corona virus

<div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></h2><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">qanon tweet origin</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">see covid 19</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">see fox 5</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">capt 320</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">420</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/meet-the-expert-whose-scientific-study-informed-trumps-do-nothing-pandemic-response/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/meet-the-expert-whose-scientific-study-informed-trumps-do-nothing-pandemic-response/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Meet the ‘expert’ whose ‘scientific study’ informed Trump’s do-nothing pandemic response</b></font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Daily Kos March 31, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It seems like years, but it was only one week ago that Donald Trump, impatient at the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic was taking up so much of his precious time, declared he was considering steps to cut back on attempts to prevent the virus from spreading.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After viewing an uninformed rant on Fox News, and pounding out a hysterical Tweet, declaring that “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Trump held a news conference in which he reiterated what was apparently passing for the “common wisdom” at the White House that morning. “America will again — and soon — be open for business,” he said. “Very soon, a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. A lot sooner. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The very same day, the Washington Post also reported on a scientific article that was being circulated back and forth in emails between “numerous administration officials” at this time (no doubt with subject headings like: “Read this now!”):</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Conservatives close to Trump and numerous administration officials have been circulating an article by Richard A. Epstein of the Hoover Institution, titled “Coronavirus Perspective,” that plays down the extent of the spread and the threat.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As any lawyer will tell you, it is not difficult to find an “expert” willing to spout out the most far-fetched “scientific-based” balderdash imaginable. It’s often simply a matter of cloaking that balderdash in calculated, impressive-sounding terminology, designed to hide the fact that it is written to achieve whatever desired result a particular client wants. <b>As reported by Isaac Chotiner for the New Yorker, this particular article authored by Richard Epstein for the conservative Hoover Institution think-tank, fit the administration’s political needs to a tee.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Epstein, a professor at New York University School of Law, published the article on the Web site of the Hoover Institution, on March 16th. In it, he questioned the World Health Organization’s decision to declare the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, said that “public officials have gone overboard,” and suggested that about five hundred people would die from COVID-19 in the U.S. Epstein later updated his estimate to five thousand, saying that the previous number had been an error.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(emphasis supplied)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When you have to “update” your conclusions to reflect an error you made by tenfold, that’s what we would call a “red flag” (the current death toll in the U.S. from COVID is already over 2000, with credible sources estimating we may be looking at 100-200,000 dead, or possibly many more). In fact, had Epstein stopped there he could have retreated into his think tank in relative obscurity, deleted the paper from the public memory and lived out a happy life as only a vaguely remembered fool with respect to the worst pandemic to strike the planet in over a century.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But like many people with oversized, prickly egos, unaccustomed to having their work revealed as faulty and error-filled, Epstein, who Chotiner describes as a “one of the most cited legal scholars in the country,” and notable for his “libertarian-minded reading of the Constitution,” just couldn’t leave well enough alone. He just had to set the record straight.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">So he compounded his error by making an even more colossal blunder: he granted an interview to the New Yorker. What followed is one of the most devastating portrayals of a purveyor of “junk science” that can be imagined.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After apologizing for his “stupid” error in projecting the number of U.S. fatalities, which he characterizes as “the single worst public-relations gaffe I’ve made in my entire life,” Epstein then proceeds to mount an arrogant, pompous and error-filled defense of his methodology (“the question to ask, Isaac, is not whether I chose the right number but whether I had the right model.”)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After acknowledging the glaring, fundamental errors in his fatality estimates, Epstein revealed some of the glaring, fundamental errors underlying his assumptions. Helpfully, the New Yorker article adds brackets which identify Epstein’s errors, and provide correct information.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">First, we realize that Epstein doesn’t even have a basic understanding of the nature of COVID-19:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Epstein]: And so you take a population like in Kirkland, which is fragile and old, you get somebody in who has a strong version of the virus, and the thing will just absolutely rip through the population and kill everybody in it within a very short period of time. [Daniel Kuritzkes, the chief of the infectious-diseases division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, said, after being read this passage, “There’s no evidence that there are strong and weak variations of the coronavirus circulating. There may be minor variations person to person or location to location in the actual genetic sequence, but there is no evidence that they have different virulence or that a less virulent version is overtaking a more virulent version.”]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Next, Epstein reveals he lacks a basic understanding of how the virus is transmitted</b>. For example, he attributes the high death toll in Washington State to the fact that people in that state “probably” received “large doses” of the virus through “hugging and kissing” the residents of the Kirkland Life Care facility, where COVID-19 was first identified in that state:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Epstein]: And Washington State had a very high peak early on. And, probably, most of the deaths that we have today, if you went through and chased them down, were either people who are in the facility or people who have family members who hugged and kissed people in the facility. So they got large doses of intense viruses. [Albert Ko, a professor of epidemiology and medicine and the department chair at the Yale School of Public Health, responded, “There is no evidence that you have a higher risk of dying from contact from someone in the facility than if you had contact from some other source.”]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(emphasis supplied)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Epstein, who is neither a virologist, an epidemiologist, nor a physician, then opines that a “change in genetic viral behavior” along with changes in human behavior would lead to an “adaptation,” altering the course of the virus.  In his view, the failure to consider such “adaptation” led to overreaction among state governors to the potential impact of the virus:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Chotiner]:You wrote, “The adaptive responses should reduce the exposures in the high-risk groups, given the tendency for the coronavirus to weaken over time.” What tendency are you talking about, and how do we know it will weaken over time?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Epstein]: Well, what happens is it’s an evolutionary tendency. [“There is absolutely no evidence for that,” Ko told me. According to Kuritzkes, “There is no proof that this is the case. To the extent we see that evolution taking place it is usually over a much vaster timescale.”]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>He then repeats that he assumed the coronavirus would weaken over time:  “This tendency takes time. It could be a week. It could be a month. It could be longer. But, in the end, you should expect something of this particular sort to take place.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, Epstein says he knows of “no exception” to the rule that such viruses weaken over time. Unfortunately, he’s wrong here as well:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Epstein]: Over time, yes. And is this a hundred-per-cent tendency? No. Is there any known exception to it? No. [“We did not see SARS or Ebola weaken over time,” Kuritzkes said. “It is only appropriate public-health measures or vaccines that have helped to control those epidemics.”]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So up to this point, we’ve determined that Epstein doesn’t understand the nature of the virus, doesn’t understand what happened in Washington State (which he relied on in his model of the virus’ transmission), and doesn’t understand that the virus will not necessarily “weaken over time.”  In short, his conclusions and the methodology underlying them are sheer garbage.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it is the exchange at the end of the interview between Chotiner and Epstein that is the most revealing:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">[Chotiner]: I know, but these are scientific issues here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">[Epstein]: You know nothing about the subject but are so confident that you’re going to say that I’m a crackpot.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">No. Richard—</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? That’s what you’re saying?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’m not saying anything of the sort.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Admit to it. You’re saying I’m a crackpot.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’m not saying anything of the—</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Well, what am I then? I’m an amateur? You’re the great scholar on this?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No, no. I’m not a great scholar on this.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tell me what you think about the quality of the work!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">O.K. I’m going to tell you. I think the fact that I am not a great scholar on this and I’m able to find these flaws or these holes in what you wrote is a sign that maybe you should’ve thought harder before writing it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What it shows is that you are a complete intellectual amateur. Period.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">O.K. Can I ask you one more question?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>You just don’t know anything about anything. You’re a journalist. Would you like to compare your résumé to mine?</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No, actually, I would not.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Then good. Then maybe what you want to do is to say, “Gee, I’m not quite sure that this is right. I’m going to check with somebody else.” But, you want to come at me hard, I am going to come back harder at you. And then if I can’t jam my fingers down your throat, then I am not worth it. But you have basically gone over the line. If you want to ask questions, ask questions. I put forward a model. But a little bit of respect.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">O.K. Let me ask you this question. All my questions are asked with respect.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s not the way I hear it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At this point, Epstein finally gets something right:  this is the ranting of an egotistical crackpot who has been caught flat-footed and is attempting to defend his own incompetence, by attacking his interlocutor as “an intellectual amateur,” whose resume cannot possibly compete with his own.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This would be comical if lives weren’t at stake. But by relying on this incompetent charlatan to inform public policy (policy which has been followed by at least some Republican governors in creating their own state’s response to the pandemic), the Trump administration may have caused hundreds if not thousands of additional deaths.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mma 320</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">2018, <b>Donald Trump</b> and then-national security adviser <b>John Bolton</b> fired the “entire pandemic response chain of command” implemented by former President Barack Obama following the 2014 Ebola crisis</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Broadcast news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC </span><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=e927f96fa742d8b2720fa322512c1f0c2d28445b8a91c36585eedff80ccd28718905fe753269eee77832739643ebd3a8e823f1031d97663f" title="have ignored" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">have ignored</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the firings. In fact, Democratic presidential candidates were the only people to mention the firings -- so in practice, these networks are turning Trump's incompetence and irresponsibility into a partisan issue.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">interesting to C&C ebola to trump fox covid fustercluck, F&F doocey, heather nauert?
