The White House is pulling the nomination of Dave Weldon for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Fox News Digital has confirmed. Weldon was expected to have his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that it canceled its hearing in a statement on Thursday morning. However, it confirmed that lawmakers would still vote on the nominations of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for National Institutes of Health (NIH) 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 familiar with the nomination told Fox News Digital. However, there is no official reason for pulling the nomination at this time.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Weldon was unaware that his nomination had been pulled until he reached the Capitol on Thursday morning. However, Fox News Digital’s source said Weldon was told last night.
Weldon, a medical doctor and former Florida congressman, has made statements against vaccines in the past, which were expected to be brought up during his hearing. In a 2007 statement, Weldon said there were “legitimate questions” about potential links between vaccines and childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism.
Additionally, during his time in Congress, he introduced legislation with former Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-Ny., that would have banned mercury from vaccines.
The question of vaccine skepticism came up repeatedly during now-HHS Secretary RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing. Democrats on the Senate HELP Committee repeatedly brought up Kennedy’s claims linking vaccines to autism.
They also asked about his time serving as chairman and chief litigation counsel, for Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit organization that has advocated against vaccines and sued the federal government numerous times.
