Sen. Bill Cassidy rebuked Katie Couric for “demeaning” President Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during a fiery interview in which the Louisiana Republican was repeatedly pressed over his support for the administration’s controversial health officials.
Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, bristled after Couric suggested he was willing to settle for an “adequate” CDC nominee in Dr. Erica G. Schwartz, whom Cassidy has backed despite concerns about whether she would stand up to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“You’re implying that there could be a better nominee. I’m not sure there can be,” Cassidy shot back.
“When I look at her record, and spoke to her privately, and speak to those who know her well, I think she’ll be a good nominee, and maybe a great one,” he added.
Then Cassidy turned on Couric.
“I’m not going to lie, you’re demeaning — you’re demeaning her,” he said.
“I’m not saying that you’re doing it in a way that attempts to demean, but you are demeaning the quality of who she could be, and I will not accept that.”
Couric responded: “Okay, well then I stand corrected,” before asking Cassidy to explain his assertion that Schwartz would be operating under “difficult circumstances” at the CDC.
Cassidy acknowledged there could be friction between Schwartz and Kennedy if the CDC director follows the science while her boss takes a different position.
“If your secretary doesn’t believe in one thing, and you’re having to adopt something which is more science-based, there’s going to be a certain tension there,” Cassidy said.
Couric grilled Cassidy during a contentious interview over the senator’s role in confirming Trump’s health nominees.
Cassidy cast the critical vote in the Senate Finance Committee that advanced Kennedy’s nomination in February of last year after publicly expressing deep reservations about his record on vaccines.
He subsequently voted to confirm Kennedy as HHS secretary.
Couric reminded Cassidy that he received private assurances from Kennedy before supporting him — including commitments involving vaccine access and the existing vaccine approval process — only to conclude later that Kennedy had not honored them.
“With all due respect, Senator, we have seen this movie before,” Couric told him.
Cassidy acknowledged the risk of relying again on private assurances but argued that leaving the CDC without permanent leadership also carried consequences amid several public-health threats.
“If you wait for the person for whom you have no doubt whatsoever, you may never get that person,” he said.
Schwartz, a physician, lawyer and preventive-medicine specialist, previously held senior positions in the Coast Guard and US Public Health Service, including serving as deputy surgeon general.
Her selection has nevertheless raised questions over whether she would exercise independent scientific judgment under Kennedy.
Earlier in the interview, Couric also repeatedly pushed Cassidy to say whether Kennedy remained qualified to run HHS after the senator criticized what he called false information about vaccines coming from the department.
“He serves at the pleasure of the president,” Cassidy initially replied.
“That’s not the question I asked, Senator,” Couric interrupted. “I said, ‘Is he qualified to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services given the misinformation he has perpetrated in this country?’”
Cassidy eventually gave his clearest answer: “If I was the president of the United States, he would not be my secretary of HHS.”
But he accused Couric of trying to turn their disagreements into a personal confrontation.
“I really think your line of questioning is trying to … develop a Bill versus Bobby sort of scenario,” Cassidy said, adding that “much of that which has been coming out regarding vaccines is false.”
Couric then asked whether, knowing what he knows now, Cassidy would still cast his vote to confirm Kennedy.
The senator declined to give a yes-or-no answer.
After Cassidy left to cast a Senate vote, Couric told listeners the encounter had left her exasperated.
“This was one of the most frustrating interviews I’ve done in a very long time,” Couric said.
“The fact that he is not up for reelection, apparently, didn’t seem to make him any more willing to speak truth to power.”