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White House Withdraws CDC Dir. Nominee Just Before Confirmation Hearing; U.S Wholesale Inflation Slowed Substantially in February; Senate Democrats Must Decide If They Will Let Government Shut Down. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 13, 2025 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, nominations scrapped just minutes before President Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to testify up on Capitol Hill. The White House has just pulled his nomination.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Pamela Brown is off today. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news. President Trump's pick to lead the CDC was set to testify right now up on Capitol Hill. But just moments ago, the White House pulled his nomination.

Let's start our coverage this hour with CNN White House Reporter Alayna Treene and CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell.

Alayna, first to you over at the White House. Tell our viewers what happened.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Wolf. What we learned that moment ago, as you said, the White House had pulled the nomination of Dave Weldon, his nominee, the president's nominee, to serve as the director of the CDC to Trump administration officials, told me who were familiar with that decision.

Now, Weldon was actually slated this morning to appear before the Senate HELP Committee for -- or Senate Health and Education and Labor, et cetera, to appear for his confirmation hearing. However, they said that they had canceled that after learning of his withdrawal.

Look, when I talked to some of these officials about the decision, they told me that it comes as many people in the Trump administration were concerned about some of the public comments Weldon had made, expressing skepticism over vaccines. I'm told that even RFK Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, had expressed some concern, notable given, of course, we know that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long history himself of questioning vaccines.

So, as of now, it's unclear, you know, how they move forward from this, but very noteworthy that this comes as he was expected to appear before the Senate committee for that hearing. Wolf?

BLITZER: A dramatic development, indeed. Alayna, stand by. Meg Tirrell with us as well. Meg, as Alayna just reported, Weldon has some very highly controversial opinions when it comes to the critically important issue of vaccines. What more are you learning about his beliefs?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. This had come into question just leading up even in the last night coming into the expected hearing this morning. We heard from Senator Patty Murray's office, she is on the health committee that was set to hold that hearing this morning, that in her meeting with Dr. Weldon last month, she told us, quote, it's dangerous to put someone in charge at CDC who believes the lie that our rigorously tested childhood vaccine schedule is somehow exposing kids to toxic levels of mercury or causing autism. She said he made debunked claims about vaccines in that meeting they had last month.

Now, I actually reached out to Weldon and heard back from him late last night. He told us, quote, I never said thimerisol, this ingredient that had been rise in vaccines, was the cause of the rising levels of autism. But he says at the time I was concerned that it could be. He says, after the thimerisol was removed, autism rates did not come down but continued to rise, convincing me that it was not the cause.

And you can just see in this back and forth right here, Wolf, that there were concerns about how he was questioning the safety of vaccines. This, of course, was an issue that was happening 25 years ago, but people were still concerned about this. But what I'm hearing from folks in public health now is who's going to replace Weldon as the CDC nominee, this as we have a measles outbreak happening in Texas. Folks are concerned about bird flu, and we do have Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary himself, making some mixed claims about vaccines in that role. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Meg Tirrell and Alayna Treene reporting the breaking news for us, thank you very much.

Also this morning, another key inflation report is just out, signaling some relief for price weary Americans. But when could that relief reach your wallet?

Let's go live right now to CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. Vanessa, what does this latest report tell us?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's good news for U.S. businesses. We are seeing that prices slowed in the month of February, unchanged from January, month over month, and then on an annual basis, up 3.2 percent. But that is a decline from what we saw in January when prices hiked by 3.7 percent.

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And this is important because this is what producers or businesses pay for products. And then, ultimately, those prices get passed down to consumers. So, it's a good sign that prices are low for businesses and could be lower for consumers. We also saw that picked up in the consumer price index report that we saw yesterday, which also showed slowing price hikes.

But I also want to draw your attention to something that the president said yesterday about eggs. He said that his administration has helped to bring down the price of eggs. Well, on the wholesale front, egg prices have certainly slowed in the month of February. Eggs rose by 28 percent. Compare that to 44 percent in January. And then that on your screen right there, though, is what -- that is the price difference for producers, what producers are paying. So, you see that slowed a little bit. And then on that other full screen that we have for you, that hasn't really trickled down to consumers just yet. Consumers are still paying higher prices for eggs, about $5.90. for a dozen.

But I will say, Wolf, that both of those reports, this Producer Price Index Report and the Consumer Price Index Report, don't fully capture tariffs just yet. It only captures the 10 percent tariff that we put on China February 1st, not all of the other tariffs that have played out since then, Wolf.

