Trump Press Sec’s Dimwitted Spin Implodes as RFK Firing Fiasco Worsens

The White House is trying to fire Centers for Disease Control director Susan Monarez for opposing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies. This has sent the CDC sliding into chaos. On Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt struggled to spin what’s happening. She said Monarez had never been subject to a vote—but the Senate voted to confirm her. Leavitt insisted the White House had fired Monarez—but Trump’s direct word appears to be required, and as of this recording, he hadn’t spoken. Leavitt pretended Trump is defending the integrity of our vaccine system—but RFK is destroying it, and the continuing CDC walkout also wrecks her claim. We talked to the University of Michigan’s Don Moynihan, author of a good Substack called Can We Still Govern? We discussed how Trump will struggle to defend this move, how the American people will recoil at the looming loss of a professionalized bureaucracy, and how all this is sowing the seeds for catastrophe later. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.