</font><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-coronavirus-coverage-stands-stark-contrast-its-coverage-ebola-2014" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-coronavirus-coverage-stands-stark-contrast-its-coverage-ebola-2014</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the run-up to the 2014 midterm elections, cable news outlets -- and Fox News in particular -- <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/report-ebola-coverage-tv-news-plummeted-after-midterms" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">fearmongered</a> over an Ebola outbreak in Africa, before <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/midterms-rear-view-fox-no-longer-terrified-ebola?redirect_source=/research/2014/11/07/with-midterms-in-the-rear-view-fox-no-longer-te/201498" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">suddenly dropping the story</a> after the votes were counted. [SORT OF LIKE CARAVAN?]  Fox News figures pushed hard on the idea that President Barack Obama's administration was inept at responding to a potential pandemic. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As America faces a coronavirus pandemic under President Donald Trump, many of those same people are now singing a different tune.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTTLRtoqbMk&feature=emb_logo" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTTLRtoqbMk&feature=emb_logo</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">all starts w. B, impotred ebola, socilaim</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PC 1st, palin incompetent, put am 1st; hannity, acted fastest, huckabee suck it out of lung, swim to bot ocean accused of pollution, beck, o'reilly, sqeeze on so border, now on ebola, lou dobbs neo-lib one-world statement vs protection; why trust our BO gov't to del w/ VS DJT encouarge hate, pirro, brit hume, left sez djt tries to spread in US as fast as possible?! weeak an tepid bureaicrat = BP, ingram party of pain and misry; top dems play blame game; react in recd time; huck BO no close border bc hurt feelings of other cty; O'R quar?; esoteric faculty lounge debate vs protect USA; trish regan emonize prez; calm leadrship; huck: wish i cd trust gov't i pay for to trust them, wish i could not reliable</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/former-deputy-national-security-adviser-obama-left-a-solid-global-health-infrastructure-and-trump-shut-it-down/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Former deputy national security adviser: Obama left a solid ‘global health infrastructure’ — and Trump shut it down</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/alex-henderson/" title="Posts by Alex Henderson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Henderson</font></a></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to former Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, the Obama Administration left Trump with a solid “global health infrastructure” when the former president left office in January 2017.</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NB DESMOG TRACKING IMPENDING BANKRUPTCY? KEPT AFLOAT BY BANKS?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha ish // disaster cap'l, never waste a crisis to dustoff wishlist</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><h1 class="post-title single-post-title entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Will an oil tycoon who donated $500,000 to support Trump’s re-election get bailed out by his administration?</font></h1><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/will-an-oil-tycoon-who-donated-500000-to-support-trumps-re-election-get-bailed-out-by-his-administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/will-an-oil-tycoon-who-donated-500000-to-support-trumps-re-election-get-bailed-out-by-his-administration</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Will an oil tycoon who donated $500,000 to support Trump’s re-election get bailed out by his administration?</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Igor Derysh / Salon March 12, 2020</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>With oil prices plunging during the coronavirus outbreak, the Trump administration is weighing a federal bailout for oil and natural gas companies, according to a new report.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted a fracking boom under his administration, but oil and gas companies have seen profits drop amid an oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Alarmed” by the prospect that some of these companies, many of which are already in debt, [<b>see desmog] </b>could go out of business, White House officials have pushed for a federal bailout in the form of low-interest government loans, The Washington Post reported</span>.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among those pushing for the bailout is Harold Hamm, a billionaire Trump adviser who owns Continental Resources, an energy company which lost half of its market value Monday.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hamm told The Post that although he had not made “direct” contact with the president, he advised the administration to consider “any action that the administration might take to protect and preserve American interests at this time from being unfairly disadvantaged.”</font></b></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hamm has given more than $500,000 to support Trump’s re-election effort since 2017, the government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington noted.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some Trump advisers told The Post that the administration was eyeing “targeted assistance” for the companies. Though under consideration, another official warned that “political blowback over the idea may eventually lead campaign advisers and others in [the] administration to talk Trump out of it.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chris Rupkey, the chief economist at MUFG Union Bank, told the outlet that he expects significant political backlash.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s difficult when governments selectively target individual industries,” he said. “And there’s going to be pushback on it, because it’s political and may be tied to the administration’s contacts and the people it knows.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cornell University professor Robert Hockett, who has advised Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on economic policy, added that it was ridiculous to look out for big fracking companies while millions need relief.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We are in the midst of a crisis where people are literally having to skip work and may miss paychecks or face medical debt,” he said. “The idea you would look to help out shale companies now is like something out of a satire or a bad movie. It’s absurd.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump also said that he was looking at bailing out airlines, cruise lines and the hospitality industry </b>Tuesday, as they reel from the impact of COVID-19, the disease spread by the novel coronavirus. But the bailout proposals have received public pushback from Republicans.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They can take care of themselves,” Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., told The Washington Examiner. “Why do you overreact just when there’s a little pain? That doesn’t make sense.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Nick Loris, an economist at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, said such a bailout “would not sit well” with fiscal conservatives.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Not only would it potentially put taxpayers on the hook for future potential losses and bankruptcies, it would distort the risk-taking process that is so critical in making these investments,” he told the outlet. “We’ve seen the resiliency in the industry before, and I believe we’ll see it again.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, Alex Doukas, the lead analyst for advocacy group Oil Change International, predicted that Trump’s big-money donors would heavily pressure the administration to ignore the criticism.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“With oil prices in free fall, expect oil companies to turn to their age-old tactic of bullying governments for even more subsidies on top of the hundreds of billions they benefit from annually,” Doukas said. “Instead of more handouts to polluters, governments should make big investments in high-quality green jobs that will put people to work and ultimately end our dependence on the volatile fossil fuels that create climate chaos.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Journalist David Cay Johnson described the lobbying effort as “corporate socialists” seeking “welfare from the Trump administration.”</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Bailing out the oil industry won’t help the workers who have to choose between their health and their paychecks. It won’t help the people who could go into medical debt from COVID-19,” <b>Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.,</b> tweeted. “We need paid family leave and Medicare expanded to every American.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The American people are worried about missing paychecks, affording coronavirus tests, & being able to afford healthcare period. But [Trump] wants to bail out the oil industry?” Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., added. “Leave it to Trump to prioritize his friends over the American people.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Igor Derysh is a staff writer at Salon. His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald and Baltimore Sun.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div><p class="yiv7283404841headline3" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" margin="margin" padding="padding" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">i<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/mctsdzpmpkwlwdvvltypplpvvtlvmnbjskpwycztydds_tvzzlpjpklvjhcjhppb.html?a=&b=3907&c=21989&d=2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"> don’t want to’: Ben Carson sparks panic by refusing to reveal ‘plan’ for cruise ship patients</a></font></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Sunday interview with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben…</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sunday interview with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson may have done more harm than good when it comes to assuring Americans that the Trump administration has the coronavirus under control.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Carson — who is a former neurosurgeon but not an infectious disease expert — compared COVID-19 to the common flu</b></font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">w</span><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/tbhjcdpspgwkwcrrkbhppkprrbkrsvmtjgpwhldbhcmc_tvzzlpjpklvjhcjhppb.html?a=&b=3907&c=21989&d=2" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb">hite House overruled CDC on recommendation that seniors avoid flying</a></font></div><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Could it be any clearer that the Trump administration is…</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></font></div><div><div class="mag-post-box hentry" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px 0px 15px; width: 374.545px; overflow: hidden; display: table; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(236, 236, 236); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="magcat-detail" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/experts-accuse-cdc-of-withholding-crucial-information-about-the-coronavirus-from-doctors/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">experts accuse CDC of withholding ‘crucial’ information about the coronavirus from doctors</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/igor-derysh/" title="Posts by Igor Derysh" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Igor Derysh</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon</a></font></span></div></div></div><div class="mag-post-box hentry" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 374.545px; overflow: hidden; display: table; border-bottom: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="magcat-thumb" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; float: left; position: relative; transition: opacity 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="penci-image-holder penci-lazy small-fix-size" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/the-stunning-way-trump-made-a-once-toxic-intel-nominee-suddenly-seem-acceptable/" title="The stunning way Trump made a once-toxic intel nominee suddenly seem acceptable" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; position: relative; width: 120px; background: url(" https="https" www.alternet.org="www.alternet.org" wp-content="wp-content" uploads="uploads" house-judiciary-780x516.jpg="House-Judiciary-780x516.jpg" center="center" cover="cover" no-repeat="no-repeat" rgb="rgb" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" top="top" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" /></font></div></div></div><div><a class="penci-image-holder penci-lazy small-fix-size" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/the-stunning-way-trump-made-a-once-toxic-intel-nominee-suddenly-seem-acceptable/" title="The stunning way Trump made a once-toxic intel nominee suddenly seem acceptable" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; position: relative; width: 120px; background: url(" https="https" www.alternet.org="www.alternet.org" wp-content="wp-content" uploads="uploads" house-judiciary-780x516.jpg="House-Judiciary-780x516.jpg" center="center" cover="cover" no-repeat="no-repeat" rgb="rgb" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" top="top" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></font></a></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/absolutely-outrageous-white-house-bars-press-from-filming-or-recording-coronavirus-briefing/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Absolutely outrageous’: White House bars press from filming or recording coronavirus briefing</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/jake-johnson/" title="Posts by Jake Johnson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Jake Johnson</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Common Dreams</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We need transparency. Instead we are getting this."</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">bannon</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-pushing-debunked-claims-about-coronavirus-are-linked-his-billionaire"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-pushing-debunked-claims-about-coronavirus-are-linked-his-billionaire</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/guide-right-wing-media-coronavirus-reactions-and-conspiracy-theories"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/guide-right-wing-media-coronavirus-reactions-and-conspiracy-theories</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx see bak</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b> As the lethal outbreak of coronavirus continues to spread around the world and the U.S. government warns that it will almost certainly also spread within the United States, right-wing media outlets and online accounts are spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories which could have deadly consequences.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The strain of novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 is a respiratory disease that was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China. It swiftly spread and has now been detected in 53 countries, including the United States. So far, the outbreak has led to nearly 3,000 deaths and more than 82,000 cases worldwide, according to The New York Times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes the disease behind the current outbreak as part of “a large family of viruses that are common in many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats.” The CDC adds that “rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between people.” Earlier patients in the COVID-19 outbreak appeared to have a link to seafood and animal products, but the virus has since been shown to spread person-to-person.