BLITZER: Interesting. Vanessa, I want to turn to the President's ongoing trade war out there, and it seems to be growing. He's now threatening the E.U. with another massive tariff this morning. What do we know about that?

YURKEVICH: The president this morning is saying that he is threatening a 200 percent tariff on French wines, French champagne, arguably something that U.S. consumers buy a lot of. And, ultimately, if that tariff hits, U.S. consumers will pay those higher prices. Now, that is in retaliation to a 50 percent tariff that the E.U. put on U.S. whiskey. And that tariff was in retaliation to the 20 percent tariff that President Trump put on all steel and aluminum coming into the country.

So, the question is, if this tariff goes into effect, this 200 percent tariff, does the E.U. retaliate again? And that's what you see playing out here, Wolf. You see the tariff, the retaliatory tariff, and back and forth. So, this is an endless cycle of tariffs. And this is why this is a global trade war that is escalating by the hour, Wolf.

BLITZER: It certainly is. All right, Vanessa Yurkevich reporting for us, thank you very much.

Happening right now, up on Capitol Hill, Democrats have to decide if they will allow the federal government to shut down tomorrow at midnight. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, meaning the GOP needs 7 votes from across the aisle to support the bill's final passage. You need 60 votes in the Senate to beat a filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says there won't be enough defections from the Democrats for this to happen.

Let's go live right now to CNN Congressional Correspondent Lauren Fox up on Capitol Hill. Lauren, so where do things stand right now? So much is at stake. LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. Democrats really have two options at this point. They can either vote to advance this legislation and overcome that filibuster in order to avert a shutdown, or they can block it and potentially deal with a shutdown.

Now, a lot of Democrats are trying to entertain and propose a third option, and that is this idea that they want a vote on at least an amendment for a 30-day stopgap spending bill that they say would give them more time to have broader negotiations on full year bills with Republicans and therefore give them more leverage. But right now, it's just not clear if that would be enough.

Here're some Democrats talking about that.

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SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): If we shut down the government, that's generally considered by many people as not a good thing to do, and especially in this environment, when we have an unelected billionaire that's already shutting down parts of the government.

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FOX: Now, this is really a huge moment for Democrats because they are arguing that they want to protect federal workers, but, of course, the impacts of a shutdown on some of those same federal workers would be extreme. And so a lot of Democrats grappling with this decision, a lot of Democrats undecided how they would vote on this first procedural vote when it comes up, we expect, tomorrow. Wolf?

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. Lots at stake, as I keep saying. Lauren Fox up on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

Today is the deadline for federal agencies to submit plans for another round of mass layoffs. Elon Musk and his DOGE team have already fired more than 100,000 workers, including more than half of the U.S. Department of Education earlier this week. Listen to this.

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SHERIA SMITH, ATTORNEY, EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: This administration, with these written notices, have impacted every last office in the U.S. Department of Education, not one spared.

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And so the impact that it will have on students with disabilities.

BRITTANY COLEMAN, LAID OFF ATTORNEY, EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: We are not here to tell school districts what to teach in their classrooms, what not to teach. We have not pushed woke ideology.

CHAUNCY JAMES, FIRED FEDERAL WORKER: And now they're like basically denying our unemployment compensation claims. So, they're starving us out at the same time. How am I going to pay my bills?

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BLITZER: CNN correspondent Rene Marsh is here with me in The Situation Room. She's got details. How widespread, Rene, are these layoffs expected to be?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're talking about across government, across all of these agencies. And really, up until now, we have seen this sort of drip, drip, drip of terminations of employees put on paid administrative leave. And it really has been anxiety-inducing. But that was then. And now what we're looking at is a ramped up phase of this shrinking of the federal government.

The plans that the agencies are submitting today will not just be about termination of federal employees. It's going to also include eliminating certain offices and certain divisions totally. We know that the decision to make these cuts and cut some of these federal workers, many of them on a large scale, is happening even as some agencies like the NIH don't even have their director confirmed and in place as yet, and yet these cuts are moving forward.

I am told that on the agency level, DOGE has been very involved in the input as far as what these cuts should look like. We also know that the Office of Personnel Management and OMB will have the final say to approve these cuts. And OPM, Wolf, just as a reminder, also that's basically the equivalent of DOGE, again, speaking to the tremendous amount of power of Elon Musk, who has said in the path that he believes some of these agencies need to be, quote, deleted.

