It wasn’t only Democrats confronting President Trump’s health secretary during a heated hearing in the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.

Three Republican senators — Bill Cassidy (La.), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and John Barrasso (Wyo.) — also harshly questioned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his opinion on Trump’s COVID-19 response, changes to vaccine oversight and approval, and the upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Here are highlights from the sometimes-heated exchanges:  

Cassidy asks if Trump should get Nobel Prize 

Cassidy, a physician, reluctantly supported Kennedy’s confirmation, raising concerns about his past comments expressing vaccine skepticism. During Thursday’s hearing, Cassidy interrogated Kennedy again about his beliefs on vaccines, specifically about his opposition to mRNA vaccine technology. 

At first, Cassidy asked Kennedy if he believed Trump should be awarded a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed, the project launched during his first term that sped up the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.  

Kennedy replied that he did believe the president deserved the award. Cassidy then questioned how the secretary could support Operation Warp Speed while also reducing access to COVID-19 vaccines.  

“As lead attorney for the Children’s Health Defense, you engaged in multiple lawsuits attempting to restrict access to the COVID vaccine,” Cassidy said. “It surprises me that you think so highly of Operation Warp Speed when as an attorney, you attempted to restrict access to the COVID vaccine.”   

Cassidy then asked Kennedy why the HHS recently cut more than $500 million in contracts for mRNA development and continued to grill him about his statements that members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel had conflicts of interest.  

“It just seems inconsistent that you would agree with me,” he said.  

Tillis calls out Kennedy’s apparent contradictions

Tillis, who is not running for reelection, questioned Kennedy about COVID-19 shots as well as his ousting of CDC Director Susan Monarez. 

“I don’t see how you go over four weeks from a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a long-time champion of MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] values … and four weeks later, fire her because, at least the public reports say, because she refused to fire people that work for her,” Tillis said.   

He argued that Kennedy’s actions in office have gone against what he said he would do during his confirmation hearings. 

“I do also believe that some of your statements seem to contradict what you said in the prior hearing,” Tillis said. 

Citing Kennedy’s own words, Tillis asked for written answers.  

“You said you’re going to empower the scientists at HHS to do their job. I’d just like to see evidence where you’ve done that, and I’m sure that you will have some,” Tillis continued.  

“You will do nothing that makes it difficult or discourages people taking vaccines. There seem to be several reports that would seem to refute that,” Tillis said. “’I’m not going to come here and impose my belief over any of yours.’ That, again, seems to be contradictory to the firing of a CDC director, the canceling of mRNA research contracts, firing advisory board members attempting to stall NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding.”  

Barrasso ‘deeply concerned’ about vaccines

Barrasso, the second-ranking Senate Republican, also praised Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling Operation Warp Speed a “model of American ingenuity and public-private partnership.”  

“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” he said. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership of the National Institute of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don’t know who to rely on.” 

“If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined,” Barrasso said. 

Barrasso asked Kennedy to explain the steps he would take to “ensure vaccine guidance is clear, evidence based and trustworthy.” 

Kennedy pointed to a controversial policy to conduct placebo-controlled studies on all “new” vaccines, while also implying a link between vaccines and chronic disease.  

Barrasso asked Kennedy about an upcoming meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and whether there was a risk that “safe, proven vaccines like measles, like hepatitis B and others, could be in jeopardy.”  

Kennedy did not directly answer and instead doubled down on his repeated criticism of the CDC. 

“Americans have lost faith in CDC, and we need to restore that faith, and we’re going to do that by telling the truth, and not through propaganda,” he said.  

Former President Biden underwent a procedure recently to have skin cancer removed from his forehead, a spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Thursday.

A Biden spokesperson told The Hill that the former president had Mohs surgery, a procedure where surgeons cut away thin layers of skin, examining each for signs of cancer, until no signs are found.

Video had in recent days circulated on social media, first obtained by Inside Edition, of Biden exiting church in Delaware with a visible scar on his forehead.

The Associated Press first reported on Biden’s procedure.

The former president previously had non-melanoma skin cancers removed before his White House term. He also had a cancerous lesion removed from his chest during a 2023 physical exam while in the White House.

Biden in May announced he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. He has made a few public appearances since that announcement.

The former president is 82. President Trump and other Republicans have aggressively pushed claims that Biden was not fit for office during his term and that others were making decisions for him, something Biden and his top aides have repeatedly refuted.

Updated at 9:52 p.m. EDT

An appeals court issued a Thursday order halting the dismantling of Alligator Alcatraz, the Trump administration’s migrant detention site based in the Florida Everglades.

In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit overturned a lower court’s order that deemed the site a threat to the environment.

Judge Barbara Lagoa and Judge Elizabeth Branch, both Trump appointees, issued the majority ruling while Judge Adalberto Jordan, an Obama nominee, dissented.

“Specifically, we think the district court erred in finding that the defense of improper venue was waived by the Defendants’ failure to argue it in their initial responses to the motion for a temporary restraining order,” the majority opinion read.

Lagoa and Branch also determined that the government would suffer irreparable harm if Alligator Alcatraz were permanently shut down.

“The Federal Defendants have established that the district court’s injunction will inevitably compromise DHS’s ability to keep criminal aliens detained, protect the law-abiding public, enforce immigration laws, and maintain border security. We think that is enough to show irreparable harm,” the two wrote. 

The Trump administration swiftly celebrated the order.

“HUGE VICTORY FOR ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ. Today’s order is a win for the American people, the rule of law and common sense. This lawsuit was never about the environmental impacts of turning a developed airport into a detention facility,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a statement on X.

“It has and will always be about open-borders activists and judges trying to keep law enforcement from removing dangerous criminal aliens from our communities, full stop,” they added. 

While they lauded the judges for overturning a previous order, others decried the decision and said the fight was far from over.

“The case is far from over. In fact, it’s just starting, and we’re committed to fighting on. The court entered a limited stay order. While disappointing, we never expected ultimate success to be easy. We’re hopeful the preliminary injunction will be affirmed when it’s reviewed on its merits during the appeal,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. 

“In the meantime, if the [Florida Gov.] DeSantis and Trump administrations choose to ramp operations back up at the detention center, they will just be throwing good money after bad because this ill-considered facility — which is causing harm to the Everglades — will ultimately be shut down.”

State officials began removing items from the Alligator Alcatraz facility after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an appointee of former President Obama, ordered its closure.

However, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) pledged to push back on shuttering the facility funded by over $250 million in state dollars. 

After Thursday’s ruling, officials in the Sunshine State are now looking to reopen Alligator Alcatraz to hold detainees awaiting removal or other immigration proceedings.