Trump administration withdraws nomination of Long Island native David Weldon for CDC director

WASHINGTON — The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. David Weldon, a former Florida congressman and Long Island native, 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 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, a Farmingdale High School and Stony Brook University graduate, 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.

Sen. Patty Murray said she had serious concerns about Weldon after meeting with him.

“I was deeply disturbed to hear Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about vaccines,” the Washington Democrat said in a statement. “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.

Born in Amityville, Weldon graduation Farmingdale High School in 1971, according to his official congressional biography. He graduated from Stony Brook in 1978 with a bachelor of science in biochemistry, university records show, and got his medical degree from the University at Buffalo in 1981.

Weldon becomes the third Trump administration nominee who didn’t make it to a confirmation hearing. Previously, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration for attorney general and Chad Chronister for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

With David Olson