Stephen Hahn gets through Sen­ate’s soft­ball job in­ter­view — but most­ly plays dodge­ball on the is­sues fac­ing the FDA

Any­one look­ing for fresh in­sights on what kind of FDA com­mis­sion­er Stephen Hahn will be got pre­cious few clues dur­ing Wednes­day’s Sen­ate hear­ing on the nom­i­na­tion.

Over more than 2 hours of ex­changes, Hahn re­peat­ed­ly stood be­hind his de­vo­tion to “sci­ence and da­ta con­gru­ent with the law.” But he care­ful­ly steered clear of tak­ing any stand that might up­set the White House, avoid­ing the chance to voice a clear call to ban fla­vored e-cig­a­rettes — at a time Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump is re­port­ed­ly balk­ing at the move.

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