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On January 30, the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern,” and on January 31, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency in the United States.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the impact of coronavirus continued to be reported, concerns began to arise that it was driving xenophobic attacks toward people of Asian descent. In New York City, a man assaulted a woman wearing a face mask while calling her a “diseased b.” On a Los Angeles subway, one man declared that “every disease has ever came from China.” In another incident, a Costco worker in Washington state told an 8-year-old child to “get away” because she believed he may be “from China.” Across the country, there has been an uptick in physical and verbal attacks toward Asian Americans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to xenophobic sentiments, conspiracy theories and agenda-driven narratives began to arise on the internet and throughout right-wing media, adding more panic and confusion to an already chaotic situation. These conspiracy theories include claims that the Chinese government created coronavirus at a lab in Wuhan; that the United States is using the virus to attack and undermine China from within; and that coronavirus was previously created and patented by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The virus has also triggered anti-Semitic sentiments, medical and scientific disinformation, and fearmongering from the religious right about the end of the world. In the United States, President Donald Trump and his allies in right-wing media have also absurdly argued that Democrats and the media are politicizing coronavirus for their own gain to make him look bad and cause panic in the stock market, which has plunged in reaction to the potential pandemic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conspiracy theory: COVID-19 was created in a Chinese lab</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the most prominent conspiracy theories circulating within right-wing media is centered on the thinly sourced fringe theory that coronavirus was leaked after the Chinese government manufactured it in a lab in Wuhan. Many supporters of the conspiracy theory cite a January 24 study published by The Lancet, which showed that some of the first few patients who contracted this disease were not exposed to a seafood market in Wuhan. This finding contradicted the initial theory about the spread of COVID-19. But the study also did not offer any alternative explanation, and later, The Lancet published a letter from public health scientists condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even though the conspiracy theory lacks evidence and has been dismissed, right-wing conspiracy theorists continue to amplify it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some of the most egregious examples include:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On January 23, the U.K.-based and conservative-leaning Daily Mail published a piece that stated, “Scientists warned in 2017 that a SARS-like virus could escape a lab set up that year in Wuhan, China, to study some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On January 24, The Washington Times’ Bill Gertz wrote an article claiming, “The deadly animal virus epidemic spreading globally may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, according to an Israeli biological warfare expert.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Steve Bannon, former Breitbart News executive chairman and ex-White House adviser, hosted Gertz multiple times to discuss his article promoting the Wuhan lab conspiracy theory. Bannon also has ties to a Chinese billionaire-in-exile who has pushed false conspiracy theories about coronavirus.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On January 26, Gertz published another Washington Times article, in which he repeated the claim he had attributed to the “Israeli biological warfare expert” in his January 24 piece. Gertz also claimed that although China has denied “having any offensive biological weapons, … a State Department report last year revealed suspicions of covert biological warfare work.” Gertz’ article earned over 165,000 interactions (shares, reactions, and comments) on public and private Facebook posts. Notably, it was shared on pro-Trump Facebook pages and groups, including ForAmerica and Bannon’s official Facebook page.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On January 29, ZeroHedge, a far-right, pro-Trump blog, doxxed a Chinese scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, claiming that they were the creator of COVID-19. On January 31, Twitter permanently banned ZeroHedge for the false claim, telling Buzzfeed it violated “our platform manipulation policy."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During a January 30 Senate Armed Services Committee meeting, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested that COVID-19 may have been created in a Chinese “superlaboratory.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The same day, Cotton also tweeted that China was incorrect in its conclusion that the virus originated in the seafood market, citing The Lancet study. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cotton claimed China’s alleged cover-up of the origins of coronavirus is “worse than Chernobyl,” a nuclear reactor meltdown that affected the lives of more than 3.5 million people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brigitte Gabriel, founder of anti-Muslim extremist group ACT for America, shared Cotton’s comments from the committee meeting in at least two posts, earning the video over 730,000 views.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 1, conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier talk radio host Hal Turner posted a fearmongering blog on his website claiming COVID-19 is “a MILITARY BIO-WEAPON developed by China's army.” In addition to posting out-of-context photos of a virus database, Turner’s website also suggested that HIV was somehow added to a "Bat-SARS-Like” coronavirus in a laboratory to create the current strain of COVID-19.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Epoch Times published another article on February 7 titled “Is the Coronavirus a bioweapon?”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservative anti-LGBTQ pundit Erick Erickson featured the coronavirus-is-a-bioweapon claim on his podcast The Erick Erickson Show on February 10, linking the theory back to Sen. Cotton.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That night, Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson speculated about the bioweapon theory, asking his guest whether COVID-19 is “not a naturally occurring virus” or was “somehow created by the Chinese government.” His theory was debunked by his guest Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a medical director of a chain of urgent care clinics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 12, pro-Trump One America News Network published a broadcast titled “Coronavirus bioweapon conspiracy theory goes mainstream.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 22, the New York Post published an article titled “Don’t buy China’s story: The coronavirus may have leaked from a lab.” The article was written by anti-abortion activist Steven Mosher and earned more than 490,000 interactions on Facebook. Cotton shared the article on his Facebook page on February 24.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 23, Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire published an article titled “Report suggests that details point to coronavirus coming from Chinese lab.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 25, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs claimed that “we don’t know yet whether or not this was an engineered virus” and said that there is “a research lab some 300 yards from the epicenter of this outbreak.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conspiracy theory: Bill Gates previously created and patented coronavirus</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A false rumor circulating online claims that the coronavirus outbreak is a plot by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and that the release of the virus was planned. According to BuzzFeed News, the core of the conspiracy theory hinges on a 2018 patent that was filed by the Pirbright Institute that “covers the development of a weakened form of a coronavirus that could potentially be used as a vaccine to prevent respiratory diseases in birds and other animals.” BuzzFeed clarified that this is standard for creating vaccines, and a company spokesperson told the outlet, “The patented work was completed in 2015 and is not funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.” But the truth has not stopped the theory from spreading online:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fringe messaging platforms 8kun and Telegram pushed the claim that coronavirus was “patented in 2015 and granted in 2018.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Social media platform TikTok,</b> which features short videos and is prominently used by teenagers, hosted multiple videos pushing the conspiracy theory that the virus was previously created and patented with the involvement of Gates. In one video, which received at least 41,000 views and 1,400 likes, a person showed a series of tweets pushing the false claim and said, “The info is out there, guys.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory and members of the anti-Vaxx movement also spread the rumor. One QAnon supporter tweeted that there is “big money in vaccines” and suggested that Hillary and Chelsea Clinton may be involved.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conspiracy theory: The U.S. is using coronavirus to attack China from within</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a study by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Lab posted on January 30, pro-Kremlin outlets are spreading disinformation about the coronavirus by suggesting that it was either manufactured by or is being utilized by the United States “with the goal of breaking China from within.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Russian nationalist member of Parliament Vladimir Zhirinovsky has amplified stories originating from fringe outlets pushing this narrative, claiming that the goal of the U.S. is to undermine the Chinese economy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Claim: Democrats are politicizing coronavirus for their own gain and that’s hurting the stock market</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As COVID-19 spread globally and the stock market started to negatively react to the news, Donald Trump and his allies in right-wing media argued that Democrats and the media are deliberately hyping coronavirus and panicking the markets for political gain.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Notable examples include:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed on February 24, “Coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump.” Limbaugh told his viewers that “the coronavirus is the common cold” and berated the media for describing the virus’s spread as a pandemic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 25, Fox host Laura Ingraham said that the media coverage of coronavirus “seemed like some of the Trump haters were actually relishing in this moment,” claiming coronavirus is “a new pathway for hitting President Trump.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 27, Fox’s America’s Newsroom hosted Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) to discuss coronavirus. Co-anchor Sandra Smith asked him to respond to “what [Trump] says is panic that is being stoked by the other side.” Barrasso complained that “it’s disturbing to see [coronavirus] politicized,” pointing to comments made by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, where candidates were asked what their response to the virus would be.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On America’s Newsroom the same day, The Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn questioned whether Democrats’ proposed approach to dealing with coronavirus will “be focused on this virus, or will they light up a spending tree with other little things tucked in there?”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 27, Fox Business host Charles Payne appeared on America’s Newsroom to express concern that an overreaction to coronavirus will hurt the stock market.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservative radio host Bill Mitchell asked on Twitter why coronavirus is “being marketed as The Black Plague,” concluding that “Democrats get to crash the economy” over the virus.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk claimed on Twitter that “Democrats are politicizing a global health crisis just to own Trump,” concluding, “They hate him more than they love America.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some in right-wing media, including Limbaugh and supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, have been arguing that the CDC is purposefully hyping up coronavirus because Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization, is the sister of Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general who right-wing figures have vilified as a member of the “deep state.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Medical and scientific disinformation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As researchers work to develop a vaccine and scientists express legitimate concerns about the likelihood of climate change leading to an increase in future epidemics, medical and scientific misinformation has spread, particularly online.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some of the most egregious examples of medical and scientific misinformation include:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daily Beast reported on January 28 that Jordan Sather, a QAnon promoter, suggested in a YouTube video that he was going to drink the “miracle mineral solution” or “MMS” to ward off coronavirus. MMS is a dangerous bleach solution that has previously been promoted online as a remedy for other illnesses.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 10, Trump made a claim about coronavirus that suggested he thinks it behaves the same as influenza does, saying that “a lot of people think that [coronavirus] goes away in April, with the heat, as the heat comes in, typically that will go away in April.” He also said that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed with him. However, experts have warned that the novel coronavirus is too new for anyone to predict whether it will be seasonal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the February 12 edition of his show, televangelist Jim Bakker promoted a $125 naturopathic “silver solution” that he claimed can cure the coronavirus.