Some CDC Employees Stage Walk Out To Support Fired Director
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just staged a spectacle that shows exactly why the agency has lost whatever credibility it once claimed to have. What was supposed to be a routine “clap-out” for departing CDC brass — the kind of perfunctory ceremony bureaucrats hold to pat each other on the back — turned into a mini-rebellion against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Employees booed the changes Kennedy is forcing through, openly protested, and even lined up to shake hands with the so-called “monkeypox czar” on his way out — an act that speaks for itself in more ways than one.
The protest capped a chaotic 30-day tenure for Susan Monarez, the now-former CDC director who made it clear she had no intention of working with Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda. When her exit became inevitable, three more officials — including Dr. Monkeypox — resigned in solidarity.
HAPPENING NOW: CDC staff members are greeted by supporters as they stage a walkout at their headquarters in Atlanta in protest against the damage being done to the agency by conspiracy theorist RFK Jr. pic.twitter.com/2EiQxqUzHO
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) August 28, 2025
That should have been the end of it. But last week, 750 CDC employees signed a letter accusing Kennedy of fueling “harassment and violence” against government workers, pointing to an unstable gunman who fired 180 rounds into CDC headquarters earlier this summer before killing a police officer and then himself.
The letter was meant to shame Kennedy. Instead, it gave him a ready-made list of bureaucrats to start trimming. With the resignations already underway, he now has a wide-open lane to install his own people in key posts — many of which don’t even require Senate confirmation. Until the Senate acts on Trump’s eventual nominee, Kennedy can cycle through acting directors and consolidate power at the agency.
This is what you call a backfire.
For years, the CDC has operated as if it were an untouchable fiefdom, issuing contradictory orders, politicizing public health, and assuming Americans would simply obey. The reality? Outside of the mask-and-hand-sanitizer diehards, the public has little respect left for the Atlanta bureaucracy. The pandemic sealed that.
Now, with Kennedy in charge, the walls are closing in. The clap-out turned protest only underscored the agency’s insularity — a room full of bureaucrats clapping for one another while the rest of the country rolls its eyes.