The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dave Weldon, a former Republican congressman from Florida, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A source familiar with the matter told The Hill it became clear to the White House that Weldon did not have the votes in the full Senate to be confirmed. The source said Weldon was informed Wednesday night that his nomination was being withdrawn.
Weldon was to be the first CDC director subject to the confirmation process.
The White House decision to abandon Weldon’s nomination represents a rare setback for the Trump administration, which has been able to wrangle Congress to confirm all of the president’s Cabinet picks, with the exception of his first choice for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who withdrew from consideration in November amid bipartisan criticism.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced it had canceled Weldon’s nomination hearing, originally set for 10 a.m. EDT Thursday, following the withdrawal.
In a four-page statement, Weldon confirmed he received a phone call from a White House assistant on Wednesday night informing him his nomination was being withdrawn because he would not get enough votes.
Weldon said he spoke with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “who was very upset” about plans to withdraw Weldon’s nomination.
Weldon specifically mentioned Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and HELP Committee chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) as the two senators most responsible for ending his bid to run the agency.
Weldon said he had a “very pleasant meeting” with Collins but then had a very “hostile” meeting with her staff two weeks later where he said they accused him of being “anti-vax.”
“More than Twenty years ago, while in congress I raised some concerns about childhood vaccine safety, and for some reason Collins staff suddenly couldn’t get over that no matter what I said back,” Weldon said in his statement.
A person familiar with the meeting said Weldon’s depiction of what happened is incorrect. Collins’s staff did not accuse him of being anti-vaccine, and instead asked how he would push back against an obvious Democratic line of attack.
In addition, the person said any concerns about Weldon stemmed from his level of preparation, not his views on vaccines. He did not know the authorities of the CDC director and was not able to articulate his vision or priorities for the agency, they said.
“His plan was to go into CDC, meet with the heads of the departments, learn about their priorities and then make a plan,” the person said. When pressed on his apparent lack of preparation, Weldon indicated he had been too busy with his medical practice to learn about it, they added.
Weldon in his statement also said Cassidy had asked the White House to withdraw the nomination.
A Cassidy staffer said Weldon’s accusation was not true.
In a statement to The Hill, Cassidy said he had been “looking forward to the hearing” Thursday morning.
“I was surprised when Dr. Weldon’s nomination was withdrawn. His poor response to this situation shows that the pressures of being CDC director would have been too much,” Cassidy said in a statement to The Hill.
Weldon has come under scrutiny for his longtime promotion of anti-vaccine views.
During his time in Congress and in the years since he left office in 2009, Weldon has raised questions about the safety of vaccines and their potential links to autism, a claim that has been debunked by numerous studies. He introduced legislation to remove the vaccine safety office from the CDC and led the charge to ban the preservative thimerosal from vaccines over autism concerns.
Weldon has for decades maintained a friendship with Kennedy, another longtime vaccine skeptic, and is closely aligned with his views. Public health experts feared the damage Weldon could do were he to be put in charge of making vaccine policy at the CDC.
Weldon’s hearing was set to take place amid a worsening measles outbreak in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, which has killed two people and infected more than 250.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) described a private meeting she had with Weldon ahead of his scheduled hearing, where she said he made it clear he thinks vaccines are linked to autism, and that the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule is exposing kids to dangerous levels of mercury.
“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 following the withdrawal.
“While I have little to no confidence in the Trump administration to do so, they should immediately nominate someone for this position who at bare minimum believes in basic science and will help lead CDC’s important work to monitor and prevent deadly outbreaks.”
Updated at 1:31 a.m. EDT.
Brett Samuels contributed.
