The Trump administration withdrew its nominee to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just hours before his Senate confirmation hearing, multiple media outlets reported Thursday.
President Donald Trump had tapped Dave Weldon, an internal medicine physician and former Republican congressman, to serve as CDC Director.
The development came just before Weldon was set to testify at his Senate confirmation hearing at 10 a.m. ET before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Axios was the first to report the news, citing Capitol Hill sources.
The New York Times reported that Weldon, when reached by phone, said he learned of the decision last night and was told by a White House official that “they didn’t have the votes to confirm” his nomination.
Weldon, who served in the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2009, was likely to face scrutiny about his views on vaccines. While in Congress, he was one of the sponsors of a bill that would have banned mercury from vaccines. Weldon was also a leader in Congress of pushing to examine a now-debunked link between vaccines and autism.
During a meeting with a top Democratic senator last month, Weldon indicated he still believed there was a link between vaccines and autism, Bloomberg reported.
"In our meeting last month, I was deeply disturbed to hear Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about vaccines—it’s dangerous to put someone in charge at CDC who believes the lie that our rigorously tested childhood vaccine schedule is somehow exposing kids to toxic levels of mercury or causing autism," Senator Patty Murray of Washington said in a statement.
Murray issued a statement Thursday morning in response to the news that the White House was withdrawing Weldon's nomination: "As we face one of the worst measles outbreaks in years thanks to President Trump, 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.
"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," Murray said.