It wasn’t immediately clear why his nomination was pulled. The Senate committee chairman, Bill Cassidy, R-La., was looking forward to the hearing, but Weldon didn’t have the votes from the panel to get the nomination onto the Senate floor, a source on Capitol Hill close to the chairman said. Cassidy, a doctor, had raised concerns about the anti-vaccine advocacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before his confirmation as health secretary last month. Weldon has held some vaccine views similar to those of Kennedy. Weldon served 14 years in the House until 2009, during which time he criticized the CDC and questioned the safety of vaccines.
The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. David Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Republican-controlled Senate health committee announced Thursday morning that it was canceling a planned hearing on Weldon’s nomination — less than an hour before it was scheduled to begin. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the White House pulled the nomination because it became clear Weldon did not have the votes for confirmation.
Weldon, 71, was slated to answer questions before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday — but a White House spokesperson confirmed to The Post that the CDC pick was no longer under consideration. The reversal came after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confided that Weldon wasn’t ready for the position, according to Axios, which first reported on the nominee’s withdrawal. Weldon has previously raised questions about links between vaccination and autism, identifying mercury as a potential cause.
