President Donald Trump has withdrawn his nomination of David Weldon to move the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Weldon’s nomination was reportedly pulled after the administration decided he didn’t have sufficient votes to make it by way of the Senate affirmation course of. Weldon informed The New York Instances he was knowledgeable of the choice on Wednesday night time.
The previous nominee represented Florida within the Home of Representatives from 1995 to 2009. Throughout this tenure, he promoted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and anti-abortion zealotry. At any time, his debunked views would have raised eyebrows, however they’re of specific observe now, because the nation handles a serious measles outbreak introduced on by opposition to vaccines.
Weldon proposed a number of items of anti-vaccine laws throughout his time in Congress, together with a invoice purportedly addressing the false hyperlink between vaccines and autism. There isn’t any hyperlink between vaccination and autism, however the fringe perception has been a keystone worry promoted by the anti-vaccine neighborhood, most notably Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies.
Weldon can be a strident opponent of abortion rights. He superior laws named after himself—the Weldon Modification—that permits well being care suppliers like hospitals to disclaim care to sufferers in search of abortion care. Weldon’s views on this problem would have meshed these endorsed by Trump, who created the Supreme Court docket majority that overruled Roe v. Wade in 2022 and eradicated the federal proper to abortion.
Weldon joins the ranks of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose bid to change into U.S. legal professional normal failed spectacularly, and legislation enforcement officer Chad Chronister, who was pulled from consideration as Trump’s choose to run the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Whereas the exact nature of the opposition to Weldon has not been revealed, the shortage of assist stands out when Senate Republicans had been comfortable to rubber-stamp different controversial and unqualified Trump Cupboard picks. Republicans had no qualms about passing alongside Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, and even Pete Hegseth and their baggage—however they apparently drew the road at Weldon.
Axios studies that Kennedy voiced considerations about Weldon’s readiness to defend his fringe beliefs in a Senate listening to, which speaks volumes about how out of bounds Weldon should have been. Throughout his personal listening to, Kennedy struggled to deal with Democratic questions on his anti-vaccine advocacy and acquired no Democratic votes for affirmation.
However echoing his option to nominate Kennedy, Trump apparently had no problem about placing such an anti-science particular person in control of the very important CDC.
