The top Republican on the Senate’s chief health committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., indicated Thursday during Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s second confirmation hearing of the week that his vote for Trump’s nominee to head Health and Human Services was not a lock, noting that he was ‘struggling’ to confirm Kennedy over his inability to admit vaccines are safe and don’t cause autism.

Kennedy faced two separate hearings in front of Senate lawmakers this week in his bid to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy was probed frequently over his views on vaccines, which have been a sticking point for many senators as they figure out whether to vote in favor of Kennedy’s nomination or not.

During the hearings, Kennedy refused to reject claims he has posited publicly in the past that vaccines cause autism and argued he is not anti-vaccine but rather ‘pro-safety.’ Kennedy added during the hearings that his plan as HHS secretary would be to ‘follow the science,’ noting that if the science says he is wrong on vaccines, he will publicly apologize. 

But senators, like Cassidy, have suggested during Kennedy’s confirmation hearings that the science says vaccines are safe — and they don’t cause autism.

‘My responsibility is to learn, try and determine, if you can be trusted to support the best public health,’ Cassidy, a former physician, said during his closing remarks at Kennedy’s Thursday confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). ‘A worthy movement called ‘MAHA,’’ Cassidy continued, ‘to improve the health of Americans, or to undermine it, always asking for more evidence, and never accepting the evidence that is there … That is why I’ve been struggling with your nomination.’ 

Cassidy repeatedly asked Kennedy during the Thursday hearing to publicly declare that vaccines don’t cause autism, but he refused. ‘That would have an incredible impact,’ Cassidy said. 

‘There are issues we are, man, ultra-processed food, obesity, we are simpatico. We are completely aligned,’ Cassidy continued during his closing remarks. ‘And as someone who has discussed immunizations with thousands of people, I understand that mothers want reassurance that the vaccine their child is receiving is necessary, safe and effective. We agree on that point, the two of us, but we’ve approached it differently. And I think I can say that I’ve approached it using the preponderance of evidence to reassure, and you’ve approached it using selective evidence to cast doubt.’

Meanwhile, Cassidy pointed out the massive ‘megaphone’ Kennedy has as a descendant of former President John F. Kennedy, and questioned whether he will use his credibility ‘to support’ or ‘to undermine’ the nation’s public health and its confidence in vaccines.

‘I got to figure that out, for my vote,’ Cassidy said.

The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. 

He secured confirmation with significant bipartisan support and a 79-18 vote.

On Wednesday, senators voted by a 78–20 margin to close debate and move the nomination to a final vote.

Burgum appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in mid-January, where he told lawmakers that national security issues and the economy were his top two priorities for leading the agency. 

‘When energy production is restricted in America, it doesn’t reduce demand,’ Burgum said in his opening statement on Jan. 16. ‘It just shifts production to countries like Russia and Iran, whose autocratic leaders not only don’t care at all about the environment, but they use their revenues from energy sales to fund wars against us and our allies.’

Lawmakers, including Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, questioned Burgum on whether he would permit oil drilling in national parks if Trump asked him to.

‘As part of my sworn duty, I’ll follow the law and follow the Constitution. And so you can count on that,’ Burgum said. ‘And I have not heard of anything about President Trump wanting to do anything other than advancing energy production for the benefit of the American people.’

Burgum served as governor of North Dakota from 2016 to 2024. He also launched a presidential bid for the 2024 election in June 2023, and energy and natural resources were key issues during his campaign.

Burgum appeared during the first two Republican presidential debates, but didn’t qualify for the third and ended his campaign in December 2023. He endorsed Trump for the GOP nomination a month later ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Aubrie Spady, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

The Senate Thursday evening advanced President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Energy to a final confirmation vote.

The vote was 62-35. 

Chris Wright, the CEO and founder of Liberty Energy Inc., an energy industry service provider based in Colorado, was tapped by the 47th president to head the  Department of Energy under his administration.

The Trump nominee has received bipartisan support for his nomination, being introduced by a Democrat, Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this month.

The Senate held a late-night cloture vote for Wright, to end discussion over his nomination. 

The cloture vote passed with bipartisan support, meaning Wright will advance to a final Senate vote, likely to take place on Friday.

