Bublonichronic
Well-Known Member
Bill Text - SB-145 Sex offenders: registration.
leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
Trump's War on Factual News Journalism.
- Thread starter hanimmal
- Start date
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Looks like it is about sex offenders.
But this caught my eye at the bottom of the page:
You know the Russian/Republican scam is especially being conducted on religious people right?
In the comment section of that bill:
https://legiscan.com/CA/bill/SB145/2019
Bublonichronic
Well-Known Member
ok but the fact is the bill still leaves it up to the judge if a 14yr old has sex with a 24yr old, like I said they slowly normalize shit, that’s what you are seeing
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Are you sure about that?
Because I think you are reading what you want it to say, repeating the lie like branding. Because i'm pretty sure that the bill says that the crime still stands, but the judge can say that the person (in your absolutely extreme example that is not reality) may not necessarily go on a sex offender register (btw, which you can thank Biden for writing the law that created a sex offender register in the first place).
Bublonichronic
Well-Known Member
That doesn’t sound right but I don’t know enough about the history of sex offender registry to argue about it....any sources proving this
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
You mean other than the one linked into that sentence? Or was that humor, it it was a joke it was funny.That doesn’t sound right but I don’t know enough about the history of sex offender registry to argue about it....any sources proving this
potroastV2
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
He's trolling you with bullshit, Man!
Why do you engage him?
November/January can't get here soon enough.
Bublonichronic
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-joe-biden-ap-fact-check-media-d26dde4f844f02c28b521757674d133f
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
___
Video edited to remove context from Biden’s comment about Black worker
CLAIM: Video shows Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden saying the reason he has been able to stay sequestered in his home is because “some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf.”
THE FACTS: The video including that remark by Biden was shortened to remove the context in which it was said. A review of the full video taken during a Sept. 15 veterans roundtable Biden hosted at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, shows the candidate was making a point about various groups stepping up as essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. At least two heavily edited versions of the video were shared by public figures including Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and Fox News analyst Gregg Jarrett. Cleveland-area pastor Darrell Scott, who co-founded Trump’s National Diversity Coalition, posted one of the videos on Twitter with the caption,
“What???? And Black folks STILL giving him a pass!” The videos quickly amassed millions of views on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
But they lacked important context for understanding Biden’s point, which was about different groups coming together to help each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden used the quote as one of multiple examples of different groups supporting each other as he explained his optimism for America’s future: “And you say, ‘Why in the hell would you say that, Biden? You just talked about all these difficulties,’” Biden said. “Well, I’ll tell you why. Because the American public, the blinders have been taken off. They’ve all of a sudden seen a hell of a lot clearer. They are saying: ‘Jeez, the reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf, or I got a young Hispanic is out there, or these dreamers out there, 60,000 of them, acting as first responders and nurses and docs.’ Or, all of a sudden people are realizing, my lord, you know, these people have done so much — not just Black, white but across the board — have done so much for me. We can do this. We can get things done.”
— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson reported from Seattle.
___
Posts misrepresent Trump’s remarks from Walter Reed
CLAIM: While hospitalized President Donald Trump said, “The doctors said they’ve never seen a body kill the coronavirus like my body. They tested my DNA and it wasn’t DNA. It was USA.”
THE FACTS: There is no evidence Trump made such a statement. The president shared an update on his condition in a video message posted to Twitter on Saturday after testing positive for the coronavirus and being transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. A screenshot from the video was shared online with a false caption that included the quote. The post was shared thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook. The full video of the address shows that Trump makes no references to his DNA during his speech. The false caption was also not tweeted by the president. In his address, he thanked medical professionals and the outpouring of support he has received. “I came here wasn’t feeling so well,” he says in the video. “I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again.” The false caption was made into a meme and shared in several different languages, including Vietnamese.
— Associated Press writer Beatrice Dupuy reported from New York.
___
CLAIM: Vice President Mike Pence tweeted after his debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris that an Instagram page had released evidence Harris received the questions beforehand.
THE FACTS: The tweet was fabricated — it was not sent from Pence’s account. At the start of the Oct. 7 debate between Pence and Harris, moderator Susan Page announced, “No one in either campaign or at the commission or anywhere else has been told in advance what topics I’ll raise or what questions I’ll ask.” To date, there is no publicly available, credible evidence either candidate had advance notice of the questions. But an image of a fabricated tweet that purports to be from Pence’s account suggests otherwise. The tweet was made to look like it was sent from @VP, one of the Twitter accounts used by the vice president, and has the same photo as Pence’s actual account. It reads, “I want to thank everyone for the support for tonight’s debate. I’d say it was a success. It was also brought to my attention that the Instagram page @electionleaks released evidence of Kamala receiving the questions beforehand. This is unfair and I’d say that everyone should check out the evidence to judge for themselves.” The tweet does not appear on Pence’s @VP account. Nor does it appear on Politwoops, a ProPublica archive of politicians’ deleted tweets.
— Associated Press writer Jude Joffe-Block reported from Phoenix.
___
Barr hasn’t announced that Obama launched antifa
CLAIM: Attorney General William Barr’s investigation into antifa reveals that the organization was created by former President Barack Obama and liberal financier George Soros.
