Over and over at a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Democratic senators confronted Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about controversial comments they said he had made in the past. And over and over, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services either denied having said those things or said he wasn’t sure he had said them.

The man who hopes to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary repeatedly asked to see “data” or “science” showing vaccines are safe – but when an influential Republican senator did so, he dismissed it.

R obert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), was grilled by Democratic senators during his confirmation hearing on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, who confronted him with conspiratorial and conflicting statements he has made about COVID-19.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, told senators Friday he will divest his financial stake in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Merck over its vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus.