Current Events > Trump HHS appointee warns of armed revolt if Biden loses

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nytimes.com/2020/09/14/us/caputo-virus.html?smid=tw-share

The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus accused career government scientists on Sunday of sedition in their handling of the pandemic and warned that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election.

Michael Caputo, 58, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, said without evidence that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was harboring a resistance unit determined to undermine President Trump.

Mr. Caputo, who has faced criticism for leading efforts to warp C.D.C. weekly bulletins to fit Mr. Trumps pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger.

You understand that theyre going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think thats where this is going, Mr. Caputo, a Trump loyalist installed by the White House in April, told followers in a video he hosted live on his personal Facebook page. Mr. Caputo has 5,000 Facebook friends, and the video has been viewed more than 850 times. It has been shared by 44 followers.

The department said in a statement: Mr. Caputo is a critical, integral part of the presidents coronavirus response, leading on public messaging as Americans need public health information to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr. Caputo said Monday, Since joining the administration my family and I have been continually threatened and harassed by people who have later been prosecuted. This weighs heavily on us, and we deeply appreciate the friendship and support of President Trump as we address these matters and keep our children safe.

Mr. Caputo delivered his broadside against scientists, the media and Democrats after a spate of news reports over the weekend that detailed his teams systematic interference in the C.D.C.s official reports on the pandemic and other disease outbreaks. Former and current C.D.C. officials described to Politico, The New York Times and other outlets how Mr. Caputo and a top aide routinely demanded the agency revise, delay and even scuttle the C.D.C.s core public health updates, called Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, that they believed undercut Mr. Trumps message that the pandemic is under control.

Those reports, deemed the holiest of the holy by one former top health official for their international respect and importance, have traditionally been so shielded from political interference that political appointees see them only just before they are published.

Mr. Caputo on Sunday complained on Facebook that he was under siege by the media and said that his physical health was in question and his mental health has definitely failed.

I dont like being alone in Washington, he said, describing shadows on the ceiling in my apartment, there alone, shadows are so long. He then ran through a series of conspiracy theories, culminating in a prediction that Mr. Trump will win re-election but his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., will refuse to concede.

And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin, he said. The drills that youve seen are nothing. He added: If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because its going to be hard to get.

Mr. Caputos installation at the agency was a White House move to assert greater control over Alex M. Azar II, who has been Mr. Trumps secretary of health and human services since 2018. His job is to coordinate the messaging of an 80,000-person department that functions as the center of the American public health bureaucracy and includes the Food and Drug Administration, the C.D.C. and the National Institutes of Health, which lead the governments pandemic response.

Mr. Caputo boasted in his Facebook talk that the president had personally put him in charge of a $250 million public service advertising campaign intended to help America to get back to normal.

Despite the criticism of his teams interference with C.D.C., Mr. Caputo said he expected to remain in his post because Mr. Trump supported him. Im not going anywhere, he said. I swear to God, as God is my witness, I am not stopping.

His Facebook presentation comes as Mr. Trump has increasingly singled out federal government scientists as targets, complaining without evidence that they were deliberately trying to subvert his administrations efforts to fight the pandemic for their own political reasons.

Mr. Caputo echoed those sentiments, saying scientists deep in the bowels of the C.D.C. have given up science and become political animals.

They havent gotten out of their sweatpants except for meetings at coffee shops to plot how theyre going to attack Donald Trump, Mr. Caputo said. There are scientists who work for this government who do not want America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.

The C.D.C. has traditionally been apolitical, serving Republican and Democratic administrations from its headquarters in Atlanta. In recent months, health officials at the C.D.C. and other agencies have increasingly cited political interference from Washington.

Mr. Caputo frequently touched on themes of an obstructive deep state that the president has used throughout his tenure and during his re-election campaign. Mr. Trump has portrayed himself as at war with federal bureaucrats determined to thwart his policies and with radical left-wing activists who he claims are sowing violence in American cities.

