Obama appointed Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, a major proponent of gun control and Obamacare, was asked to resign by the Trump administration.
The official statement from the Trump administration read: “Dr. Murthy, the leader of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, was asked to resign from his duties as Surgeon General after assisting in a smooth transition into the new Trump Administration.”
He’ll be replaced by Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams, a nurse and current Deputy Surgeon General. She’s the first person who’s not a doctor to take the job.
Murthy’s four year term would have run until the end of this year. His nomination to the position was blocked by Senate Republicans for over a year, in part due to pressure from the NRA over Murthy’s gun control advocacy.
Murthy co-founded Doctors for America in May 2009, an organization of doctors who supported Obama’s signature healthcare legislation.
His office recently released a report on how to combat the opioid epidemic, but he hasn’t been asked to join Trump’s opioid commission.”
image via Wikimedia, sources: Vox reports, latest.com