THE FACTS: The claim stems from a satirical article. Barr has not opened an investigation into antifa, a term for leftist militants, although he did form a task force to examine violence around nationwide protests this summer. “Barr’s investigation of ANTIFA leads directly to Barack Obama,” says the headline of the June 8 article on a site called Obama Watcher, which is labeled as satire. Obama Watcher is part of a network of satirical sites run by America’s Last Line of Defense, a liberal site that tries to dupe Trump’s supporters with false news stories. Facebook and Twitter users continue to pass around the article as real. Antifa is not considered an organized group. FBI Director Christopher Wray has told lawmakers that it is an ideology or a movement, not an organization. The Department of Justice, which is led by Barr, has opened investigations into some violence that erupted in cities during nationwide protests calling for racial justice earlier this year.
—Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz reported from Chicago.
___
Video does not show pro-Trump bikers outside Walter Reed
CLAIM: Video shows bikers praying for Trump outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
THE FACTS: The video actually shows bikers in South Africa praying during an event to protest against the attacks against farmers in the area. After news broke that Trump was being taken to Walter Reed, his supporters began gathering outside the hospital to wish the president well. Social media users are misrepresenting a TikTok video to say it shows Trump’s supporters outside the hospital praying for the president, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The clip, which shows motorcyclists kneeling in a park as they pray, was viewed more than a million times on Twitter as of Monday. Social media users shared the 8-second clip of the bikers and stills from the clip with a false caption. “Thousands of bikers gathered outside Walter Reed Hospital to pray for Trump,” one post on Facebook said. The video was taken months before the president was diagnosed with COVID-19. The video actually shows a biker rally in Pretoria, South Africa, in August. The clip matches with footage taken at the time of a biker protest held against the murders of farmers. The clip was widely shared on
Facebook and Twitter; the Trump War Room, the official account for the president’s campaign, shared the video with the false caption on Twitter on Saturday. Trump briefly left the hospital Sunday to drive by and wave to his supporters camped outside. The president could be seen in an SUV wearing a mask inside the armored vehicle.
—Beatrice Dupuy
___
Photo does not show Fox News’ Chris Wallace without a mask
CLAIM: Photo shows Fox News’ Chris Wallace without a face mask in public.
THE FACTS: The photo is of Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent for ABC News. The photo has been circulating on Twitter since May. On Oct. 4, a photo surfaced on social media showing Karl without a mask. Social media users claimed the photo showed Wallace. “Notice that the only one walking around in this public place without a mask on is the extremely biased, elitist, Chris Wallace. #ChrisWallace #Trump #TrumpCovid #MAGA #ChrisWallaceTheHack,” one tweet said. The false post had over 14,000 retweets. Multiple reporters from the White House press corps recognized and pointed out Karl on social media. The photo was uploaded to Twitter in May. It shows Karl standing outside Mi Vida, a Mexican restaurant in Washington, without a mask. In May, social media users posted multiple photos of Karl outside the restaurant, criticizing him for standing in public without a mask. Wallace moderated the first debate between Trump and Biden last week. On Oct. 2, Wallace urged Fox News viewers to “wear the damn mask.”
—Associated Press
____
Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
___
Video edited to remove context from Biden’s comment about Black worker
CLAIM: Video shows Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden saying the reason he has been able to stay sequestered in his home is because “some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf.”
THE FACTS: The video including that remark by Biden was shortened to remove the context in which it was said. A review of the full video taken during a Sept. 15 veterans roundtable Biden hosted at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, shows the candidate was making a point about various groups stepping up as essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. At least two heavily edited versions of the video were shared by public figures including Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and Fox News analyst Gregg Jarrett. Cleveland-area pastor Darrell Scott, who co-founded Trump’s National Diversity Coalition, posted one of the videos on Twitter with the caption,
“What???? And Black folks STILL giving him a pass!” The videos quickly amassed millions of views on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
But they lacked important context for understanding Biden’s point, which was about different groups coming together to help each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden used the quote as one of multiple examples of different groups supporting each other as he explained his optimism for America’s future: “And you say, ‘Why in the hell would you say that, Biden? You just talked about all these difficulties,’” Biden said. “Well, I’ll tell you why. Because the American public, the blinders have been taken off. They’ve all of a sudden seen a hell of a lot clearer. They are saying: ‘Jeez, the reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf, or I got a young Hispanic is out there, or these dreamers out there, 60,000 of them, acting as first responders and nurses and docs.’ Or, all of a sudden people are realizing, my lord, you know, these people have done so much — not just Black, white but across the board — have done so much for me. We can do this. We can get things done.”
— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson reported from Seattle.
___
Posts misrepresent Trump’s remarks from Walter Reed
CLAIM: While hospitalized President Donald Trump said, “The doctors said they’ve never seen a body kill the coronavirus like my body. They tested my DNA and it wasn’t DNA. It was USA.”
THE FACTS: There is no evidence Trump made such a statement. The president shared an update on his condition in a video message posted to Twitter on Saturday after testing positive for the coronavirus and being transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. A screenshot from the video was shared online with a false caption that included the quote. The post was shared thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook. The full video of the address shows that Trump makes no references to his DNA during his speech. The false caption was also not tweeted by the president. In his address, he thanked medical professionals and the outpouring of support he has received. “I came here wasn’t feeling so well,” he says in the video. “I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again.” The false caption was made into a meme and shared in several different languages, including Vietnamese.
— Associated Press writer Beatrice Dupuy reported from New York.
___
CLAIM: Vice President Mike Pence tweeted after his debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris that an Instagram page had released evidence Harris received the questions beforehand.
