WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of a broader effort to install loyalists across the government, critics said.
"Trump wants people in place who will do what he wants," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua. "He will continue to fire bureaucrats he doesn't like until someone stops him."
"He has had extraordinary success in getting rid of people who oppose his policies," West said. "Until there are court decisions or legislative actions that restrict his power, he will keep doing this."
Less than a month after taking the job, CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired on Wednesday after refusing to adopt new restrictions on certain vaccines urged by Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert Kennedy, saying that the changes went against scientific evidence.
Four senior CDC officials have resigned in protest of Monarez's firing and in opposition to Kennedy's vaccine policies.
Following her ouster, the White House appointed Jim O'Neill as acting CDC director -- a close associate of Kennedy with a resume closely tied to Trump donor Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal.
Besides serving as principal associate deputy secretary of the HHS during the George W. Bush administration, O'Neill was also CEO of the Thiel Foundation from 2009 to 2012 and managing director from 2008 to 2012 at Thiel Capital. He is also a co-founder of the Thiel Fellowship, and served as managing director of Mithril Capital Management, a venture capital fund co-founded by Thiel.
Monarez's removal came amid a series of personnel controversies involving Trump and officials he dislikes.
In recent months, Trump has criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell, repeatedly threatening to fire him to pressure the Fed to lower interest rates.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration announced its intention to remove Fed official Lisa Cook from her position, citing allegations of mortgage fraud.
"The president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday during a press briefing.
"The president and Secretary Kennedy are committed to restoring trust and 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 communicable diseases, investing in innovation to prevent, detect and respond to future threats," Leavitt said.
Monarez's firing has raised concerns in Congress.
Senator Bill Cassidy, the GOP chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the CDC firing "will require oversight."
Senator Bernie Sanders, the longest-serving independent member of Congress and a vocal opponent of the Trump administration, called the sacking "outrageous," saying Monarez was dismissed for refusing "to act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous policies."
"Despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, Secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts," Sanders wrote in a New York Times guest essay, urging Kennedy to resign. Enditem