Wright, during his confirmation hearing, said he had identified three ‘immediate tasks’ where he would focus his attention: unleashing American energy, leading the world in innovation and technology breakthroughs and increasing production in America.

Conservatives on social media praised Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, after a thorny exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.

That’s a general statement and a mischaracterization of what I said,’ Patel told Klobuchar in response to questioning about a past quote that the senator suggested showed Patel believes some U.S. Capitol Police officers lied under oath during the Jan. 6 hearings. 

‘I encourage you to read the rest of the interviews,’ Patel added. ‘This is why snippets of information are often misleading and detrimental to this committee’s advice and consent.’

Klobuchar responded, ‘If you consent, I would love to have five hours of questions, and then I could read the whole transcripts.’

‘You’ve got two minutes,’ Patel responded.

‘Wow,’ Klobuchar replied before moving to another topic.

Numerous conservatives on social media praised Patel for his ‘sass’ during the exchange.

‘Amy Klobuchar continues to get outmaneuvered by Kash Patel at every turn of this committee hearing,’ Townhall.com columnist Dustin Grage posted on X.

‘Damnnnn,’ Mark Levin show producer Rich Sementa posted on X. ‘Kash Patel For The Win.’

‘SAVAGE,’ conservative commentator Benny Johnson posted on X.

‘My favorite moment from this hearing,’ former Trump campaign fundraiser Caroline Wren posted on X. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Klobuchar’s office for comment.

The back-to-back combustible Senate confirmation hearings are over.

But Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), still faces crucial committee and full Senate confirmation votes in his mission to lead 18 powerful federal agencies that oversee the nation’s food and health. 

Testifying in front of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Health Committee on Thursday, the vaccine skeptic and environmental crusader who ran for the White House in 2024 before ending his bid and endorsing Trump faced plenty of verbal fireworks over past controversial comments.

And while most of the tough questions and sparring over his stances on vaccines, abortion, Medicaid and other issues, came from Democrats on the two committees, Thursday’s hearing ended with the top Republican on the Health panel saying he was ‘struggling’ with Kennedy’s nomination.

‘Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,’ GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy told the nominee.

The physician from Louisiana, who is a crucial vote and who has voiced concerns over Kennedy’s past stance on vaccines, asked whether Kennedy can ‘be trusted to support the best public health.’

And the senator told Kennedy, who seeks to lead key health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, that ‘you may be hearing from me over the weekend.’

Kennedy faced two days of grilling over his controversial past comments, including his repeated claims in recent years linking vaccines to autism, which have been debunked by scientific research.

And Democrats have also spotlighted Kennedy’s service for years as chair or chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit organization he founded that has advocated against vaccines and sued the federal government numerous times, including a challenge over the authorization of the COVID vaccine for children.

One of Thursday’s most heated exchanges came as independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont pushed Kennedy over his past of linking vaccines to autism.

Sanders stated that ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ and asked Kennedy ‘do you agree with that?’

After the nominee didn’t answer, Sanders responded, ‘I asked you a simple question, Bobby.’

Kennedy replied, ‘Senator, if you show me those studies, I will absolutely … apologize.’

‘That is a very troubling response because the studies are there. Your job was to have looked at those studies as an applicant for this job,’ Sanders said.

Later in the hearing, the two also clashed over political contributions to the pharmaceutical industry, with Kennedy referring to Sanders simply as ‘Bernie.’

‘Almost all the members of this panel, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry and protecting their interests,’ Kennedy said.

Sanders immediately pushed back, ‘I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives, not one nickel of PAC [political action committee] money from the pharmaceutical [companies]. They came from workers.’

Another fiery moment came as Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire appeared to fight back tears as she noted her son’s struggles with cerebral palsy amid accusations that ‘partisanship’ was behind the Democrats’ blistering questions to Kennedy.

Hassan, who at Wednesday’s hearing charged that Kennedy ‘sold out’ to Trump by altering his position on abortion, on Thursday accused the nominee of ‘relitigating settled science.’

But many of the Republicans on the panel came to Kennedy’s defense, including conservative Sen. Rand Paul.

The ophthalmologist from Kentucky defended Kennedy and took aim at comments about vaccines not causing autism. 

‘We don’t know what causes autism, so we should be more humble,’ Paul said to applause from Kennedy supporters in the committee room audience wearing ‘Make America Healthy Again’ garb.

The 71-year-old Kennedy, a scion of the nation’s most storied political dynasty, launched a long-shot campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination against President Joe Biden in April 2023. But six months later, he switched to an independent run for the White House.

Kennedy made major headlines again last August when he dropped his presidential bid and endorsed Trump. While 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.

Trump announced soon after the November election that he would nominate Kennedy to his Cabinet to run HHS.

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.

‘Our country is not going to be destroyed because we get the marginal tax rate wrong. It is going to be destroyed if we get this issue wrong,’ Kenendy said Thursday as he pointed to chronic diseases. ‘And I am in a unique position to be able to stop this epidemic.’

The Finance Committee, which will decide on whether to send Kennedy’s nomination to the full Senate, has yet to schedule a date for a confirmation vote.

With Republicans controlling the Senate by a 53-47 majority, Kennedy can only afford to lose the support of three GOP senators if Democrats unite against his confirmation.

And besides Cassidy, two other Republicans on the Health Committee – Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – are potential ‘no’ votes on Kennedy.

Collins on Thursday questioned Kennedy about vaccines, herd immunity as well as his views on Lyme disease. Kenendy pledged that there’s ‘nobody who will fight harder for a treatment for Lyme disease.’

A 50-50 vote in the full Senate would force Vice President JD Vance to serve as the tiebreaker to push the Kennedy nomination over the top, as the vice president did last week with the confirmation of another controversial nominee, now-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

President Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, faced an hourslong hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, fielding a bevy of questions related to her qualifications and previous remarks related to national security. 

Gabbard appeared before the intelligence committee on Thursday morning where she worked to rally support from lawmakers ahead of Senate committee and floor votes. 

Fox News Digital reported ahead of the hearing that Gabbard did not have a majority of its committee members’ votes, which are necessary to move to the full Senate, according to a senior Intel Committee aide. Gabbard likely will need every Republican vote to move past the committee, assuming Democrats vote against her. 

A spokesperson for Gabbard brushed off concerns that Gabbard would not have enough committee votes in a statement to Fox News Digital ahead of the hearing. 

‘Anonymous sources are going to continue to lie and smear to try and take down the President’s nominees and subvert the will of the American people and the media is playing a role in publishing these lies,’ the spokesperson said. ‘That doesn’t change the fact that Lt. Col. Gabbard is immensely qualified for this role and we look forward to her hearing.’

Fox News Digital compiled the top five moments, exchanges and highlights from the hearing, which ended ahead of 1 p.m. on Thursday before it moved to a closed session later in the afternoon. 

Gabbard rails she’s no one’s ‘puppet’ in opening remarks 

Gabbard kicked off her Thursday hearing by preemptively combating ‘lies and smears’ she anticipated to hear from some Senate lawmakers, including that she simultaneously operates as a ‘puppet’ for Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and others. 

‘Before I close, I want to warn the American people who are watching at home: You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country,’ Gabbard said.

‘Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States,’ she continued. ‘Accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.’ 

‘The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed,’ she said of the accusations against her. 

Gabbard’s critics have slammed her since Trump’s election win and her nomination, including claiming she lacks the qualifications for the role, questioning her judgment over her 2017 meeting with then-Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and labeling her a ‘likely a Russian asset,’ as Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed in November 2024. 

‘The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change,’ Gabbard said. ‘The fact is, what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet. I have no love for Assad or Gadhafi or any dictator. I just hate al-Qaeda. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels.’

All eyes on Snowden: Was he ‘a traitor’?  

Gabbard was questioned on her views of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden repeatedly throughout the hearing, including by ranking member Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., as well as Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Susan Collins, R-Maine, James Lankford, R-Okla., and others.

‘Was Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America?’ Bennet asked Gabbard. 

‘He broke the law,’ Gabbard responded. 

‘Was Edward Snowden a traitor?’ Lankford also asked. 

‘Senator, my heart is with my commitment to our Constitution and our nation’s security,’ she responded. ‘I have shown throughout my almost 22 years of service in the military, as well as my time in Congress, how seriously I take the privilege of having access to classified information and our nation’s secrets. And that’s why I’m committed, if confirmed as director of national intelligence, to join you in making sure that there is no future Snowden-type leak.’ 

