Billionaire tech entrepreneur Nichole Shanahan, ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is threatening to use her vast financial resources to unseat US Senators who oppose Kennedy’s nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
In a video posted to social media on Tuesday (the day before RFK’s contentious Senate confirmation hearing process was scheduled to begin), Shanahan urged the public to call the members of the Senate Finance Committee and demand that they confirm him for the position.
“He is more than qualified. He’s proven, principled, and prepared to lead,” Shanahan said. “I’ll share a list below of key senators. If they represent your state, they need to hear from you.”
This list of senators includes Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Cory Booker (D-NJ), John Fetterman (D-PA), and others, with Republicans being called out alongside their Democratic counterparts.
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Shanahan, a former Democratic Party megadonor, also disclosed that she had previously “cut large checks to [Senate Democrat Leader] Chuck Schumer to help Democrats flip two Senate seats in Georgia from red to blue,” issuing a sharp warning to those two senators.
“The two candidates I helped elect, Sen. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff, please know I will be watching your votes very closely,” she said. “I will make it my personal mission that you lose your seats in the Senate if you vote against the future health of America’s children.”
“If you vote against him, I will personally fund challengers to primary you in your next election and I will enlist hundreds of thousands to join me,” Shanahan said. “Big Pharma and Big Ag have exploited us for far too long. It ends now. You’re either on the side of transparency and accountability or you are standing in the way. The choice is yours. Please choose wisely.”
Dear U.S. Senators,
Bobby may play nice; I won’t. pic.twitter.com/G9SZjZhFYR
— Nicole Shanahan (@NicoleShanahan) January 29, 2025
RFK, who ran for president as an Independent before exiting the race and throwing his support behind Donald Trump, has proven to be one of the most controversial cabinet picks for the new administration given his unorthodox views on health-related subjects. While his supporters have praised his ideas about food, medicine, and the role of Big Pharma, his critics—including those in the Senate—denounce him as a conspiracy theorist and accuse him of spreading misinformation about vaccines.
Kennedy appeared before the Finance Committee on Wednesday morning, where he sat for a three-and-a-half hour session, where he faced off against critics on both sides of the aisle.
“President Trump has asked me to end the chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again … and that is what I’m doing,” Kennedy said under questioning from Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. “If we don’t solve that problem, senator, all of the other disputes we have about who’s paying — whether it’s insurance companies, whether it’s providers, whether it’s HMOs, whether it’s patients or families — all of those are just moving deck chairs around on the Titanic.”
Addressing attacks from Democrats on the committee, Kennedy pointed out that many of them had been his friends prior to his party switch.
“All these Democrats are opposed to me for partisan issues, they used to be my friends,” he said. “They agreed with all the issues I’ve been working on my whole career. Now, they’re against me because anything President Trump does has to be discredited, derided, and vilified.”
RFK JR: "All these Democrats are opposed to me for partisan issues, they used to be my friends. They agreed with all the issues I've been working on my whole career. Now they're against me because anything President Trump does has to be discredited, derided, and vilified." pic.twitter.com/TrdBcAumED
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) January 29, 2025
On Thursday, Kennedy will face questioning from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee for the next round of his confirmation.
Connor Walcott is the lead writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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