Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be Donald Trump’s health secretary has been dogged by his long record of anti-vaccine and anti-science statements. Even as Republicans embrace him as an iconoclast, Democrats and other critics have lambasted Kennedy as a know-nothing without the scientific or bureaucratic experience to do the job effectively.

But in painting Kennedy as a clown, those criticisms miss something important. Kennedy has not only gained a public following for his outlandish claims, he has also made a lot of money broadcasting them. And he could stand to make more from his anti-vaccine crusade as America’s top health official — the kind of brazen self-dealing that’s become all but normalized in Trump’s America.

As the New York Times reported last week, Kennedy has referred potential plaintiffs — people who say they have been injured by vaccines — to the law firm Wisner Baum, which is suing Merck over alleged harm related to the HPV vaccine. (He has also been involved in other cases for the firm.) Wisner Baum pays Kennedy for these referrals, in the vaccine case and other cases: He’s earned more than $2.5 million over the past two years, the Times reported. When the lawsuit concludes, if the vaccine manufacturer loses, Kennedy will get a financial reward.

At the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing Wednesday on Kennedy’s nomination, Kennedy refused to say that he would end the relationship with Wisner Baum during a line of questioning by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

After affirming Kennedy would not accept drug company money as health secretary, Warren asked if Kennedy would likewise commit not to take money from lawsuits against drug companies, under his arrangement with Wisner Baum.

“You’re making me sound like a shill,” Kennedy replied, before deflecting Warren’s question with an excuse he repeated more than once: “You’re asking me to not sue drug companies.”

Warren then ran through the various ways Kennedy could influence the outcome of those lawsuits while serving as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. He could publish anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, she said, “this time on US government letterhead.” He could appoint anti-vaccine scientists to federal vaccine panels and remove vaccines from the federally recommended schedule of childhood vaccines. He could even give FDA data, Warren said, to the law firm that sues the drug companies and compensates him for their wins.

Given another opportunity by Warren, Kennedy again declined to commit to removing........

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