In a collection of social media posts Thursday, President Trump withdrew his nomination of Make America Well being Once more influencer Casey Means to be surgeon normal, lashed out at Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.) for Means’ stalled nomination within the Senate, then introduced a brand new nominee: Nicole B. Saphier, a breast radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Most cancers Middle, a Fox Information contributor, and founding father of an natural complement firm who has questioned vaccines.
Trump’s abandonment of Means comes as no shock. The nomination of the Stanford College-trained physician has been stalled within the Senate since her February affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which Cassidy chairs. Afterward, it grew to become clear that a number of Republican lawmakers, together with Cassidy, had reservations about her nomination.
Doubts about Means
Particularly, considerations centered round her vaccine views and {qualifications}. Though she has a medical diploma, she dropped out of her medical residency and doesn’t maintain an lively license, which suggests, if confirmed, she would function the nation’s high physician with out with the ability to observe medication. Throughout her listening to, she largely tried to skirt questions on vaccines, avoiding explicitly recommending lifesaving pictures or contradicting the views of anti-vaccine Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Since abandoning her medical profession, Means has constructed a profitable wellness profession, changing into a distinguished influencer amongst Kennedy’s MAHA motion. As such, she has peddled diagnostic exams, natural cures, varied wellness merchandise, teas, dietary supplements, and “elixirs,” whereas offering doubtful well being recommendation. Within the ebook Good Power, which she co-authored together with her brother and which some contemplate the “MAHA bible,” there’s a chapter titled, “Belief Your self, Not Your Physician.”
In a publish about Means’ failed nomination, Trump blasted Cassidy, calling him “a really disloyal individual,” who “stood in the way in which of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nominee, Casey Means.” He then clarified: “I nominated Casey, a robust MAHA Warrior, on the suggestion of Secretary Kennedy, who understands the MAHA Motion higher than anybody, with maybe the doable exception of ME!” Trump ended by thanking Means and saying she would proceed to battle for MAHA.
