White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has jumped in to clean up President Donald Trump’s comments about his pick for surgeon general after he signaled that he was ready to dump her.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that withdrawing his nomination of Make America Healthy Again influencer Casey Means “would be possible,” adding: “We have a lot of great candidates for that job.”
“We’re looking at a lot of different things, and I don’t know how she’s doing in the nomination process,” Trump said. “I’m more focused on Iran.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, Leavitt denied that the administration is souring on Means and insisted the close ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. still has the president’s support to become the nation’s top doctor.
“Dr. Casey Means has spent her entire career as an entrepreneur, bestselling author, and researcher bringing attention to America’s chronic disease epidemic and how our healthcare system is failing the American people,” Leavitt said.
“The president stands by her, and the Senate should move quickly to [confirm] Dr. Means as our next surgeon general without further delay.”
Means’ nomination appears far from certain, as multiple Republicans have questioned her credentials and her skepticism about vaccines.
Means does not have an active medical license and built a large MAHA following online due in part to her mistrust of the medical establishment.
Her nomination must still advance through the Senate Health Committee, where she cannot afford to lose the support of any Republican on the panel.
GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Bill Cassidy, the panel’s chairman, have all suggested they may not support her nomination following her confirmation hearing in February, during which she dodged numerous questions about her views on immunizations and did not explicitly say she recommends that all Americans receive measles and flu shots.
Sen. Thom Tillis told the Post last week that he is leaning toward voting against her nomination if it reaches the Senate floor because she didn’t perform well in February’s hearing, adding that he was “not impressed with her background.”
Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general during Trump’s first administration, also twisted the knife by suggesting Means is not up for the job.
“The role of surgeon general has centuries of precedent and requirements, and she doesn’t meet them,” Adams told the Post on Sunday.
