The Trump administration is being sharply criticized after President Donald Trump fired the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who had been confirmed by the Senate just one month earlier. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is facing condemnation over her stated reason for the abrupt termination.

When asked during Thursday’s White House press briefing what Dr. Susan Monarez did wrong to be fired, Leavitt claimed that the microbiologist and public health official did not share President Trump’s mission.

Dr. Monarez, who previously worked at the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and on the National Security Council, was installed at the CDC on January 23, as the acting Director. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 29.

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In announcing her nomination in March, President Trump praised Monarez’s “decades of experience championing Innovation, Transparency, and strong Public Health Systems.” He touted her “Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and PostDoctoral training in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine,” and called her “an incredible mother and dedicated public servant.”

Trump said she “understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future.”

“Look, what I will say about this individual,” Leavitt told reporters, “is that her lawyer’s statement made it abundantly clear themselves that she was not aligned with the President’s mission to make America healthy again.”

“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,” she added.

Monarez was confirmed by the Senate in a 51-47 vote.

Critics blasted the press secretary.

READ MORE: RFK Jr. Attacks CDC for Abortion Praise That Doesn’t Exist

Responding to her remark that she “never received a vote in her life and the President has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission,” Fred Wellman, host of the “On Democracy” podcast, wrote: “You know…just like a dictator.”

“Apparently what Dr Monarez did wrong was to refuse to rubber stamp vaccine policy written by a non physician who doesn’t believe in vaccines,” wrote Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst.

“The WH’s line here is that Susan Monarez didn’t align with the president’s mission, which is probably something they would have checked on when Trump nominated her,” noted The Bulwark’s Sam Stein.

“So the President’s mission includes killing children with preventable diseases?” asked Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a noted virologist.

“Firing your own pick after a few months on the job is always a great move!” snarked Fox News host Jessica Tarlov.

“Donald Trump is directly gutting the public health apparatus in the United States. Dangerous is an understatement,” warned U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI).

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reporter: On the firing of the CDC director.. What specifically did she do wrong?

Leavitt: 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 pic.twitter.com/nEyicRHGbN

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 28, 2025

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., already under scrutiny for attempting to fire the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is now attacking the CDC for information on its website that he wrongly claims characterizes “abortion” as one of the ten greatest advances in medical science — while also appearing to suggest vaccines and fluoridation should not be on that list.

There are several versions of the list, one titled, “Ten Great Public Health Achievements — United States, 1900-1999,” and dated April 1999 — more than a quarter century ago.

It includes: “Vaccination, Motor-vehicle safety, Safer workplaces, Control of infectious diseases, Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke, Safer and healthier foods, Healthier mothers and babies, Family planning, Fluoridation of drinking water, and Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard.”

Abortion does not appear on any of the lists NCRM was able to locate.

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One portion mentions contraception, but not abortion.

Secretary Kennedy, a promoter of conspiracy theories — especially about vaccines — on Thursday refused to discuss his attempt to fire the CDC Director. He told Fox News, “It would be inappropriate for me to comment on a personnel issue.”

“What I will say is, you know, there is, President Trump has very, very ambitious hopes for CDC right now. CDC has problems. We saw the misinformation coming out of COVID.”

“They got the testing wrong, they got the social distancing, the masks, the school closures that did so much harm to the American people,” he charged.

“Today on CDC’s website right now, they list the 10 top advanced greatest advances in medical science, and one of them is abortion,” Kennedy inaccurately claimed. “The other is fluoridation, another is vaccine.”

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STAT News reported on Thursday that “Kennedy’s brief critique of the CDC ranged from incontrovertible missteps by the agency, such as its failure to handle the onslaught of Covid testing at the beginning of the pandemic, to issues such as masking, where there is still scientific debate, to issues such as fluoridation, which is broadly viewed by the medical community as beneficial. He also appeared to leave key context out of his description of the list of great medical achievements on the CDC’s website.”

Kennedy also told Fox News viewers that the CDC’s “priorities” need to be examined, and denounced what he alleged was a “malaise” at the nation’s top health agency.

“This agency, the gold standard science [sic] and do what it was when we were growing up, which was the most respected health agency in the world.”

