White House withdraws Dave Weldon's CDC nomination hours before confirmation hearing

Dr. David Weldon will not head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A physician and former Republican lawmaker close to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Weldon was set to appear before the Senate Tuesday to defend his nomination. The hearing was canceled hours before.

"It is a shock, but, you know, in some ways, it’s relief," Weldon told The New York Times in an exclusive interview. "Government jobs demand a lot of you, and if God doesn’t want me in it, I’m fine with that," he added. According to the newspaper, the nominee had been informed by the administration the night before that he did not have the votes needed to win confirmation.

An anonymous source quoted by Axios, the first to break the news, stated that even Kennedy himself said Weldon was not ready.

In addition to working as a physician, he served 14 years in the House of Representatives. His candidacy had been questioned by members of both parties because of positions he took during that time in Congress, particularly on vaccines, as well as during his stint as head of the Children's Health Defense organization.

Weldon had come out against those accusations, assuring that, as a physician, he personally gave vaccines. In conversation with The New York Times, he assured that on Monday he will return to seeing patients. "I’ll make much more money staying in my medical practice."

This would have been the first time that a CDC director would have been subject to a vote by senators, since until now they were appointed directly by the president. To date, no Trump picks have fallen by the wayside due to Senate disapproval. All of the cabinet nominees made it past that stage following the confirmation this week of Lori Chavez-DeRemer at the head of the Department of Labor.