President Joe Biden plans to appoint former North Carolina health secretary Mandy Cohen as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO.
Cohen, an Obama-era health official well known in Democratic policy circles, would replace outgoing CDC chief Rochelle Walensky, who is slated to leave the agency at the end of the month.
The White House declined to comment, and the people with knowledge of the matter, granted anonymity to discuss personnel moves, cautioned that the decision is not finalized. Cohen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Biden is expected to formally announce Cohen’s selection later this month. She had also met in recent days with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and Health Secretary Xavier Becerra to discuss the job.
Cohen’s appointment would come at a transition point for the CDC, which faced intense scrutiny over its performance throughout the Covid crisis and low morale within the sprawling agency.
Biden picked Walensky at the outset of his administration in an effort to restore trust in the CDC and public health more broadly, vowing at the time that she would play a prominent role in directing his pandemic response. Yet while Walensky placed renewed emphasis on relying on science to craft policy, she also came under fire at times over the CDC’s shifting guidance and shaky messaging around key elements like masking and vaccines.
The CDC is also in the midst of a strategic overhaul launched by Walensky last year; a longer-term project that Cohen would be tasked with managing in an effort to better prepare the agency for the next public health emergency.
Biden officials involved in the search came away from discussions with Cohen impressed by her broad range of health experience at the federal and state levels, two of the people said, and convinced she had the ability to manage the nearly 11,000-person agency and the broader political dynamics of an administration gearing up for Biden’s re-election run.
Cohen spent four years as North Carolina’s health secretary, most notably running the state’s pandemic response before stepping down in January 2022. The role gave her the requisite public health experience that Biden aides were seeking in a candidate to replace Walensky, two of the people with knowledge of the matter said.
And during the Obama administration, she did stints as a senior official in various parts of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she was central to the agency’s high-profile implementation of the Affordable Care Act — and worked closely with Zients and other now-senior Biden officials.
Cohen also became one of the agency’s go-to officials for congressional testimony, winning praise for parrying pointed questions from Republicans sharply opposed to the health care law.
While Cohen’s appointment will not require Senate confirmation, she is likely to face ongoing scrutiny from Republican-led House committees investigating the Covid response.
Ben Leonard contributed to this report.
Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, a high-profile election official who has faced heavy scrutiny and harassment in one of the country’s largest counties over the last two cycles, is stepping down at the end of his term.
Gates, an Arizona Republican, announced his intention on Thursday to not run for reelection in 2024, saying in a statement that he intends to “pursue other interests and opportunities.” His decision was first reported by The Washington Post.
A spokesperson for Gates pointed POLITICO to Gates’ statement when asked for further comment.
Gates, who, along with his family, has been the target of threats and attacks during his tenure from those trumpeting false election claims, previously said that he suffers from PTSD. He is just one of many election administrators choosing not to run again following years of harassment from conspiracy theorists and a widespread lack of support for their work.
“Regardless of personal partisan preferences or external pressure, I remained focused on making our region the best place to live, work, and raise a family,” Gates said in Thursday’s statement. “My will to fight for the truth remains unhindered, and I look forward to Maricopa County running the 2024 election.”
Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county that’s home to close to 5 million people, has been in the center of litigation and conspiracy theories about the validity of election outcomes.
Gates has drawn criticism from defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who tried unsuccessfully to get the county to redo her contest, claiming that “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election.”
“Mr. [Gates’] malicious incompetence has been an albatross on Maricopa County,” Lake’s campaign account tweeted in response to the announcement. “We encourage Mr. Gates to never involve himself in representative politics again.”
The county experienced issues with its printers in the midterm elections. But an external investigation completed earlier this year found those problems were due to equipment failure — not intentional misconduct.
Those election fraud conspiracy theories aren’t new. Following the 2020 presidential race, a Republican-backed audit of Maricopa County’s election debunked former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the election was rigged.
Gates is one of four Republicans on the county’s five-person Board of Supervisors — all of whom the county’s Republican Party censured following the 2022 midterms due to claims of “avoidable errors” that lead to “significant voter disenfranchisement.” All of the supervisors are up for reelection in 2024.
Gates was first elected to the board in 2016, and served as chair of the board in 2019 and 2022. Prior to joining the board, he served on the Phoenix City Council.
