If Matt Gaetz was Donald Trump’s first personnel fiasco, Dave Weldon is definitely his second.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3lkbhabdnks2u
Asked about the demise of his misguided CDC nomination, Dave Weldon said, "It is a shock, but, you know, in some ways, it's relief."
Oddly enough, I had roughly the same reaction.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/facing-bipartisan-opposition-white-house-abandons-outlandish-cdc-nomin-rcna196236
The list has now grown from one to two, as a different controversial former Republican congressman from Florida exits the stage. NBC News reported:
The White House has withdrawn the nomination of former Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., whom President Donald Trump had chosen to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a senior administration official said. The development came just before Weldon was set to testify at his Senate confirmation hearing at 10 a.m. ET before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
.....As we discussed late last year, Trump chose a variety of controversial figures for key public health positions, but Weldon was one of the toughest to defend.
As far as the president was concerned, the CDC should be led by a longtime opponent of vaccines, who refused to abandon false theories, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.....
Why some Senate Republicans were comfortable with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. —
an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist with his own ridiculous beliefs about science, medicine, and public health, who is now health and human services secretary — but not Weldon is unclear.
Asked for his reaction to the developments, Weldon told The New York Times, “It is a shock, but, you know, in some ways, it’s relief.”
Oddly enough, I had roughly the same reaction to the demise of his nomination.