Trump's FDA pick faces skepticism from left and right for vaccine, abortion, MAHA record
Senate health committee chair won't commit to supporting Heidi Overton, as MAHA grouses join Democrats' opposition based on her refusal to rebuke Trump, previous opposition to abortion pill's lax regulations.
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grouses → face → regulations
President Trump's second election suggested the Overton Window – the range of ideas and speech acceptable to the political mainstream — was reopening after years of contraction amid the Great Awokening.
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Window → suggest → Awokening
The confirmation window for Food and Drug Administration commissioner-nominee Heidi Overton, who as White House Domestic Policy Council deputy director allegedly kept the Make America Healthy Again Movement at bay, may be closing as a motley crew of cross-ideological activists alternately faults her as a corporate shill and ideological zealot.
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crew → keep → shill
Trump effusively praised Overton, a White House fellow in his first term and board-certified physician in public health and general preventive medicine, as "SMART and RESPECTED by all" when he nominated her in August.
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he → praise → August
As FDA commissioner, she will deliver "even more MAHA WINS!" Trump gushed.
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Trump → deliver → WINS
Yet a month later, old-guard MAHA leaders were threatening to extract a "political price" from the Trump administration for its perceived betrayal of priorities, especially by approving both updated and new mRNA therapeutics, such as a flu vaccine with a far higher injury rate than a traditional jab and marginally better performance.
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leaders → threaten → jab
Walking a tightrope between GOP and Democratic senators at her confirmation hearing days after the MAHA warning, Overton angered pro-life activists by affirming the integrity of an FDA abortion pill safety review they consider a sham and vaccine skeptics by saying every "approved" vaccine is "safe and effective," even COVID vaccines used off-label.
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vaccine → walk → label
Now she's taking fire from a MAHA rival as well as one of the first post-midterm advertising buys, a $500,000 campaign by Americans for Contraception to convince four GOP senators – two and possibly three lame ducks, depending on the outcome of the "Decoy Dan" Alaska race – to reject Overton's nomination, according to Politico.
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she → take → Politico
The ads fault Overton on intrauterine devices, abortion and vaccines, Politico said, apparently referring to her refusal to distinguish IUDs from abortifacients, her criticism of the FDA's relaxed regulations on the abortion pill as an America First Policy Institute officer in 2023, and her refusal to rebuke Trump for calling the measles vaccine "lethal."
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Politico → fault → vaccine
Lame-duck Louisiana GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the health committee considering Overton's nomination, told STAT News to "hang in there" when asked whether he supported Overton.
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he → consider → Overton
Biotech consultant Nick Shipley told Endpoints News he questions whether the White House will "spend political capital to push her through during the lame duck."
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House → tell → duck
Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb, who was FDA commissioner in Trump's first term, called Overton "the right pick in a difficult moment" in a STAT News op-ed, which curiously omits Gottlieb's Pfizer position, ahead of her confirmation hearing.
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which → call → hearing
Calley Means, a top adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who resigned from the White House without explanation two weeks before Republicans' midterm bloodbath, said "former lobbyists" for vaping, pharma, "ultra-processed food" and pesticide industries were "doing their bidding" in the White House to secure midterm donations at the expense of "what voters said," in a CBS Face the Nation interview Sunday.
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voters → resign → interview
He called Overton "the biggest block to MAHA policies I encountered in the government," who was a "stone wall" against his push for "healthy food" and "mental health treatments like psychedelics."
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who → call → psychedelics
She "does not have the character or integrity to be" FDA commissioner.
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She → have → character
In a section flagged by former FDA regulatory review officer Jessica Adams, Means said that Overton told then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary that "she couldn’t help Marty if he couldn’t approve" an mRNA flu vaccine, which Means said "scientifically should not be approved."
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Means → flag → vaccine
Makary famously stood by top vaccine regulator Vinay Prasad when the latter refused to consider Moderna's application for its mRNA flu vaccine based on a weak trial design, which prompted Moderna to threaten to offshore American jobs.
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which → stand → jobs
When Moderna agreed to change the trial design, mainstream media falsely reported the FDA had backed down.
