Trump forced to pull nomination of anti-choice, anti-vaccine quack
President Donald Trump has withdrawn his nomination of David Weldon to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Weldon’s nomination was reportedly pulled after the administration determined he did not have enough votes to make it through the Senate confirmation process. Weldon told The New York Times he was informed of the decision on Wednesday night.
The former nominee represented Florida in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2009. During this tenure, he promoted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and anti-abortion zealotry. At any time, his debunked views would have raised eyebrows, but they are of particular note now, as the country handles a major measles outbreak brought on by opposition to vaccines.
Weldon proposed several pieces of anti-vaccine legislation during his time in Congress, including a bill purportedly addressing the false link between vaccines and autism. There is no link between vaccination and autism, but the fringe belief has been a keystone fear promoted by the anti-vaccine community, most notably Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Weldon is also a strident opponent of abortion rights. He advanced legislation named after himself—the Weldon Amendment—that allows health care providers like hospitals to deny care to patients seeking abortion care. Weldon’s views on this issue would have meshed those endorsed by Trump, who created the Supreme Court majority that overruled Roe v. Wade in 2022 and eliminated the federal right to abortion.
Weldon joins the ranks of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose bid to become U.S. attorney general failed spectacularly, and law enforcement officer Chad Chronister, who was pulled from consideration as Trump’s pick to run the Drug Enforcement Administration.
While the precise nature of the opposition to Weldon has not been revealed, the lack of support stands out when Senate Republicans were happy to rubber-stamp other controversial and unqualified Trump Cabinet picks. Republicans had no qualms about passing along Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, and even Pete Hegseth and their baggage—but they apparently drew the line at Weldon.
Axios reports that Kennedy voiced concerns about Weldon’s readiness to defend his fringe beliefs in a Senate hearing, which speaks volumes about how out of bounds Weldon must have been. During his own hearing, Kennedy struggled to handle Democratic questions about his anti-vaccine advocacy and received no Democratic votes for confirmation.
But echoing his choice to nominate Kennedy, Trump apparently had no issue about putting such an anti-science person in charge of the vital CDC.