President Donald Trump has withdrawn his nominee for surgeon general who praised and endorsed online censorship.
Trump announced on Truth Social Wednesday that he had withdrawn Nesheiwat’s nomination in favor of Dr. Casey Means, an ally of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. This decision marks a victory for free speech as Nesheiwat’s nomination raised free speech concerns due to her exposed track record of endorsing medical censorship, and praising Facebook for crushing debate on vaccines.
“I am pleased to announce that Dr. Casey Means, will be nominated as our next Surgeon General of the United States of America,” Trump posted, adding, “Secretary Kennedy looks forward to working with Dr. Janette Nesheiwat in another capacity at HHS. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Nesheiwat’s nomination generated backlash for several reasons, but particularly because of her anti-First Amendment views. On Fox News’ Mornings with Maria in 2019, even months before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Nesheiwat was praising Facebook for deciding to censor critics of vaccines, as MRC highlighted.
Nesheiwat gushed, “I am so excited and I thank and I commend Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for taking action because this affects everyone.” She rambled on about a measles outbreak, “That’s no joke. Measles can cause brain inflammation and pneumonia, and ear infections and hearing loss and death. So it's about time that [Facebook is] taking action and I hope and pray other social media platforms will follow suit and do the same thing.”
Later, in 2021, Nesheiwat responded to an X post about then-President Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine drive by using a common leftist phrase used to justify censorship: “It’s not a matter of distribution, it’s a matter of eliminating Vaccine Hesitancy & misinformation.” Censors justify their actions by claiming to suppress “misinformation.”
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
