Republican strategist Karl Rove slammed President Barack Obama on “Hannity” Wednesday for his handling of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the lead-up to the Ebola crisis, criticizing how Obama cut the CDC’s budget and allowed the CDC to stray from its core mission.
HANNITY: Obama proposed cutting the CDC in his original budget for 2012. He put in his budget to cut funding for the CDC’s public health emergency preparedness by $72 million. Democrats are saying this is Republican’s fault. Your reaction?
ROVE: Well, this is shameful. Look, the president did not make the CDC an important funding priority like his predecessor did. And more importantly than that if he diluted the mission. He allowed under the current leadership of the CDC for the Center for Disease Control to get into wellness programs and to expand their research into things that don’t affect disease. For example, you’ve heard about the study on marriage: the CDC funded a study on marriage to find out what happy marriages are. I mean, please! What does that have to do with the fundamental core mission of the CDC?