CNN —

The Trump era is rife with Republicans who abandon their principles in the name of toeing Donald Trump’s line. But few have gambled with those principles recently like Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy.

The chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in February played the pivotal role in confirming a longtime purveyor of vaccine misinformation , Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as Health and Human Services secretary.

Cassidy did so despite often citing how 30 years of practicing medicine taught him how crucial vaccines are – and despite his very public reservations about Kennedy’s views and motivations on the subject. He also did so at a time when vaccine skepticism has risen sharply on the right , meaning Cassidy’s strongly held beliefs were already

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