Trump aide’s no-holds-barred style sparks new COVID-19 furor
WASHINGTON >> A Trump health appointee who used his agency as a platform for political attacks and allegedly sought to muzzle a scientific publication has become the latest distraction for a White House still struggling to define its coronavirus response.
Michael Caputo, the top spokesman at the Department of Health and Human Services, can be heard on an agency podcast asserting that Democrats don’t want a coronavirus vaccine in order to punish President Donald Trump.
Recent news reports also alleged that his office tried to muzzle a scientific weekly published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was followed by an account of a video on Caputo’s personal Facebook page in which the Trump loyalist accused government scientists of conspiring against Trump and suggested violence could break out after the elections.
Caputo was named the top HHS spokesman in April, during a tense period in relations between the White House and HHS Secretary Alex Azar. On a taxpayer-funded podcast earlier this summer the former New York political operative accused Democrats and the media of not wanting a coronavirus vaccine until after the elections in order to punish the president.
“There are people in the United States government on the Democrats’ side ... (who) do not want a vaccine,” he said.
“They don’t want a vaccine until November 4th,” he added, citing the day after the presidential election. It’s highly unusual to use an agency communications platform for such a blatantly political message.
Over the weekend, Caputo made headlines when Politico and The New York Times reported that Caputo’s office had tried to gain control over a CDC publication known as the MMWR, or Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In previous administrations, political appointees in the HHS secretary’s office maintained a hands-off policy with regard to the publication from CDC, which is under the department’s umbrella.
The story took a strange turn on Monday, after the Times reported on a live video hosted by Caputo on his personal Facebook page. In it, Caputo reportedly accused government scientists of conspiring against Trump as part of a “resistance.”
The message turned apocalyptic when Caputo reportedly predicted that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would refuse to concede defeat to Trump in the election, and violence would break out. The Associated Press was unable to independently view the video.