Online critics dug up footage of Democrats lauding RFK Jr. years before he left the party and endorsed President Trump.

"This is Kennedy in 2008 testifying to Congress on the harmful effects of mercury," X user Anna Matson posted, sharing a video in which the HHS nom discussed the poisoning effects on fish.

"[Sen.] Ed Markey [D-Mass.] was the chair who invited him, and he now says, 'Robert Kennedy Jr. is an unqualified, unserious, and dangerous nominee for US Secretary of Health and Human Services,'" Matson noted. "Funny how no one called him crazy then."

In his opening statement to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, RFK Jr. pushed back on allegations that he is anti-vaccine by saying, "I have worked for years to raise awareness about mercury and toxic chemicals in fish and nobody called me anti-fish."

An ally of RFK Jr. posted a video showing a journalist in the hearing room had pre-written a takedown piece on the HHS nom less than 30 minutes before his hearing.

The screen of the reporter's laptop appeared to show a planned headline knocking RFK Jr.'s "anti-vaccine" statements and purported "mutilation" of animals.

"Astounding," said Calley Means, a former lobbyist who connected RFK Jr. and Donald Trump after the first assassination attempt against the once and future president last July, leading to the Kennedy scion's endorsement of the Republican candidate in the final months of the 2024 contest.

Several suggestions and data points RFK Jr. has cited in his crusade against chronic disease were presented earlier in a book that Means co-wrote with his sister, Casey Means, titled "Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health."

Former actress and filmmaker Justine Bateman said that "shrieking Norma Rae" Democratic senators kept RFK Jr. muzzled throughout his hearing -- when she just wanted to hear the HHS pick speak.

The "Family Ties" star said the Senate Finance Committee hearing had been "really boring" with lots of “passionate statements” from senators looking to paint President Trump's nom into a corner.

"When he tries to answer or correct them, they interrupt him and repeat some part of their speech," Bateman said.

"Totally boring. We want to hear him talk, not listen to these shrieking Norma Rae speech attempts."

Asked by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) whether he accepted responsibility for any deaths in Samoa due to measles vaccine hesitancy, RFK Jr. said: "Absolutely not."

"There were two incidents, [in] which children died, in 2015 and again in 2018," RFK Jr. said, claiming that the government of the island nation had banned immunization before he even arrived.

"I arrived in July of the next year," he added, referencing his 2019 trip to Samoa.

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) gaveled out of the hearing.

"You have been accessible to the members and staff on both sides of the aisle of the Finance Committee throughout a rigorous process," Crapo said.

"You've gone through the most thorough vetting process that any committee in this Congress puts anybody through," he added.

"I think that you have come through well and deserve to be confirmed."

The top Senate Finance Democrat claimed in his closing remarks that RFK Jr. gave word salad-filled, untrustworthy testimony in the hearing.

"I asked Mr. Kennedy to reconcile his many anti-vaccine statements with his handful of pro-vaccine statements," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said. "Instead, he gave us a word salad and ducked the issue.

"The same was true, Mr. Kennedy, with respect to measles, where you wrote a book playing down the threat of measles, even though American families are very concerned about it," Wyden added.

"My last point would be that what Mr. Kennedy said today wasn't really about him, and I just want to tell him, it is all about you, because I find your presentation to be both untrustworthy and unprepared."

Pressed on his prior criticisms of antidepressants, RFK Jr. claimed he had family members who had a harder time stopping SSRI use than heroin.

"I know people, members of my family, who have had a much harder time getting off of SSRIs than they did — when people get off heroin."

Still, he noted that "many Americans have very good experience on" antidepressants.

After more than nine minutes, Sen. Raphael Warnock was urged by Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo to halt his questioning.

"I'm having a lot of trouble getting the witness to answer 'yes' or 'no,'" Warnock (D-Ga.) said in frustration.

"I think the fact that you find it difficult to answer basic questions is deeply troubling for me," he added, rolling his eyes before he yielded.

RFK Jr. defended his questioning of the link between antidepressants and school shooters, saying that any correlations should be studied.

"It should be studied, along with other potential culprits," he said.

"The science shows that there is no link between school shootings and antidepressants," said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.).

RFK Jr. shot back that there couldn't have been published scientific studies on that "because of HIPAA rules."

RFK Jr. fought back against Sen. Rafael Warnock's assertion Wednesday that he had compared the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to "Nazi death camps."

Warnock (D-Ga.) read Kennedy a prior quote of his, making a "Nazi death camp" analogy during a discussion on vaccine-caused injuries in children.

"You said, 'This is like Nazi death camps ... I mean, what happens? What happens to these kids? One in 31 boys in this country, their minds are being robbed from them,' " Warnock told Kennedy.

"Yeah, I was not comparing the CDC to Nazi death camps. I was comparing the injury rate to our children to other atrocities," Kennedy replied.

HHS Secretary-designate RFK Jr. declared that rising chronic diseases were "an existential threat" to America.

"When my uncle was president, 3% of Americans were obese," he told Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). "Today, 74% of Americans are obese or overweight.

"Epidemics are not caused by genes," he went on. "Something is poisoning the American people, and we know that the primary culprits are changing food supply."

"We have 10,000 ingredients in our country in our foods. Europeans have only 400," he added, pointing to a shift toward "highly chemical" and "processed foods."

"That's a deliberate choice. ... We need to get a handle on this because if we don't, it's an existential threat," RFK Jr. assessed.

"Our country is not going to be destroyed because we get the marginal tax rate wrong; it's going to be destroyed if we continue down this trajectory of chronic disesase."

RFK Jr. committed to not "cutting" Medicaid benefit programs.

"President Trump has not told me that he wants to cut Medicaid. He's told me to make it better," the HHS nominee told Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM).

"If President Trump asked you to cut Medicaid, will you do it? " the New Mexico Democrat asked.

"It's not up to me to cut Medicaid," RFK Jr. answered. "It would be up to Congress."