THE FACTS: The tweet was fabricated — it was not sent from Pence’s account. At the start of the Oct. 7 debate between Pence and Harris, moderator Susan Page announced, “No one in either campaign or at the commission or anywhere else has been told in advance what topics I’ll raise or what questions I’ll ask.” To date, there is no publicly available, credible evidence either candidate had advance notice of the questions. But an image of a fabricated tweet that purports to be from Pence’s account suggests otherwise. The tweet was made to look like it was sent from @VP, one of the Twitter accounts used by the vice president, and has the same photo as Pence’s actual account. It reads, “I want to thank everyone for the support for tonight’s debate. I’d say it was a success. It was also brought to my attention that the Instagram page @electionleaks released evidence of Kamala receiving the questions beforehand. This is unfair and I’d say that everyone should check out the evidence to judge for themselves.” The tweet does not appear on Pence’s @VP account. Nor does it appear on Politwoops, a ProPublica archive of politicians’ deleted tweets.
— Associated Press writer Jude Joffe-Block reported from Phoenix.
___
Barr hasn’t announced that Obama launched antifa
CLAIM: Attorney General William Barr’s investigation into antifa reveals that the organization was created by former President Barack Obama and liberal financier George Soros.
THE FACTS: The claim stems from a satirical article. Barr has not opened an investigation into antifa, a term for leftist militants, although he did form a task force to examine violence around nationwide protests this summer. “Barr’s investigation of ANTIFA leads directly to Barack Obama,” says the headline of the June 8 article on a site called Obama Watcher, which is labeled as satire. Obama Watcher is part of a network of satirical sites run by America’s Last Line of Defense, a liberal site that tries to dupe Trump’s supporters with false news stories. Facebook and Twitter users continue to pass around the article as real. Antifa is not considered an organized group. FBI Director Christopher Wray has told lawmakers that it is an ideology or a movement, not an organization. The Department of Justice, which is led by Barr, has opened investigations into some violence that erupted in cities during nationwide protests calling for racial justice earlier this year.
—Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz reported from Chicago.
___
Video does not show pro-Trump bikers outside Walter Reed
CLAIM: Video shows bikers praying for Trump outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
THE FACTS: The video actually shows bikers in South Africa praying during an event to protest against the attacks against farmers in the area. After news broke that Trump was being taken to Walter Reed, his supporters began gathering outside the hospital to wish the president well. Social media users are misrepresenting a TikTok video to say it shows Trump’s supporters outside the hospital praying for the president, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The clip, which shows motorcyclists kneeling in a park as they pray, was viewed more than a million times on Twitter as of Monday. Social media users shared the 8-second clip of the bikers and stills from the clip with a false caption. “Thousands of bikers gathered outside Walter Reed Hospital to pray for Trump,” one post on Facebook said. The video was taken months before the president was diagnosed with COVID-19. The video actually shows a biker rally in Pretoria, South Africa, in August. The clip matches with footage taken at the time of a biker protest held against the murders of farmers. The clip was widely shared on
Facebook and Twitter; the Trump War Room, the official account for the president’s campaign, shared the video with the false caption on Twitter on Saturday. Trump briefly left the hospital Sunday to drive by and wave to his supporters camped outside. The president could be seen in an SUV wearing a mask inside the armored vehicle.
—Beatrice Dupuy
___
Photo does not show Fox News’ Chris Wallace without a mask
CLAIM: Photo shows Fox News’ Chris Wallace without a face mask in public.
THE FACTS: The photo is of Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent for ABC News. The photo has been circulating on Twitter since May. On Oct. 4, a photo surfaced on social media showing Karl without a mask. Social media users claimed the photo showed Wallace. “Notice that the only one walking around in this public place without a mask on is the extremely biased, elitist, Chris Wallace. #ChrisWallace #Trump #TrumpCovid #MAGA #ChrisWallaceTheHack,” one tweet said. The false post had over 14,000 retweets. Multiple reporters from the White House press corps recognized and pointed out Karl on social media. The photo was uploaded to Twitter in May. It shows Karl standing outside Mi Vida, a Mexican restaurant in Washington, without a mask. In May, social media users posted multiple photos of Karl outside the restaurant, criticizing him for standing in public without a mask. Wallace moderated the first debate between Trump and Biden last week. On Oct. 2, Wallace urged Fox News viewers to “wear the damn mask.”
—Associated Press
____
Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/15/sean-hannity-unmasks-himself-fraud-again/
The great “unmasking” scandal has fizzled, though please do not tell viewers of the Fox News program “Hannity.”
Surely the host of that program doesn’t want to. On Tuesday night’s broadcast, Sean Hannity discussed Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the presidential race, former vice president Joe Biden’s mental acuity and Hunter Biden. On Wednesday night, the topical lineup was pretty much the same. Everything, in other words, except for one of Hannity’s favorite stories:
“‘Unmasking’ probe commissioned by Barr concludes without charges or any public report,” reads the headline on a Tuesday Washington Post story by Matt Zapotosky and Shane Harris. The story capped more than three years of froth and speculation. It all began during the presidential transition, when officials in the Obama administration requested that a person who turned up in foreign intelligence reports be revealed — or “unmasked.” That person ended up being Michael Flynn, a close Trump ally who ended up serving for a few weeks as President Trump’s national security adviser. He resigned from his White House post under pressure in mid-February and later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition.
