🚨BREAKING: @HHSGov spokesman Michael Caputo and Dr. Paul Alexander tried to “browbeat” @CDCgov officials at the peak of the #pandemic—challenging the #science behind their public statements + attempting to silence CDC staff—to politically spin the data. nytimes.com/2020/09/18/us/…
When Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC principal deputy director, advised Americans to #WearAMask and warned, “We have way too much virus across the country,” Alexander—a part-time assistant professor of health research methods—wrote: “Her aim is to embarrass the president.”🙄
Alexander emailed Caputo, “She is duplicitous,” asking him to “remind” Schuchat that thousands of Americans died “under her work” during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak.
Of Schuchat’s assessment of #COVID19’s dangers, Alexander wrongly fumed, “The risk of death in children 0-19 years of age is basically 0…PERIOD…she has lied.”
Children have gotten critically ill and DIED from #coronavirus, not to mention potential long-term adverse effects.
Caputo tried to muzzle CDC scientists by moving to punish CDC’s communications team for granting interviews to @NPR and attempting to help a @CNN reporter reach him about a PR campaign. “Current & former CDC officials called it a 5-month campaign of BULLYING and intimidation.”🤬
Caputo sent Alexander’s critique of Schuchat to @CDCDirector Redfield. Officials got concerned when Catherine Granito—member of the health department’s WH liaison office—questioned CDC on Schuchat’s bio, leaving an impression that some may‘ve been searching for ways to fire her.
Caputo wrote to CDC communications officials on July 15 to demand they turn over the name of the press officer who approved a series of interviews between NPR and a CDC epidemiologist, after HHS had moved to take ownership of CDC #pandemic data collection.
Caputo: “I need to know who did it,” A day later, he wrote back, “I have not received a response to my email for 20 hours. This is unacceptable. I need this information to properly manage department communications. If you disobey my directions, you will be held accountable.”😳
On Wednesday, Caputo went on leave from HHS, days after attacking CDC scientists in a bizarre Facebook video—he falsely claimed CDC scientists “haven’t gotten out of their sweatpants except for meetings at coffee shops” to plot “how they’re going to attack Donald Trump next. »🙄
Alexander is also leaving HHS.😃
In the months leading up to their exits, the 2 had worked to revise & delay CDC’s internationally admired health bulletins—Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports—in an effort to spin Trump’s #pandemic response in a more positive light.🤬 #COVID19
One CDC communications official became so worried about Caputo’s threat that she wrote to other senior staff asking how to reply, saying she was “uncomfortable turning over our employee’s name to Caputo, given the hostility of the message.”😳
Schuchat warned of a dangerous surge in #COVID19 cases, weeks before our peak of ~70,000 new cases a day. Fauci testified to the Senate that we could hit 100,000 new cases a day.
That portrait of the #pandemic was at odds with the one the WH had strained to spin.🙄
The day Schuchat lamented there was “way too much virus across the country,” @PressSec Kayleigh McEnany said, “we’re aware that there are embers that need to be put out.”
Trump said that week he believed the virus was “at some point” going to “sort of just disappear, I hope.”🤬
In communications w/Schuchat, Alexander pushed herd immunity: “Importantly, having the virus spread among the young & healthy is 1 of the methods to drive herd immunity. This was not the intended strategy but all must be on deck now & it is contributing positively at some level.”
We are in the midst of an historic #pandemic, and scientists *must* be allowed to follow the #science and give us the #facts to SAVE LIVES.
It appears that CDC scientists have had enough of Trump’s bullying, that they never should have faced.
🚨BREAKING: the @CIA believed Trump ILLEGALLY took $10 million from #Egypt days before his inauguration.
Investigators thought this was why Trump gave $10 million of his own cash late in his campaign but were BLOCKED from probing by Trump appointees.🤬 washingtonpost.com/investigations…
In 2017, classified intel indicated Egyptian President El-Sisi sought to give Trump $10 million.
in Jan 2017, a Cairo bank got an unusual letter from an group linked to Egyptian intelligence asking the bank to withdraw ~$10 million from the organization’s account—ALL IN CASH.🧐
Employees at the state-run National Bank of #Egypt stuffed $100 bills into 2 large bags, weighing a combined 200 pounds & containing what was then a sizable share of Egypt’s reserve of US currency. Four men arrived and carried away the bags.🤔
🚨BREAKING: nearly 2 years after the January 6 #Insurrection, the @FBI increased its reward by 5-fold to $500,000 for info leading to the arrest of the #terrorist who left 2 pipe bombs near the @DNC & @GOP HQs the day before the assault.
The January 6th pipe bomb #terrorist wore a face mask, glasses, gloves and a grey-hooded sweatshirt and **#Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes** (photo below).
Someone knows this #terrorist—PLEASE SHARE lFAR AND WIDE.
‼️Images and video of the #terrorist, the suspect’s backpack & shoes, the pipe bombs, and a map of the route the terrorist walked are here👉🏼fbi.gov/wanted/seeking…
Many innocent people could have been killed or harmed.
Oleg Eremenko is a former officer in the GRU (🇷🇺military intelligence) who served inside #Russia: “I served, and that’s it,” he said. “I’m now in #Germany in, let’s say, a civilian status,” promoting Russian culture and memorialising WW2 dead.
Cool story, bro.🙄
Max Schlund—Rostislav Teslyuk in #Russia—is a former officer in the Russian Air Force. He traveled w/Elena Kolbasnikova to Donbas to give aid. In a video, they thanked the People's Front—headed by Putin—for help organizing the trip.
🚨BREAKING: George Santos admits to using cash from his firm—#Devolder Organization—to fund his campaign with an allegedly ILLEGAL $700,000 corporate contribution.
It’s legal to use personal cash, but corporate cash is ILLEGAL.🧵
⚠️Santos admits he took money from his #Devolder to bankroll his campaign & the $700,000 in loans “was the money I paid myself through the Devolder Organization”👉🏼ILLEGAL
His financial disclosure shows a $750,000 salary from Devolder + dividends between $1-5 million.🧐
‼️Previous financial disclosures show Santos & his #Devolder firm didn’t have very much money—so what are the origins of his $700,000?
‼️Right-wing judicial activist Leonard Leo (then-EVP of the Federalist Society) helped facilitate the sale of Kellyanne Conway’s polling company in 2017 **while she was advising Trump** on Leo’s handpicked list of SCOTUS candidates.
The sale came at a critical moment for Kellyanne▶️her ownership had come under Congressional scrutiny for potential “conflicts of interest,” likely creating pressure to unload it even though its value was unclear and she was its biggest asset but committed to her WH job.🙄
Leo—via one of his dark money groups—helped finance the transaction between Kellyanne and Creative Response Concepts Inc (CRC) *worth between $1 million and $5 million*.
At the time, CRC was also bringing in millions of dollars from dark money groups to promote Leo’s picks.🤬
🔥DECIMATED: One of #Russia’s most formidable combat units—the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade that protects Russia’s Arctic nuclear submarine arsenal—sent its best fighters & weapons to #Ukraine this year and was DESTROYED.