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

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.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing some skepticism from the public. A survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows only about 3 in 10 Americans approve of President Donald Trump nominating Kennedy as Department of Health and Human Services secretary.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former presidential candidate and environmental activist, endorsed Donald Trump last year and threw his weight behind a campaign to “Make America Healthy Again.” For the past two decades he has been best known for airing skeptical views on vaccines.

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.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee for health secretary, doesn’t just hold fringe views on vaccines. We fact-checked five recent statements. By Apoorva Mandavilli Videos by Jamie ...

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s famous name, populist stances and loyal following have earned him President Donald Trump’s support, but will that get him the votes he needs from the Republican-controlled Senate to become the nation’s top health official?

But among the conservatives of color who surround Trump, the moment was an endorsement of their biggest hopes, years in the making. “This room was impossible twenty years ago,” Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

As he seeks to lead the health department, Mr. Kennedy wore a thin tie dotted with feathered creatures to cap a classic suit.

The issue isn’t only his troubling views but whether a complex federal agency can function effectively under his leadership.

In a contentious confirmation hearing to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struggled Wednesday to answer questions about Medicare and Medicaid, programs that affect tens of millions of Americans,