What to know from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s hearings before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Thursday.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said vaccines are not safe. His support for abortion access has made conservatives uncomfortable.

The hearings were packed to capacity with protesters and fans, while the spillover crowd hung out in hallways and overflow rooms.

Robert F. Kennedy, President Trump’s nominee for health secretary, vigorously defended his views on vaccines, and a key senator still has clear doubts.

Sanders, the senior minority party member on the committee, pressed Kennedy to concede that health care was a human right, as his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncles, John F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, had done. Kennedy again did not give a definitive answer.

Democrats focused on Kennedy's anti-vaccine advocacy. Republicans probed the former Democratic leader on his abortion and agriculture views.

Kennedy, a Democrat who ran as an independent but ended up supporting Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign, was grilled by senators over his views on vaccines, abortion, Medicaid and more during two days of confirmation hearings.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he wasn’t antivaccine as senators pressed on his past remarks, in the first of two days of hearings over his nomination for health secretary.