Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) grilled former CDC Director Susan Monarez during a Senate committee hearing about her firing, going on to clearly catch her in a huge lie concerning a conversation she had with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Mullin wasted no time in going for the proverbial jugular, reminding Monarez that the meeting with Kennedy was recorded, so her only two options were to tell the truth or prove she’s a liar.
“It was a recorded meeting, so you can testify one way or you can prove that you’re lying or be honest with this committee,” Mullin told Monarez during the hearing. “And I’m giving you the opportunity to be honest here, because you’ve been really walking around the edges and not being truthful.” Earlier in the exchange, Mullin asked Monarez when she first spoke with her attorneys.
The former CDC director first said she couldn’t remember when she first spoke with her legal representatives, before going on to say it was on or before the day she got booted from the Trump administration. However, Mullin quickly pointed out that timeframe was when she retained counsel, not when she first spoke to them, noting he had access to the records, so he knew the answer to the question.
Monarez once again stated her first verbal communication with her lawyers was on or before the day she was fired, changing her story a bit by saying she talked to them the day she retained their services. “Were you let go in the middle of the night? Were you let go in the middle of the day? I know the answer to this, so let’s be honest here,” Mullin said.
Monarez answered that she received an email from the White House “indicating that my services were no longer needed” sometime in either the afternoon or evening. Mullin pushed back against Monarez asking if she then retained the services of her legal team during the middle of the night. “You got all the attorneys after business hours to retain them?” To which she replied, “I don’t recall.” Mullin fired back, “I think you do.”
The Republican senator pushed forward again, saying, “I still think you have an honest issue, because it wasn’t that long ago. And I think I could recall when I hired an attorney. I could definitely recall the time I did it. Now, when did you remove the political appointees from the floor that you work on?” Monarez danced around the question, saying that she moved some political appointees and put her senior advisors together. Mullin accused her of talking in circles and trying to avoid giving straight answers to simple questions.
Later in the exchange, Monarez doubled down on her story that Kennedy said he couldn’t trust her, to which she replied that if he didn’t trust her, he could go ahead and fire her. Mullin called her out for lying about that encounter as well.
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“I tell my kids all the time, ‘You know, one thing I want from you, I can deal with any situation we walk into as long as I know you’re being 100% honest with me. The minute I can’t tell you’re being honest with me, I can’t trust you. From then on, everything you say is questioned,'” Mullin went on to say, going on to add he has to question Monarez “because your personality and your answers aren’t correct.”
Monarez claims that she fired for refusing to preapprove vaccine recommendations made by a CDC panel without being presented with scientific evidence. Kennedy has denied her claims, telling senators that she was lying about what really happened during their conversation. After Monarez was fired, several other top health officials, including chief medical officer Dr. Debra Houry, stepped down from their positions, according to a report from PBS.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video