'He summoned her': Reporter says 'ball is in Trump's court' after major internal 'clash'

The supposed ousting of Centers for Disease Control Director Susan Monarez was potentially tied to an impending report from the Department of Health and Human Services that some anticipate will embrace the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism, a New York Times reporter said Thursday.

“We're all waiting for that report, it's being written by someone who has also embraced the vaccine-autism theory, so who knows what is coming next,” said New York Times reporter Sheryl Stolberg, speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday. “It may well be that his clash with Susan Monarez is in anticipation of that forthcoming report.”

Monarez, nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate in late July, was fired by the Department of Health and Human Services, led by its secretary RFK Jr., on Wednesday. Monarez rebuked the announcement, however, vowing not to resign, with her lawyers calling the firing “legally deficient” after noting that being a Trump nominee, she can only be fired by the president.

According to Stolberg, sources familiar with the matter said that RFK Jr. “summoned” Monarez to his office on Monday, and demanded she “accept their advisory committee’s recommendations on vaccines,” or be fired. Monarez reportedly refused, and called the chair of the Senate Health Committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to share details of the incident.

Cassidy, according to sources that spoke with Stolberg, went on to call RFJ Jr., a call that reportedly angered the HHS secretary, who then “summoned (Monarez) back on Tuesday and said ‘you’ve got to go.’”

RFJ Jr. has long spoken of the supposed link between vaccines and autism, links that have been thoroughly debunked by the scientific community. He recently teased an impending report that he claimed would reveal the causes of autism, with many speculating it to be about vaccines.

As to why Trump, who tapped Monarez for the position, would allow RFJ Jr. to oust her, Stolberg detailed Trump’s own history with floating false connections between vaccines and autism.

“President Trump has actually long expressed the view that vaccines cause autism,” Stolberg said. “As far back as 2007, he had a fundraiser for autism awareness groups, he's said repeatedly on social media, and in a 2015 presidential debate, (he said) that he thinks kids are getting too many vaccines and that autism is the result.”

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