Scuttled CDC Pick Slams Big Pharma And Senators On Its Payroll

In a statement released on the day of his abruptly canceled confirmation hearing, Dr. Dave Weldon, President Trump’s initial nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said concerns that Big Pharma was behind the subversion were “probably true.”

“They are hands-down, the most powerful lobby organization in Washington DC giving millions of dollars to politicians on both sides of the aisle,” he wrote.

Weldon said that Wednesday evening, before the morning of his hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, he had received a call from a White House assistant telling him his nomination had been withdrawn due to a lack of affirmative votes.

According to Weldon’s statement, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told him Sen. Susan Collins of Maine suddenly “had reservations” about confirming him despite having “a very pleasant meeting” with Weldon previously.

“I can assume that the White House staff had my nomination withdrawn also because the Republican Chairman Dr. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was also voting no,” Weldon wrote. (Read more from “Scuttled CDC Pick Slams Big Pharma And Senators On Its Payroll” HERE)