White House to soon name new CDC director after Donald Trump fired Susan Monarez

Addressing the media, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Trump has the authority to ‘fire’ those who do not align with his mission.

“The president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday.

Trump fires CDC Director

US President Donald Trump led the federal government on Thursday fired Susan Monarez, the Director of the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hours after she refused to resign under pressure from the administration, according to the news portal NBC News. 

As per the news report, Monarez said that she was resisting being ousted by the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for political reasons after nearly a month in office.

“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” Monarez’s lawyers told the news portal.

They also alleged that Monarez neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she had been fired. The lawyers did not respond to the queries sent by the news portal. 

After this, the White House formally terminated the Monarez’s term as the Director of CDC.

“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again. Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told the news portal.

At least four top officials, including Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, the Director of National Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis, the Director of National Centre for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Daniel Jernigan, and the Director of the Officer of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology Jen Layden, reported the news portal.