Gabbard previously has made favorable remarks related to Snowden across the years, including in 2019 on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and calling on Trump in 2020 to pardon ‘brave whistleblowers exposing lies and illegal actions in our government,’ such as Snowden. 

‘If it wasn’t for Snowden, the American people would never have learned the NSA was collecting phone records and spying on Americans,’ she said on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast in 2019.

Snowden was working as an information technology contractor for the National Security Agency in 2013 when he traveled to Hong Kong to meet with three journalists and transferred thousands of pages of classified documents about the U.S. government’s surveillance of its citizens to them. He soon traveled to Russia and planned to head to Ecuador, but federal authorities canceled his passport and indicted him for espionage.

Snowden ultimately remained in Russia and became a naturalized citizen in 2022.

‘Until you are nominated by the president to be the DNI, you consistently praised the actions of Edward Snowden, someone, I believe, jeopardized the security of our nation and then, to flaunt that, fled to Russia,’ Warner said to Gabbard on Thursday morning. 

‘You even called Edward Snowden, and I quote here, ‘a brave whistleblower,’’ he said. ‘Every member of this committee supports the rights of legal whistleblowers. But Edward Snowden isn’t a whistleblower, and in this case, I’m a lot closer to the chairman’s words where he said Snowden is, quote, ‘an egotistical serial liar and traitor’ who, quote, ‘deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life.’ Ms. Gabbard, a simple yes or no question: Do you still think Edward Snowden is brave?’

Gabbard pushed back that Snowden ‘broke the law’ and does not agree with his leak of intelligence.

‘Mr. Vice Chairman, Edward Snowden broke the law,’ she said. ‘I do not agree with or support with all of the information and intelligence that he released nor the way in which he did it. There would have been opportunities for him to come to you on this committee or seek out the IG to release that information. The fact is, he also, even as he broke the law, released information that exposed egregious, illegal and unconstitutional programs that are happening within our government.’ 

Gabbard says 9/11 likely could have been prevented

Gabbard argued that the attack on 9/11 likely could have been prevented if government ‘stovepiping’ had not suppressed intelligence communications from reaching other officials. 

Stovepiping is understood as information being delivered through an isolated channel of communication to government higher-ups without broadening the distribution of the information. 

‘There’s a general consensus that there was a massive intelligence failure,’ Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said during Gabbard’s hearing regarding 9/11. ‘This caught us all by surprise, even though the World Trade Center had been attacked earlier. Do you think stovepipeing was a problem in our intelligence failure?’

‘There’s no question about it, senator,’ Gabbard said before Wicker asked her to elaborate. 

‘Senator, when we looked back at the post-9/11 reporting and the post-assessments that were made, it was very clear that there was stovepiping of information and intelligence that occurred at many levels, at the highest but also at the lowest levels,’ she said. 

‘Information that was collected by the FBI, information that was collected by the CIA was not being shared,’ she said. ‘It was almost ships passing in the night, where if there was an integration of those intelligence elements and information being shared, it is highly likely that that horrific attack could have been prevented.’ 

Wicker pressed if the intelligence community could face another ‘stovepipe’ issue in the future if plans to trim the director of national intelligence office of redundant jobs and increase efficiency, as Gabbard has said she will do, is put into effect. 

‘The problem that we had in 2001, senator, remains at the forefront of my mind,’ she responded. ‘And as you said, this is exactly why the ODNI was created. Given my limited vantage point not being in this seat, I am concerned that there are still problems with stovepiping that need to be addressed. And in some cases, my concern would be that unnecessary bureaucratic layers may be contributing to that problem.’ 

Gabbard sheds light on Assad meeting 

Critics and Democrat lawmakers have slammed Gabbard for a 2017 meeting with then-Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, claiming it is evidence she would be a ‘danger to the American people’ if confirmed. 

Gabbard met with Assad in 2017, years before his government was overthrown in 2024, and publicly revealed the meeting after she returned from Syria. Gabbard was a member of the U.S. House representing Hawaii at the time of the meeting. 