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FDA → agree → design
"Big Tobacco exploited their connections to administration and HHS officials to put repeated pressure on me to approve fruit-flavored vapes that appeal to children," and "Kratom/7-OH lobby ran the same playbook to undermine my efforts to make this new 'gas station heroin' illegal," Makary told CBS News.
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Makary → exploit → News
"As FDA commissioner, I always rejected political corruption just as voters across the political spectrum did last week.
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voters → reject → spectrum
"
"Overall, I am sympathetic to Calley’s narrative about wanting to advance the MAHA agency [sic], but facing extreme headwinds," Prasad, who returned to the University of California San Francisco this spring, wrote in his newsletter Monday.
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who → want → newsletter
"On topics where I had first hand knowledge, my impressions are similar to his.
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impressions → have → his
Overton 'commented' on DOJ's glyphosate brief, WH says
Means said Overton "really mindlessly" did the bidding of Susie Wiles, whose resignation as White House chief of staff was reportedly tied to the GOP midterm blowout.
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resignation → comment → blowout
He had already accused Wiles, in a Joe Rogan podcast interview Friday, of a quid pro quo with sugar, pharma, agrochemical and tobacco industries.
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He → accuse → industries
Pollster Mark Mitchell, invited by Vice President JD Vance to brief Trump nearly a year ago about a growing divide between the president's priorities and those of his base, said on Mitchell's own podcast that Wiles warned him last year after Mitchell publicly criticized Pfizer.
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Mitchell → invite → Pfizer
Former Senate pharma corruption investigator Paul Thacker flagged Mitchell's Wiles story.
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Thacker → flag → story
Overton helped devise the Justice Department's legal arguments that convinced the Supreme Court to federally preempt state-level lawsuits against glyphosate maker Bayer for not warning consumers about the cancer risk from the herbicide
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that → devise → herbicide
, Means told Rogan.
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Means → tell → Rogan
(Americans for Contraception's ads also mention glyphosate, Politico said.)
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Politico → mention → glyphosate
A White House official told The New York Times that Overton "commented" on the solicitor general's draft brief, which SCOTUS had solicited.
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SCOTUS → tell → which
Wiles denied arranging for tobacco reps to meet with Trump at his golf course to discuss vaping policy, in a statement to CBS News.
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reps → deny → News
Attorney General Todd Blanche dismissed Means as a "disgruntled former administration official" and praised Wiles in a CNN State of the Union interview Sunday.
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Blanche → dismiss → interview
Just the News sought comment from Overton through AFPI, where she was chief policy officer before joining the White House this term, but the Trump-aligned organization didn't answer.
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organization → seek → House
Means named Overton again in an X post Sunday morning, requesting that Wiles and others preserve "drafts, internal correspondence, meeting notes, and communications" involving Overton concerning Trump's glyphosate executive order "and Bayer litigation, including discussions about Secretary Kennedy’s involvement."
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Wiles → name → involvement
He implied that Wiles had threatened to sue him for defamation.
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Wiles → imply → defamation
A spokesperson for Wiles told Axios that Means' accusations were "outrageous, defamatory, and provably false," and that she "will not allow these lies to go unanswered."
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lies → tell → Axios
Wiles has not used her X account since announcing her breast cancer in March.
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Wiles → use → March
She said in September she was now cancer-free.
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she → say → September
The Facts Inside Our Reporter's Notebook
Links
- Great Awokening
- allegedly kept the Make America Healthy Again Movement at bay
- President Trump effusively praised Overton
- threatening to extract a "political price"
- flu vaccine with a far higher injury rate
- Overton angered pro-life activists
- every "approved" vaccine is "safe and effective,"
- "Decoy Dan" Alaska race
- distinguish IUDs from abortifacients
- criticism of the FDA's relaxed regulations
- America First Policy Institute officer
- refusal to rebuke President Trump
- STAT News
- Endpoints News
- STAT News op-ed
- resigned from the White House without explanation
- CBS Face the Nation interview
-
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vaccine → keep → Nation
He called Overton "the biggest block
- flagged by former FDA regulatory review officer
- Moderna to threaten to offshore American jobs
- mainstream media falsely reported
- wrote in his newsletter Monday
- resignation as White House chief of staff
- reportedly tied to the GOP midterm blowout
-
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media → call → blowout
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
