Blair denies Means’s flavored-vaping claim and threatens to sue him
Calley Means’s allegations focused on the administration’s dietary goals, flavored-vaping review and the definition of “ultra-processed foods.” Means made the claims in a Joe Rogan podcast interview on Friday and in comments to CBS News. He said Wiles did not support efforts to make American diets healthier because the administration needed money from “the sugar people” for the midterms. “They would often say that we can’t do certain things because that would hurt special interest configuration for the midterms,” he told Rogan.
Means also accused Wiles and Blair of pressuring the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to approve flavored e-cigarettes, otherwise known as vapes. Blair denied Means’s claims to CBS News, saying he “didn’t promote flavored vaping specifically at all” and that he had been tasked with aligning the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) nicotine delivery device application process with federal law.
“Calley is intentionally misrepresenting my role and my responsibility because he opposes the issue entirely. Even though the president himself has made his position on smoking and smoking alternatives known very publicly and has provided clear direction. Calley just doesn’t like it,” Blair told CBS News. On social media, Blair threatened to sue Means and accused him of lying.
Means claimed Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio refused to support several MAHA initiatives while simultaneously taking money from industry giants and pharmaceutical companies. In one example, Means said Fabrizio had advised against defining “ultra-processed foods” while taking money from PepsiCo.
Beyond those policy allegations, Means accused Wiles and other Trump staffers of stalling the MAHA agenda by prioritizing special-interest groups and fundraising before the midterms. He said Wiles and other Trump staffers dropped the ball on the health agenda to take money from the sugar industry to fuel the midterms, which Republicans lost. “I mean, it’s why we lost the midterms. We have been discordant from what was run on, two years ago,” Means told Rogan.
Means told CBS News that Wiles and her “very close-knit crew” — including James Blair and Richard Walters, two White House deputy chiefs of staff; Walker Barrett, a policy adviser; and Tony Fabrizio, a pollster for Trump — “explicitly catered to special interests against the will of the voters.”
Means also said that “a lot of this” happened without Trump’s “full knowledge.” “I think a lot of this happened without Trump’s full knowledge. I don’t think President Trump fully knew that some of these advisers were taking money from the industries we ran on fighting against,” he told CBS News.
Republicans had been looking for someone to blame for the losses in last week’s midterm election. Democrats, who had been poised to win the House and possibly the Senate, outperformed expectations, taking both chambers of Congress, a majority of governors’ offices and flipping dozens of House seats. Means attributed much of that loss to Wiles.
Wiles, whom Donald Trump removed as the White House chief of staff last week, left the administration on Friday and was replaced by Stephen Miller. Richard Walters, a close ally of Wiles, resigned from the administration on Friday as well. Means had resigned two weeks earlier from his job advising Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Robert F Kennedy Jr backed President Trump in a statement posted to X on Friday. Kennedy wrote: “I stand firmly behind President Trump and the historic reforms we are advancing together. Draining the swamp is a mandate, and we have an obligation to deliver. Entrenched interests have exercised power in Washington under both parties for decades. President Trump and I intend to keep fighting until the American people–not corporate influence–drive our health policies.”
Contacted for comment, the White House said: “The Trump Administration has never allowed and will never allow outside groups to influence policy decisions. President Trump is busy executing on his America First agenda that includes the largest working-class tax cuts in history, over a million private sector jobs added to the economy, a sealed shut border, and lowest violent crime to the lowest level in nearly a century.” Blair and the White House disputed Means’s account, while Kennedy backed the president and the administration’s reforms.