The White House will announce a new director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “very soon,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday, defending the decision to fire director Susan Monarez.
Leavitt said Monarez was not “aligned” with President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly re-elected on November 5th. This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission,” Leavitt told reporters.
Monarez, who is well-respected in the scientific community and had recently pushed back against vaccine misinformation, was in the job for less than a month.
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Three top CDC officials, including those who directed teams overseeing immunization and emerging diseases, resigned after she was ousted.
Monarez was Trump’s second nominee for the position. The White House withdrew former Rep. Dave Weldon’s nomination after it became clear that he would not have enough support in the Senate. Monarez’s legal team challenged her HHS’ initial notice that she was fired Wednesday evening, arguing that only Trump had the authority to terminate her from a Senate-confirmed position.
“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” Monarez’s lawyers’ Mark S. Zaid and Abbe David Lowell said in a statement posted on X.
Soon after the Thursday press briefing, Zaid questioned Leavitt’s comments in an X post.
Leavitt “can say whatever she wants because thankfully free speech still exists in this country. But it doesn’t make her comments factually true, even when from a White House podium,” he wrote.
Leavitt also delivered a warning shot to other federal officials and workers who do not align with Trump’s agenda.
“If people are not aligned with the president’s vision and the secretary’s vision to make our country healthy again, then we will gladly show them the door,” Leavitt said.“Just do your job, that’s what the president wants to see.”
“If you’re doing your job well and if you are executing on the vision and the promises that the president made to the public,” Leavitt added. “Then you should have no fear about your job.”
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