By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump named radiologist and Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier as his pick for U.S. Surgeon General on Thursday, his third nominee for the post, after withdrawing the nomination of Casey Means.
The move sets up a standoff between Trump and Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, whom he accused of blocking Means’ nomination and called “a very disloyal person.”
Means was a key ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but she lacked the votes to advance from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which Cassidy chairs.
She is not a practicing doctor and is an integral part of the Make America Healthy Again movement that has undermined vaccines. Her brother Calley Means works for the White House.
Cassidy’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump’s accusation or Saphier’s nomination.
Means was not immediately reachable.
Saphier, who works at Memorial Sloan Kettering, is the author of books including “Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion Dollar Crisis.”
“Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Caroline Humer and Andrea Ricci )
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