Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) on Thursday said the firing and resignations of top leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is further evidence of the “grave error” made in confirming Robert F. Kennedy to helm the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The HHS announced CDC Director Susan Monarez — confirmed last month — no longer would be working at the agency. But attorneys representing her pushed back on the announcement, saying she had not resigned or received notice of termination.
Four senior leaders at the CDC submitted their resignations in response, citing their strong disagreement with changes being made to the agency and with the current leadership.
“Yesterday’s events are yet more evidence that putting a quack like Bobby Kennedy in charge of public health was a grave error,” Ossoff said in a statement “The Trump Administration has been engaged for months in a campaign to destroy the CDC, America’s preeminent disease-fighting agency.”
“The Administration’s extremism and incompetence are putting lives at risk,” he added.
These departures come just weeks after a gunman shot hundreds of rounds into the CDC’s Atlanta’s headquarters in Ossoff’s home state. The shooting killed one police officer at the campus.
The Georgia Democrat also spoke out strongly against confirming Kennedy during his nomination.
“It’s truly astounding that the Senate stands on the brink of confirming Mr. Kennedy to lead America’s public health agencies,” he said in February. “And if the senate weren’t gripped in this soon-to-be infamous period of total capitulation, I don’t think this nominee would have made it as far as a hearing.”
The senator continued, “Mr. Kennedy compared the CDC’s work to Nazi death camps. These aren’t comments I take lightly, given my ancestors were exterminated in Nazi death camps and the folks who work at the CDC are my constituents.”
Kennedy on Thursday seemingly defended Monarez’s firing and said the administration was “not surprised” by the departures.
“I cannot comment on personnel issues, but the agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it — and we are fixing it — and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore,” he said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
