Karoline Leavitt Vows Fired CDC Director Will Exit Role: ‘This Woman Has Never Received a Vote’

Susan Monarez, who was hand-picked by Donald Trump in March to serve as CDC director, is fighting back now that she has been fired for clashing with Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. and is refusing to leave her post.

In a statement, her attorneys said, “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.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the issue at Thursday’s press conference, saying, “her lawyer’s statements made it abundantly clear themselves that she was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again.” Leavitt continued:

And the secretary asked her to resign. She said she would. Then she said she wouldn’t, so the president fired her which he has every right to do. It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly reelected on November 5. This woman has never received a vote in her life and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.

A new replacement will be announced by either the president or the secretary very soon. And the president and secretary Kennedy are committed to restoring trust, transparency and credibility to the CDC by ensuring their leadership and their decisions are more public facing, more accountable, strengthening our public health system and restoring it to its core mission of protecting Americans from commutable diseases, investing in innovation to prevent, detect and respond to future threats. That’s the mission of the CDC and we are going to make sure folks in positions of leadership there are aligned with that mission.

A second reporter then asked if the public should expect more changes coming to the CDC — a topic that has roiled many in the country in the last twenty-four hours.

“Not to my knowledge,” Leavitt answered. “I understand there were a few other individuals who resigned. One of those individuals wrote in his departure statement that he identifies pregnant women as pregnant people. That’s not someone who we want in this administration anyway. So people are not aligned with the president’s vision and the secretary’s vision to make our country healthy again then we will gladly show them the door.”

Watch the clips above via Fox News.