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zero Hedge, a fringe financial blog that also doxxed a Chinese scientist over claims they developed COVID-19 as a bioweapon, republished an unhinged screed on February 12 from Global Intel Hub that claimed coronavirus and climate change are “intertwined,” wildly claiming:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate Change is the scapegoat for what’s really going on: Weather Wars, weather modification, terraforming, and manipulation of the entire planet on a biological and chemical level.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 24, anti-vax blogger Erin Elizabeth posted a blog post claiming that vitamin C can be a “lifesaving treatment” against infections such as sepsis, and viruses such as swine flu, and that “it’s encouraging that China is now investigating its use against 2019-nCoV.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Social media accounts have also been spreading a debunked claim that 5G internet, which is being rolled out across the world, damages the immune system and has thus caused coronavirus. This claim was posted on YouTube and on an anti-5G Facebook group.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-trans smears</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a memo warning that extremists are using coronavirus to target groups of people. The ADL identified Telegram, 4chan, and Gab as some platforms on which these smears are occuring.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some posts have racist attacks against Chinese people, mocking aspects of Chinese culture. Others have openly hoped that the virus will spread to predominantly non-white countries, including in Africa. Some have also expressed a desire for coronavirus to be used as a bioweapon, hoping that the disease targets Jewish people. The ADL also noted that the virus is being used to advance anti-Semitic conspiracy theories:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Extremists hope the virus kills Jews, but they are also using its emergence to advance their anti-Semitic theories that Jews are responsible for creating the virus, are spreading it to increase their control over a decimated population, or they are profiting off it. Some extremists have tied reports documenting Chinese efforts to safely dispose of victims’ bodies to cast doubt on the number of Jews who died during the Holocaust.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media Matters’ Nikki McCann Ramírez also wrote in USAToday about the racist reactions that came out of coronavirus:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When experts declared that the coronavirus likely spread from bats, far-right figures began circulating videos showing Asian people consuming exotic animals. Former InfoWars personality Paul Joseph Watson tweeted, “Our media encourages us to eat all kinds of weird stuff because it’s ‘normal’ in other cultures,” but “some cultures are better than others.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That evening, Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson also blamed the emergence of the virus on Chinese culture, erroneously claiming it was a result of people consuming animals “alive.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Australian, a national newspaper part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., published an anti-trans article on February 9 that compared coronavirus to a “global epidemic” of transgender teens. The outlet has a history of anti-trans reporting and spreading misinformation about trans youth.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some extreme reactions from right-wing conservative Christians</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some right-wing conservative Christians have used major global crises, including pandemics, to fearmonger about the end of the world. This tactic is being used again:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On January 27, conspiracy theorist Bill Deagle said it was the “first day of the Apocalypse.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During a January 29 sermon, megachurch pastor Perry Stone said, “When you see these types of tragedies, diseases, viruses and pestilences, the strange and unusual words in the Apocalypse become more clear.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing pastor Hank Kunneman prophesied during a February 9 sermon that God will protect the United States from the novel coronavirus because Trump opposes abortion and defends Israel.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 13, Rick Wiles, an End Times pastor, said on his show that “plagues are one of the last steps of judgment” and coronavirus is God’s judgment. According to Wiles, China is a “godless communist government” and people in the United States are “transgendering little children, perverting them. Look at the rapes, and the sexual immorality, and the filth on our TVs and our movies.”</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></div><div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As the lethal outbreak of coronavirus continues to spread around the world and now within the United States, right-wing media outlets and online accounts are <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad40e3e1bf06785fb911ae11ebdf7b3ae3cb262df782d0ae68be9e28be22441fcd0276a8730a5d8d8d8fc6ac1eb06661bd5" title="spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories" style="">spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories</a> which could have deadly consequences.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The strain of novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 is a respiratory disease that was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China. It swiftly spread and has now been detected in 53 countries, including the United States. So far, the outbreak has led to nearly 3,000 deaths and more than 82,000 cases worldwide.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the impact of coronavirus continued to be reported, concerns began to arise that it was driving xenophobic attacks toward people of Asian descent. Conspiracy theories and agenda-driven narratives began to arise on the internet and throughout right-wing media, adding more panic and confusion to an already chaotic situation. The virus has also triggered anti-Semitic sentiments, medical and scientific disinformation, and fearmongering from the religious right about the end of the world. Trump and his allies in right-wing media have also absurdly argued that Democrats and the media are politicizing coronavirus for their own gain to make him look bad and cause panic in the stock market.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are some things you should know about misinformation about the virus:</font></p><ul style=""><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">Rush Limbaugh</b> <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad45092ccc85977f592fca0a604f270e769e765bbda6aceddd1da10de6fa8b920d3cc6ab690bec59412a64d760e0ac2540b" title="falsely claimed" style="">falsely claimed</a> that the virus is "an effort to get Trump" and was no worse than "the common cold." On Friday, Vice President <b style="">Mike Pence</b> <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad47c603ff687872fa75d558b9ca1b7e0d051538fa301c2f3ad58626d96ea27b37e786cfc04e00d4309a787c14ea0f562f2" title="stopped by" style="">stopped by </a>Limbaugh's studio to talk about the response. Limbaugh did not bring up his conspiracy theories, though Pence did promise that the virus would not spread within the country (less than 24 hours later reports would indicate that the virus spread on the west coast and that an American had died).</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2014, President <b style="">Barack Obama</b> put together pandemic response teams at the National Security Council and Homeland Security following the Ebola outbreak in Africa. In 2018, Trump fired all of them and did not replace them. The firings could hamstring the American response, and yet they've been ignored on <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad43acbadaa811b60af4581380349b9739915d8a05a25730d9a3a3a071bac08145d67d4776a0f8b5c2eef9dbc16166fefc1" title="broadcast television" style="">broadcast television</a> and <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad41a007dd95c443ce3aa40e524b3158e3eb76aeda6ef949a6eee5bf8da8d234cc58338cf0a58ce9bd75add16e978e69298" title="barely mentioned" style="">barely mentioned</a> in newspapers. Trump's budgets <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4ba02c1721e000a11f9b4285898550483c241dd28a43fbf19f29fd9f5824b4dd0e9871333f4c858778ba80f2bb4947c8a" title="have also called for" style="">have also called for</a> severe cuts to CDC funding.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When <b>Donald Trump</b> appointed Pence to oversee the administration's response, initial reports <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4f0d1a99719249dfc4282946e14e8410bef49e8cda1f51a0bb4db81e33b99ee7ca14d3d05ac915e014979895cf3215e85" title="did not include" style="">did not include</a> that Pence enabled an HIV outbreak in Indiana. (There are many other ways that Pence has denied science as well.)</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Medical journal Lancet <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4e85bf1631d30814341cec00568869a58fe08d80472ce870aa0fc3a6d004503bc5968c6b9e88c0a51bddbc91252a8ae6e" title="disavowed" style="">disavowed</a> coronavirus conspiracy theories after being cited alongside right-wing disinformation. One of the primary people pushing that disinformation was <b style="">Steve Bannon</b>. Bannon is pushing coronavirus disinformation harder than anyone, <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4ab54a2aff75ea2bbf7b6094796d9c64a4142d980c2c09281a9bf4b3758635cfed985838c37fcda6dce7832ca47ffd97c" title="alongside his new benefactor" style="">alongside his new benefactor</a>, a Chinese billionaire who is closely linked to a fake news website.</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There were warnings about the American health care system for years before coronavirus. Right-wing media <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4177bac575516613fe5841e2ff1f3294a55c13eda749365fec4798813d07782630c47d0d775687fac3f648f8fbee72416" title="didn't want to hear it" style="">didn't want to hear it</a>. We're already seeing stories about Americans with massive coronavirus medical bills and no way to pay them.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pro-Trump media <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4762f705a0b93063c623d1f91b38db5d2ae8c5bdca1bfb65d660af9a2fa5a00a8c9ed177859198fd042021bea91e53892" title="have claimed that" style="">have claimed that</a> the CDC is overhyping coronavirus threat because a top official is related to <b>Rod Rosenstein</b>.</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The <b>feedback loop between Fox News and Trump is <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4905f0d3a4ffaa38ba39e21ef392f8f109e8c1a915c4cb3d7250e3a711ec0d5748a41753280391d31e76ceee06ef9127a" title="powering" style="">powering</a> the president’s response. </b>The network hosts who influence Trump the most are fixating his attention on Democrats and the media, who <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4270930c93b2e7fe86e260f9469ca4feeeea57ec9754389946e6c31106f3c22eda465859ddd5b9ae49a20fb7b61a04c7c" title="they claim" style="">they claim</a> are deliberately politicizing coronavirus in order to damage his reelection campaign. And Trump is apparently listening to them and is spouting the same talking points.</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b style="">Alex Jones</b>’ Infowars is <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad46f7d48e0dfa91bd318a541d985b35ee4014a8301ba13417f243d242379ff7a5b90c57e75a2795ebce934a68c321c4890" title="attempting to profit" style="">attempting to profit</a> from the coronavirus outbreak, selling food packages for up to nearly $3,000.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amid coronavirus fears, Fox News <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4d78fb215447538ad2429836e5d8454a5cbd677ba0a658d7a8baf65cc71b3d7c69c4b70913ccf66ad33b3f84b26c7046a" title="tried to blame" style="">tried to blame</a> <b>Bernie Sanders</b> and socialism for the stock market downturn.</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">Tucker Carlson</b> <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4b8f8b5bf9a650163e4739ae7344738ef8e304627e7492e8cd6d19b25c9cef72e8c2be39048f49155f97d5037419f72c2" title="predictably blamed" style="">predictably blamed</a> diversity for the spread of the virus.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox host <b>Stuart Varney</b> <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad49ceddf25e795893911a11867a8f42ebacf1552f57ca6a23fa4563420edcdcd6b9b1b0af0ea8f798444059f951484ac52" title="complained that" style="">complained that</a> diverting money from Trump's wall to address coronavirus will drum up panic.</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A Fox News anchor <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4a22ace0c3883684cbcf95df85f22cb84043398d639fa6e4e91340bbf91e86b8adfc292b42cf81ef1ff814fb12e5b1f79" title="said that" style="">said that</a> Trump could be right in that the virus may just disappear.</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A passenger from cruise ship where multiple people died of coronavirus <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4f597629792f9a4af346e969dd3c62a03f5d64f4c441ccb4739d58ef12ba4b311e9b96db60ce4dd03c1c6a0ff7c6b4ce8" title="told Fox News" style="">told Fox News</a> that the disease is overhyped because he and his wife are not symptomatic.</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We've put together <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=755c6136a7c35ad4509ed22be35455f7dcd9edbc9e74e6921ed3f05d2b3d6d56fab825e597b01d9453ac8f8d4d819edf07b22fae26800a7b" title="a full list of the right-wing media conspiracy theories" style="">a full list of the right-wing media conspiracy theories</a> to help you stay informed.</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/furious-trump-fans-barrage-conservative-columnist-who-admitted-coronavirus-is-a-real-problem/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/furious-trump-fans-barrage-conservative-columnist-who-admitted-coronavirus-is-a-real-problem/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Furious Trump fans barrage conservative columnist who admitted coronavirus is a real problem</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Brad Reed / Raw Story March 2, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A conservative columnist who is generally a supporter of President Donald Trump recently found himself getting barraged by the president’s fans because he admitted coronavirus could be a real problem for the global economy.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As the New York Times reports, Republican Rob Maness recently wrote a column for the conservative LifeZette website that outlined potential negative economic impacts from coronavirus, including the disruption of supply chains.