Trump fired CDC Director Susan Monarez himself says White House

    Washington, Aug 28 (AP) The director of the nation's top public health agency, Susan Monarez, was fired by President Donald Trump himself late Wednesday because she wasn't “aligned with the president's mission” and refused to resign, according to the White House press secretary. Monarez's lawyers said she was targeted for standing up for science.
    Four other agency leaders resigned on Wednesday. “We knew ... if she leaves, we don't have scientific leadership anymore, ” one of the officials, Dr. Debra Houry, told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We were going to see if she was able to weather the storm. And when she was not, we were done.”
    Meanwhile, the Trump administration asked a military base outside Chicago for support on immigration operations this week, offering a clue of what an expanded law enforcement crackdown might look like in the nation's third-largest city.
    Also, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook has sued the Trump administration in an effort to overturn the president's attempt to fire her, launching an unprecedented legal battle that could significantly reshape the Fed's longstanding political independence.
    
    Vance says of Guard deployments that Trump is not forcing this on anybody
    As the vice president promoted Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts law in Wisconsin, he was asked about the administration's deployment of the National Guard in the nation's capital, which he defended.
    Vance also pointed to Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser's comments Wednesday that having more federal law enforcement officers on the capital's street had helped.
    “The President of United States is not going out there forcing this on anybody, though we do think that we have the legal right to clean up America's streets if we want to,” Vance said.
    Vance said the president wants mayors and governors across the US to invite the federal government to come help them address crime in their cities and questioned why any of those officials have objected to a federal presence.
    “Why is it that you have mayors and governors who are angrier about Donald Trump offering to help them than they are about the fact that their own residents are being carjacked and murdered in the streets? It doesn't make an ounce of sense,” he said.
    
    White House says Trump fired the CDC director himself
    During her briefing with reporters, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Susan Monarez was asked by the administration's health secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., to resign and she said she would but “then said she wouldn't.”
    “So the president fired her, which he has every right to do,” Leavitt said.
    Leavitt said a statement released by Monarez's lawyers “made it abundantly clear that she was not aligned with the president's mission to Make America Healthy Again.” She said a replacement for Monarez would be announced by Trump and Kennedy soon.
    Leavitt said she didn't have knowledge about more changes coming to the CDC, but noted that top officials left when Monarez did.
        
    Fired CDC Director won't leave because termination was legally invalid, lawyer says
    Attorney Mark Zaid said in a post on X late Wednesday that CDC Director Susan Monarez, as a presidential appointee and Senate-confirmed officer, can be fired only by President Donald Trump.
    Zaid says that instead, Monarez was informed of her firing by staff in the presidential personnel office. Zaid says that notification was “legally deficient” and that Monarez will remain as the public health agency's leader.
    
    Monarez' lawyers say she's been targeted for protecting the public
    Susan Monarez's lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell issued a statement Wednesday evening saying she had neither resigned nor been told she was fired.
    “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” the attorneys wrote.
    “This is not about one official. It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science.”
    
    CDC director Susan Monarez is out after less than a month on the job
    The US Department of Health and Human Services says Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    HHS officials did not explain why Monarez is no longer with the agency.
    Before the department's announcement, she told The Associated Press: “I can't comment.”
    Monarez was the agency's 21st director and the first to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was sworn in July 31 — less than a month ago, making her the shortest-serving CDC director in the history of the 79-year-old agency. (AP) OZ
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)