Washington DC - In a surprise move, President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

On Thursday, Weldon, a physician who represented Florida's 15th Congressional District from 1995 to 2009, was scheduled to appear before the Senate Health Committee for a nomination hearing, but the meeting was canceled at the last minute.

Only a few days after he won re-election, Trump announced his nomination of Weldon, which was met with heavy criticism due to the lawmaker's long history of questioning vaccines.

As this would have been the first time the role of CDC director would have been voted on by the Senate, some Trump officials have privately expressed concern about his chances of getting through.

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According to Axios, even recently elected Health and Human Service director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who also has a history of pushing anti-vaccine sentiments – said Weldon "wasn't ready."

Washington state Sen. Pat Murray recently told CNN that Weldon repeated "debunked claims" about vaccines during a meeting just last month.

In response to Murray's claim, Weldon told the outlet that "like many other Republican and Democrat members of Congress, she too might be in the pocket of big Pharma, [which] has been desperate to scuttle the nomination of Bobbie Kennedy at HHS and me at CDC."