Physician turned GOP senator faces major conflict ahead of Trump nominee’s confirmation vote

03 February

One Republican lawmaker's future in politics is in jeopardy ahead of the Senate Finance Committee's vote on whether to confirm Robert F. Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Politico reports.

Because Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) "once prescribed life-saving vaccines," according to the report, the Louisiana lawmaker is concerned about helping to confirm an anti-vaxxer to lead the Health Department.

Politico reports:

Before entering politics, Cassidy was a liver doctor, or gastroenterologist.

He created a program to vaccinate nearly 36,000 children in and around Baton Rouge, Louisiana, against hep B. He pushed increased funding for vaccinations first during three House terms representing a majority-Black district that stretches from Baton Rouge northwest to Shreveport. In 2014 he defeated incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu and has since celebrated public funding to better understand vaccine hesitancy in the Senate.

He urged the public to get the Covid-19 vaccine — a shot that Kennedy once decried as 'the deadliest vaccine ever made.'

This leaves Cassidy between a rock and a hard place.

The GOP senator's political career is already hanging by a thread after he voted to convict President Donald Trump over his involvement in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Politico notes that a vote against a MAGA nominee could make Cassidy's life even harder on Capitol Hill.

"He’s a Trump supporter," a doctor and health policy expert close to Cassidy told Politico.

"At the same time, he’s struggling with his obligations as HELP chair and in his Senate post with what is best for the health of Americans."

Politico's full report is available at this link.

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