Conservative lawmakers and media decided the “unmasking” was part of a nebulous “Obamagate” scandal — the details of which the president himself couldn’t define. In May, the Justice Department announced that Attorney General William P. Barr had assigned U.S. Attorney John Bash to investigate whether the “unmasking” was improper. As The Post reported, Bash found nothing.
That’s not surprising: By all accounts, “unmasking” has long been a standard practice in the national security realm. Intelligence reports redact names of U.S. citizens who get swept up in foreign surveillance, the better to protect their privacy. Yet U.S. officials who later read the surveillance reports may seek a more detailed understanding of the conversations. So they can make a request to provide the identity of such a person.
But there’s no one like Hannity when it comes to turning standard procedure into dastardly conspiracy. “If you have rogue intelligence people, and they’re intercepting, illegally intercepting phone calls of Americans, that’s illegal,” said Hannity in a chat with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) shortly after Flynn’s departure. Nunes pushed the focus toward the Obama White House: “What I’m assuming is, is that this was picked up as they were tracking someone else. And if that’s the case, that would have had to go up to the highest levels of the Obama administration to get approval to unmask who that person is. And in this case, it was General Flynn,” said the congressman.
Once a conspiratorial notion this juicy finds its way into the Hannity narrative rotation, it sticks. “Hannity,” after all, is an accretive jumble of half-baked slams against liberals and Democrats. In December 2017, he warned of “all the attempts to take this president down. For example, the surveillance, unmasking of Trump and associates by the Obama administration.” The following April, he decried “unmasking, leaking, surveillance, FISA abuse, exonerations before investigations, felonies just not being prosecuted. Every one of these stories is unbelievable.” That October he declared, “And by the way, those leaks, we knew from the get-go were illegal, because that was — we all know surveillance unmasking that, never shouldn’t have happened or leaked in the first place.” And in March 2019, he wailed that “they all must be now put under oath, investigated because they weaponized the powerful tools of intelligence and resources and they literally broke the law.”
“Hannity” viewers might have thought this hype train was headed somewhere as recently as this spring. On May 7, then-acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell arrived at the Justice Department carrying a briefcase; a Fox News camera was pre-positioned to catch this newsy moment. The goods in transit: a declassified list of Obama administration officials who’d sought to unmask the person who ended up being Flynn. Two weeks later, Hannity devoted a “‘Hannity’ history special” to this alleged controversy. After declaring that he spurned the approach of the “media mob,” the host declared, “We got it right, they got it wrong. Now, we start three years ago in 2017 when we first sounded the alarm about unmasking, leaking raw intelligence and surveillance.” On May 27, DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec joined Hannity to discuss the decision to sic Bash on the “unmasking” allegations. This particular inquiry, noted Kupec, was adjacent to the inquiry of John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut who’s reviewing the Russia investigation.
Then in June, Hannity sounded exasperated with how long this whole thing was taking. “Now, I know tonight, many of you have been frustrated because the wheels of justice move painfully slow. Yours truly as well. The first — we first started on this with unmasking, illegal surveillance, leaking raw intelligence in March of 2017,” he said.
Well, this week his impatience has been rewarded. The Post’s scoop on Tuesday has now been matched by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, with the so-called straight news side of Fox News carrying the story on Tuesday evening.
We know how much Hannity likes to cite such publications — when they confirm his priors. Yet Hannity’s segment on the Bash “unmasking” review is nowhere to be seen. Why? The findings of Bash’s review have been passed along to Durham, according to reports — so perhaps Hannity is waiting for the outcome of the Durham probe to assess his approach to “unmasking?” But waiting isn’t Hannity’s style.
So why the delay in updating his viewers? Because Hannity has no respect for those viewers — the very people who’ve turned him into a millionaire many, many times over. They exist to absorb his nightly rants and boost his ratings. That’s it. Their loyalty doesn’t entitle them to honesty, integrity or introspection. Not even close.
And it’s not as though “Hannity” as a propaganda product suffers, either. There are, after all, plenty of other topics that Hannity can promote, now that “unmasking” has been all but torn from him. The cogency of Biden and the actions of his son Hunter, for example, are elastic standbys, available to fill however many minutes the host might need. Then there’s the Russia “hoax,” the sins of the Democrats and the “media mob,” and so on. In this he’ll be joined by many other voices across the network: CNN’s Oliver Darcy noted that the “unmasking” controversy permeated other precincts at Fox News.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-pandemics-public-health-new-york-e321f4c9098b4db4dd6b1eda76a5179e
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump White House has installed two political operatives at the nation’s top public health agency to try to control the information it releases about the coronavirus pandemic as the administration seeks to paint a positive outlook, sometimes at odds with the scientific evidence.
The two appointees assigned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters in June have no public health background. They have instead been tasked with keeping an eye on Dr. Robert Redfield, the agency director, as well as scientists, according to a half-dozen CDC and administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal government affairs.
The appointments were part of a push to get more “politicals” into the CDC to help control messaging after a handful of leaks were “upsetting the apple cart,” said an administration official.
When the two appointees showed up in Atlanta, their roles were a mystery to senior CDC staff, the people said. They had not even been assigned offices. Eventually one, Nina Witkofsky, became acting chief of staff, an influential role as Redfield’s right hand. The other, her deputy Chester “Trey” Moeller, also began sitting in on scientific meetings, the sources said.
