The White House has withdrawn the appointment of Dave Weldon, a former Republican Congress Member from Florida, to lead the centers for the control and prevention of diseases (CDC).
A source familiar with the matter told the hill that it became clear to the White House that Weldon did not confirm the votes throughout the Senate. The source said Weldon was informed on Wednesday evening that his nomination was withdrawn.
Weldon should be the first CDC director to be subject to the confirmation process.
The decision of the White House to give up the nomination of Weldon represents a uncommon setback for the Trump administration, which was able to strive for congress in order to confirm all the president’s cabinet prospects, with the exception of his first election for the Attorney General, the former representative of Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Which is criticized in November in November in November by Bipartisan dealt with Bipartisan’s criticism.
The Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (Help) announced that the Weldon nomination hearing, which was originally set up on Thursday for 10 a.m. for 10 a.m.
In a four -sided statement, Weldon confirmed that on Wednesday evening he received a call from an assistant from the White House, in which he was informed that his nomination was withdrawn because he did not receive enough voices.
Weldon said that he spoke to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary for health and human services, “who was very angry”, about plans for the withdrawal of Weldon’s nomination.
Weldon mentioned Sens. Susan Collins (R-Main) and Help Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) As the two senators who are most responsible to end his offer for the management of the agency.
Weldon said he had a “very pleasant meeting” with Collins, but two weeks later a very “enemy” meeting with her employees, where he accused him of being “anti-Vax”.
“More than twenty years ago, while I made some concerns about the security of children in childhood in the congress, Collins employee suddenly could get over it for some reason, no matter what I said back,” said Weldon in his explanation.
One person familiar with the meeting says that Weldon’s presentation of what happened is wrong. Collins’ Stab did not accuse him of being against Avaccine, and instead asked how he would push back against an obvious democratic line of attack.
In addition, the person said that any concerns about Weldon came from their preparatory level, not to vaccine his views. He did not know the authorities of the CDC director and could not articulate his vision or priorities for the agency, they said.
“His plan was to go to CDC, meet the heads of the departments, to experience their priorities and then to create a plan,” said the person. When Weldon urged his obvious lack of preparation, he stated that he was too busy with his medical practice to learn from it.
In his explanation, Weldon also said that Cassidy asked the White House to withdraw the nomination.
A Cassidy employee said Weldon’s allegation was not true.
In a statement to The Hill, Cassidy said that he was looking forward to the hearing on Thursday morning.
“I was surprised when Dr. Weldon’s nomination was withdrawn. His bad reaction to this situation shows that the pressure to be CDC director would have been too much, ”Cassidy told the hill in a statement.
Weldon was examined for many years of promoting views against acuzicity.
During his time in congress and in the years in which he left office in 2009, Weldon raised questions about the security of vaccines and their potential connections to autism, an assertion that was exposed by numerous studies. He introduced the legislation to remove the vaccine’s office from the CDC and led the indictment to ban the preservative -Thimerosalosalo from vaccines from autism problems.
Weldon has had a friendship with Kennedy, another long -time vaccine skeptic, and is closely related to his views. Experts in public health feared that the damage that Weldon could do could be responsible for creating vaccine guidelines at the CDC.
Weldon’s hearing was to take place in the middle of a worsening measles outbreak in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, who killed two people and infected more than 250.
Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) Described a private meeting that she had with Weldon before his planned hearing, where she made it clear that he believed that vaccines are connected to autism and that the vaccination schedule of the CDC children is exposed to unsafe mercury.
“A vaccine skeptic who has spread lies about safe and proven vaccines for years should never have been considered to lead the leading agency for the protection of public health,” said Murray in a declaration after the withdrawal.
“Although I have little to no confidence in the Trump government, you should immediately nominate someone for this position who believes at least basic science and will help to guide the important work of CDC to monitor and prevent fatal outbreaks.”
Updated at 1:31 a.m. Edt.
Brett Samuels contributed.
