Former health official under RFK Jr: ‘I was fired for holding the line on scientific integrity’ – live updates

After a short break, lawmakers are now back. Democratic senator Maggie Hassan, of New Hampshire, kicked things off by saying that she was “unsure” about whether Monarez would “stand up to Secretary Kennedy”, but went on to thank the former director on her recent actions.

Monarez was visibly upset when she recounted Kennedy’s response after telling him that she needed to consult scientific evidence before making decisions on vaccine recommendations.

“He made another set of assertions associated with CDC that were particularly pointed and particularly hurtful and disparaging. He called, in that context, CDC ‘the most corrupt federal agency in the world’,” Monarez said. “He said that CDC employees were killing children and they don’t care. He said that CDC employees were bought by the pharmaceutical industry. He said CDC forced people to wear masks and social distance like a dictatorship.”

Monarez later said, when asked about his conduct in that meeting, that Kennedy did not express condolences for the death of David Rose, the police officer who was killed during the recent shooting at the CDC, or the two children who died of measles earlier this year.

Both Dr Monarez and Dr Houry both expressed their concerns about the decisions that the vaccine advisory committee meeting tomorrow will make. “I know that the medical community has raised concerns about whether or not, again, they have the commensurate backgrounds to be able to understand the data and the evidence and to evaluate it appropriately,” Monarez said. “I don’t know what will happen, but I certainly will be watching.”

Meanwhile Houry said she had “significant concerns” as the public had not been able to weigh in. “The general vote should have been posted two weeks ago so the public knew what was being discussed,” the former chief medical officer of the CDC said.

Earlier, Houry said that she found out about the new Covid-19 vaccine recommendations from the Food and Drug Administration via social media.

“CDC scientists have still not seen the scientific data or justification for this change – that is not gold standard science,” Houry added.

Earlier Monarez said that Kennedy demanded “blanket approval” of “each and every one of the recommendations” in the upcoming vaccine advisory panel meeting. Monarez claimed that Kennedy said if she couldn’t do that she would need to resign.

“I did not resign, and that is when he told me he had already spoken to the White House about having me removed,” Monarez said.

Monarez went on to push back on Kennedy’s claims that she was “a liar” in his Senate finance committee earlier this month.

When Senator Bernie Sanders asked Monarez why she refused to rubber-stamp vaccine recommendations without seeing them or the evidence behind them, the former CDC director explained that it wasn’t negotiable.

“I refused to do it because I have built a career on scientific integrity, and my worst fear was that I would then be in a position of approving something that would reduce access of life-saving vaccines to children and others who need them,” she said.

“I had refused to commit to approving vaccine recommendations without evidence, fire career officials without cause or resign,” Monarez said. “I told the secretary that if he believed he could not trust me, he could fire me.

“I was fired for holding the line on scientific integrity,” she added.

Monarez went on to say that she met with Kennedy twice in her 29-day tenure.

Monarez is now outlining a timeline of events before her firing. Here’s a breakdown of her summary.

• On 8 August, a gunman “driven by vaccine distrust”, launched an attack at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta – killing officer David Rose.

• On 19 August, Monarez says she received “a directive” from the secretary’s office that she “now required prior approval from my political staff for CDC policy and personnel decisions”.

• On 21 August, she says she was “told to return to Washington from Atlanta immediately”, which would have meant missing officer Rose’s memorial. “Something I was not willing to do,” she adds.

• On 25 August, Monarez says that secretary Kennedy “demanded two things of me that were inconsistent with my oath of office and the ethics required of a public official.” She claims that Kennedy directed her to commit in advance, to approving every recommendation for the vaccine advisory panel, “regardless of the scientific evidence”. She also says that Kennedy directed her to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause.

• Monarez says that at this point Kennedy told her if she was “unwilling to do both” she should resign.

Speaking now, Dr Susan Monarez says that there have been “several explanations” about her removal from the top role at the CDC.

“I told the secretary I would resign, that I was not aligned with the administrative administration priorities, or that I was untrustworthy. None of those reflect what actually happened,” Monarez said.

“I will share the details, but I want to be clear, today should not be about me. Today should be about the future of trust in public health,” she said.

The hearing where the fired CDC director Susan Monarez has started. In his opening remarks, Republican senator Bill Cassidy – who chairs the Senate health committee – summarized the crux of today’s proceedings.

If someone is fired 29 days after every Republican votes for her, the Senate confirms her. The Secretary said in her swearing in that she has “unimpeachable scientific credentials”, and the president called her an incredible mother and dedicated public servant. Like what happened?”

A reminder that Monarez was the first CDC director to require Senate confirmation.

Cassidy noted that health secretary Kennedy said in a Senate finance committee earlier this month that his decision to clear house at the CDC was “imperative” because of the agency’s “conflicts of interest and catastrophically bad judgment and political agendas”.

“If what he said is true, we as senators need to ask ourselves, did we look past something? Did we do something wrong?” Cassidy added.

A driver rammed into an entrance of the FBI field office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today. The individual was later identified as Donald Henson, from Penn Hills, which is about 10 miles from the site of the attack.

Henson allegedly got out of the car after the crash, and threw an American flag on to the gate. He then left the scene on foot, according to a statement from the FBI Pittsburgh office.

Law enforcement officials are treating as a “targeted attack”, but confirmed that no FBI personnel were injured.

Back on Capitol Hill today, we have two hearings that we’ll be watching closely, both are due to begin at 10am ET.

The fired director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will appear before the Senate health committee following her termination in August.

After Susan Monarez was removed from her role, less than a month after she was confirmed to the agency’s top position, it set off a wave of resignations from top public health officials. One of those experts, Debra Houry, will join Monarez today. Houry was the CDC’s chief medical officer prior to stepping down from her post, citing the spread of vaccine misinformation and the interference of politics in the agency’s work.

A reminder, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr sat before the Senate finance committee earlier this month and was grilled about the circumstances around Monarez’s firing. He claimed that she was “lying” about her claims that her ousting was the result of refusing to sign off on the secretary’s new vaccine policies.

Instead, Kennedy said that she was removed because she admitted to being untrustworthy.

Meanwhile, in Congress’ lower chamber today, FBI director Kash Patel will testify before the House judiciary committee. His second Hill appearance of the week. On Tuesday, Patel sparred with Democratic lawmakers in the Senate about accusations that recent firings within the department were politically motivated.

The chair of the House foreign affairs committee moved to cut a contentious provision from legislation that would have granted the secretary of state sweeping powers to revoke US citizens’ passports over allegations of supporting terrorism.

Representative Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, filed an amendment to eliminate the measure from his department of state policy provisions act, a bill meant to reform the state department in the Trump administration’s image, after widespread criticism from civil liberties advocates, according to the Intercept.

The original language would have given Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, the power to deny or revoke passports for individuals the department determines have provided “material support” to terrorist organizations. Given similar language employed by the Trump administration in other contexts, it is believed to have been intended to target pro-Palestinian activists specifically.

Since Rubio became secretary of state, he has overseen efforts to deport pro-Palestinian international students and deploy an AI-powered “Catch and Revoke” system to target foreign nationals government authorities allege support Hamas. The US also recently announced it will look for “anti-American” views when assessing visa applications.

But the new measure would have significantly escalated these efforts by targeting US citizens. Mast had initially defended the broader legislation, saying it “ensures every dollar and every diplomat puts America First and is accountable to the president’s foreign policy” when the House foreign affairs committee introduced the package last week.