It’s not clear to what extent the two appointees have affected the agency’s work, according to interviews with multiple CDC officials. But congressional investigators are examining that very question after evidence has mounted of political interference in CDC scientific publications, guidance documents and web postings.
The White House declined to comment. A CDC spokesperson confirmed that Witkofsky and Moeller were working at the agency reporting to Redfield, but did not comment further.
Moeller said in an email to The AP, “I work for Dr. Redfield who is 100% committed to the science and the thousands of incredibly dedicated employees at the CDC working on behalf of the American people.”
During previous pandemics such as Ebola or SARS, the CDC was the public face of the U.S. response, offering scientifically driven advice to doctors and patients alike. The agency played the same role at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but stumbled in February when a test for the virus sent to states proved to be flawed. Then, in late February, a top CDC infectious disease expert, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, upset the administration by speaking frankly at a news conference about the dangers of the virus when the president was still downplaying it.
Within weeks, the agency was pushed offstage as President Donald Trump and other administration officials, during daily news briefings, became the main sources of information about the U.S. epidemic and the attempts to control it.
Still, CDC persisted in assembling science-based information that conflicted with the White House narrative. In May, a series of leaked emails and scientific documents obtained by The AP detailed how the White House had buried CDC’s detailed guidelines for communities reopening during a still-surging pandemic. The emails revealed that the administration was vetting CDC’s science through the Office of Management and Budget, rather than relying on its medical experts on the White House coronavirus task force. The resulting news stories of the shelving of the documents angered the administration, and sparked renewed efforts to exert control over CDC, according to current and former officials.
On a Monday in June, the new faces arrived at CDC’s Atlanta offices. One was Witkofsky, who according to federal election records had a minor role in Trump’s presidential campaign.
Witkofsky was installed initially as a senior adviser to Redfield. In a few weeks, she would take over as the agency’s acting chief of staff and gradually become the person at CDC headquarters who has the most daily interactions with him, the CDC officials said.
Senior CDC staff found out about the appointments the week before they happened, according to a CDC official who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency affairs. They had no office, and no one knew their role.
“They just showed up on a Monday,” the official said.
Presidential administrations appoint CDC directors. And there’s nothing new about a White House seeking a better handle on information released by the CDC, said Glen Nowak, a University of Georgia professor who ran the agency’s media relations for more than a dozen years. But past administrations placed overtly political appointees at HHS in Washington; the Trump administration has taken it to a new level by placing other people in CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, Nowak said.
Before Witkofsky and Moeller, the Trump administration had appointed others at CDC in Atlanta who were viewed by staff with some suspicion. But none of the predecessors’ roles was so clearly to report internal agency business up to Washington, according to officials who talked to The AP.
And Witkofsky seemed a particularly strange fit for the nation’s top public health agency. She studied finance and business administration in college and graduate school, and at one point worked as a publicist and talent booker for Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network. Her political work included being an events director during the George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign. As a State Department official, she developed an international engagement program for U.S. athletes and coaches.
Her lack of familiarity with the CDC, and how it worked, quickly became clear in meetings, according to multiple agency officials. At one, Witkofsky expressed surprise that the CDC had a supporting foundation, one agency official recalled.
Though Witkofsky was largely unknown, she had met a few CDC workers months earlier. In March, on behalf of the administration, she had worked communications when Trump visited a CDC lab. Clad in a red “Keep America Great” baseball cap, Trump had praised the CDC and assured the public “we’re prepared for anything.” Trump asserted that he has a terrific grasp of public health. “Maybe I have a natural ability,” he boasted.
In her new role, Witkofsky communicated regularly with Michael Caputo, chief of communications for CDC’s parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, two administration officials said. At the time Caputo’s office was attempting to gain control over the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, or MMWR, a CDC scientific weekly known for publishing authoritative and unvarnished information about disease-fighting efforts, according to multiple accounts.
Witkofsky’s deputy, Moeller, who began work on the same day, is a longtime GOP supporter who worked on the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign in 2004. The most recent post on his Facebook page was a “Make America Great Again” Trump campaign banner.
They wanted him to sit in meetings and “listen to scientists,” said a former CDC official.
Witkofsky was added to CDC’s website when she became acting chief of staff, but Moeller’s name appears nowhere on either the HHS or CDC sites.
An HHS spokesperson said both Witkofsky and Moeller report to Redfield but refused to comment further on personnel matters.
Some CDC officials noted that a pandemic like this involves many parts of the government, and the political people sent to Atlanta have at times helped speed the flow of information coming to the agency from Washington.
But there has been a huge downside, public health experts and former CDC staffers say: damage to the once-venerated CDC.
The agency’s guidance for how to reduce viral infections has been largely ignored by the Trump White House, where officials have refused to wear masks and continued to hold large gatherings with few protective measures.
Witkofsky and Moeller are among officials the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis is seeking to interview as part of a probe it launched in mid-September into allegations the Trump administration blocked the CDC from publishing accurate scientific reports during the pandemic.
The subcommittee’s investigators want to know more about Witkofsky and Moeller’s roles in reported attempts by Caputo and administration officials to gain editorial control over the MMWR and other CDC publications. The investigators are also interested in whether Witkofsky and Moeller were involved in making changes to CDC COVID-19 guidance for schools, as well as agency information that has been changed multiple times on how the virus spreads through the air.
