Lawyer and journalist Katie Phang tore into President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration a day before her Senate confirmation hearing.
Speaking on her "Katie Phang News" YouTube channel on Wednesday, Phang warned viewers about Dr. Heidi Overton, whose confirmation hearing is set for Thursday, and argued that Trump's nominees share a common trait.
"These people are just going to be parroting whatever he wants, right? There's no independent thought," Phang said. "And if you see the honorific of doctor in front of their names, that also doesn't mean anything."
Phang zeroed in on Overton's work at the America First Policy Institute, where she served as chief policy officer and vice chair of the group's Center for a Healthy America.
"I love how they just have the word salad, but it really just means she was the chief policy officer for Crazy Land," Phang said, calling the think tank an "absolute feeder to the Trump regime."
Phang, who described herself as "a true, true believer" that "the government has no business being in our business," said her reaction to the nomination was simple.
"Yeah, that's not going to work," she said.
She then read from a policy brief Overton co-authored during her time at the institute, which declared that "abortion is corrosive to children, women, and society broadly because it devalues and extinguishes innocent human life."
"All medical lies, all scientific lies," Phang said.
Phang warned that Overton would hold "a lot of power over the things that are super personal to us, not just as women, by the way, but it also includes men." She also cautioned viewers not to assume the nominee would be an ally.
"Do not be fooled that just because they're women that they're on our side," Phang said.
She also took aim at Republican senators she accused of trying to use the FDA's ongoing safety review of the abortion drug mifepristone to restrict access.
"They are hell-bent on using this FDA safety study as a weapon," Phang said. "They want to weaponize it to justify changing the laws and making sure that women have less access to reproductive freedom than they did before."
Phang was joined by board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, who urged senators to press Overton on whether she would be transparent about the review's findings.
"What do you plan to do if this review actually shows that mifepristone is safe, which is something we know you don't agree with?" Lincoln asked. "Are you going to bury it?"
Phang urged viewers to be "armed with the truth so you can debunk the lies that are going to be coming out of this lady's mouth tomorrow."