Monarez’s 29 days: a Senate hearing lays bare the cracks

Her defenders painted her as a martyr — but awkward smiles, evasions, and shaky science told another story.

The Senate hearing on Dr. Susan Monarez’s abrupt firing was titled: “Restoring Trust Through Radical Transparency.” But the former CDC director, ousted after just 29 days, offered little of either.

Dr. Debra Houry, who had resigned from her role as the CDC’s chief medical officer in protest of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reforms, also testified, but the spotlight remained firmly on Monarez.

From the outset, Monarez’s testimony appeared tightly choreographed. She spoke in a slow, deliberate cadence, each word carefully lawyered.

Flanked by her attorneys — who scribbled notes and whispered advice — she projected control at first. But as the hearing wore on, her composure slipped into awkward smiles and practised evasions.

By the end of the three-hour session, she was undone by her own evasions.