A show trial is an official proceeding that is conducted primarily for propaganda purposes rather than a tribunal seeking truth. That's what the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) basically amounted to. The committee's Republicans functioned largely as enthusiastic cheerleaders while the Democrats, for the most part, fully embraced their roles as zealous disparagers.
The senators' statements and, to the extent they were actually pursued, the questions focused on Kennedy's long career as an anti-vaccine campaigner, his role as a fierce and richly rewarded litigant against prescription drug companies, his longstanding pro-choice views on abortion, and his ignorance of recondite intricacies of accessing health care under the $900 billion and $1 trillion Medicaid and Medicare programs, respectively.
In his opening statement Kennedy declared, "The first thing I've done every morning for the past 20 years is to get on my knees and pray to God that He would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic and to help America's children." He promised that under his direction, HHS would "remove financial conflicts of interest from our agencies," and deploy "honest, unbiased gold standard science" in making decisions. Gold standard science means, he said, among other things, the replication of research studies as a way to check the validity of findings. He commendably advocated "radical transparency" at HHS as a way to restore Americans' trust in public health agencies.