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The most significant major concern in America is the impact on pharmaceutical supply,” Maness wrote in his column. “Large numbers of drugs used to treat serious medical conditions are manufactured or their key components are produced in China. Medicines such as antibiotics amoxicillin, doxycycline, penicillin and other’s availabilities will be impacted as China continues its lock-down of factory workers because 90% of their sourcing is in China.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While this analysis was fairly straightforward in breaking down the economic risks of a viral pandemic, Maness tells the Times that many Trump supporters were furious with him for bringing up unwelcome facts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I got accused of being <b>alarmist</b> and trying to hurt the president,” he said. “I actually said the government’s doing a pretty good job.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump spent the last few days attacking media coverage of the virus and<b> accused the Washington Post of being the “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” after it published a devastating report showing his administration was scrambling to respond to the outbreak.</b></font></div></div><div><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></h2></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">an 220</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><div style="">pence hit the Sunday talk shows without facing a single question about his abysmal HIV outbreak record</div><div style="">Laura Clawson / Daily KosMarch 2, 2020</div><div style="">Mike Pence talked coronavirus response on three Sunday morning talk shows yesterday, and boy, did CNN’s Jake Tapper and NBC’s Chuck Todd let him off the hook.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Mike Pence’s coronavirus clown show humiliates Trump — and endangers the rest of us</div><div style="">Heather Digby Parton / Salon March 2, 2020</div><div style="">Our vice president doesn’t believe in science — so he’s perfect to dispense pro-Trump lies and conspiracy theories.</div></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/warren-says-trump-has-bungled-every-aspect-of-this-crisis-as-world-health-officials-sound-alarm-on-coronavirus-threat/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/warren-says-trump-has-bungled-every-aspect-of-this-crisis-as-world-health-officials-sound-alarm-on-coronavirus-threat/</a></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">trump vp meet w/ pharma for foto op</span></span></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Laurie Garret hot zone pandemic kpfa</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6950F840-FB80-FCB0-D505-8AB1FA685F08#-1360" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6950F840-FB80-FCB0-D505-8AB1FA685F08#-1360</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">mma</span></span></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Alex Jones’ Infowars is attempting to profit from the coronavirus outbreak</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">02/29/20 12:46 PM EST</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Passenger from cruise ship where multiple people died of coronavirus tells Fox News that the disease is overhyped</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">02/29/20 12:37 PM EST</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At CPAC, Glenn Beck says the Bernie Sanders “revolution” will lead to “another Holocaust”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">02/29/20 12:28 PM EST</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox & Friends agrees with Trump that coronavirus is a “hoax”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">02/29/20 10:51 AM EST</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN’s Michael Smerconish: “Can either coronavirus or Bernie Sanders be stopped?”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">02/29/20 10:26 AM EST</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-friends-agrees-trump-coronavirus-hoax"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-friends-agrees-trump-coronavirus-hoax</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JEDEDIAH BILA (CO-HOST): I want to ask you, though, about the president. What can the president do at a time like this? Because obviously he has an interest in stabilizing the market. You see now if you take a look the Dow is down. The S&P [500] is down. It's very concerning to a lot of people out there. What should he be saying?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">STUART VARNEY (FOX BUSINESS HOST): He should be reassuring the American people as he has been doing that this administration can take care of and contain this virus. Remember, no deaths. OK. We got new cases, but no deaths. We've quarantined people. We're testing people. That's what the president should be telling us, and he is telling us that.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Personally, I get really annoyed when I hear the Democrats, going after the president, try to make out that the virus is his fault</b>. And they are doing it for electoral advantage and I think that is absolutely reprehensible. You need an opposition, you need to hold the president accountable. But what they are doing is denigrating the administration's efforts. Trying to tear down the president, not for the benefit of the country, but for their electoral benefit.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BILA: We actually have some sound --</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DEAN CAIN (CO-HOST): Exactly.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BILA: -- related right to what you are saying.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CAIN: He spoke about this last night in Charleston, South Carolina.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[CLIP]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DONALD TRUMP (PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES): Politicizing the coronavirus.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>You say how is President Trump doing? They go, "Oh, not good, not good." They have no clue. They don't have any clue. They can't even count their votes in Iowa. They can't even count. </b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>[djt]: One of my people came up to me and said, "Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn't work out too well." They couldn't do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. They tried it over and over. They have been doing it since you got in. It's all turning. They lost. It's all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[END CLIP]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): He can't resist.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VARNEY: Look, I agree with that. Look, Russia, Russia, Russia. Impediment to justice. Impeachment, and now the virus. One thing after another to denigrate and slime our president. Utterly wrong.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>HEGSETH: You see the misinformation, too. Democrats -- the AP had to fact check Democrats who were saying that the president's cut the CDC budget which it hasn't been reduced under the Trump presidency. They're seizing on anything.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">VARNEY: And you have this </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">irrational criticism of the president. [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</span><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">], for example, denigrating Vice President [Mike] Pence who is in charge of the containment effort saying he is a science denier. Please. Come on.</span></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BILA: Yeah. And the reality, I mean, the truth is --</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VARNEY: And Senator [Elizabeth] Warren was talking about the mess of this containment effort. Excuse me, show me the mess.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BILA: Yeah.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>VARNEY: I don't see any deaths. I see a good strong containment effort.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BILA: Yeah, the truth is, whatever the president would have done, the media would have been there to criticize him.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/pro-trump-media-claim-cdc-overhyping-coronavirus-because-nancy-messonnier"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/pro-trump-media-claim-cdc-overhyping-coronavirus-because-nancy-messonnier</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr.  Nancy Messonnier is the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Her impressive <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/about/leadership/leaders/ncird.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">bio</a> lists a number of top positions that she has held in the CDC, and it also notes that she has received multiple awards.</font></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent days, Messonnier has taken a leading role in warning the public about the threat that the novel coronavirus strain known as COVID-19 poses to the United States. The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cdc-warns-it-expects-coronavirus-to-spread-in-u-s-11582653829" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">noted that</a> Messonnier said it was just a question of when coronavirus will circulate in the U.S. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Daily Beast <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/cdc-coronavirus-boss-nancy-messonnier-calls-spread-unprecedented-as-cases-surge-in-us-and-abroad" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">quoted her</a> as saying, “We expect to see more cases of person-to-person spread among close contacts. ... The goal here is to slow entry of this virus into the United States.” CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/25/cdc-outlines-what-closing-schools-businesses-would-look-like-in-us-pandemic.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">quoted her</a> calling for schools to divide students into smaller groups or to close entirely and conduct courses online. Many <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/02/21/coronavirus-who-contain-outbreak-iran-deaths-south-korea-cases/4829278002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">other outlets</a> have <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/25/us-coronavirus-outbreak-inevitable-cdc-117389" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">quoted</a> her <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Nancy+Messonnier%22&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjAntKKgvDnAhX_hHIEHS2jCtgQ_AUoAXoECAwQAw&biw=2048&bih=1042" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">as well</a>.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But right-wing media have begun to coalesce around a conspiracy theory that Messonnier’s warning should be disregarded because she is the sister of former Trump appointee Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein was a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/amid-reports-trump-may-fire-rosenstein-over-mueller-inquiry-fox-news-drumbeat-urges" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">frequent</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/what-trumps-fox-news-cabinet-wants-him-do-about-rod-rosenstein" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">target</a> of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/effort-impeach-rod-rosenstein-brought-you-sean-hannity-jeanine-pirro-and-lou-dobbs" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">pro-Trump propagandists</a> for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-russia-investigation.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">appointing</a> Robert Mueller as a special counsel in the Russia investigation.</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From a QAnon Twitter account to Rush Limbaugh's show</font></h2></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The conspiracy theory about Messonnier and Rosenstein goes back at least to a <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%22qanon%22%20from%3AHambrickRo&src=typed_query" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">QAnon Twitter account</a> noting <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3854876" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">their connection</a> in early January.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It really started to pick up speed this week.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On February 25, Rush Limbaugh <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/02/25/drive-bys-hope-the-coronavirus-will-get-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">ranted</a> <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/02/25/crazy-bernie-panic-becomes-media-pandemic/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">about</a> Messonnier, suggesting an anti-Trump conspiracy after he learned she’s related to Rosenstein</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> It was also <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3854881" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">picked up</a> by a poster on white nationalist message board 8kun. Soon thereafter, it jumped <a href="https://archive.4plebs.org/pol/thread/245312227/#q245314667" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">to 4chan's “/pol/</a>,” a slightly less extreme white nationalist message board. The Conservative Treehouse, a right-wing blog featured on <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3854931" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Lou Dobbs' Fox Business show</a> before, <a href="https://twitter.com/TheLastRefuge2/status/1232446134863269889" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">also posted</a> about <a href="https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/02/25/odd-coincidence-rogue-cdc-official-pushing-coronavirus-panic-button-is-rod-rosensteins-sister/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">the conspiracy theory</a>.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Others followed suit:</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--twitter-tweet paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-twitter-tweet field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;" /><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On the morning of the February 26, Joe Hoft (the brother of Jim Hoft, proprietor of the Gateway Pundit) <a href="https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/just-like-her-corrupt-brother-rod-rosenstein-the-cdcs-dr-nancy-messonnier-drops-a-bomb-on-president-trump-while-on-international-trip/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">posted about it</a></b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hoft wrote that Messonnier’s remarks while President Donald Trump was in India were “a startling rebuke” and that it was “eerily similar to past Presidential trips when former and corrupt DAG Rod Rosenstein and the corrupt and criminal Mueller gang would drop shocking news as the President was overseas.