BLITZER: Will all these tens of thousands of federal workers who are being fired, being laid off, will they get some severance pay? Will they be able to keep some of their benefits like healthcare?

MARSH: I mean, even the employees who have been let go already have told us that they have had problems accessing those benefits. They've been calling the phone lines that they need to call. They're not getting the customer service that they need. So, we don't know what the picture is going to look like with the scale of what we're expecting. It remains to be seen, the unions obviously watching this quite closely as well.

And then on top of those benefits, Wolf, there is also the hurdle of getting unemployment benefits, which many federal employees have told us they've had difficulties getting because they haven't been able to get the necessary paperwork that they need downloaded from their systems. This is all has been chaotic.

BLITZER: I keep hearing all these horror stories here where we are in the Washington, D.C. area, whether Northern Virginia or Maryland or D.C., all these federal workers being laid off. And they got to pay bills, they got kids to take care of, and they're in deep, deep trouble right now because of all these firings.

All right, Rene, thank you very, very much, Rene Marsh reporting.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Canada this morning at the G7 Summit of Foreign Ministers. He faces another critical day of diplomacy as President Trump's trade war is clearly heating up. Rubio met with Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly this morning, who's been very, very critical of Trump's tariffs, completely understandable.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Chief National Security Correspondent Alex Marquardt. He's traveling with the secretary. He's in Quebec for us right now.

Alex, what can you tell us about this meeting?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, these meetings, and there's a series of meetings just getting underway. At best, I think Wolf, Rubio, is going to be getting a mixed welcome, but more likely to be frosty because of everything the Trump administration has been doing and threatening against allies in the past few days and weeks.

Yes, there is this U.S.-led ceasefire for Ukraine that is on the table that has widespread backing from the Canadians and from the Europeans, but at the same time, we have these threats that are being -- these tariffs that are being levied, bigger tariffs being threatened against Canada and Europe as well. And then you have the Trump administration's talk about Canada becoming the 51st state, which, of course, has been angrily received here in Canada, which is hosting the G7 Summit.

You noted that Secretary Rubio's very first meeting today was with his Canadian counterpart, who has said in the past that the Trump administration is showing too much disrespect to Canada, that everything that the Trump administration is doing with regards to Canada is a fundamental threat to their country.

The very first meeting here today, Wolf, is about strengthening the G7, but there are going to be a lot of people in that room who think that the U.S. is weakening the G7, increasing global insecurity and instability. Wolf?

BLITZER: Alex Marquardt in Quebec for us reporting the latest developments, and we'll stay in very close touch with you.

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These are critically important talks. Thank you very, very much.

Still ahead, stuck in space a few days longer when SpaceX and NASA will try again to bring two astronauts home. We've got new information.

And up next, turning down to a -- ticking down, I should say, to a government shutdown. Republicans are already placing the blame on Democrats for the spending bill slowdown. I'll discuss this and more with House Republican Conference Chair, Congresswoman Lisa McClain.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: Let's get some more now in the looming federal government shutdown. The deadline to pass a spending bill is closing in as the U.S. Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, says his caucus, the Democratic Caucus, has the votes to block the Trump-backed bill narrowly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Joining us now is the House Republican Conference chair, Congresswoman Lisa McClain of Michigan. Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us.

I know you're already, like so many other Republicans, blaming the Democrats for this potential shutdown, and you say Republicans should call their bluff, your words. But your party, as you, of course, know, has control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. Why should voters hold Republicans accountable for what happens in Washington if, in fact, there is a federal government shutdown?

REP. LISA MCCLAIN (R-MI): Well, if you want to look at it that way, you can, but I would ask the Democrats, why are you against the same spending that you were for and voted for three months ago? Perhaps it's political. That's where I would focus.

Listen, the House did our job. We passed the budget resolution, and we passed the C.R. And to use a Democratic term, we passed it in a bipartisan fashion. So, why wouldn't Democrats in the Senate join us in a bipartisan fashion, like they did in the House to make sure that we take care of our most vulnerable, that we programs like WIC, Social Security and Medicare funded and that the most vulnerable people continue to get those programs?

No, the Democrats would rather play politics and shut the government down, which is extremely unfortunate. And they do that because they don't like the leader. Well, you know what? Sometimes you have to work with people that you don't like and do what's best for the American people, Wolf.

