A Fox & Friends host suggested that U.S. senators should ask Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at his confirmation hearing Wednesday about his ripped physique and use of testosterone replacement therapy.
“You know what’s going to happen today? This is going to be a mini Pete Hegseth trial,” said Brian Kilmeade on the Wednesday broadcast of the Fox News morning chat show, referring to how lawmakers grilled the secretary of defense last week about his infidelities and a sexual assault allegation.
“They’re going to bring up, ‘In college he said you did this and this,’” Kilmeade said, expressing frustration without explicitly mentioning that Kennedy’s former Harvard classmate, author Kurt Andersen, says President Donald Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary was a one-time cocaine dealer.
“They’re going to bring up the bear in the woods,” Kilmeade added, without mentioning the “woods” were New York City’s Central Park and “the bear” was a dead cub’s carcass that Kennedy dumped there.
Kennedy was also investigated for sawing the head off of a dead whale, claimed a worm ate part of his brain, and was accused by his cousin Caroline Kennedy of “showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks.”
“They’re going to bring up that he did drugs for a while,” Kilmeade continued. (Kennedy says he was variously addicted to substances including heroin for 14 years.)
“And they’re gonna ask the question: How much does your personal life—what you did in your twenties and thirties—matter [to] what you do when you’re 70?"
Then Kilmeade offered up an alternate topic for those focused on Kennedy’s background to consider.
“Maybe we should talk about his testosterone replacement stuff that he’s doing, because he looks fantastic,” the host said. “He looks better now at 70 than he did at 50. Maybe that’s the story.”
Kennedy, 71, told the Lex Friedman podcast in 2023 that he uses testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) to maintain muscle mass as part of an “anti-aging protocol.”
He has also uploaded several shirtless videos showing off his physique, including one last month of a workout in which he said he was “practicing moves for my confirmation hearing.”
Impressive videos aside, it’s unlikely senators will pursue Kilmeade’s suggested line of questioning.
Both Republicans and Democrats reportedly have concerns about Kennedy’s nomination, in particular regarding his history of vaccine skepticism and promotion of pseudoscientific conspiracy theories.
A source close to Kennedy conceded to the Financial Times on Monday that his support in the chamber is “iffy.”