Senate committee advances Trump's pick for next surgeon general

Washington — The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced President Trump's pick for the next surgeon general on Wednesday, sending Nicole Saphier's nomination to the full Senate.

Saphier's nomination advanced as part of a group of nominees in a party-line vote. 

Mr. Trump nominated Saphier in April. A radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Monmouth, Saphier was a Fox News medical contributor until her nomination. She authored a book in 2020 titled, "Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis," and she is known for her criticism of how public health authorities handled the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mr. Trump called Saphier a "STAR physician" and "an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans."

Saphier's nomination came after Mr. Trump pulled his nomination of Casey Means, an ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and advocate for his agenda, after her nomination had stalled for months. At the time, Mr. Trump put the blame on GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the HELP Committee's chairman, calling him "a very disloyal person" and pointing to Cassidy's consternation over Kennedy's nomination at the start of his term. Cassidy ultimately supported Kennedy, despite his longtime vaccine skepticism, allowing his confirmation to move forward.

When Saphier appeared before the committee earlier this month, Cassidy sought assurances about her views on vaccines. Saphier testified that the MMR vaccine is not lethal, despite what the president has suggested. She called it "our greatest tool for combating measles infections," while encouraging people to get vaccinated. And she also said she does not believe childhood vaccines cause autism. 

Cassidy said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" after the hearing that Saphier had earned his vote, citing those statements about vaccines.

"When somebody is willing to be honest to the American people and say that vaccines are safe, you should be taking it, and the consequence of not can even include death, well, what else can you ask for when it comes to vaccines?" Cassidy said.

Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.

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