White House withdraws CDC director nomination

The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee announced it has canceled Weldon's nomination hearing, originally set for 10 a.m. EDT Thursday, following the withdrawal.

Weldon, a former Republican congressman from Florida, was to be the first CDC director subject to the confirmation process.

A White House official confirmed Weldon’s nomination was pulled but did not offer an explanation, though Weldon has come under scrutiny for his longtime promotion of anti-vaccine views.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) described a private meeting she had with Weldon ahead of his scheduled hearing, where 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.”

The move 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.

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 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 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.

Developing. Updated at 10:29 a.m. EDT.

Brett Samuels contributed.

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