Three hours after the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., threatened to push her out of her job, Susan Monarez, then the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, picked up her phone and alerted Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, that she might not be around much longer.
Mr. Cassidy, the physician and ardent proponent of vaccines who leads the Senate’s health committee, had agonized before casting a crucial vote to pave the way to confirm Mr. Kennedy, the nation’s loudest vaccine critic. At the time, the senator said he had done so based on a promise from the nominee that he would protect access to vaccinations and maintain an “unprecedentedly close, collaborative working relationship” with Mr. Cassidy.
The phone call in August from Dr. Monarez, which was recounted by two people familiar with the private exchange who discussed it on the condition of anonymity, suggested that the health secretary had broken both pledges. She detailed for Mr. Cassidy how Mr. Kennedy had told her to fire top C.D.C. officials and accept the vaccine recommendations of his handpicked advisers or resign.
Dr. Monarez was fired by the White House two days later. Mr. Kennedy says he pushed her out for refusing to say she was “trustworthy.” Now Mr. Cassidy is in a tricky spot, his job imperiled by a primary challenge at home and his reputation on the line in Washington as he determines how far to go in trying to rein in a health secretary who has repeatedly defied Congress — and him personally.
Mr. Cassidy will be in the spotlight on Wednesday, when Dr. Monarez will appear before his committee at his invitation to tell her story publicly for the first time. It is the latest high-stakes moment for a Republican senator who has inhabited shaky political ground ever since he aroused the wrath of President Trump four years ago by voting to convict the president on an impeachment charge of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post Cassidy, His Job in Peril, Scrutinizes Kennedy on Vaccines appeared first on New York Times.
