Welcome to the News Hour. Tonight, President-elect Donald Trump continues to roll out nominees to his cabinet.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Mr. Trump's pick for Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.

Mr. Kennedy ran for president in 2024, first as a Democrat, then as an independent, before dropping out in August and endorsing then candidate Trump.

He's also an anti-vaccine activist and has pushed several conspiracies about the COVID-19

virus, including that it was designed to target certain races.

To help us understand the impact of this nomination, we're joined by our White House correspondent, Laura Barone-Lopez.

So, Laura,

if Kennedy is confirmed to lead HHS, what kind of power does that give him? And what is he said about some of the other agencies that would be under his charge? It'll give him a lot of power,

Omna. He will be overseeing, with being the Secretary of HHS, he'll be overseen 13 agencies

that are under HHS,

including the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food

and Drug Administration, and Robert of Kennedy Jr. has said that he wants to fire experts

at a number of these agencies.

In some categories of workers, there are entire departments like the nutrition departments at FDA that are, that have to go, that are not doing their job.

They're not protecting our kids.

RFK Jr. also recently said that the Trump transition needs to act fast because they have to be ready

with their own loyalists so that on January 21st, 600 people are going to walk into offices

at the National Institutes of Health and 600 people are going to leave, meaning they're going

to be fired.

One source close to RFK Jr. told me that he also wants to focus on more standard priorities,

like stricter food requirements in terms of food health safety and those health effects

associated with ultra-processed foods. But Robert of Kenny Jr. has also said a lot of,

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