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Later on the 26th, Rush Limbaugh returned to the conspiracy theory, with the transcript of his show <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/02/26/bernie-sanders-and-the-democrat-party-pose-a-bigger-threat-than-the-coronavirus/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">hyperlinking</a> to Hoft’s post.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After suggesting that Messonnier was not to be trusted, Limbaugh quickly changed the subject to suggest that the virus may just disappear once the weather warms up. Scientists <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus-spread-summer-seasonal-penn-state-20200226.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">have cast doubt</a> on that theory as well.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Trump is reportedly furious at Messonnier:</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">mma</span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex;"><span property="schema:name" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">There were warnings about the American health care system for years before coronavirus. Right-wing media didn't want to hear it.</font></span></a></h2><p class="dateline-compact" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; align-items: center; display: flex; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="dateline-compacttype" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; height: 1.5em; margin-right: 1em; width: 1.5em;"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" class="icon icon--article" aria-labelledby="icon-label--article" /><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><use xlink:href="#article" xmlns:xlink="xlink" /></font></font><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><svg id="article" viewbox="0 0 24 24" /></font></font><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><path d="M0 1h24v4H0zm0 6h24v4H0zm0 6h24v4H0zm0 6h18v4H0z" fill="inherit" fill-rule="evenodd" /></font></font></span><time datetime="2020-02-27T07:32:48-0500" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">02/27/20 7:32 AM EST</font></time></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/covering-trumps-coronavirus-response-major-newspapers-barely-mention-he-fired">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/covering-trumps-coronavirus-response-major-newspapers-barely-mention-he-fired</a></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">
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</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-coronavirus-effort-get-trump"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-coronavirus-effort-get-trump</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rush Limbaugh: “The coronavirus is an effort to get Trump”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Limbaugh: “It came from a country that Bernie Sanders wants to turn the United States into a mirror image of: Communist China”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLISHED 02/24/20 4:08 PM EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Video file</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Citation From the <b>February 24, 2020</b>, edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): Folks, this coronavirus thing, I want to try to put this in perspective for you. It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump. Now, I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus. You think I’m wrong about this? You think I’m missing it by saying that’s -- Yeah, I’m dead right on this.<b> The coronavirus is the common cold, folks.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The drive-by media hype of this thing as a pandemic, as the Andromeda strain, as, “Oh, my God. If you get it, you’re dead,” do you know what the — I think the survival rate is 98%. Ninety-eight percent of people who get the coronavirus survive. It’s a respiratory system virus. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It probably is a ChiCom laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized. All superpower nations weaponize bioweapons. They experiment with them. <b>The Russians, for example, have weaponized fentanyl. </b>Now, fentanyl is also not what it is represented to be.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you watch cop shows, then you probably, stick with me on this, if you watch cop shows, you probably believe that just the dust from a package of fentanyl can kill you if you’re in the same room with it. Not true. Not true. Even the cheap kind of fentanyl coming from China that’s used to spike heroin. They use fentanyl because it’s cheap. It gives a quick hit, doesn’t last very long, which is really cool if you’re trying to addict people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it doesn’t kill people the way it’s projected on TV. It can if you OD on it. But inhaling a little fentanyl dust is not going to cause you to lose consciousness and stop breathing as they predict or depict on cop shows. It’s dangerous. Don’t misunderstand. But it isn’t the way it’s portrayed in popular criminal TV shows, cop shows, and so forth and so on. The coronavirus is the same. It’s really being hyped as a deadly Andromeda strain or Ebola pandemic that, “Oh, my God, is going to wipe out the nation. It’s going to wipe out the population of the world.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The stock market’s down like 900 points right now. And I think - the survival rate of this is 98%! You have to read very deeply to find that number. Two percent of the people get the coronavirus die.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That’s less than the flu, folks. </span>That is a far lower death statistic than any form of influenza, which is an annual thing that everybody gets shots for. There’s nothing unusual about the coronavirus. In fact, coronavirus is not something new. There are all kinds of viruses that have that name. Now, do not misunderstand. I’m not trying to get you to let your guard down.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nobody wants to get any of this stuff. I mean, you never… I hate getting the common cold. You don’t want to get the flu. It’s miserable. But we’re not talking about something here that’s gonna wipe out your town or your city if it finds its way there. This is a classic illustration of how media coverage -- even if this media coverage isn’t stacked, even if this is just the way media normally does things, this is a hyped, panic-filled version. It’s exactly how the media deals with these things to create audience, readership, interest, clicks, what have you.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It originated in China in a little — well, not a little town. It’s a town that is 11 million people, Wuhan, China. And one of the reasons they’re able to hype this is that the doctor what warned everybody about it came down with it and died. And so if a doctor got it, “Oh, my God, Rush! A doctor got it? You can’t possibly be right if a doctor can’t protect himself.” He didn’t know what he was dealing with. He discovered it back in December.<b> I’m telling you, the ChiComs are trying to weaponize this thing.</b> Here’s the story on Russians and fentanyl.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fentanyl is a very, very powerful opiate — and for those of you that haven’t had any experience with opiates, the people that get addicted to ’em take them and they get very euphoric. They kill pain. They do wonderful things. But they make you very, very euphoric. They act like speed. Other people take them, and they hate them. It makes ’em vomit, throw up, feel nauseous. It doesn’t do anything for them. They’re never gonna get addicted.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So in Moscow the Chechens, way back. I’m gonna go back now — what is it — maybe 10 years or longer. A bunch of Chechen rebels took over an opera house and had a bunch of Russian hostages in there and made all kinds of threats — and Putin, unbeknownst to anybody, had weaponized fentanyl. He had turned it into a gas, an invisible gas. He just put it in the ventilation system of this opera house or whatever it was, I’m giving you the sketchy, short version of this, and everybody in there fell asleep and died. You know, in a drug overdose, you stop breathing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s what… It slows down your respiratory system so much that you stop breathing. That’s what an OD is. And everybody in that place, including the Chechens — had no idea what happened to ’em. It’s not violent. You just fall asleep for unknown reasons at the amounts that Putin weaponized and put in there. If you take a normal dose of fentanyl that you get from a doctor in a hospital, it’s not gonna kill you, obviously. But the amount they weaponized — and up to this time, nobody had ever weaponized fentanyl.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Nobody had ever made it into an invisible, odorless, colorless gas, until it was discovered that the Russians had done it. Well, every nation is working on things like this, and the ChiComs obviously in their lab are doing something here with the coronavirus — and it got out</b>. Some people believe it got out on purpose, that the ChiComs have a whole lot of problems based on an economy that cannot provide for the number of people they have. So losing a few people here or there is not so bad for the Chinese government.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There could be anything to explain this.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the way it’s being used… I believe the way it’s being weaponized is by virtue of the media, and I think that it is an effort to bring down Trump, and one of the ways it’s being used to do this is to scare the investors, to scare people in business. It’s to scare people into not buying Treasury bills at auctions. It’s to scare people into leaving, cashing out of the stock market — and true enough, as the show began today, the stock market — the Dow Jones Industrial Average — was down about 900 points, supposedly because of the latest news about the spread of the coronavirus.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And if you go deeper into China, you will see that all of the high-tech Silicon Valley firms are said to be terribly exposed. “They could be suffering a disastrous year. Why, you may not be able to buy a new iPhone of any model this whole year! Do you know that? Because the coronavirus is so bad that the factories may never open — and if they do, they may not be anywhere near full capacity.” So Apple may not be able to release any new product. You think that’s not gonna panic investors? It most certainly is.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So Apple is trying to do what they can to suggest that these rumors are not true. They got new products coming this year. But the tech media hates Apple. They love anti-Apple stories. They love anything that will let them report that Apple’s on its last legs. Of course, that’s not true.<b> Warren Buffett came out today and said, “Apple is the best-run company ever.” He’s a big stockholder</b>, so people will say he’s biased about it. But the bias you have to pay attention to is how much money he invested. He got $36 billion in Apple stock that Berkshire Hathaway has.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They sold $800 million of Apple stock last week, and everybody said, “Oh, my God, he’s getting out!” No, he’s not. He’s got $36 billion. He sold $800 million. No big deal. He wanted to allocate it somewhere else. So this is… I think the coronavirus is an effort to get Trump. It’s not gonna work. It’s one of the latest in a long line of efforts that the drive-by media is making to somehow say that Trump and capitalism are destroying America and destroying the world. Just keep in mind where the coronavirus came from.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It came from a country that Bernie Sanders wants to turn the United States into a mirror image of: Communist China<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> That’s where it came from. It didn’t come from an American lab. It didn’t escape from an American research lab. It hasn’t been spread by Americans. It starts out in a communist country. Its tentacles spread all across the world in <b>numbers that are not big and not huge, but they’re being reported as just the opposite. Just trying to keep it all in perspective.</b></span></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-trump-feedback-loop-channeling-trumps-coronavirus-attacks-journalists-democrats"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-trump-feedback-loop-channeling-trumps-coronavirus-attacks-journalists-democrats</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Public health officials are struggling to contain the novel coronavirus COVID-19, which has now spread to at least 47 countries. The Centers for Disease Control is warning that it expects to see an expanded outbreak in the United States and is planning for a worldwide pandemic. In addition to the substantial health risks posed by the disease, the interconnected nature of global supply chains means that the epidemic could spur an economic crisis. Careful leadership is needed from the president of the United States, who must manage a complex interagency and international process, mustering the nation’s resources and expertise to limit the damage. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But at this delicate moment, the feedback loop between Fox News and President Donald Trump is powering the president’s response. The network hosts who influence Trump the most are fixating his attention on Democrats and the media, who they claim are deliberately politicizing coronavirus in order to damage his reelection campaign. And Trump is apparently listening to them and is spouting the same talking points.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump is ignorant, incompetent, and generally uninterested in the aspects of his job that don’t involve promoting his narrow personal interests. His response to coronavirus has not diverged from this baseline. He spent the last few years systematically dismantling U.S. pandemic response capabilities, dissolving the National Security Council’s global health security unit and slashing funding to the CDC’s global health section. And since the coronavirus outbreak began, Trump has been largely detached from managing the government’s response.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s Fox propagandists spent the early weeks of the outbreak praising his purported success at “constraining” its spread. But after stocks fell dramatically on Monday and Tuesday amid fears of a global pandemic, they needed a new angle. And so Fox personalities began lashing out at journalists for their coverage of coronavirus and at Democrats for their criticism of the administration.  </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Sadly, the left is already, yup, politicizing tragedy,” host and close Trump ally Sean Hannity said on Tuesday night, hammering Senate Democrats for saying that the administration had sought too little funding to deal with the mounting crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Watching the media coverage today, it seemed like some of the Trump haters were actually relishing in this moment,” Laura Ingraham said on her show the following hour. “A new avenue it was, coronavirus, that is a new pathway for hitting President Trump. How sick that these people seem almost happiest when Americans are hurting.