The White House has withdrawn its nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, just before he was set to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, explained that Weldon did not have enough support in the Senate to be confirmed due to his extreme views on vaccines.
President Trump had announced Weldon as his pick to lead the CDC on Truth Social in November, highlighting his background as a doctor, military veteran, politician, and family man. But Weldon’s views on vaccines soon became a major point of controversy.
His claims, which have been debunked, centered on the safety of vaccines. Specifically, he repeated false assertions about the supposed dangers of childhood vaccines, including the discredited claim that they could cause autism or expose children to toxic levels of mercury.
Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington who is on the Senate Health Committee, was deeply disturbed by Weldon’s stance on vaccines. After a meeting with him on February 20, she made her concerns clear.
“I was deeply disturbed to hear Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about vaccines — it’s dangerous to put someone in charge at CDC who believes the lie that our rigorously tested childhood vaccine schedule is somehow exposing kids to toxic levels of mercury or causing autism,” she said in a statement after the White House withdrew Weldon’s nomination.
Weldon, a Republican, represented central Florida in Congress from 1995 to 2009. After his time in the House of Representatives, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2012 and for the Florida House of Representatives in 2024. In recent years, he has kept a relatively low profile.
After leaving Congress, Weldon returned to practicing internal medicine in Florida. He also served as the board chairman for the pro-Israel advocacy group Israel Allies Foundation, according to forms he submitted to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