In 2024, The New York Times characterized Kennedy as a “leading vaccine skeptic and purveyor of conspiracy theories,” and someone who has “promoted a conspiracy theory that coronavirus vaccines were developed to control people via microchips,” and “endorsed the false notion that antidepressants are linked to school shootings.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

RFK Jr. was on Fox & Friends this morning complaining that the CDC includes “vaccines” on its website as one of the 10 “greatest advances in medical science,” says we need to look at its “priorities.” pic.twitter.com/bB1wzXVMbm

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) August 28, 2025

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Medical, legal, and political experts are sounding alarms amid the Trump administration’s attempt to fire the newly confirmed Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which triggered a mass exodus of top CDC officials resigning in protest, including one with a damning public resignation letter that went viral.

“The White House said late Wednesday that it had fired Susan Monarez, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after a tense confrontation in which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to remove her from her position,” The New York Times reported. “A lawyer for Dr. Monarez said in response that she was refusing to step down.”

Attorneys for Dr. Monarez, a microbiologist and public health official, said that only the President can fire her.

But in response to her attempted ouster, four top CDC officials resigned:

Dr. Debra Houry, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science
Dr. Daniel Jernigan, Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
Dr. Jennifer Layden, Director of the Office of Public Health Data, Science, and Technology
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

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In his scathing letter of resignation, Dr. Daskalakis wrote in part that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views “challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough.”

“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”

He pointed to this week’s changes to the adult and children’s immunization schedule that “threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.”

In a much-circulated excerpt, Dr. Daskalakis wrote that the “data analyses that supported” the decision to change the immunization schedule “have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership. This lack of meaningful engagement was further compounded by a ‘frequently asked questions’ document written to support the Secretary’s directive that was circulated by HHS without input from CDC subject matter experts and that cited studies that did not support the conclusions that were attributed to these authors.”

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He added: “Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.”

Dr. Daskalakis warned that “Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc.”

EXPERTS RESPOND

“There is a [wholesale] destruction of leadership at the CDC,” warned Dr. Ashish K. Jha, a top medical scholar who served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator in the Biden administration. “The newly confirmed Director is out. Most of the top leaders who run key centers have resigned en masse. Total implosion. All because of @SecKennedy leadership.”

“What a complete disaster,” he added.

Lawrence Gostin is a professor of medicine and public health, and a co-faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.

“Monarez by law can only be fired by the president who has been silent. RFK fired her & she refuses to go. The sheer chaos is notable in addition to the lawlessness & thinly veiled attack on science & the CDC. Once the shining crown of federal agencies, CDC is now gutted,” Professor Gostin wrote. He added that Monarez’s firing “shows clearly that science is now a matter of political orthodoxy and blind political loyalty, rather than evidence-based. Make no mistake. Monarez lost her job because she wouldn’t fall in line with RFK’s anti-vaccine agenda.”

U.S. Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), a medical doctor, called Daskalakis’ letter “chilling,” and warned, “RFK Jr. is driving out dedicated public health experts because they refuse to rubber-stamp his dangerous views on vaccines.”

“Their resignations make clear that they are no longer being allowed to do their jobs to protect the health and safety of the American people.”

MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell, a former congressional staffer, called Daskalakis’s statement “nothing less than the most important federal government resignation letter in history.”

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a top Democrat on the Health Committee, called for Secretary Kennedy’s termination: “We cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the ground—he must be fired.”

Dr. Craig Spencer, a globally recognized public health expert, emergency medicine physician, and Associate Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy, and Practice, wrote:

“What’s happening at the CDC should frighten every American. Regardless of whether you are MAGA, MAHA, neither, or don’t give a damn about labels or politics. It’s unclear whether the CDC director—confirmed just weeks ago—has been fired or not. Absolute s–. And incredible career professionals resigned tonight, sounding a massive alarm. This is pure chaos that leaves the country unprepared.”

“Imagine cases of Ebola in the U.S. right now?” added Dr. Spencer, who once contracted the disease. “We would be an absolute mess. It’s easy to tune this all out, to celebrate what you might see as ‘cleaning house’, or just not care what’s happening. But I promise you, when confronted with the next serious health threat, we will quickly see everything we’ve lost. We will regret this. I promise, we will regret this.”

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