Top HHS spokesperson takes leave of absence after accusing scientists of “sedition”

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Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael Caputo is taking a 60 day leave of absence “to focus on his health and the well-being of his family,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Driving the news: Caputo baselessly accused career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a Facebook livestream on Sunday of gathering a “resistance unit” for “sedition” against President Trump, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. He apologized to staff on Tuesday, according to Politico.

  • In the same Facebook livestream, Caputo — a former Trump campaign official with no scientific background — encouraged followers to buy ammunition in the event that Joe Biden loses the election and refuses to concede. “And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,” Caputo said. Continue reading.

Math on Trump Covid strategy has millions dying before it works

GOP Operatives Push Green Party, Kanye West Ballot Lines

Third-party candidates played a major role in Donald Trump’s election in 2016, siphoning off voters from Hillary Clinton and helping Trump eke out wins by the narrowest of margins in enough swing states to hand him a victory — even as he lost the popular vote by three million ballots.

Four years later, with Trump down in the polls and facing the possibility of defeat, Republican operatives are making a last-ditch effort to try to recreate that same third-party effect, and are playing a behind-the-scenes role in numerous states to get Kanye West and Green Party presidential nominee Howie Hawkins onto state ballots.

Report after report shows that Republicans are helping West and Hawkins navigate the process of getting on the ballot. And they’re fighting legal battles to make sure they stay on the ballot. Continue reading.

Republicans Against Trump Ad: Top Pence staffer on Covid-19 speaks out against Trump, endorses Biden

Exclusive: Internal documents show officials waved red flags before Trump’s Tulsa rally

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Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before President Trump’s indoor rally in June, warning there could be significant spikes of coronavirus cases and deaths from the event, according to internal state documents. 

Dozens of emails obtained by The Hill through a state freedom of information request reveal growing angst within the Oklahoma public health department in the days leading up to the June 20 rally.

Aaron Wendelboe, who at the time was the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s epidemiologist, sent one email titled: “How strongly do I speak out?” Continue reading.

DFL Leaders, Lt. Governor Flanagan Call Out Trump’s Failures to Support Minnesota Families and Workers as Donald Trump Heads to Bemidji

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA- Ahead of Donald Trump’s stop at the Bemidji airport today, DFL Party leaders held a press call slamming the Trump administration for its failed response to the coronavirus pandemic, his divisive rhetoric, and the harmful impacts of his policies on workers across Minnesota. Featured on the call were DFL Chair Ken Martin, Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Brad Lehto, State Rep. John Persell (5A), Obama health care advisor Andy Slavitt, and Rev. Rob Kopp of the Bemidji United Methodist Church.

Full audio from the call here.

Excerpts from the call

DFL Party Chair Ken Martin: “Both Biden and Trump will be in Minnesota tomorrow to help kick off the first day of early voting where Minnesota will become one of the first states in the nation to actually cast votes in this critical presidential contest and we’re super excited about that. But while Joe Biden will talk with voters in Duluth about his plans to build back better after this pandemic, Donald Trump will undoubtedly spew dangerous lies about the state of our country in hopes to distract Minnesotans from the reality of his failed administration. And you know what? Minnesotans are not going to be fooled. From his attacks on Social Security and Medicare to his trade policies that hurt our farmers, we know that Trump is not on the side of hardworking Minnesotans. And to make matters worse, Donald Trump admitted that he lied to the American people from the very start of this pandemic for his own political gain. As a result, over 80,000 Minnesotans have been infected by the virus, and thousands are still left without work. Minnesotans and Americans deserve better. Starting on September 18, the very day that Trump is in Minnesota, voters will flock to vote early for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Tina Smith and DFLers up and down the ballot and we are so excited to kick early voting off tomorrow with Joe Biden here in Minnesota.”

Continue reading “DFL Leaders, Lt. Governor Flanagan Call Out Trump’s Failures to Support Minnesota Families and Workers as Donald Trump Heads to Bemidji”

Surprise! Under Trump, Super-Rich Rake In Billions While You Get…A #MAGA Hat

If you are in the 99 percent here is how well you are faring under Trump policies compared to the 1 percent: for each dollar of increased income that you earned in 2018, each One-Percenter got $88 more income.

Huge as that ratio is, it’s small change compared to the super-rich, the 0.01 percent of Americans with incomes of $10 million and up. That ratio is $1 for you and $2,215 for each super-rich American household. Let’s call them the Platinum-Premiere-Point-Zero-One-Percenters.

The slice of American income pie going to the poor shrank under Trump by the same amount that it grew for the super-rich.

Ponder that. Continue reading.

Pence: Trump sees Florida, Minnesota, Arizona as keys to 270

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President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning in Florida and Arizona to create a path to 270 electoral votes and four more years in office, Vice President Pence told The Hill in an exclusive interview aboard Air Force Two.

Pence, in the midst of a cross-country trip aimed at bolstering Trump and the Senate GOP ahead of Election Day, said those two states and Minnesota, which hasn’t voted for a GOP presidential candidate since 1972, are all top Trump targets.

“Florida’s of great importance. Arizona’s of great importance. We’re going to make sure we continue to campaign in those states,” Pence told The Hill when asked about “must-win” states for Trump. Continue reading.

Trump’s ABC News town hall: Four Pinocchios, over and over again

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At the ABC News town hall Tuesday night, President Trump was challenged by ordinary voters in ways that he rarely experiences in the safe spaces of Fox News, where he regularly answers questions. But he still retreated to false or misleading talking points that he offers in his usual venues. Here’s a quick tour through 24 claims made at the Philadelphia town hall, in the order in which he answered questions.

“We’re very close to having the vaccine. If you want to know the truth, the previous administration would have taken perhaps years to have a vaccine because of the FDA and all the approvals, and we’re within weeks of getting it. You know, could be three weeks, four weeks, but we think we have it.” 

Most experts believe a scientifically credible vaccine for the novel coronavirus will not be available until at least early 2021, and vaccine manufacturers insist they will not be rushed for political considerations. In any case, it will take months to make a safe vaccine available to most Americans. Trump has no basis to claim the Obama administration would have been slower, given how poorly the Trump administration ramped up coronavirus testing. Continue reading.

Trump touts herd immunity approach to COVID-19 that experts warn would kill millions: ‘He’s describing a massacre’

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Insisting during a town hall Tuesday night that Covid-19 will simply disappear on its own—echoing a baseless claim he also made in February, March, April, May, June, July, and August—President Donald Trump touted a so-called “herd immunity” approach to the pandemic that public health experts warn would lead to hundreds of millions of new coronavirus infections and millions of additional deaths.

“We’re gonna be OK. And it is going away,” Trump told ABC‘s George Stephanopoulos. “And it’s probably gonna go away now a lot faster with the vaccine. It would go away without the vaccine, George.”

When Stephanopoulos replied that “many deaths” would result such a scenario, Trump said: “You’ll develop like a herd mentality. It’s gonna be herd developed, and that’s gonna happen. That will all happen. But with a vaccine, I think it will go away very quickly. But I really believe we’re rounding the corner, and I believe that strongly.” Continue reading.