CDC Nominee Erica Schwartz Faces Senate Grilling as Ninth Night of US Strikes on Iran Continues

Schwartz Tells Senate She Won't Be a Rubber Stamp

Dr. Erica Schwartz, President Trump's nominee to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sat before the Senate health committee this week and made a specific promise: she would "never betray the science."

That line, reported by Scientific American, addressed the central concern. Schwartz is Trump's latest pick for the job after turmoil at the agency under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose ouster of a previous CDC director loomed over the entire hearing, according to STAT.

Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general, was nominated in April, according to ABC News. Senators pressed her on vaccines, on whether she could run the CDC independently of political pressure from Kennedy, and on abortion policy, according to Government Executive.

Her answers were reassurance-heavy and specifics-light. She committed to following data. She did not commit to reversing any of Kennedy's changes to vaccine advisory panels or messaging. If the nominee won't say what she'd change, senators and the public are being asked to trust a promise rather than evaluate a record.

On the other side, Schwartz has a public health résumé, not a political one. She's not a Kennedy loyalist by trade. Whether she can hold the line against HHS pressure once confirmed is an open question nobody in that hearing room could actually answer, including her.

No vote has been scheduled yet. That's the next concrete thing to watch.

CENTCOM Confirms Ninth Straight Night of Strikes on Iran

Separately, and on a much higher-stakes track, U.S. Central Command said Saturday it launched a new wave of strikes against Iran, the ninth consecutive night, according to The Hill. CENTCOM said the strikes began at 7 p.m. ET and would continue "degrading" Iranian capability, without naming a specific end date or objective in the statement CENTCOM posted to X.

The strikes followed the death of a U.S. servicemember in Iraq. Two U.S. service members were also killed in Jordan as part of the broader escalation, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a tribute calling their deaths a "sacrifice" that "only stiffens our resolve."

That word choice drew public criticism from former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called it inappropriate to frame their deaths as a sacrifice. Greene argues the administration is using dead soldiers to justify continued military action rather than mourning them on their own terms, regardless of where one stands on the underlying strikes.

The State Department, meanwhile, issued a warning Saturday to Americans living and traveling abroad, citing heightened tensions in the Middle East and a "complex" security environment around U.S. diplomatic facilities.

Nine nights of strikes with no announced exit criteria is a long campaign by any standard. The unresolved question is what CENTCOM and the White House define as success, and whether Congress gets a vote on continued military action or just a briefing after the fact.

Maine's Democratic Senate Primary Loses Its Second Candidate in Two Days

On the domestic political front, Maine's Democratic Senate primary field shrank fast. Former CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah dropped out Sunday, a day after making his case to party delegates in Augusta, according to The Hill. Shah had entered the race saying he couldn't accept Sen. Susan Collins "gliding" to a sixth term.

That came one day after Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows also dropped out, just over a week after launching her campaign. Bellows cited what she called Trump's accelerating "attacks on our democracy" as part of her reasoning, per her own statement reported by The Hill.

Two drop-outs in 48 hours reflect a party still sorting out who its actual challenger to Collins will be, with the primary field now visibly thinner than it was a week ago.

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President Trump said Sunday that regional grocery chain Giant Eagle would lower prices on "more than" 300 products through