President Joe Biden fell on stage at the Air Force Academy graduation on Thursday after handing out the last diploma to cadets, according to video and reporters at the scene.
“He’s fine. There was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands,” White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt wrote on Twitter, in response to video of the fall.
Biden appeared to trip, and he was on the ground for just a couple of seconds as Air Force officials helped him up.
Biden, 80, is the oldest person to serve as president in American history. His chief reelection rival, former President Donald Trump, would also become an octogenarian in office if elected in to another four-year term in 2024.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom and other top California officials Thursday cautioned school administrators against restricting what students read and learn about marginalized groups — marking their most forceful response to a spate of conservative-led book challenges to date.
Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and state Superintendent Tony Thurmond warned K-12 leaders in a letter that a litany of state laws and constitutional precedent could stand in their way should they shelve books or cut curriculum based on their inclusion of themes related to race and sexual orientation.
“A local educational agency’s removal of materials” in some cases, the three Democrats wrote, “may constitute unlawful discrimination.”
They also told administrators to prepare for a review from the attorney general if they restrict instructional materials.
The admonition builds on recent actions from California Democrats who have recently acted to shield California's public schools from a slew of restrictions pushed by Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on what students learn about race and gender.
Newsom's office earlier this month requested information from DeSantis, the Florida Department of Education and textbook publishers over K-12 social studies books that were revised under pressure from Florida Republicans. Thurmond this week sent a memo to California school leaders warning that content restrictions could run afoul of the First Amendment.
Book bans and restrictions in California have been rare, according to national groups tracking them. One tracker cited in the California leaders' letter reflects only one book removal in the state — a high school district north of Los Angeles that shelved "This Book is Gay" by Juno Dawson.
But this latest move adds pressure from the left to school boards in the state's conservative pockets, where right-leaning parent groups have been active in challenging content. It also further defines Democrats' liberal vision for the state's education system, which has included making ethnic studies classes a high school graduation requirement for the class of 2030 and mandating instruction on sexual health.
"As state leaders elected to represent the values of all Californians, we offer our response in one shared voice: Access to books — including books that reflect the diverse experiences and perspectives of Californians, and especially those that may challenge us to grapple with uncomfortable truths — is a profound freedom we all must protect and cultivate," the California leaders wrote.
A former GOP candidate for the New Mexico House of Representatives has been indicted for his alleged role in a series of drive-by shootings targeting the homes of four elected officials in the state.
Following his failed bid for the seat in New Mexico’s 14th District during the 2022 midterm elections, Solomon Peña orchestrated shootings at the homes of two Bernalillo County commissioners and two New Mexico state legislators between Dec. 3, 2022, and Jan. 3, according to the Justice Department's indictment, which was unsealed Wednesday.
Before planning the shooting spree, Peña visited the homes of at least three Bernalillo County commissioners, the DOJ said, in an effort to get them not to certify the results of the election, which he claimed had been “rigged” against him.
Peña allegedly worked with two accomplices — Demetrio Trujillo and Jose Trujillo — to carry out the shootings, and carried out one on his own, according to the indictment. Family members of the officials, including children, were in the homes during at least three of the shootings, though no one was wounded or killed in any of the shootings.
“In America, the integrity of our voting system is sacrosanct,” Alexander M.M. Uballez, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico, said in a statement Wednesday.
“These charges strike at the heart of our democracy," he said. "Voters, candidates, and election officials must be free to exercise their rights and do their jobs safely and free from fear, intimidation, or influence, and with confidence that law enforcement and prosecuting offices will lead the charge when someone tries to silence the will of the people.”
PITTSBURGH — It was her brother’s active faith that inspired Carol Black to recommit as an adult to being a practicing Jew several years ago, and their shared commitment brought them to the Tree of Life synagogue on the October 2018 day it was attacked.
Testifying on the second day of the trial of the man who carried out the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, Black told jurors Wednesday about how she and others in her New Light congregation heard loud noises as they started Sabbath services. They soon realized it was gunfire, so some of them hid in a storage room.
“I just remained calm. ... I thought by remaining calm, I would not give my position away,” she testified in the Pittsburgh federal courtroom.