‘There is not a great deal in the public record about what you and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad discussed for so long in January of 2017,’ Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said to Gabbard on Thursday. ‘And I think there’s a great deal of interest from the American people about what was discussed in that meeting. So what did you talk about? And did you press Assad on things like his use of chemical weapons, systematic torture and the killing of so many Syrians?’ 

‘Yes, Senator. I, upon returning from this trip, I met with people like then-Leader Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, talked to them and answered their questions about the trip,’ Gabbard responded. 

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had met with Assad in 2007, despite then-President George W. Bush’s criticism of the visit. 

Gabbard remarked that she was surprised by the lack of interest at the time from the intelligence community regarding her own meeting. 

‘I was surprised that there was no one from the intelligence community or the State Department who reached out or showed any interest whatsoever in my takeaways from that trip,’ Gabbard said. ‘I would have been very happy to have a conversation and give them a backbrief. I went with former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who had been there many times before and who had met with Assad before. A number of topics were covered and discussed. And to directly answer your question, yes. I asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions. The use of chemical weapons and the brutal tactics that were being used against his own people.’

‘Were you able to extract any concessions from President Assad?’ Heinrich asked Gabbard. 

‘No, and I didn’t expect to, but I felt these issues were important to address,’ she said. 

Heinrich continued to press whether now Gabbard considers ‘this trip as good judgment?’

‘Yes, Senator. And I believe that leaders, whether you be in Congress or the president of the United States, can benefit greatly by going and engaging boots on the ground, learning and listening and meeting directly with people, whether they be adversaries or friends,’ Gabbard said. 

Gabbard vows to cut office’s ‘redundancies’

Gabbard vowed that she would cut redundancies from the office of the director of national intelligence in an effort to streamline efficiency and prevent intelligence failures that can lead to devastation and tragedy. 

‘I’ll work to assess and address efficiencies, redundancies and effectiveness across ODNI to ensure focus of personnel and resources is on our core mission of national security,’ she said as part of her opening remarks on Thursday. ‘In my meetings that I’ve had with many of you, you expressed bipartisan frustration about recent intelligence failures as well as the lack of responsiveness to your requests for information, whether it’s the surprise Oct. 7th Hamas terrorist attack to the sudden takeover of Syria by Islamist extremists, failures to identify the source of COVID, anomalous health incidents, UAPs, drones and more. If confirmed, I look forward to working with you to address these issues.’ 

The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked Gabbard to elaborate on her mission of cutting government fat from the office, including asking her if she would restore it to ‘its original size, scope and function.’

‘Over the years, however, the ODNI has strayed from this vision to an organization that now publicly boasts nearly 2,000 people, more than half of whom are not detailed from an intelligence agency but rather are career ODNI bureaucrats,’ Cotton said. ‘They’ve even developed centers that are producing their own analysis. Will you commit today to working with this committee, to restoring the ODNI to its original size, scope and function?’

‘Yes, Senator,’ Gabbard responded. ‘I look forward to working with you and the committee as I, if confirmed, assess the current status of who is working in the ODNI and the function that they fulfill to make sure of its effectiveness and elimination of redundancies and bloating.’ 

Gabbard has served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves since 2021 after previously serving in the Hawaii Army National Guard for about 17 years. She was elected to the U.S. House representing Hawaii during the 2012 election cycle, serving as a Democrat until 2021. She did not seek re-election to that office after throwing her hat in the 2020 White House race. 

Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022, registering as an independent, before becoming a member of the Republican Party in 2024 and offering her full endorsement of Trump in his presidential campaign. 

Gabbard has been outspoken against creating new wars, declaring in her speech in October 2024 during Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally that a vote for Harris was a vote for ‘war.’

‘I’ve served now for over 21 years,’ she said. ‘I’ve deployed to different war zones three times over that period, and I’ve seen the cost of war for my brothers and sisters who paid the ultimate price. I carry their memories and their sacrifice in my heart every day. So, this choice that we have before us as Americans is critical. It’s important to us. It’s important to those of us who serve, who have volunteered to put our lives on the line for the safety, security and freedom of our country and our people.’ 

‘A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for Dick Cheney,’ she said at the time. ‘And it’s a vote for war, more war, likely World War III and nuclear war. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a man who wants to end wars, not start them, and who has demonstrated already that he has the courage and strength to stand up and fight for peace.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.