Trump administration withdraws CDC director nomination just before
Senate hearing
[March 14, 2025]
By MIKE STOBBE
NEW YORK (AP) — The White House withdrew the nomination of former
Florida congressman Dr. David Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention because he wasn't assured of getting enough
Republican support to be confirmed.
The Republican-controlled Senate health committee announced Thursday
morning that it was canceling a planned hearing on Weldon's nomination —
less than an hour before it was scheduled to begin.
A White House assistant told Weldon on Wednesday night that his
nomination was being withdrawn because “there were not enough votes to
get me confirmed,” the ex-congressman said in a statement.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican and committee member, told
reporters she had relayed her concerns about Weldon's vaccine skepticism
both to him directly and to the White House. Two other Republicans who
have voiced concerns about the administration’s direction on vaccines,
Sens. Bill Cassidy and Susan Collins, said they had not decided whether
to support or oppose his confirmation.
Weldon was considered to be closely aligned with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
the U.S. health secretary who for years has been one of the nation’s
leading anti-vaccine activists.
Weldon, 71, is an Army veteran and internal medicine doctor whose main
claim to fame was representing a central Florida district in Congress
from 1995 to 2009.
He was a leader of a Congressional push for research into autism’s
causes, which began around 2000. But Weldon rejected studies that found
no causal link between childhood vaccines and autism, and accused the
CDC of short-circuiting research that might show otherwise.
“My big sin was that as a congressman 25 years ago I had the temerity to
take on the CDC and big Pharma” on childhood vaccine safety issues,
Weldon wrote in his four-page statement.
Weldon said Kennedy told him that Collins, a Maine Republican, had
expressed reservations about the nomination. He also believes that
Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the health committee, was
against his nomination.
Collins said: “I had some reservations, but I certainly had not reached
a final judgment."
Cassidy said he didn’t ask for Weldon’s withdrawal and was surprised by
it.
“I was looking forward to the hearing,” Cassidy said in a statement.
“His poor response to this situation shows that the pressures of being
CDC director would have been too much.”
Sen. Patty Murray, who is also on the health committee, said she had
serious concerns about Weldon after meeting with him.
“I was deeply disturbed to hear Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about
vaccines,” the Washington Democrat said in a statement. “It’s dangerous
to put someone in charge at CDC who believes the lie that our rigorously
tested childhood vaccine schedule is somehow exposing kids to toxic
levels of mercury or causing autism."
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Former Congressman Dr. David Weldon speaks in The Villages, Fla., on
May 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Brendan Farrington, File)
 The White House did not issue a
statement explaining the withdrawal, and Trump did not address it
during a Thursday afternoon press availability. The Department of
Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
With a $9.2 billion core budget, the Atlanta-based CDC is charged
with protecting Americans from outbreaks and other public health
threats.
For decades it enjoyed a sterling reputation as a global leader on
disease control and a reliable source of health information,
boasting some of the top experts in the world. But the agency came
under attack during the COVID-19 pandemic, repeatedly faulted for
how it handled communications, masking guidance and others aspects
of its pandemic response.
This week, Cassidy and other Republican leaders launched a working
group to examine potential legislative reforms for the agency, which
has been swept up in the government-wide job-cutting push led by the
president and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
Weldon was to be the first CDC director nominee to have to go
through Senate confirmation — the result of a provision in a law
passed during the Biden administration. The agency’s 20 previous
directors were all appointed.
He becomes the third Trump administration nominee who didn’t make it
to a confirmation hearing. Previously, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz
withdrew from consideration for attorney general and Chad Chronister
for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Susan Monarez has been the CDC’s acting director since late January
and is poised to stay on at the agency after a director is
confirmed.
Two other nominees for high-profile federal health positions are on
track for confirmation.
On Thursday, the Senate health panel voted to advance Dr. Marty
Makary’s nomination to become the next commissioner of the Food and
Drug Administration. Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire
and John Hickenlooper of Colorado joined Republicans in backing the
surgeon and researcher. The same committee also voted along party
lines to advance the nomination of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a health
economist and Stanford University professor, to lead the National
Institutes of Health.
___
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Stephen Groves in
Washington contributed to this report.
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