CBS's Margaret Brennan Confronts Trump Aide On FDA Interference: 'You're Not A Doctor'
CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday confronted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for raising doubts about the Food and Drug Administration’s plan to release stricter coronavirus vaccine guidelines.
Last week, Meadows reportedly demanded FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn provide detailed justification for the new guidance, which would make it exceedingly difficult for a vaccine to be approved by Election Day.
President Donald Trump has pledged a vaccine would be made available by the end of the year, if not by the Nov. 3 election. Democrats and public health experts have expressed concerns that Trump is pressuring officials to speed up the vaccine development process for political purposes.
“You’re not a doctor,” Brennan told Meadows during an exchange Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Why insert yourself politically into this, which feeds these concerns about interference?”
Meadows responded that Brennan’s producer “obviously” didn’t do a good job of informing her of “exactly” what he had done, though he didn’t elaborate on what that might be.
“What we actually have is new guidance that’s coming out,” Meadows continued. “My question is: Why would that new guidance come out after we’ve already spent $30 billion doing that? And my challenge to the FDA is just make sure it’s based on science and real numbers and so as we look at that ―”
“Why would the FDA not be basing it on science and real numbers?” Brennan interrupted.
Meadows didn’t directly respond. Instead, he questioned why the FDA would release new guidance “after we’ve developed vaccines and drugs for decades.”
“We’re trying to make sure that the guidance we give is not an inhibitor to getting things out fast, but it also doesn’t detract from it,” Meadows said. “I’m optimistic that that guidance will come out based on good science.”
The new guidelines, drafted by a small group of career scientists at the FDA, would...
