President Trump’s now-withdrawn nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. David Weldon, is hitting back at Senator Cassidy and Senator Collins for their apparent opposition to his nomination. In a statement on Thursday, Dr. Weldon said he felt the process was duplicitous. 

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee cancelled Dr. Weldon’s confirmation hearing, which was scheduled for Thursday morning. A White House source confirmed to The New York Sun that Dr. Weldon was informed Wednesday night that his nomination was being pulled. 

When he was serving as a member of Congress more than 15 years ago, Dr. Weldon talked often about his concerns with thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines — which he claimed could be tied to vaccines causing autism. More concerning for lawmakers, however, was likely a 2002 letter Dr. Weldon wrote questioning the possibility that Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccines could be tied to the rise of autism rates. 

He did not hold back in a statement on Thursday after the nomination was officially withdrawn. 

Dr. Cassidy, who serves as chairman of the HELP Committee, had expressed reservations about the vaccine skepticism of health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during his confirmation process. Dr. Weldon claims that Dr. Cassidy made the decision to quietly tell the White House that he would not back the CDC director nominee because the combination of Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Weldon working together would be too much for the Louisiana senator to stomach.

“I can assume that the White House staff had my nomination withdrawn also because the Republican Chairman Dr. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was also voting no,” Dr. Weldon says. “Ironically, he is also an internist like me and I have known him for years and I thought we were friends. But he too was also throwing around the claim that I was ‘antivax’ or that I believed that vaccines cause autism which I have never said.”

Dr. Weldon also singled out Ms. Collins, who sits on the HELP Committee. He says that he had a pleasant meeting with her recently, though her staff later grew hostile. 

“Bobbie told me that earlier that morning he had breakfast with Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine who said she now had reservations about my nomination and was considering voting no. I had a very pleasant meeting with her 2 weeks prior where she expressed no reservation, but at my meeting with her staff on March 11 they were suddenly very hostile — a bad sign,” Dr. Weldon said in his statement. 

Neither Dr. Cassidy’s nor Ms. Collins’s offices immediately responded to requests for comment. 

Dr. Weldon went even further in his statement, implying that Dr. Cassidy and Ms. Collins were doing the bidding of the pharmaceutical industry in exchange for campaign contributions. Dr. Weldon also said members of the press were not accurately reporting his views on vaccines. 

“The concern of many people is that big Pharma was behind this which is probably true. They are hands-down the most powerful lobby organization in Washington D.C. giving millions of dollars to politicians on both sides of the aisle,” Dr. Weldon writes. 

“They also purchased millions of dollars of advertising in newspapers, magazines, and on television. For any news or organization to take on big Pharma could be suicide. Many media actually carry water for Pharma. They also give generously to medical societies and colleges and universities. I have learned the hard way don’t mess with Pharma,” he continued.