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It is absolutely disgusting that Democrats are seeking to use this complex virus to score cheap political points,” she added. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump was apparently watching -- he tweeted a quote from a different segment of the same Ingraham broadcast -- and taking notes. On Wednesday morning, he went after the media and Democrats on Twitter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump lavished praise on himself and his administration while attacking congressional Democratic leaders for criticizing the response during a press conference on the coronavirus outbreak that night. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox got the message. Its hosts and personalities targeted the media and Democrats for their treatment of coronavirus throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is dangerous. The hours of Fox coverage Trump watches each day shape his worldview -- and direct his often inchoate rage. The potential global crisis on his doorstep does not appear to be slowing his consumption of propagandistic cable news content. As we’ve seen so many times before, he is getting distracted by his television, which is encouraging him to carry out his worst impulses.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The attacks on the press, long a staple of Trump and Fox, are particularly concerning now. The American public needs trustworthy information about the coronavirus outbreak in order to make good decisions about how to respond to it. And the president is telling people that they can’t trust news outlets that aren’t in the tank for his administration, warning that those journalists will deliberately overstate the danger in order to hurt his reelection chances. That’s a recipe for disaster.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And things can still get worse. Some pro-Trump commentators, including conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, have argued that the top CDC official who warned that a larger U.S. outbreak was inevitable is a deep-state plant who is trying to take down Trump. Fox hosts have largely steered clear of those conspiracy theories thus far. But what happens if the situation worsens, and the Fox Cabinet starts telling the president that he needs to purge the public health bureaucracy of anti-Trump traitors?</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">links</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Public health officials are struggling to contain the novel coronavirus COVID-19, which has now spread to at least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/world/coronavirus-news.html#link-121b0a06" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">47 countries</a>. The Centers for Disease Control <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cdc-warns-it-expects-coronavirus-to-spread-in-u-s-11582653829" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">is warning</a> that it expects to see an expanded outbreak in the United States and is planning for a worldwide pandemic. In addition to the substantial health risks posed by the disease, the interconnected nature of global supply chains means that the epidemic could <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-supply-chains-survive-the-coronavirus-china-the-u-s-and-germany-are-key-11582712810" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">spur an economic crisis</a>. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/now-trump-needs-deep-state-fight-coronavirus/605752/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Careful leadership</a> is needed from the president of the United States, who must manage a complex interagency and international process, mustering the nation’s resources and expertise to limit the damage. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;" /><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But at this delicate moment, the feedback loop between Fox News and President Donald Trump is powering the president’s response. The network hosts who influence Trump the most are fixating his attention on Democrats and the media, who they claim are deliberately politicizing coronavirus in order to damage his reelection campaign. And Trump is apparently listening to them and is spouting the same talking points</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">....[vid]</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ednesday morning, he went after the media and Democrats on Twitter.</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--twitter-tweet paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-twitter-tweet field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump lavished praise on himself and his administration while <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/26/trump-keeps-his-coronavirus-press-conference-focused-one-high-risk-patient-himself/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">attacking</a> congressional Democratic leaders for criticizing the response during a press conference on the coronavirus outbreak that night. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;" /><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox got the message. Its hosts and personalities targeted the media and Democrats for their treatment of coronavirus throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning.</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--twitter-tweet paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-twitter-tweet field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is dangerous. The hours of Fox coverage Trump watches each day shape his worldview -- and direct his often inchoate rage. The potential global crisis on his doorstep does not appear to be slowing his consumption of propagandistic cable news content. As we’ve seen so many times before, he is getting distracted by his television, which is encouraging him to carry out his worst impulses.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The attacks on the press, long a staple of Trump and Fox, are particularly concerning now. The American public needs trustworthy information about the coronavirus outbreak in order to make good decisions about how to respond to it. And the president is telling people that they can’t trust news outlets that aren’t in the tank for his administration, warning that those journalists will deliberately overstate the danger in order to hurt his reelection chances. That’s a recipe for disaster.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And things can still get worse. Some <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/pro-trump-media-claim-cdc-overhyping-coronavirus-because-nancy-messonnier" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">pro-Trump commentators</a>, including conservative radio host <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/radio/rush-limbaugh-suggests-cdc-official-is-out-to-get-trump-because-shes-rod-rosensteins-sister/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Rush Limbaugh</a>, have argued that the top CDC official who warned that a larger U.S. outbreak was inevitable is a deep-state plant who is trying to take down Trump. Fox hosts have largely steered clear of those conspiracy theories thus far. But what happens if the situation worsens, and the Fox Cabinet starts telling the president that he needs to purge the public health bureaucracy of anti-Trump traitors?</font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vp-mike-pence-talks-coronavirus-conspiracy-theorist-rush-limbaugh"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vp-mike-pence-talks-coronavirus-conspiracy-theorist-rush-limbaugh</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">v President Mike Pence, who President Donald Trump has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/politics/trump-coronavirus-stock-market/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">placed in charge</a> of overseeing the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, appeared Friday afternoon on <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Rush Limbaugh Show</em> — which has been the source of a mixture of conspiracy theories, denialism, and other misinformation about the virus.</font></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During the program, Pence stated that the government is on top of the situation, saying, “President Trump has no higher priority than the health of the American people.”</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Radio host Rush Limbaugh offered his support to Pence and discussed the problem as a matter beyond politics. “I'm for you guys, I want you to succeed because this needs success. I mean, this problem needs to be dealt with successfully, hopefully as apolitically as possible,” Limbaugh said. “The virus doesn't know whether it's infecting a Republican or a Democrat, a woman, a man, anything. And until we get a better handle on it, we want competent people working on this.”</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, the segment made no mention of all the irresponsible rhetoric and conspiracy theories that its own host had been spreading earlier this week</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[pix]</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">kicking off the week on Monday, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-coronavirus-effort-get-trump" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Limbaugh falsely claimed</a> that the novel coronavirus strain known as COVID-19 is actually just “the common cold,” but added that it “probably is a [Chinese Communist] laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized” as part of “an effort to bring down Trump” through negative media coverage.</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Limbaugh then only <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-mocks-concerns-over-coronavirus-i-have-no-interest-lying-you-about" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">dug in further</a> on Tuesday, downplaying the potential impact of coronavirus in the U.S. and declaring:</font></p></div></div><blockquote class="block-quote block-quote--collapsable" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><div class="block-quotequote" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.5rem;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): I'm not going to play ball with this, <b>I'm not going to join a panic</b> over something that I have been independently informing myself about. I have no interest in lying to you about anything, it doesn't help me, it doesn't help you, it doesn't further anything. It doesn't help a thing for me to knowingly lie to you about something as serious as a “possible global pandemic,” and that's how the media is treating this.</font></p></div></blockquote><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>He later <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/rush-limbaugh-media-wants-coronavirus-be-deadly-just-they-hope-hurricanes-so-they-can" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">went on to claim</a> that the coronavirus was not a major threat, but that the media was only hoping for it to sufficiently evolve to become one:</b></font></p></div></div><blockquote class="block-quote block-quote--collapsable" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="block-quotequote" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.5rem;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): They hope for hurricanes — on the first day of hurricane season, they hope for Hurricane Katrina so they can say “climate change,” anything to advance the leftist agenda. Now, the leftist agenda includes getting rid of Trump. They would love for the coronavirus to be this deadly strain that wipes everybody out, so they could blame Trump for it.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">”</span></font></p></div></blockquote><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Limbaugh did not repeat or even acknowledge any of these conspiracy theories during the interview with Pence — nor did Pence mention that Limbaugh had been spreading them.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later in the program, Pence projected a message of nonpartisan national unity in the crisis.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“We're going to follow the facts, we're going to follow the science, we're going to tune out the politics, and keep reaching out to people across the spectrum,”</span> Pence said. “And I have to tell you, my conversations with many of the officials that I mentioned to you in the Democratic Party, I get that sense — I think this is a real moment where we have an opportunity to really come together and work this issue on behalf of the American people. And that's going to continue to be our focus.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Pence also rebutted the story that any kind of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/white-house-reportedly-shutting-down-media-appearances-disease-expert-dr-fauci" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">“gag order” had been imposed</a> on Dr. Anthony Fauci,</b> director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, as was reported Thursday in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/politics/us-coronavirus-pence.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">The New York Times</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I was told that Dr. Fauci testified at a briefing in Congress today that there is no gag order and there is not. What we want to make sure is happening is that with so many different agencies involved, that we're providing that information in a consistent and a systematic way,” Pence said. “We're going to give the American people the facts. We're going to follow what the scientific community is recommending on this. And we're going to let the health care experts lead.”</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>However, the message that the Trump-Pence administration is “going to let the health care experts lead” is another talking point that should contrast sharply with Limbaugh’s rhetoric during the coronavirus crisis. On Thursday, Limbaugh was <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/pro-trump-media-claim-cdc-overhyping-coronavirus-because-nancy-messonnier" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">one of many right-wing media figures attacking Dr. Nancy Messonnier</a>,</b> director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because she is also the sister of former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. (Rosenstein is a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/amid-reports-trump-may-fire-rosenstein-over-mueller-inquiry-fox-news-drumbeat-urges" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">frequent</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/what-trumps-fox-news-cabinet-wants-him-do-about-rod-rosenstein" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">target</a> of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/effort-impeach-rod-rosenstein-brought-you-sean-hannity-jeanine-pirro-and-lou-dobbs" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">pro-Trump propagandists</a> for having <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-russia-investigation.