Mr. Caputo suggested, also without evidence, that the August killing of a Trump supporter in Portland, Ore., by an avowed supporter of the left-wing collective known as antifa was part of broader left-wing plot to target the administrations supporters.

Remember the Trump supporter who was shot and killed? he said. That was a drill.

The man suspected of the shooting, Michael Forest Reinoehl, was later shot dead by officers from a federally led fugitive task force in Washington State. He went down fighting, Mr. Caputo said. Why? Because he couldnt say what he had inside him. He then spoke of squads being trained all over this country a conspiracy theory unsupported by evidence.

Mr. Caputo continued his social media effort after the Facebook event, retweeting a conspiratorial post that hinted with no evidence that armed camps were being established in Washington, D.C.: Occupants dont look like vagrants. Looks like forward basing for militant street ops, J. Michael Waller, a conservative provocateur, posted.

Mr. Caputo has no background in health care. He worked on Mr. Trumps 2016 campaign for a time but was passed over for a job early in the administration. He remained friendly with Dan Scavino, who oversees the White Houses social media and is among the few of Mr. Trumps 2016 campaign aides still on the administrations staff. Mr. Scavino played a role in reconnecting Mr. Trump and Mr. Caputo. Some of Mr. Trumps allies heralded Mr. Caputos appointment at Health and Human Services, describing him as both media savvy and intensely loyal to the president.

Mr. Caputo, who holds Facebook Live events nearly every Sunday, sounded anguished over the nations death toll from Covid-19, warning his friends to wear masks when they attend Trump rallies and to leave if most people there are not. The United States has lost almost 194,000 people to the virus.

Lot going on here
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yeah this isnt terrifying

fascists in the WH

What about the right's armed revolt if Biden wins

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Regardless of who wins my goal is to be out of this country within 5 years or so. The only reason I haven't already left is my mom is old and sick and needs my help.

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Big if true

people said obama would do this, george bush would do this, and etc

same old fear mongering every election
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Wow I think this guy ODd on the koolaid

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These right wing/alt right/white supremacists types are gonna be in for a rude awakening when they find out the people that they are shooting at return fire and much more.

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Philoktetes posted...

people said obama would do this, george bush would do this, and etc

same old fear mongering every election

Yeah, but

Oh philoktetes post nm

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No matter who wins the other side will revolt. Liberal cities will be where the rioting & looting happens.

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Damn dude do I really have to go back to college? I was hoping to never go back but now I feel like I need to just to have a chance of escaping this unadulterated hellhole

Lmao at Trump getting the most mentally unstable people

This guy is bonkers. The shadows on the ceiling are gonna get him.

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Party of projection

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any business owner should prepare. We've already seen the police won't be trying to stop the looters.

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After reading through that, it gives me a hint of schadenfreudian solace to see that the true believers are genuinely losing sleep and making themselves miserable over the bullshit conspiracies they themselves have concocted.

TheEvilMushroom posted...

Lmao at Trump getting the most mentally unstable people

This guy is bonkers. The shadows on the ceiling are gonna get him.

What sane person would even want to work for Trump at this point? Let alone last more than a week without getting fired?

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Republican trash has got to go, they've done nothing but damage this country further and further each time a Republican comes to power.

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guesswho1212 posted...

Big if true

Its not

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Meanwhile Roger stone is out there saying trump should send troops to polling stations and start mass arresting people.

Totally normal democracy stuff happening dont worry guys.

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dont worry we'll just vote them out in november

Caution999 posted...

any business owner should prepare. We've already seen the police won't be trying to stop the looters.

They can't even defend themselves actually becuase the police will arrest them. So if they want to prepare just back their bags and leave. Theres no winning here.

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Pretty sure the "armed" side are the second amendment die-hards, which are not at all Biden's camp.

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time for us liberals to start buying guns


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I saw this coming a mile away; this has become a Psycho Country.

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