Hawley officially a yes on Dr. Oz after securing commitments on transgender, abortion issues
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., will vote to confirm President Donald Trump's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) nominee, Dr. Mehmet Oz, after securing commitments from him regarding transgender treatments for minors and abortion.
"On this basis, I will vote to confirm him. Now that I am confident that he has moved away from his previous positions, and he's moved into alignment with the president, I feel comfortable voting for him," he told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview on Monday.
The senator revealed that Oz responded to his inquiries and disavowed his past stances on transgender treatments for minors and abortion in a series of posts on X earlier in the day.
"Dr. Oz has responded to my questions re: past support for trans treatments for minors & his criticism of right to life. Oz now disavows his previous support for trans surgeries & drugs for minor children. He pledges to 'end chemical and surgical mutilation of children,'" Hawley wrote on X on Monday.
"He also walks back past criticism of state pro-life laws, says he supports the Dobbs decision, and is 'unequivocally pro-life.' He vows to enforce conscience protections, end the abuse of [the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act], and work to end funding for abortion providers," he continued.
"This was really a big shift of position for him," he explained, adding that he was "delighted" by Oz's responses.
"When it comes to the [transgender] issue and the life issue, those are non-negotiable for me, just as I believe they are for the president," the Missouri Republican explained. "I want to know that these people are 100% clear."
"Every member of the Trump administration is working from the same playbook, President Trump's playbook, to restore commonsense policies and put an end to left-wing ideological nonsense afflicting our government," White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital in a statement. "We look forward to the Senate's swift confirmation of Dr. Oz so he can join the rest of our all-star team at HHS working to Make America Healthy Again by restoring common sense, transparency, and confidence in our healthcare apparatus."
Earlier in the month, Hawley sent Oz a list of questions, specifically probing him on those issues. As of last week, Hawley said the nominee hadn't responded, which the senator called "strange."
Oz previously used his television show as a platform for people who supported and promoted transgender treatments, particularly for minors. Specifically, he hosted two transgender children on his show in 2010 in a segment titled, "Transgender Kids: Too Young to Decide?"
He also expressed concerns about state laws to limit abortion during a 2019 interview on the popular radio show "The Breakfast Club."
It's "a hard issue for everybody," he said at the time.
And while on "a personal level," Oz didn't like abortion, he also believed he should not "interfere with everyone else's stuff," he said.
Oz also opposed government jurisdiction on the subject of abortion when he ran for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican in 2022.
"I don't want the federal government involved with that at all," he claimed during a debate with now-Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. "I want women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that's always allowed our nation to thrive, to put the best ideas forward, so states can decide for themselves."
Hawley's commitments from Oz are just the latest he's received from Trump nominees as he considers them for confirmation. He previously got assurances from now-Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the same issues.
When it came to now-leader of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dr. Marty Makary, Hawley led a successful campaign to secure the resignation of a top lawyer with the FDA who previously argued in favor of abortion pill access in a high-profile case while in former President Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ).
"I just view my role for those I have to vote on — I want to know that these people are going to align with the president," Hawley said, noting that he believes Trump has "moved really fast [and] really strong" on the issues.
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36 minutes ago
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Boston Globe
39 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
US governors are divided along party lines about military troops deployed to protests
All 22 other Democratic governors signed a statement sent by the Democratic Governors Association on Sunday backing Newsom, calling the Guard deployment and threats to send in Marines 'an alarming abuse of power' that 'undermines the mission of our service members, erodes public trust, and shows the Trump administration does not trust local law enforcement.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The protests in Los Angeles have mostly been contained to five blocks in a small section of downtown; nearly 200 people were detained on Tuesday and at least seven police officers have been injured. Advertisement In Republican-controlled states, governors have not said when or how they're planning to deploy military troops for protests. Since Trump's return to office, Democratic governors have been calculating about when to criticize him, when to emphasize common ground and when to bite their tongues. 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JB Pritzker, who is set to testify before Congress on Thursday about his state laws protecting people who are in the country without legal status, reiterated in a statement that he stands with Newsom. The office said 'local authorities should be able to do their jobs without the chaos of this federal interference and intimidation.' Advertisement Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, in an interview Wednesday in The Washington Post, said Trump should not send troops to a weekend protest scheduled in Philadelphia. 'He's injected chaos into the world order, he's injected it into our economy, he is trying to inject chaos into our streets by doing what he did with the Guard in California,' Shapiro said. As state attorney general during Trump's first term, Shapiro routinely boasted that he sued Trump over 40 times and won each time. As governor he has often treaded more carefully, by bashing Trump's tariffs, but not necessarily targeting Trump himself. GOP governors weighing in Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has often clashed with Newsom, a fellow term-limited governor with national ambitions. Newsom's office said DeSantis offered to send Florida State Guard troops to California. 