Trump’s CDC fight is about stamping out dissent

For many Americans, the dismissal by the Trump administration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concerns the confrontation between the science of the establishment and the anti-vaccination movement led by the Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

But for President Donald Trump, who adopted the skepticism of vaccines from his Maga database while praising the delivery of COVVI-19 vaccines as part of his first mandate operating speed program, the fight against Susan Monarez aims mainly to eliminate dissent.

Although Trump did not talk about the evisation of the leadership of the CDC – several of the deputies of Monarez resigned after Kennedy announced that she had been chopped earlier this week – the White House officials defended this decision, which was precipitated by the refusal of Monarez to sign on the future vaccine recommendations of a panel that Kennedy has stacked the skeptic.

“The president was elected for a reason,” said a senior White House official in a telephone interview with NBC News. “He has an opinion on all these areas, and he wants to execute these opinions. If there are people who do not believe in democracy, then they should not work in a democratic government.”

In this context, the dismissal of Monarez is part of a larger effort by Trump, his cabinet and his aids to consolidate power inside the executive branch and its margins. In many cases, the targets are experts in their field, the people that Trump has named himself or both.

Last week, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, dismissed several senior Pentagon officials, Trump tried to dismiss the governor of the Federal Reserve, Lisa Cook and the member of the Surface Transport Board of Directors, Robert Primus, and the FEMA staff who signed a letter criticizing Trump’s cuts to the agency was put on administrative leave.

Monarez, Cook and Primus fight all their layoffs.

Some CDC employees consider the president as a war of political ideology against the empirical sciences.

“It really looks like the end of the end of objective science,” said an employee of the CDC who spoke under the cover of anonymity to avoid remuneration. “I feel physically ill. I felt proud to work for CDC, and now I’m afraid. ”

Trump’s risk by shaking the CDC is as simple as the COVVI -19 epidemic which blessed it – and has harmed the country’s health and economics – during the last year of his first mandate: Americans can blame him for having enabled him to have enabled him to have an expertise if there is another pandemic. Because he is not eligible to present himself to re -election, any electoral damage would probably fall on the shoulders of his republican colleagues.

A former senior Trump campaign manager who works on congress campaigns said Trump will not lose any basic support to dismiss the CDC director, but that independent voters may wonder if it is a judicious decision – especially if another disease tears the country. This could strengthen Trump’s democratic criticism and Kennedy.

“Anyway, let’s say that the director was there and that there is an epidemic a month ago, the Democrats still say that RFK is a bat,” said the former campaign official. “It doesn’t change the answer. It just gives a point of data.”

At the same time, there are signs that Trump will get a decline in his own party on the hollow of the CDC management, which included the resignations of Dr. Debra Houry, chief of the agency; Dr DEMETRE DASKALAKIS, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory DIEESES; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the national center for emerging and zoonotic infectious diseases; And Dr. Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health, Surveillance and Technology.

Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., Who delivered a key vote in favor of Kennedy’s confirmation after having declared having obtained a series of promises from Kennedy which were equivalent to validation of the efficiency of the vaccines, called this week for the postponement of a meeting of September 18 of the CDC CDC of the CDC on immunization practices. It is the panel in the center of the history of Monarez.

“Serious allegations have been made regarding the agenda of the meeting, membership and the lack of scientific process followed for the ACIP meeting of September now announced,” Cassidy said in a statement.

In February, when he voted to advance the appointment of Kennedy to the Senate, Cassidy said that Kennedy had promised not to reconstruct the panel – which Kennedy has done since.

“If the meeting takes place, all the recommendations made should be dismissed as lacking in legitimacy given the gravity of allegations and current CDC management,” said Cassidy in the press release on Thursday.

The head of the White House said that no one should be surprised by Kennedy’s approach to vaccines – or Trump’s desire to make sure that his agenda never gets tired with resistance to any level.

“The point of view and the position of Bobby on this subject were very clear at that time,” said the White House manager. “Generally, there are people buried in the government who think they can cancel or challenge the will of the elected president.”

Trump rubbed in inertia during his first mandate.

“This is a different administration – it is managed differently,” said the White House manager. “There is a conviction that,” we will always pass our person and it will be good and we will resist. “This is not one thing.”