Caputo took a leave of absence from HHS after he described government scientists as the “resistance” against Trump in a video posted online. In an HHS podcast, Caputo accused Democrats in the government, along with the news media, of not wanting a vaccine so as to punish the president. After the incidents gained news coverage, one of Caputo’s top advisers, Dr. Paul Alexander, resigned.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-aims-to-warp-the-voice-of-america-into-a-propaganda-tool/2020/10/27/ad294bc6-187b-11eb-befb-8864259bd2d8_story.html
THE U.S. government’s international broadcasting has long had one big advantage over its Russian and Chinese competition: a commitment to independent journalism, rather than official propaganda. Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other outlets are staffed by professionals who deliver unbiased news reports, including about the U.S. government, earning them credibility and influence with audiences around the world — especially in countries that lack free media.
President Trump is bent on destroying that legacy. Last spring, infuriated by VOA’s failure to echo his hyperbolic rhetoric about the “China virus,” he bullied reluctant Republican senators into confirming his highly partisan nominee to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees U.S. broadcasting. That official, Michael Pack, immediately embarked on a purge of the journalistic leadership of the organizations; he also refused to renew visasof dozens of foreign journalists who work for them.
Now Mr. Pack has launched a direct assault on the journalistic code that has been the U.S. calling card. Late Monday night, he unilaterally issued an order he said revoked a USAGM regulation creating a “firewall” between management and the journalism of the networks. His objection is to the rule’s prohibition of “attempts” by USAGM executives “to direct, pressure, coerce, threaten, interfere with, or otherwise impermissibly influence any of the USAGM Networks . . . in the performance of their journalistic and broadcasting duties.”
Mr. Pack would like to do all those things in advancement of his aim to repress reporting that might offend the White House. For example, he already ordered an investigation of veteran VOA reporter Steve Herman for supposed anti-Trump bias. Mr. Herman’s sin was to report, accurately, that Vice President Pence had failed to wear a mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic. The probe was a blatant violation of the firewall that Mr. Pack now says he has dismantled. In a memo to staff, he unabashedly said he acted so that he could “enforce consequences for . . . biased reporting.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Trump’s minion, the independence of VOA’s journalism is guaranteed not just by the regulation he said he repealed but also by a law passed by Congress, which mandates the “professional independence and integrity” of U.S. broadcasting. But Mr. Pack is not much deterred by legal barriers. According to a half-dozen whistleblowers who filed a complaint with the State Department’s inspector general, he has improperly diverted funds, sidelined executives who told him he was violating the law and tried to investigate the voting history of USAGM employees.
Mr. Pack has drawn bipartisan criticism from both houses of Congress — which he reacted to by ignoring a subpoena to testify to a House committee. On Tuesday, the senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul (Tex.), tweeted that “it is unclear why CEO Pack is opposed to journalistic objectivity at USAGM and its networks. Without it, the mission and effectiveness of the agency is undermined.” In fact, Mr. Pack’s motives appear perfectly clear: He wishes to turn U.S. broadcasting into a pro-Trump propaganda operation. Unless Mr. Trump is defeated and Mr. Pack removed, the unique power of U.S. foreign broadcasting will likely be destroyed.
THE U.S. government’s international broadcasting has long had one big advantage over its Russian and Chinese competition: a commitment to independent journalism, rather than official propaganda. Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other outlets are staffed by professionals who deliver unbiased news reports, including about the U.S. government, earning them credibility and influence with audiences around the world — especially in countries that lack free media.
President Trump is bent on destroying that legacy. Last spring, infuriated by VOA’s failure to echo his hyperbolic rhetoric about the “China virus,” he bullied reluctant Republican senators into confirming his highly partisan nominee to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees U.S. broadcasting. That official, Michael Pack, immediately embarked on a purge of the journalistic leadership of the organizations; he also refused to renew visasof dozens of foreign journalists who work for them.
Now Mr. Pack has launched a direct assault on the journalistic code that has been the U.S. calling card. Late Monday night, he unilaterally issued an order he said revoked a USAGM regulation creating a “firewall” between management and the journalism of the networks. His objection is to the rule’s prohibition of “attempts” by USAGM executives “to direct, pressure, coerce, threaten, interfere with, or otherwise impermissibly influence any of the USAGM Networks . . . in the performance of their journalistic and broadcasting duties.”
Mr. Pack would like to do all those things in advancement of his aim to repress reporting that might offend the White House. For example, he already ordered an investigation of veteran VOA reporter Steve Herman for supposed anti-Trump bias. Mr. Herman’s sin was to report, accurately, that Vice President Pence had failed to wear a mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic. The probe was a blatant violation of the firewall that Mr. Pack now says he has dismantled. In a memo to staff, he unabashedly said he acted so that he could “enforce consequences for . . . biased reporting.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Trump’s minion, the independence of VOA’s journalism is guaranteed not just by the regulation he said he repealed but also by a law passed by Congress, which mandates the “professional independence and integrity” of U.S. broadcasting. But Mr. Pack is not much deterred by legal barriers. According to a half-dozen whistleblowers who filed a complaint with the State Department’s inspector general, he has improperly diverted funds, sidelined executives who told him he was violating the law and tried to investigate the voting history of USAGM employees.
