The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. David Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Senate health committee announced Thursday morning that it was canceling a planned hearing on Weldon’s nomination because of the withdrawal.
A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the White House pulled the nomination because it became clear Weldon did not have the votes for confirmation.
Weldon was considered to be closely aligned with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary who for years has been one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine activists.
A former Florida congressman, Weldon also has been a prominent critic of vaccines and the CDC, which promotes vaccines and monitors their safety.
Pope Francis marked the 12th anniversary of his papacy Thursday with increasingly positive medical updates four weeks into his hospitalization for double pneumonia.
The pope spent another tranquil night, the Vatican said in its brief morning statement.
A chest X-ray confirmed improvements, the Vatican said on Wednesday, just two days after days after doctors declared he’s no longer in imminent danger of death. The latest medical bulletin said that the 88-year-old pope’s condition remained stable, but indicated a complex picture considering his overall fragility.
The Holy See hasn’t said how the anniversary of his election as the 266th pope might be commemorated. It is a public holiday at the Vatican and Masses are planned in his honor at churches in Rome. No medical bulletins will be issued.
The U.S. stock market is falling Thursday, even after getting a double-shot of encouraging news on the economy. President Donald Trump keeps upping the stakes in his trade war, with his most recent threat to tax wines and other alcohol coming from Europe.
The S&P 500 was down 0.8% in morning trading, coming off a dizzying stretch where it set a record and then briefly tumbled as much as 10% from the mark within just a few weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 192 points, or 0.5%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% lower.
Stocks have been turbulent because of questions about how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies in order to reshape the country and world as he wants. He’s said he wants manufacturing jobs back in the United States, along with a smaller U.S. government workforce and other fundamental changes.
Trump on Thursday said he would put 200% tariffs on European wine and champagne if the European Union doesn’t roll back a “nasty” tariff it placed on U.S. whiskey. The European Union announced that move on Wednesday, in response to U.S. tariffs on European steel and aluminum that kicked in earlier in the day.
Dom Tritchler can be reached at trit2114@stthomas.edu.
