Dave Weldon, center, pictured in 2005 when he was in Congress, is Trump's first nominee who did not make it through the Senate confirmation process.Joe Raedle/Getty

Republican lawmakers may not have considered avowed anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be too radical to run a federal health agency—but it turns out that Dr. Dave Weldon is.

On Thursday, the White House reportedly withdrew the nomination of the 71-year-old physician and former GOP representative from Florida to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just hours before his initial committee confirmation hearing was set to take place, according to Axios, which was the first to report the news, and a statement from Weldon. As I reported back in December, Weldon, who spent more than a decade representing Florida in the House of Representatives before returning to practice as a physician, has a staunch anti-vaccine record. This is what may have reportedly posed a barrier to his confirmation in light of the measles outbreak across several states, especially Texas and New Mexico, that has led to more than 250 cases and killed two people, including an unvaccinated child (though the cause of one of the deaths is under investigation, according to the CDC).

After the withdrawal of former Rep. Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, Weldon is the first Trump nominee who failed to make it through the Senate confirmation process—though there has been no shortage of unqualified nominees. The webpage for the Senate Health Committee notes that his Thursday morning hearing has been canceled. Spokespeople for........

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