WASHINGTON — During a highly anticipated hearing with fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville alluded that Monarez should have followed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s orders.
The former director offered a competing account to Kennedy’s on what led to her ouster.
After just 29 days on the job, Monarez was fired in August from her post leading the top U.S. public health agency after clashing with Kennedy because she refused to change vaccine recommendations without evidence and refused to fire workers without cause, she testified in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Wednesday.
“Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology or compromise my integrity,” Monarez told committee members.
Earlier this month, in a separate contentious Senate hearing, Kennedy said Monarez was fired because he asked if she was “a trustworthy person and she said no.”
But on Wednesday, Monarez refuted Kennedy’s claims in response to Tuberville’s questioning about the conversation.
“He told me he could not trust me because I had shared information related to our conversation beyond his staff,” Monarez said. “I told him, ‘If you cannot trust me, then you can fire me.’”
The differing explanations for what transpired between Kennedy and Monarez made it difficult to decipher what actually happened, Tuberville said.
“America needs better than this,” he said.
Tuberville argued the back-and-forth that occurred during public hearings wasn’t necessary, saying it should have happened in private.
“There’s a lot of other things up here we need to be doing other than worry about somebody that’s not in their job anymore,” Tuberville told Alabama Daily News after the hearing.
During his questioning, the Alabama senator also emphasized to Monarez the chain of command at the health department, suggesting she was to be loyal to Kennedy.
“Do you agree or disagree that the CDC director reports to the HHS secretary?” Tuberville asked.
“The CDC director does report to the HHS secretary,” Monarez responded.
However, Monarez said she would lose her integrity if she didn’t tell the public or Congress about the turmoil at the CDC.
“I could have stayed silent, agreed to the demands, and no one would have known,” she said. “What the public would have seen were scientists dismissed without cause, and vaccine protections quietly eroded, all under the authority of a Senate-confirmed director with unimpeachable credentials.”
Senators from both sides of the aisle appeared unsettled by Monarez’s recounting of her firing.
“It’s about trust in our public health institutions because that’s what I’m worried most about,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, who caucuses with Democrats, said Monarez was fired because she refused to be a “a rubber stamp to implement Secretary Kennedy’s dangerous agenda to substantially limit the use of safe and effective vaccines that would endanger the lives of the American people and people throughout the world.”
But other Republicans were wary of Monarez’s testimony.
“Does the COVID vaccine reduce the rate of death for children under 18?” Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, asked.
“It can,” Monarez replied.
Paul shot back, “That’s a ridiculous answer. No, it doesn’t.”
During Tuberville’s questioning, he also asked Monarez if she followed through with an order from the White House to update the CDC website to get rid of a “health equity” page.
Monarez responded that she “did not refuse to do that,” but Tuberville subsequently posted on X a link to a webpage that is still online, which he claims was one he was referring to in the hearing.
“Stop lying to the American people,” Tuberville said on social media. “That’s why you were fired.”
Republicans, including Tuberville, unanimously supported Monarez’s nomination when she was confirmed at the end of July. Previously, Alabama’s senior senator called her an “excellent choice” to lead the CDC in a post on X after meeting with her in June. However, Tuberville told Alabama Daily News his thoughts have now changed.
“I thought she was going to go in there and be a team player, and fight for what’s right for the American people, but she’s not elected,” Tuberville told ADN. “You got to do what’s right, and evidently, the secretary didn’t trust her, or she didn’t trust the secretary. One or the other, (it) doesn’t make any difference. One of them’s got a little bit more power than the other one.”
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