Further Caputo update

Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official who took over as top spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year, will take a 60-day leave of absence, HHS announced Wednesday.

The move comes after Caputo, who led the agency’s communications on the coronavirus pandemic, reportedly said in a now-deleted video posted Sunday on his personal Facebook page that scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were engaged in “sedition” against President Donald Trump.

  CNBC

I hope 60 days is enough.*

HHS also announced that Paul Alexander, an advisor to Caputo who was working for the agency on a temporary basis, “will be leaving the department.”

Alexander is the one who demanded everything the CDC put out go through him.

Politico reported last week that Alexander had also been trying to control what Fauci, a White House coronavirus advisor, said in media appearances. When asked about the report last week, Fauci said any attempt to control what he says is a “fool’s errand.”

[...]

In a statement obtained by CNBC, Caputo said he will use the leave of absence “to pursue necessary screenings for a lymphatic issue discovered last week.” Caputo added that he has been losing weight for months and had delayed seeing his doctor. He also said “violent threats leveled at me and my family back in Buffalo” have contributed to his stress levels. In the statement, he thanked Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for conferring with Caputo’s personal physician.

“But every American battling COVID — in every city in every state across the nation — has been under enormous pressure. I am just one of them,” he said. “Our family is blessed. We urge all Americans to see their family doctor for the healthcare they need but have missed for months during this crisis. Do it today.”

Especially if you're going to need a medical excuse for some legal trouble you may have gotten yourself into. In other words, if you work in the Trump administration.

The internal shake-up comes after Democratic lawmakers launched an investigation earlier this week into alleged political interference at the CDC by Trump appointees.

[...]

Also earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for [HHS chief Alex] Azar to resign, citing “chaos and mismanagement in his own agency.”

Which won't happen.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

UPDATE 9/16:  Caputo has been diagnosed with cancer.  What of the brain, you ask?

"After surgery last week at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, doctors diagnosed Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo with squamous cell carcinoma, a metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat," according to a statement from David DiPietro, a New York State assemblymember who is serving as Caputo's spokesperson. "He is now home in Western New York, resting in the loving arms of his family, under the watchful eye of Jesus Christ."

  Politico

*UPDATE 10/25: Apparently not.

Further Caputo update

Top HHS spokesman Michael Caputo called an emergency staff meeting on Tuesday to apologize for leveling a series of false accusations on Facebook Live over the weekend.

  Politico

Maybe he should go back on Facebook Live and apologize to the whole world.

Caputo told staffers that his remarks — which included unfounded allegations the Centers for Disease Control was harboring a “resistance unit” — reflected poorly on HHS’ communications office.

No shit.

On Sunday, Caputo took to Facebook Live to level a series of wild and false accusations that warned of an armed insurrection after the election and asserted without evidence that public health officials were trying to undermine Trump’s reelection bid.

Several people inside and outside the administration subsequently raised concerns to Azar and the White House about the Facebook Live video.

[...]

Caputo told staffers that his remarks — which included unfounded allegations the Centers for Disease Control was harboring a “resistance unit” — reflected poorly on HHS’ communications office.

Maybe he should consider that this is not the job for him.

The session left some staffers with the impression that Caputo would soon step aside as the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs.

I'd advise it.

One former HHS official separately told POLITICO that Caputo, a former Trump campaign official who has long complained of the stress caused by having been mentioned in the special counsel's investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 election, was mulling taking medical leave.

[...]

Caputo made allusions to the fact that HHS had functioned for a long time in the past without a permanent top communications official.

Just the way Trump likes it.

Caputo was at the center of a series of reports on political meddling with the department’s Covid-19 response, including POLITICO reports that he and top adviser Paul Alexander tried to influence key CDC scientific bulletins. Alexander, who was hired by Caputo in the spring, also pushed infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci to downplay the virus’ risk to children.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 9/16:  Caputo has been diagnosed with cancer.  What of the brain, you ask?

"After surgery last week at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, doctors diagnosed Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo with squamous cell carcinoma, a metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat," according to a statement from David DiPietro, a New York State assemblymember who is serving as Caputo's spokesperson. "He is now home in Western New York, resting in the loving arms of his family, under the watchful eye of Jesus Christ." 

  Politico

Caputo update

After the horse has fled the barn, he closes the gate.

Caputo appeared to have deleted his Twitter account after a late-night rant in which he suggested tear-gassing reporters and tangled with other users on the site.

[...]

“Mr. Caputo is a critical, integral part of the President’s coronavirus response, leading on public messaging as Americans need public health information to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in an emailed comment.

  Bloomberg

How very unfortunate.

Caputo, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Health and Human Services Department, has maintained two accounts on the social media site: @SpoxHHS, which is the health department’s official account, and another personal account, @MichaelRCaputo. On Monday afternoon, the personal account was locked, with many older tweets no longer visible. The account was no longer visible as of 2 p.m. New York time, with a message saying “This acount doesn’t exist.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 9/16:  Caputo has been diagnosed with cancer.  What of the brain, you ask?

"After surgery last week at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, doctors diagnosed Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo with squamous cell carcinoma, a metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat," according to a statement from David DiPietro, a New York State assemblymember who is serving as Caputo's spokesperson. "He is now home in Western New York, resting in the loving arms of his family, under the watchful eye of Jesus Christ." 

  Politico

The best people

Michael Caputo, the assistant secretary of health for public affairs, told a Facebook audience without evidence that left-wing hit squads were being trained for insurrection, and he accused C.D.C. scientists of “sedition.”

[...]

[Caputo] 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. 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,” 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.

  NYT

Do you have to be a conspiracy nut to get a job in the Trump administration?

Mr. Caputo delivered his broadside against scientists, the media and Democrats after a spate of news reports over the weekend that detailed his team’s 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.

[...]

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 think we can all agree on that.

“I don’t 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 you’ve seen are nothing.” He added: “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.”

[...]

“To allow people to die so that you can replace the president is a grievous venial sin, venial sin,” he said. “And these people are all going to hell.”

He has that backward. People were allowed to die to keep a president in office.

Somebody get the straightjacket.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 9/15:

Caputo has deleted his Twitter account.  Or...SOMEBODY deleted it.

UPDATE 9/16:  Caputo has been diagnosed with cancer.  What of the brain, you ask?

"After surgery last week at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, doctors diagnosed Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo with squamous cell carcinoma, a metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat," according to a statement from David DiPietro, a New York State assemblymember who is serving as Caputo's spokesperson. "He is now home in Western New York, resting in the loving arms of his family, under the watchful eye of Jesus Christ." 

  Politico