By Liz Essley Whyte, Natalie Andrews and Dominique Mosbergen

The White House withdrew President Trump's nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a rare change in plans to fill top roles with candidates who have mostly won approval.

Senators told the Trump administration that Dr. Dave Weldon didn't have the votes to be confirmed, a Republican familiar with the discussions said. White House officials told Weldon on Wednesday evening that they planned to withdraw his nomination.

But Weldon believed his confirmation hearing at a Senate health committee would proceed on Thursday. He was driving to the Capitol when a Journal reporter called and asked him about the withdrawal.

Weldon said he spoke with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., "who was very upset," about plans to end Weldon's candidacy.

"He said I was the perfect person for the job," Weldon said.

Weldon said Kennedy told him Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) told Kennedy at a breakfast that she was considering voting no on Weldon.

Weldon said he had a good meeting with Collins followed by a contentious meeting with her staff, who questioned his views on vaccines.

"I had reservations about the nominee, but I wanted to give him the opportunity to answer questions in a public forum," Collins said. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) also said she had concerns about Weldon.

Weldon's meetings with other senators also went poorly, people familiar with the conversations said. Weldon arranged some of the meetings himself instead of relying on presidential transition staff, people familiar with the meetings said.

He told staff for Senate Republicans in one meeting that he would have to get to the CDC before creating a vision for how to lead it, a person familiar with the discussion said. He said that he hadn't reviewed public information on the CDC's budgets and priorities because he was busy transferring patients in his medical practice to other doctors.

Weldon said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) had earlier asked for his nomination to be withdrawn. "He was a big problem, and losing Collins too was clearly too much for the White House," Weldon said.

Cassidy declined to comment on Thursday about whether he would have voted against Weldon's confirmation.

The White House has pushed lawmakers to back even controversial nominees, buttressed by the enthusiasm of ardent Trump supporters among the public. Most of those nominees have sailed through the Senate, with the exception of the withdrawn nomination of former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general.

Axios earlier reported that the White House would withdraw Weldon's nomination to lead the CDC.

Weldon, a former Republican congressman who has expressed skepticism about vaccine safety in the past, is an internist who served in Congress from 1995 to 2002 representing Florida's 15th congressional district. He has since been in private practice.

It was to have been the first time a CDC nominee faced Senate confirmation after Congress in recent years added the requirement for leaders of the agency responsible for investigating infectious disease and guarding public health.

The CDC, with roughly 10,000 employees, is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services overseen by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy and Weldon have both questioned vaccine safety in the past. Kennedy backed vaccines in his own confirmation hearings this year. Since he has charge of HHS, the department has scuttled meetings of infectious-disease experts and began scrutinizing vaccine contracts.

Weldon in 2007 introduced a bill that would have moved some responsibility for vaccine-safety research from the CDC to an independent HHS office. He suggested in congressional testimony in 2002 that vaccines might cause autism. Many large studies have established no link between vaccines and autism.

Weldon told Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) in February that he was concerned that vaccines could be causing toxic buildups of mercury in children, a person familiar with the conversation said. Weldon subsequently struck a more moderate tone on vaccines in meetings with senators, people familiar with the conversations said.

Murray wrote Thursday on X: "During one of the worst measles outbreaks in years because of Trump, Weldon should NEVER have even been under consideration to lead CDC."

Vaccine skeptics have made the mercury claim since the 1990s. Thimerosal, a form of mercury used as a preservative in some shots, was removed from childhood vaccines in 2001 out of an abundance of caution, scientists have said.

Trump's other picks to lead agencies within the health department include Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon, to lead the Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, to lead the National Institutes of Health; and Mehmet Oz, a heart surgeon best known as the host of TV's "The Dr. Oz Show," to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Each would need to be confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate. Republicans have 53 seats there to the Democrats' 47 seats.

Write to Liz Essley Whyte at liz.whyte@wsj.com, Natalie Andrews at natalie.andrews@wsj.com and Dominique Mosbergen at dominique.mosbergen@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 13, 2025 11:52 ET (15:52 GMT)

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