Politico reports:
Since Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official with no medical or scientific background, was installed in April as the health department’s new spokesperson, there have been substantial efforts to align the reports with Trump’s statements, including the president’s claims that fears about the outbreak are overstated, or stop the reports altogether.
Caputo and his team have attempted to add caveats to the CDC’s findings, including an effort to retroactively change agency reports that they said wrongly inflated the risks of Covid-19 and should have made clear that Americans sickened by the virus may have been infected because of their own behavior, according to the individuals familiar with the situation and emails reviewed by POLITICO.
Caputo’s team also has tried to halt the release of some CDC reports, including delaying a report that addressed how doctors were prescribing hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug favored by Trump as a coronavirus treatment despite scant evidence.
Read the full article.
NEW: We were right to be suspicious when reporting moved from the CDC to HHS.
Michael Caputo and his team demanded and received the right to review the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, and align data to match Trump’s rhetoric.https://t.co/CqzvLg6TkE
— Amy Siskind ?️? (@Amy_Siskind) September 12, 2020
Why hasn’t Michael Caputo been dragged before the House to testify about these crimes against Americans that have deadly consequences and his role these past two years carrying out Kremlin disinformation operations he coordinated with a Kremlin agent against Americans? https://t.co/h6eWSn0RjL
— Alexandra Chalupa (@AlexandraChalup) September 12, 2020
Bombshell reporting. This is propaganda over science. It is immoral, dangerous, and must be considered un-American. https://t.co/9BCqpzixij
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) September 12, 2020
If you loved Michael R. Caputo (@SpoxHHS) in “Spreading Russian Conspiracies About Hunter Biden” you will love him in “Changing the CDC’s Scientific Reports to Support Trump’s Lies”
— JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) September 12, 2020
“Caputo’s team delayed for a month the release of a report that addressed how doctors were prescribing hydroxychloroquine. Finally published last week, the report said that ‘the potential benefits of these drugs do not outweigh their risks.’”
— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) September 12, 2020
3) Who’s behind it? Former Trump campaign staffer turned HHS Assistant Secretary Michael Caputo… and he’s also… wait for it… former media consultant for… Vladimir Putin! Can’t make this stuff up. https://t.co/pxc8h8dC0u pic.twitter.com/uKTy8WwPWg
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) September 12, 2020
I feel like people aren’t making the connection here: Michael Caputo lived in Russia for six years, working first for the Kremlin and then Gazprom Media which has long supported Putin. He used to brag about it, but deleted the tweets when he started advising the U.S. president. https://t.co/jbbx5EuzFh
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) September 12, 2020
Remember when Caputo tweeted dozens and dozens of memes to me to commit suicide, me as cat lady, drunk, etc w/ his #BitterChildelssAlone hashtag bcs I called him out for lying to Cong and exploiting his daughters for cash for his gofundme? He blamed congress for his legal bills. https://t.co/6RJnFwUdcS pic.twitter.com/FI6PwVzhkR
— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) September 12, 2020
A reminder of who this person is: On his podcast, Michael Caputo:
– repeated COVID conspiracy theories
– praised white supremacists
– helped lead the effort to pardon Roger Stonehttps://t.co/F00J3LBgyB— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) September 12, 2020
The guy trying to criminally spin CDC data for the Trump administration is literally a former proud Kremlin employeehttps://t.co/71GturIDo9
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) September 12, 2020
When tallying up the ways Trump only treated Covid as a political problem to bullshit his way through, installing this guy at HHS in April is definitely a biggie. pic.twitter.com/HZk6nBpR3C
— Schooley (@Rschooley) September 12, 2020