Trump admin updates: ICE launches immigration enforcement operation in Boston

Ousted CDC director, Susan Monarez, said on Thursday she was fired for putting "evidence above ideology and facts above fear."

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Monarez also referred to a meeting she had with her boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., where he pressured her to resign or be fired, which ABC News previously reported.

In that meeting, Monarez said that Kennedy also told her to “preapprove the recommendations” of the CDC’s vaccine panel, which members were replaced by Kennedy weeks ago, many of whom share similar vaccine skeptic views to the secretary.

The op-ed was published on the day Kennedy is scheduled to testify before the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight over his department.

-ABC News' Youri Benadjaoud

President Trump on Wednesday reiterated his threats to send federal troops to cities like Chicago and New York to combat crime.

He also said that he is considering sending troops to cities in red states.

"So we're making a determination now. Do we go to Chicago or do we go to a place like New Orleans where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that's become quite tough, quite bad?" Trump said. "So we're going to be going to, maybe Louisiana, and you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem, will straighten that out in about two weeks."

President Trump was asked about the military strike on an alleged drug boat out of Venezuela -- why the vessel wasn't intercepted and why the alleged gang members weren't taken into custody.

Trump claimed there were tapes that showed a massive amount of drugs on the boat.

"They won't be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won't be doing it again," he said.

Speaking to reporters while hosting Polish President Karol Nawrocki in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump was asked about the Epstein files and accusations from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., that the Justice Department is holding back the full release due to Trump's associates being implicated.

Trump repeated his claims that the Epstein file controversy was a "Democrat hoax," to take away from his administration's accomplishments.

"We gave them everything over and over again, more and more and more and nobody's ever satisfied," he said, before bringing up Washington, DC crime and foreign policy.