Mr. Pack has drawn bipartisan criticism from both houses of Congress — which he reacted to by ignoring a subpoena to testify to a House committee. On Tuesday, the senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul (Tex.), tweeted that “it is unclear why CEO Pack is opposed to journalistic objectivity at USAGM and its networks. Without it, the mission and effectiveness of the agency is undermined.” In fact, Mr. Pack’s motives appear perfectly clear: He wishes to turn U.S. broadcasting into a pro-Trump propaganda operation. Unless Mr. Trump is defeated and Mr. Pack removed, the unique power of U.S. foreign broadcasting will likely be destroyed.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-florida-minnesota-campaigns-58124115393828f85cd496514bba4726
It’s an awkward moment when a presidential candidate greets the audience at a rally and names the wrong state.
Fortunately for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, that didn’t happen to him this week, despite a widely shared video that appears to show him saying “Hello, Minnesota” to a crowd in Florida.
It turns out he was, indeed, in Minnesota. The video that was shared had been altered to change the text on a sign and the podium to refer to Tampa, Florida, instead of Minnesota.
What you need to know about this edited video and the falsehoods spreading around it:
CLAIM: Video shows Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden mistakenly saying “Hello, Minnesota” at a campaign event in Tampa, Florida.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The sign behind Biden in this video has been edited to add the words “Tampa, Florida” and remove the words “TEXT MN to 30330.” The podium has also been edited to add “FL” instead of “MN.” Original video from this event confirms that Biden was in Minnesota and addressed the correct state in his greeting.
THE FACTS: An altered video circulating widely on social media appears to show Biden making a cringeworthy mistake: addressing Minnesotans during a campaign stop across the country in Tampa, Florida.
“Hello, Minnesota!” Biden says after taking the stage. Behind him, a sign appears to read, “Tampa, Florida” and “Battle for the Soul of the Nation.”
Biden continues, “Jessica, thank you for being here, for sharing your story.” Then, the 16-second clip ends.
The video had more than a million views on Twitter on Sunday and was spreading quickly the weekend before the U.S. presidential election. However, the words on the sign and the podium in this video have been manipulated. Several sources prove that Biden did not address the wrong state in his greeting and he was indeed in Minnesota.
An original version of the video on C-SPAN shows it was taken during an Oct. 30 campaign stop in St. Paul, Minnesota. The sign did not read “Tampa, Florida,” but instead said “TEXT MN to 30330.” The podium did not read “TEXT FL to 30330,” but instead said “TEXT MN to 30330.”
Several Associated Press images from the event provide additional proof that the sign and podium said “TEXT MN to 30330” and did not include mention of Florida.
There are other contextual clues as well. The video shows Biden wearing a thick coat for Minnesota’s cold climate. At a recent appearance in the warmer Tampa, Florida, on Oct. 29, Biden only wore a suit jacket.
The Biden campaign also confirmed to the AP that the video was taken in Minnesota.
Biden’s reference to someone named Jessica in his greeting was to Jessica Intermill, a Minnesotan with rheumatoid arthritis who spoke about health care at the St. Paul event before Biden took the stage.
It’s an awkward moment when a presidential candidate greets the audience at a rally and names the wrong state.
Fortunately for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, that didn’t happen to him this week, despite a widely shared video that appears to show him saying “Hello, Minnesota” to a crowd in Florida.
It turns out he was, indeed, in Minnesota. The video that was shared had been altered to change the text on a sign and the podium to refer to Tampa, Florida, instead of Minnesota.
What you need to know about this edited video and the falsehoods spreading around it:
CLAIM: Video shows Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden mistakenly saying “Hello, Minnesota” at a campaign event in Tampa, Florida.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The sign behind Biden in this video has been edited to add the words “Tampa, Florida” and remove the words “TEXT MN to 30330.” The podium has also been edited to add “FL” instead of “MN.” Original video from this event confirms that Biden was in Minnesota and addressed the correct state in his greeting.
THE FACTS: An altered video circulating widely on social media appears to show Biden making a cringeworthy mistake: addressing Minnesotans during a campaign stop across the country in Tampa, Florida.
“Hello, Minnesota!” Biden says after taking the stage. Behind him, a sign appears to read, “Tampa, Florida” and “Battle for the Soul of the Nation.”
Biden continues, “Jessica, thank you for being here, for sharing your story.” Then, the 16-second clip ends.
The video had more than a million views on Twitter on Sunday and was spreading quickly the weekend before the U.S. presidential election. However, the words on the sign and the podium in this video have been manipulated. Several sources prove that Biden did not address the wrong state in his greeting and he was indeed in Minnesota.
An original version of the video on C-SPAN shows it was taken during an Oct. 30 campaign stop in St. Paul, Minnesota. The sign did not read “Tampa, Florida,” but instead said “TEXT MN to 30330.” The podium did not read “TEXT FL to 30330,” but instead said “TEXT MN to 30330.”
Several Associated Press images from the event provide additional proof that the sign and podium said “TEXT MN to 30330” and did not include mention of Florida.
There are other contextual clues as well. The video shows Biden wearing a thick coat for Minnesota’s cold climate. At a recent appearance in the warmer Tampa, Florida, on Oct. 29, Biden only wore a suit jacket.
The Biden campaign also confirmed to the AP that the video was taken in Minnesota.
Biden’s reference to someone named Jessica in his greeting was to Jessica Intermill, a Minnesotan with rheumatoid arthritis who spoke about health care at the St. Paul event before Biden took the stage.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-without-mask-taken-in-2019-b68fcc7c8979bbd2011e52d52e6af37d
CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump’s supporters have seized on a photo circulating on Twitter since late Sunday that shows Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden not wearing a mask while he talks to a campaign staffer on a plane.
