On Saturday evening, April 25, a number of breaking news reports emerged in the media that the Trump administration is considering replacing Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who has been serving in that role since January 2018. Azar, who had been president of the U.S. division of Eli Lilly and Company from 2012 to 2017, had replaced Tom Price, M.D., who had served as HHS Secretary from February 2017 until September 2017, when he resigned after an investigation into his use of more than $1 million of HHS funds for his own travel on private charter jets and military aircraft. That said, President Trump on Sunday pushed back on those media reports.
On Saturday, several reports emerged in the evening. The Wall Street Journal’s Stephanie Armour and Rebecca Ballhaus reported that “Administration officials are discussing replacing Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar following criticism of his management of the early response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to six people familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear if Mr. Azar will be ousted and in what timeline that might occur. Administration officials said the White House is hesitant to shake up the leadership of HHS during a pandemic, though they acknowledged that frustration with the secretary has been growing in recent weeks.”
As Armour and Ballhaus wrote, “President Trump is prone to unexpected staffing moves and dismissals, so the decision could still go either way. But people familiar with the discussions say they have accelerated in recent days with a far more serious tone, amid mounting criticism about Mr. Azar’s leadership, including a report in The Wall Street Journal detailing his early missteps in the coronavirus response.”
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond wrote on Saturday evening that “Any move to replace Azar would be contingent on President Donald Trump deciding to move forward, and there is currently little appetite inside the White House for a big shake up amid the coronavirus pandemic. The official stressed that nothing is imminent, but there are discussions underway at the White House about replacing Azar. The discussions come after Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence, rather than Azar, as the White House's point man for coronavirus response at a rare presidential news conference,” Diamond wrote. “Trump had privately expressed frustration over Azar's lack of communication on key issues as the head of the White House coronavirus task force. Azar has also been at odds with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, an ally of Pence's from Indiana who has been involved in the coronavirus task force briefings.”
As for possible replacements, POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn, Nancy Cook, and Dan Diamond reported Saturday evening that, “Among the names on the short list to replace Azar are White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx, Medicare chief [Administrator] Seema Verma and deputy HHS Secretary Eric Hargan, said the four people familiar with the talks.” They added that “Senior officials’ long-standing frustrations with the health chief have mounted during the pressure-packed response to the Covid-19 outbreak, with White House aides angry this week about Azar’s handling of the ouster of vaccine expert Rick Bright. At a recent task force meeting, Azar assured Vice President Mike Pence that Bright’s move to the National Institutes of Health was a promotion—only for Bright and his lawyers to release a statement that he would soon file a whistleblower complaint against HHS leadership, blindsiding White House officials, according to three officials familiar with the meeting.”
Trump pushes back
On Sunday, President Trump publicly denied the media reports. On Sunday evening, the Washington Post’s Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey reported that “President Trump pushed back Sunday evening on reports the White House is weighing whether to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar as ‘Fake News.’” As Abutaleb and Dawsey wrote, “The Washington Post, along with other news outlets, reported early Sunday that White House officials are discussing possible replacements for Azar as frustrations have grown over his handling of the coronavirus crisis earlier this year, and the uproar that followed his removal of a top vaccine official in his agency last week. Five aides familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation told The Post the president had not yet weighed in. Trump did that publicly on Sunday evening.”
As they wrote, “’Reports that H.H.S. Secretary @AlexAzar is going to be ‘fired’ by me are Fake News,’ he tweeted at 5:53 p.m. ‘The Lamestream Media knows this, but they are desperate to create the perception of chaos & havoc in the minds of the public.’ During the past several weeks,” the Post reporters wrote, “Azar has rarely appeared at the daily White House coronavirus news briefings and has been largely sidelined from the response. He oversaw that effort until Feb. 26, when he was replaced by Vice President Pence amid anger over the continued lack of coronavirus testing and conflicting messages from health officials about the threat of the virus, which has now claimed more than 54,000 Americans’ lives.”
This is a developing story. Healthcare Innovation will update readers on new developments as new information becomes available.
