassidy got into a situation in which there is really no victories”, Scott McKay, a Republican in Louisiana who runs a conservative news website. “In all of this is what he didn’t buy, the goodwill of the Trump voter.”
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Beaumont reported from the Moines, Iowa.