Why wasn’t Biden, who has made a point to put on a facial covering throughout the campaign, wearing a mask? Because the photo was taken in November 2019, before the first case of the new coronavirus was reported, and months before global health officials began urging people to wear masks in order to stop the spread of the virus.
The image was shared on Twitter by Trump’s former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, where it was liked and shared from his account more than 50,000 times. Grenell, who currently serves as special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations, was a U.S. ambassador to Germany for two years before resigning in June.
When contacted by The Associated Press, Grenell did not answer questions about whether he knew the image was old before sharing it with his 671,000 followers.
MORE FACT CHECKS:
Here’s a look at the misleading claim:
CLAIM: A photo of Biden talking to a campaign staffer without a mask on a plane begs the question: “Joe Biden doesn’t wear a mask on a plane but wears one outside?”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The photo was taken in November 2019. At that point in the campaign, the new coronavirus had not emerged globally so Biden did not wear a mask anywhere.
THE FACTS: A photo of Biden on a plane talking with his traveling national press secretary, Remi Yamamoto, both without masks, was taken in November 2019, not recently.
The photo was featured in a Vogue magazine article last week about Yamamoto and her role in the campaign. Conservative Twitter users seized on the image Sunday night, claiming it shows a hypocritical Biden not following recommended mask guidelines while traveling on a plane.
But the caption on that image clearly notes that it was captured by Biden’s campaign in November 2019 while Biden was traveling to South Carolina, before COVID-19 was even identified as a worldwide health threat.
Associated Press reporting confirms Biden traveled to South Carolina in late November of last year, making a campaign stop at Lander University in Greenwood on Nov. 21. The next day, he stopped at a soul food restaurant in Abbeville and filed paperwork to run in the state’s presidential primary.
CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump’s supporters have seized on a photo circulating on Twitter since late Sunday that shows Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden not wearing a mask while he talks to a campaign staffer on a plane.
Why wasn’t Biden, who has made a point to put on a facial covering throughout the campaign, wearing a mask? Because the photo was taken in November 2019, before the first case of the new coronavirus was reported, and months before global health officials began urging people to wear masks in order to stop the spread of the virus.
The image was shared on Twitter by Trump’s former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, where it was liked and shared from his account more than 50,000 times. Grenell, who currently serves as special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations, was a U.S. ambassador to Germany for two years before resigning in June.
When contacted by The Associated Press, Grenell did not answer questions about whether he knew the image was old before sharing it with his 671,000 followers.
MORE FACT CHECKS:
- – AP FACT CHECK: Trump baselessly cites fraud in virus toll
- – NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week
- – AP FACT CHECK: Trump sees voting chaos that does not exist
Here’s a look at the misleading claim:
CLAIM: A photo of Biden talking to a campaign staffer without a mask on a plane begs the question: “Joe Biden doesn’t wear a mask on a plane but wears one outside?”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The photo was taken in November 2019. At that point in the campaign, the new coronavirus had not emerged globally so Biden did not wear a mask anywhere.
THE FACTS: A photo of Biden on a plane talking with his traveling national press secretary, Remi Yamamoto, both without masks, was taken in November 2019, not recently.
The photo was featured in a Vogue magazine article last week about Yamamoto and her role in the campaign. Conservative Twitter users seized on the image Sunday night, claiming it shows a hypocritical Biden not following recommended mask guidelines while traveling on a plane.
But the caption on that image clearly notes that it was captured by Biden’s campaign in November 2019 while Biden was traveling to South Carolina, before COVID-19 was even identified as a worldwide health threat.
Associated Press reporting confirms Biden traveled to South Carolina in late November of last year, making a campaign stop at Lander University in Greenwood on Nov. 21. The next day, he stopped at a soul food restaurant in Abbeville and filed paperwork to run in the state’s presidential primary.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Dan Lindner was first in line at the polling place outside Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, whose logo loomed as he jammed his hands into his pockets in the predawn chill.
“My mind has been made up for quite a while,” said Lindner, 72, a Trump supporter wearing a “Proud Vet” pin and a paper surgical mask.
When asked whom he blamed for the virus, Lindner pulled down his mask and mouthed a one-word answer: “China.”
As the line grew behind him, Lindner said he believes the virus is being handled properly, and that people are tired, but growing accustomed to living with it. “I honestly think in a few months we will be talking about something else,” said the retired truck driver.
Nearby, Adrian Van Slaars was waiting to cast his vote for Biden, and the coronavirus was foremost on his mind.
“I lost a family member to covid. I almost lost a friend. I lost my job in February,” said Van Slaars, 36, a microbiology lab technician. “I need a president who is not going to take the safety net away from my parents, my grandparents and my disabled daughter."
He became emotional when he spoke about Trump’s handling of the virus. “He openly denied it, called it a hoax,” Van Slaars said, his voice catching. He watched the president’s Monday night rally in Kenosha, Wis. and said he was horrified.
“I don’t understand how anybody can be so flippant when 230,000 people have died, when Wisconsin is in crisis,” he said.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Only when they cry about their lies being called out.
Leave it to cultist Trump crowd to think that a political opinion should override actual facts because they want to pretend to be blind to the actual attack on our nation Trump is allowing and even welcoming.