President Donald Trump’s administration has made an usual turn-around and pulled a nomination for a director-level official just a few hours before said individuals was due to participate in his first committee hearing before the U.S. Senate on Thursday.
The yanking of Dave Weldon’s nomination for the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wipes out a good chunk of matters on the schedule for the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP).
A statement was released announcing the cancellation of the hearing, stating that they would be holding confirmation hearings for Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for National Institutes of Health director and Dr. Marty Makary for Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“It became clear that the votes weren’t there in the Senate for him to get confirmed. This would have been a futile effort,” a source close to the administration stated concerning their thinking behind the cancellation. No official reason for the rescinding of Weldon’s nomination has been revealed, according to Trending Politics News.
In a bit of hasty miscommunication, Weldon appeared on Capitol Hill Thursday ready to testify. The Wall Street Journal reported that he was unaware his nomination had been pulled, but an administration official insists he was informed last night. Weldon, a physician by trade, represented Florida’s 15th Congressional District from 1995 to 2009. He has ignited controversies in the past for discounting the efficacy of vaccines, statements that were expected to be brought up at his hearing on Thursday. In 2007, Weldon said there are “legitimate questions” about whether vaccines may be linked to neurological disorders in children, including autism.
In Congress, he co-sponsored legislation that would have removed mercury from vaccines. On its face, the reversal of Weldon’s nomination is curious, considering Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was able to cobble together the votes necessary to be confirmed. The son of Robert F. Kennedy was a colorful figure in the Democratic Party for years, elevating concerns about vaccines while suggesting that alternative, homeopathic remedies such as ivermectin and vitamin C were adequate for avoiding infection or death from COVID-19.
When Kennedy underwent his confirmation hearings a month ago, things were tense and explosive as he received questions from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Bernie Sanders, a Democratic Socialist from Vermont, about anti-vaccine statements he made in the past.
However, it only served to make the president more resolved to stand behind his pick for the position.
“Kennedy’s confirmation only became possible after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician, agreed to support it on the condition that the two men meet regularly to discuss HHS policies regarding the approval of vaccines and other drugs,” the report concluded.
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