Black, 71, recalled how she remained hidden even as she saw congregant Mel Wax, who had been hiding close to her, drop dead after the gunman shot him. Wax, 87, was hard of hearing and had opened the storage door, apparently believing the attack was over, she said. Black didn’t learn until later that her 65-year-old brother, Richard Gottfried, was among the 11 people killed in the attack.
The testimony came in the trial of Robert Bowers, a truck driver from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin. Bowers, 50, could face the death penalty if he’s convicted of some of the 63 counts he faces in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack, which claimed the lives of worshippers from three congregations who were using the synagogue that day: New Light, Dor Hadash and the Tree of Life.
That Bowers carried out the attack, which also injured seven people, isn’t in question: His lawyer Judy Clarke acknowledged as much on the trial’s first day. But hoping to spare Bowers from the death penalty, Clarke questioned the hate crime counts he faces, suggesting instead that he attacked the synagogue out of an irrational belief that he needed to kill Jews to save others from a genocide that he claimed they were enabling by helping immigrants come to the U.S.
Prosecutors, who rejected Bowers’ offer to plead guilty in exchange for removing the possibility that he could be sentenced to death, have said Bowers made incriminating statements to investigators and left an online trail of antisemitic statements that shows the attack was motivated by religious hatred.
Bowers, who only surrendered on the day of the attack after police shot him three times, had commented on Gab, a social media site popular with the far right, that Dor Hadash had hosted a refugee-oriented Sabbath service in conjunction with HIAS, a Jewish agency whose work includes aiding refugees.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo Song began Wednesday’s proceedings by asking Black about her affiliation with the New Light congregation. She recalled how her brother, Gottfried, became more observant after their father’s death and how she later began attending services regularly, getting so involved that she had an adult bat mitzvah — a Jewish right of passage that she hadn’t had as a teenager.
“I was rededicating myself to Judaism,” she said.
She recalled fondly how in 2017, she and her brother carried Torah scrolls as they paraded from their old synagogue, which the small congregation had sold in a downsizing, to their new location in rented space at the Tree of Life building.
She said Gottfried, Wax and 71-year-old Dan Stein were “the three main pillars of our congregation.” On the morning of the attack, Gottfried and Stein were in a kitchen near the sanctuary planning a men’s group breakfast for the next day when Bowers killed them.
Black said she and fellow member Barry Werber hid in a darkened storage closet for what “felt like a year” before police rescued them. And she said that as she left, she quietly said goodbye to Wax as she had to step over his body to follow the officers.
Werber, 81, also testified about hiding in the closet.
“My mind was clouded with panic,” said Werber, who also saw Wax get killed.
“I heard gunshots,” Werber testified. “Mel Wax fell back into the room, and a short time later the door opened slightly. I saw a figure of a person step over the body and then step back. He couldn’t see us. It was too dark.”
Jurors also heard the recordings of 911 calls made by Werber and Gottfried.
Bowers, like on the trial’s first day, showed little emotion as he sat at the defense table.
Jurors also heard testimony from Dan Leger, who was severely wounded in the attack.
Leger, now 75, and two other members of Dor Hadash were gathered in an upstairs room about to start a Torah study when they heard gunshots. One of the participants fled. Leger, a nurse and chaplain, and Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz decided to see if they could assist anyone who might be injured.
“Jerry was a physician, I’m a nurse. ... We knew instinctively that what we needed to do was try to do something to help. So we both moved into the direction of the gunfire, which perhaps was a stupid thing to do, but that’s what we did,” Leger said.
Rabinowitz, 66, was killed. Leger was shot in the abdomen and lay on the staircase, keeping still so as not to let the shooter know he was still alive.
He heard the voice of Tree of Life member Irving Younger calling out the name of fellow member Cecil Rosenthal in horror. Younger and Rosenthal were both killed.
The pain soon became “excruciating,” Leger said.
While waiting for rescue, Leger said his breathing became labored, and he recognized the symptoms: “I felt that I was dying.”
He uttered the Shema — a Jewish prayer professing faith in one God — and he prayed a final confession of his sins.
“I reviewed my life, I thought about the wonder of it all, and the beauty of my life and the happiness I had experienced,” he said, including with his family and friends.
Although he said he was “ready to go,” Leger was rescued and underwent multiple surgeries. He still suffers from severe injuries, including a hip fracture, nerve damage and abdominal wounds that required the removal of a large section of his intestines.
