(DCNF)—Contentious hearings to consider Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services this week have shined a spotlight on some of Washington’s most powerful lobbies.
Senators aiming critical questions at Kennedy this week found their contributions from the health care industry and their personal investments in the pharmaceutical industry and companies that make highly processed food being spotlighted on X to millions of views. The dynamic has pitted Kennedy’s legion of online supporters against senators critical of Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines.
At a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing Thursday, several senators directly addressed the popular support of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
Senate HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a Republican, was highly critical of Kennedy’s prior statements about the measles vaccine and Hepatitis B vaccine, but conceded that his phone “blows up” with his supporters.
As the hearing concluded Thursday, Cassidy said that he was struggling with whether to vote to confirm Kennedy.
“My responsibility is to learn, to try to understand if you can be trusted to support the best public health: A worthy movement called MAHA to improve the health of Americans, or to undermine it, always asking for more evidence and never accepting the evidence that is there,” Cassidy said. “That’s my dilemma, man. So you may be hearing from me over the weekend.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy and his supporters have raised questions about the corrupting influence of political contributions from the health care industry on the confirmation process.
“Our kids are getting sicker and sicker. All of the people here who are defending this current system, and defending these pharmaceutical profits, are taking huge amounts of money from the pharmaceutical industry,” Kennedy said Thursday. “This is not making our country healthier. It’s making our country sicker. We need to get rid of these conflicts.”
There has been particular scrutiny on the drugmaker money that has accrued to members of the committees that oversee many health issues — the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate HELP Committees.
The nonpartisan watchdog group OpenSecrets has tracked the top donors to the members of these committees, both their campaign committees and leadership PACs, over the past five years. The figures include both donations from individuals in each of those industries and corporate PACs. They show that, even when only considering recent election cycles, the committees have a major conflict of interest.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democrat, has received $749,316 from health professionals, $652,004 from insurers, $539,242 from health services and HMOs and $502,063 from the pharmaceutical industry between 2019 to 2024. His top donors include the insurers Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Centene Corporation.
Cassidy received $1,623,298 from health professionals and $996,737 from the pharmaceutical industry from 2019 to 2025, according to OpenSecrets.
Cassidy’s top donors include Ochsner Health System, a health system based in Louisiana.
Even Democrats who have been critical of the pharmaceutical industry in the past found their health care donations under scrutiny.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts expressed concern Wednesday that Kennedy’s lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies could “bankrupt” vaccine manufacturers.
Warren has received $498,074 from health professionals, $126,056 from the pharmaceutical industry and $109,065 from hospitals and nursing homes over the same period. Massachusetts is home to Moderna, the manufacturer of an mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which was just awarded a $590 million by Biden’s HHS to combat H5N1.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an Independent, has received $115,690 from the pharmaceutical industry and $159,233 from the food and beverage industry.
Kennedy called out Sanders’s contributions from individuals in the pharmaceutical industry during his 2020 presidential run, amounting to $1,417,633, making him a top recipient of the industry’s donations.
- Gold SKYROCKETED during Trump’s first term and is poised to do it again. Find out how Genesis Precious Metals can help you secure your retirement with a proper self-directed IRA backed by physical precious metals.
“The problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies. It’s in the Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry and protecting their interests,” Kennedy said.
“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 money from the pharmaceutical industry. They came from workers,” Sanders said.
Democrats and Republicans alike who are skeptical of Kennedy’s nomination have seen their donations scrutinized.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee, received $776,760 from the pharmaceutical industry, $674,934 from health professionals and $270,319 from health services and HMOs.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has received $675,461 from health professionals, $426,145 from hospitals and nursing homes and $315,798 from the pharmaceutical industry.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has received $421,580 from health professionals, $147,727 from the pharmaceutical industry, and $157,493 from the food and beverage industries.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia has received $579,094 from health professionals, $452,276 from the pharmaceutical industry and $244,269 from hospitals and nursing homes.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia has received $379,886 from health professionals, $340,090 from hospitals and nursing homes, and $306,632 from the pharmaceutical industry.
Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada has received $1,646,670 from health professionals, $630,475 from the pharmaceutical industry and $544,517 from health services and HMOs.
However, the influence of the health care and food and beverage industries is pervasive, and senators who support Kennedy’s nomination have received contributions from those industries too.
For instance, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee was among Washington’s top recipients of the pharmaceutical industry from 2023 to 2024.
Yet Blackburn at the Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday said that she strongly supported Kennedy.
-
Learn the TRUTH about Gold IRAs and how most precious metals companies play dirty.
“It’s time to confirm RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary. He is ready to MAHA,” she said.
In addition, recent financial disclosures show that members of the committees that oversee health issues, including Kennedy’s confirmation, have investments that could be impacted by the aims of the “Make America Health Again” movement.
A recent disclosure by Wyden shows his spouse owns stock valued at $50,000 to $100,000 in Restaurant Brands International Inc. which owns American fast food restaurant chains including Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, and an investment worth between $15,001 to $50,000 in Starbucks. She also has an investment worth between $1,001 and $15,000 in Pfizer.
Collins’s spouse also owns a number of stocks in industries that could see new rules if Kennedy were to be confirmed, each worth between $15,000 and $50,000: EcoLab Inc.; The Hershey Company; Johnson & Johnson; Merck & Co.; and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
Warner has invested between $1 million to $5 million in Health Velocity Capital I, LP, a hedge fund that invests in health care technology and between $250,000 and $500,000 in Health Velocity II, LP, venture capital fund managed by Health Velocity Capital.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