BLITZER: But, clearly, Congresswoman, the Democrats don't want the government to shut down and they've put on the table a specific proposal in the Senate. They say, let's sit down, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, and work out a 30-day temporary C.R., continuing resolution, so that we can work out a full scale deal and avoid a government shutdown. But the Republicans, at least so far, are refusing to sit down with the Democrats and work out some sort of compromised proposal.

MCCLAIN: To use this Democrats language, they want certainty, right? What have they been hammering Donald Trump on, oh, the uncertainty, the uncertainty? Well, if they're very concerned about uncertainty that comes out of one side of their mouth, then they should have no problem voting for this continuing resolution that provides certainty.

30 days will not provide certainty. It just extends the uncertainty.

BLITZER: But in 30 days -- excuse me for interrupting, Congresswoman. MCCLAIN: If I could just finish. This C.R. funds the government. This CR funds the government, which was under Joe Biden and was bipartisan. So, what's the problem with the same spending level?

BLITZER: But what's the problem with avoiding a government shutdown -- what's the problem with avoiding another government shutdown right now, which would have disastrous impact all across the country, including your home state of Michigan? What's the problem with sitting down with Democrats, at least postponing it for 30 days and perhaps coming up with a compromised proposal that would pass the Senate and then go back to the House, pass the House, and the president would sign it into law?

MCCLAIN: The problem is we've done our work. It's bipartisan. We've tried to work with the Democrats, and all the Democrats want to do is tie the hands of President Trump, which is a nonstarter for us. We've tried to work with the Democrats, and they have been reluctant to do that.

So, what we did, in a bipartisan fashion, I might add, Wolf, is pass the continuing resolution at the exact same levels that the Democrats voted for three months ago. We've done our job. And if the Democrats want to a temper tantrum because of Donald Trump and shut the government down, then that shutdown is on them. They've had time to work with us. They've refused. So, we did our job for the American people. And that's what we're going to continue to do, Wolf.

BLITZER: Well, why not sit down with the Democrats one more time and see if you could perhaps work out a last-minute deal?

MCCLAIN: Because the time has run out, and we've shared with them that the time has run out. Because government funding expires, as you know, Friday, tomorrow, at midnight.

BLITZER: I know, so that's why it's so critically important to sit down and at least pass a 30-day continuing resolution to keep the talks going for another 30 days and avoid a government shutdown.

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MCCLAIN: I would turn it on you. Why haven't you come to the table until now? Because your policies of trying to jam the Republicans aren't working with a united House right now. So, you've had your opportunity. You blew it. That's all right. You played hardball. We called your bluff. And we are giving you the exact same C.R. that we sat down with you over three months ago. But now you want to tie the hands of the president, and we are not going to allow you to do that.

So, the other thing that you should be asking the Democrats is why aren't you voting for what you voted for three months ago?

BLITZER: Well, we've got a Democratic congresswoman coming up right here in The Situation Room in the next hour. And we'll get into all of that.

According to a new poll, Congresswoman, a new CNN poll that was just released today, more than half of the American public now say President Trump's policies have harmed the U.S. economy. Just 28 percent say that they feel that his policies have improved things. If the president's economic policies are working, why aren't Americans feeling it yet?

MCCLAIN: Well, because he's got a big mess to clean up from the previous administration, and he's only been in office a little more than 50 days.

But I would point to the facts that came out, I believe it was yesterday, maybe today, egg prices down 15 percent, prices at the gas pump down, and inflation actually down. So, I think it's going to take a little bit more time, but I hope you're reporting on the stuff that actually is down, price of eggs down 15 percent, price of gas down, and inflation down.

So, it's going to take some time to get out of the mess that the previous administration got us into. And I can share with you, I think, that the American people spoke loudly, we want transformational change and that's what we're trying to do. And it will happen, but it's going to happen a little bit slowly.

Listen, I wish the president and I wish we had this magic one that could fix the debacle of the past four years, but we can't. It's going to take time. And I think I just gave you three examples of things that are actually doing a little bit.

BLITZER: We have been reporting all those numbers. I don't know if you saw Matt Egan's report at the top of the hour, but we reported that there's been a slight jump in egg prices, for example. So we're reporting all that information.

MCCLAIN: Good, progress.

BLITZER: Congresswoman Lisa McClain, the number four Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan, a great state, thanks very much for joining us.

MCCLAIN: Thank you so much, Wolf. Have a great day.

BLITZER: And we hope you'll come back.

Coming up, a scrubbed launch in Florida means two astronauts on the International Space Station are extending their already extended trip into space. The efforts to bring them home, we have new information.

Stay with us. That's next.

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