The White House has withdrawn its nominee to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an abrupt move just hours before his confirmation hearing was scheduled to begin.
Trump officials informed the Senate on Thursday morning that Dave Weldon, a former Florida congressman, will no longer be its pick for the agency, according to two people familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it.
The White House made the decision after determining that he did not have the support to win confirmation on the Senate floor, one of the people said.
“He had the votes to get out of committee, [but] he didn’t have the votes to get out of the full Senate,” the person said, calling it a “dead man walking situation.”
Axios first reported the White House’s decision.
Weldon had faced growing scrutiny over his anti-vaccine views, including an extensive record during his time in Congress of raising questions about the safety of vaccines and their potential links to autism.
That history had prompted concerns within the Senate and others close to the process for weeks, fueling constant rumors that his nomination would eventually need to be pulled.
That final call came the morning after the administration held the final prep session for his confirmation hearing, said the second person familiar with the matter, and just an hour before he was due to appear before the Senate HELP Committee.
Weldon is one of the few nominees for major departments or agencies to fail to make it to the floor, amid a first few months in office that has demonstrated President Donald Trump’s ability to strong-arm congressional Republicans into confirming his picks.
Senate Republicans narrowly confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary last month despite reservations over his anti-vaccine views, following a concerted effort by White House officials to secure the deciding votes.
