Trump dooms surgeon general nominee with 'a lot of great candidates' comment: MS NOW

The chances of Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US surgeon general went from bad to worse on Sunday night after the president opened the door for someone to replace her with the Senate already dragging its feet over her nomination.

Casey Means, who is not a doctor, took a large blow on Sunday when former Trump Surgeon General Jerome Adams came out against her, saying, “The role of surgeon general has centuries of precedent and requirements, and she doesn’t meet them.”

Trump threw more fuel on the fire when speaking to reporters on Air Force One later Sunday, when asked about Adams’ remarks.

“Well, we’re looking at a lot of different things. I don’t know how she’s doing in the nomination process. I’m more focused on Iran,” Trump demurred. “But, you know, something like that would be possible. We certainly have a lot of, we have a lot of great candidates.”

Asked about Trump’s remarks, MS NOW’s Kevin Frey explained, “I mean, the long and short is it's not going that well. Things are stalled on Capitol Hill as it stands right now, and some of it just has to do with the basic math of the committee that would have to approve her to send it to the full Senate for consideration.”

“The committee, the Senate Health Committee that is in charge of this nomination, includes a handful of [Republican] moderates, including Senator [Susan] Collins (R-ME) and [Lisa] Murkowski (R-AK) , both of whom have expressed some skepticism, have not voiced outright support for her nomination. And then on top of that, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is the chairman. Of course, he has had his own misgivings about his decision previously to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to serve as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, especially when it comes to RFK's own background on vaccines.”

“Now, of course, when it comes to Means, as you mentioned, she's a lifestyle health influencer, but she also does not have an active medical license,” he told host Anna Cabrera. “And of course, when she was pressed during her committee confirmation hearing just a few weeks ago, she was asked repeatedly about vaccines and whether she would, for example, recommend that parents give their children the measles vaccines the flu vaccine, especially as we've seen a measles outbreak here in the U.S. and she was often deferential, saying it wasn't necessarily something she was going to recommend. Perhaps talk to your doctor and see exactly what they might decide, leaving it up to the parents.”

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