'Given the guard were not needed in the first place, we declined Governor DeSantis attempt to inflame an already chaotic situation made worse by his Party's leader,' Newsom spokesperson Diana Crofts-Pelayo said in an email to The Associated Press. Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday, DeSantis said the gesture was a typical offer of mutual aid during a crisis — and was dismissive of the reasons it was turned down. 'The way to put the fire out is to make sure you have law and order,' he said. States are preparing for more protests this weekend Protests against immigration enforcement raids have sprung up in other cities — and a series of 'No Kings' demonstrations are planned for the weekend — with governors preparing to respond. In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said he has spoken with his public safety commissioner to make sure state and local police work together. Advertisement 'I don't want to give the president any pretext to think he can come into Connecticut and militarize the situation. That just makes the situation worse,' said Lamont, who called Trump 'a little eager to send federal troops and militarize the situation in Los Angeles.' It is unclear how many Texas National Guard members will be deployed or how many cities asked for assistance. In Austin, where police used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred protesters on Monday, the mayor's office said the National Guard was not requested. San Antonio officials also said they didn't request the Guard. 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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
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Hundreds of educators, parents and students joined a rally Nov. 1. 2023 at Roosevelt High School in north Portland to support striking teachers. Teachers like them could soon receive up to 10 weeks of unemployment benefits under a compromise negotiated by Oregon lawmakers.(Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) A particularly controversial measure that would give unemployment benefits to public and private Oregon workers during labor strikes survived a key Wednesday hearing after lawmakers agreed to cut the length of time in which workers on strike could cash checks by more than half. Senate Bill 916 would have limited striking workers to receiving benefits for 26 weeks, in line with the current caps on unemployment checks for Oregonians. But after the Senate rejected an amended version of the bill on Tuesday, a bicameral conference committee voted Wednesday to set a new cutoff at 10 weeks after a two-week waiting period. Committee members voted along party lines, with the sole Republican present voting against the amendments. 'I do feel like this is a massive compromise,' said Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Portland, the bill's lead author. 'It's not something I'm entirely thrilled with.' The measure would be a first-in-the-nation move by Oregon, establishing a right to strike for public and private employees while ensuring them the ability to apply for unemployment benefits. Aside from traditionally strike-exempt public employees such as firefighters and police, workers such as nurses and teachers could claim benefits after two weeks of striking. The bill has been among this session's most controversial measures, laying bare deep divisions over how best to use the state's $6.4 billion unemployment insurance fund. The changes come after support for a Democrat-led bill collapsed in a concurring Senate vote on Tuesday amid concerns from Republicans and a key dissenting Democrat. It had already drawn opposition from school board leaders who help negotiate teacher strikes, business groups, and local government leaders who contribute to the state's unemployment fund. 'We have a healthy fund today due in no small part because all the agreements in the years have been honored,' committee member Sen. Daniel Bonham, R- The Dalles, told his colleagues before voting against the amended bill. 'It is a healthy enough fund that I don't know that this will be a massive draw on it, but again the kids will lose if teachers are incentivized to strike.' House Democrats got the bill over the finish line in their chamber last week, arguing that the benefits would be used sparingly and not as a tool to prolong strikes, but to shorten them. A change made in a House committee would cap benefits to eight weeks if the state's unemployment fund is at risk, and lawmakers also included an amendment that mandates deductions in backpay for benefits claimed by teachers during strikes. Grayber on Tuesday repeated a promise she has made to continue monitoring the bill's implementation if it were to pass, but also signaled that she hoped to move past concerns that the bill would promote misuse of the unemployment system or dramatically hamper school life and public facilities. She said she's been 'guided by the math' behind the bill from the beginning, a subtle nod to the estimates from the state's employment department that the bill would not change existing tax structures for businesses and government agencies paying into the state's unemployment funding. 'I have heard the opposition,' she said. 'I very much look forward to moving past what feels like a worst-case scenario focus that we've maintained for several weeks now.' Oregonians who have lost a job can currently apply for unemployment weekly checks ranging from $196 to $836. The bill would allow benefits to kick in immediately if workers are locked out of facilities by their employer during negotiations. Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, is a sponsor of the legislation, but withdrew his support when it came up short in a 15-14 Senate vote on Tuesday. In a brief interview after the hearing, he declined to comment on whether he supported the proposed changes. He referred to another attempt at a transportation and infrastructure funding bill that the Legislature has taken up in the final weeks of the session: 'If there's time to pass a transportation package, there's time to get this right,' he said. The new amendment pushes the bill closer to a similar law passed in Washington that caps benefits at six weeks, but which doesn't go so far as to protect public employees like Oregon's proposed legislation. New Jersey and New York have also passed laws in recent years to provide unemployment benefits to striking private sector workers, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar effort in 2023 over fiscal concerns. Another bill extending benefits to striking workers in Connecticut is currently sitting on Gov. Ned Lamont's desk, but he is expected to veto it. The bill passed out of committee on a 4-1 vote. Rep. Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, was excused. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
