Massachusetts' Elizabeth Warren takes on RFK Jr.

President-elect Trump's nomination of Robert Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary sets up a clash between U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and a member of the family whose legacy she's carrying on in the Senate.

Why it matters: Warren sits on the influential Finance Committee, which hears HHS nominations and holds sway over whether nominees receive full votes in the Senate.

• She'll be a member of the Senate minority next year, but Warren is the highest-profile Trump detractor on the finance panel.
• Expect her to drill Kennedy on his beliefs about vaccines, conspiracies and other touchy subjects.

Warren thinks Kennedy poses a danger not only to public health but to sectors key to the Massachusetts economy like health care and scientific research.

What they're saying: "RFK Jr. wants to stop parents from protecting their babies from measles and his ideas would welcome the return of polio. He has spread conspiracy theories on everything from COVID to mass shootings," Warren wrote in a statement about Trump's nomination of Kennedy.

The other side: Republicans will tout Kennedy's work as an activist for consumer choice in health care and efforts to lower health costs for Americans.

• "American patients, providers and taxpayers deserve a health care system that is efficient, effective and affordable," U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) wrote about Kennedy.

Context: Warren's position as the state's senior senator, and her desk in the Senate, were long held by Kennedy's paternal uncles John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy.

• Former Republican Sen. Scott Brown won a 2010 special election for the seat after Ted Kennedy's death. Warren's 2012 run was fuelled by Democrats' desire to see the "Kennedy seat" returned to the blue side of the aisle.

• Other senior members of the Kennedy clan, including U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, have condemned RFK Jr.'s positions as dangerous.

Flashback: Warren voted for only three of Trump's initial 22 cabinet nominations in 2017 and her fondness for the MAGA crowd has not grown the last four years.

What's next: Warren says she's going to ask a lot of questions about Kennedy's "fitness to serve" when he comes before the Finance Committee next year as part of the nomination process.