The White House is withdrawing former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon’s nomination to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a White House official confirmed Thursday.
An administration official who was asked about why Weldon’s nomination was withdrawn responded, “It was clear he did not have the votes in the Senate.”
Weldon, a vaccine critic, was set to appear before the Senate’s health committee on Thursday for his confirmation hearing, and news of the withdrawal of his nomination came less than an hour before the hearing was to begin.
The committee was expected to question him about his long record of criticizing vaccines and the agency he was nominated to lead. Weldon is a physician and a former Republican member of Congress.
In a statement obtained by CBS News, Weldon said that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was “very upset” at his nomination being pulled. Weldon said he had received a call from the White House 12 hours before the scheduled hearing, informing him that the nomination would be withdrawn.
“Bobby Kennedy is a good man who really is passionate about improving the health of the American people,” Weldon said. “President Trump did a good thing in making him secretary of HHS. Hopefully they can find someone for CDC who can survive the confirmation process and get past pharma and find some answers.”
Weldon said that Maine Sen. Susan Collins had told Kennedy she had reservations about his nomination, and said the Republican senator’s staff had been “very hostile” in a meeting with him.
Weldon said Collins’ staff repeatedly accused him of being against vaccines “even though I reminded them that I actually give hundreds of vaccines every year in my medical practice.”
He said that over 20 years ago, while in Congress, he raised some concerns about childhood vaccine safety, and “for some reason Collins staff suddenly couldn’t get over that.”
Weldon also said that another senator, Louisiana Republican Dr. Bill Cassidy, had also said he was anti-vaccine and had once asked for his nomination to be withdrawn.
The CDC has faced mounting questions from senators in recent weeks over moves to reopen studies into whether vaccines are linked to autism and also over an abruptly canceled meeting of the agency’s outside immunization advisers, which has yet to be rescheduled.
After a meeting with Sen. Patty Murray last month, the Washington Democrat said she was “deeply disturbed to hear Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about vaccines.”
“As we face one of the worst measles outbreaks in years thanks to President Trump, a vaccine skeptic who spent years spreading lies about safe and proven vaccines should never have even been under consideration to lead the foremost agency charged with protecting public health,” Murray said in a statement Thursday.
Kennedy has also faced criticism this week for inflating the risks of measles vaccines when discussing the record outbreak in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Kennedy, whose department oversees the CDC, also has a history of criticizing vaccines.
Axios first reported the White House is pulling Weldon’s nomination.
Weldon would have been the first CDC director nominee to face Senate confirmation, after a change passed by Congress. Previous picks to head the Atlanta-based public health agency were able to assume their posts immediately.
Ed O’Keefe
contributed to this report.
