Trump adviser warns of revolt

WASHINGTON — The top communications official at the powerful Cabinet department in charge of fighting the coronavirus made outlandish and false claims Sunday that career government scientists were engaging in “sedition” in their handling of the pandemic and warned that leftwing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election.

Michael Caputo, assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of harboring a “resistance unit” determined to undermine President Trump, even if that opposition bolsters the COVID19 death toll.

Caputo, who has faced criticism for leading efforts to warp CDC weekly bulletins to fit Trump’s pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger.

“You understand that they’re going to have to kill me and, unfortunately, I think that’s where this is going,” Caputo told followers on his Facebook page.

The department said in a statement: “Mr. Caputo is a critical, integral part of the president’s coronavirus response.”

Caputo delivered his broadside against scientists, the media and Democrats after news reports over the weekend that detailed his team’s systematic interference in the CDC’s official reports on the pandemic and other disease outbreaks.