The White House is responding to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Susan Monarez's refusal to step down from her role. CBS News' Olivia Rinaldi reports.

Washington

The White House has officially announced the termination of Susan Monterrez from her role as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), following her refusal to resign. Monterrez's legal team had previously stated that only the White House could remove her, disputing reports from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that she had been ousted. The White House cited a lack of alignment with the president's health agenda as the reason for her dismissal. Monterrez had served in the position for 27 days after being confirmed by the Senate.

The situation highlights ongoing tensions over the removal of Senate-confirmed officials, as Dr. Cook, a Federal Reserve Board governor, also contests her dismissal by the administration. Dr. Cook has filed a lawsuit claiming her removal violated due process rights, following accusations of lying on mortgage documents, though she has not been charged. These cases reflect broader questions about the authority to remove federal officials and the process involved.

White House reacts to CDC director refusing to step down from role

The White House says that, in fact, Ms. Monterrez has been ousted from her position at the CDC, I should say. Yesterday, we had heard from HHS, who said that she was let go, she was ousted from that role. And then we heard from her lawyers that say, no, in fact, she has not been ousted, and that the only person who can fire her is the White House, and she refuses to resign. Now, as a result, we just got this statement in from the White House from Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, who said, Susan Monterrez is not aligned with the president's agenda of making America healthy again. Since Susan Monterrez refused to resign, despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated her from her position with the CDC. Now, as you mentioned, she was in this role for just about a month, 27 days, and this is a role that you have to be confirmed in. So she was confirmed by the Senate on largely party lines, but was put forth by the White House. Now, there was some reporting that allegedly she had clashed with Secretary Kennedy, who leads the Department of Health and Human Services, over COVID vaccines. We've seen a lot of action on that in recent days, where Secretary Kennedy has pulled back some of that authorization for COVID vaccines that were approved back in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. So quite notable there, she had held a variety of positions throughout federal government, but it seems now that after her leaving the CDC, as Dr. Gowner has also said, there's been a bit of a vacuum. There are other top officials who left in her wake. So a lot of questions about who is going to lead the CDC. As we mentioned, this is a Senate-confirmed position. So the White House is going to have to put forward yet another candidate who's going to have to go through vetting, hearings, and a process on Capitol Hill to lead this agency. Yeah. And Olivia, Monterrez is a second federal official this week who has challenged the administration's ability to fire them. What are you hearing on that front? Right. That's exactly right, Mugo. I mean, we heard from Monterrez who's saying that the White House has to fire her, that it can't come from HHS leadership. But also thinking of Dr. Cook, the Federal Reserve, one of the governors on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, who earlier this week received a letter from this White House that the president said he no longer has confidence in her. She filed a lawsuit today saying that she was removed abruptly and this violated her due process rights under the Constitution and federal law. She was also arguing that the Trump administration tried to redefine the meaning of cause. Remember, her ousting happened because the White House said that there was a federal agency that found that she lied on some mortgage documents. She has not been charged in that case, but she's saying that because of that accusation, they are calling that the cause for her removal. Now, the White House also said in the statement today that the president exercised his lawful authority to remove a governor on the Federal Board of Governors for cause. The president determined there was cause to remove her for credibly lying on financial documents on a highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions. Again, Mugo, she has not been charged. This is just an accusation at this point, but it kind of speaks to this broader theme that we have seen two federal officials now who they have tried to oust from positions, Senate-confirmed positions, and are seeing some pushback and resistance.

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