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">appointed</a> Robert Mueller as a special counsel in the Russia investigation.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Beyond Limbaugh, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/28/21156158/mike-pence-coronavirus-trump-administration-hiv-science" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Pence</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/09/17/the-origins-of-donald-trumps-autismvaccine-theory-and-how-it-was-completely-debunked-eons-ago/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Donald</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/donald-trump-spouts-climate-denial-without-rebuttal-msnbcs-morning-joe" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Trump</a> have had their own serious issues when it comes to “following the science.”</b></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">ah not mine joe conason that pandemic is precisely what mkt/libtards can't deal w/; trump post truth econ pow spox to spin b/c of stock mkt 2020;</span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">admin gets tested by crisis which by nature are unpredictable eg katrina b43</span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/how-trumps-personal-pathologies-are-poisoning-the-administrations-coronavirus-management/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/how-trumps-personal-pathologies-are-poisoning-the-administrations-coronavirus-management/</a></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/key-mistakes-in-the-federal-government-have-already-undermined-our-ability-to-track-coronavirus/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/key-mistakes-in-the-federal-government-have-already-undermined-our-ability-to-track-coronavirus/</a></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">aha -let :it  gets tedious to repeat, but what wd happen if BO gagged? czar?!</span></span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></span></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/white-house-told-top-virus-expert-not-to-speak-publicly-on-the-coronavirus-without-permission-report/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/white-house-told-top-virus-expert-not-to-speak-publicly-on-the-coronavirus-without-permission-report/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">White House told top virus expert not to speak publicly on the coronavirus without permission: report</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Coronavirus Task Force, speaks to members of the press Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, in the James S. brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen)</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Cody Fenwick February 27, 2020</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A top expert on viruses in the administration, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been told by the White House not to speak publicly about the emerging coronavirus outbreak without permission, according to a report Thursday in the New York Times.</b></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fauci directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, an agency within the National Institutes of Health.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The directive comes as a part of a broader effort from Vice President Mike Pence, who President Donald Trump has picked to oversee the administration’s crisis response, the Times found. Pence is reportedly trying to “tighten control” of the administration’s messaging about the outbreak, which thus far has been contradictory and scattershot.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Times reported:</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officials insist the goal is not to control the content of what subject-matter experts and other officials are saying, but to make sure their efforts are being coordinated, after days of confusion with various administration officials showing up on television.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>However, it’s hard to take such reassurances seriously. Trump himself has already made clear that he is trying to downplay the coronavirus threat, and he is undeniably spooked by the effect it has had on the stock market and the potential impact on his re-election chances. </b>He has accused the media of hyping the threat and has broken with his administration’s experts by suggesting the virus is likely already in decline and that a vaccine could be developed “soon.”</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With the president broadcasting what he hopes the science will show, any effort to limit what experts in the administration are allowed to say publicly should be viewed with suspicion. And Trump’s decision to put Pence in charge, given the vice president’s history of obsequiousness to the commander in chief, inspires even less confidence. Pence already bungled a public health crisis as governor of Indiana, and he was still denying the evidence that smoking caused cancer in 2000.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Times also noted that, with the announcement of Dr. Deborah L. Birx as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator, there are now at least three people who have been named as leading some part of the coronavirus response effort, exacerbating the possibility for mismanagement:</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But with Mr. Pence’s announcement, Dr. Birx becomes the third person to be designated as the administration’s primary coronavirus official.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Trump said that “Mike is going to be in charge, and Mike will report back to me.” Mr. Pence said it will be Dr. Birx. Meanwhile, Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, remains the chairman of the government’s coronavirus task force.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And on Thursday at a public meeting, Pence himself only added to the confusion, saying: “I’m leading the task force. We’ll continue to rely on the [Secretary Azar’s] role as chairman of the task force.”</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Times report also gave more indication that Trump is prioritizing putting out a positive message rather than the truth, finding: “Mr. Trump has told people that he considers Mr. Azar to be too ‘alarmist’ about the virus.”</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-lies-and-deception-are-catching-up-to-all-of-us-as-the-stock-market-posts-worst-point-drop-ever-on-record/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-lies-and-deception-are-catching-up-to-all-of-us-as-the-stock-market-posts-worst-point-drop-ever-on-record/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-lies-and-deception-are-catching-up-to-all-of-us-as-the-stock-market-posts-worst-point-drop-ever-on-record/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s lies and deception are catching up to all of us as the stock market posts ‘worst point drop ever on record’</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence, listens as Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar speaks to members of the press Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, in the James S. brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement February 27, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a muddled, dishonest, rambling news conference from the White House press briefing room, President Donald Trump for over an hour talked to reporters Wednesday evening about coronavirus in an attempt to stave off three days of market near-collapse. He lied. He twisted the truth. He displayed little grasp of basic facts. He didn’t let the experts run the show.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>He instilled no confidence Wednesday night. In fact, the DOW futures dropped as Trump began speaking:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Dow Futures dropped when Trump said the market fell 2k points because of the Dem debate</span> pic.twitter.com/cvbviB2l9a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) February 27, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The markets on Thursday rewarded his efforts with the DOW posting the largest single-day loss in history.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BREAKING: Dow Jones Industrial Average records worst point drop ever on record, plummeting nearly 1,200 points https://t.co/T8yrpR8LHE pic.twitter.com/EaOeKgC34O</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) February 27, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Trump administration has known about coronavirus since at least December 1, 2019. It did nothing until January 29, when the White House posted a memo announcing President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force. The task force did not even include the surgeon general, making it clear the White House had little interest in communicating to the American people any sense of competence or delivering even an iota of public education.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nearly an entire month went by. Trump and the First Family played in India, posing at the Taj Mahal, refusing to eat the specially prepared foods their hosts created just for them, and praising Prime Minister Modi as Muslims were being slayed just streets away from where the Trump family was staying.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The grandeur and beauty of the Taj Mahal is awe inspiring! ???? ???? pic.twitter.com/jcYwXHxf4c</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) February 24, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The losses mark the worse week for U.S. stocks since the financial crash of 2008. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each also plunged by more than 4%,” reports ABC News, calling it the “worst week” since the 2008 global financial crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This, as the First Family played, pretending to be on official business as the coronavirus outbreak exploded earlier this week.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump returned after two days of about 1000 point drops in the DOW each day. He hastily called a press conference for Wednesday at 6 PM. Just after it began at 6:30 PM<b>it became clear there was not going to be a coronavirus czar, there was no real plan, other than to put in charge Vice President Mike Pence.</b> Even a Fox News pundit eschewed that decision, noting Pence doesn’t believe in science, is not a doctor, and has a horrific record when it comes to public health – he oversaw an explosive HIV outbreak during which he decided to pray for guidance rather than listen to what experts told him he had to do.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And now, as the markets tumble, as Trump lies about the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. and pretends that there might not be “community spread” – the first case of which the CDC literally announced just after Trump’s news conference, it’s become even more clear Trump and his administration aren’t interested in protecting the American public, but rather, they are interested in appearing to be doing “things” that might make it appear they are protecting the American public – when their goal is to protect the markets.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That’s why Vice President Pence’s first act as head of the Coronavirus Task Force was to add top and Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to the Task Force, along with the surgeon general (finally).</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Absent from the list: any public health experts, any crisis experts, anyone not from the Trump administration, the CDC, or the NIH. In other words, there is no one on the Trump Coronavirus Task Force the Trump administration cannot control.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because the administration has already told the federal government all communication, to reporters and others, is to go through Vice President Pence, and it’s dangerous because there is no one who will tell Trump or Pence anything they don’t want to hear.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And what else is the Trump administration doing?</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Campaigning at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the course of Thursday through Sunday, 21 top Trump administration officials, including the President and the Vice President, and a large number of Cabinet Secretaries, will all be attending and speaking at the far right-wing conference. CPAC over the years has hosted some of the most extreme groups and fringe elements in conservative America. Groups like the John Birch Society, and extremists like Milo Yiannopoulos — whose invitation was pulled when a vile video of him was released.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Democratic primaries are just getting started but the markets have already voted. They have made clear they have no confidence in this President and this Vice President.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unfortunately, those who will pay the price form that vote are, as usual, the Americans who can least afford a hit to their life savings – if they have any – or to their 401(k)s, or to the number of hours they work which will be cut so their bosses can save a few bucks when business gets bad.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The stock market has now plunged about 3200 points this week, and there’s no reason to suggest Friday will be any better, because there’s no reason to suggest this president will be any better.</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/mick-mulvaney-accuses-media-of-hyping-coronavirus-to-bring-down-trump"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/mick-mulvaney-accuses-media-of-hyping-coronavirus-to-bring-down-trump</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mick Mulvaney accuses media of hyping coronavirus to bring down Trump</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Brad Reed / Raw Story February 28, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that the media is only covering the spread of coronavirus because it’s out to get President Donald Trump.</b></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the New York Times’ Annie Karni, Mulvaney accused the American media of using coronavirus as a political weapon, despite the fact that concerns about the virus led Japan to shut down its schools for at least a month.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“They think this will bring down the president,” Mulvaney said. “That’s what it’s all about.”</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He then downplayed the health risks to Americans who contract the virus by arguing that the virus won’t kill everyone who contracts it.</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It’s not a death sentence,” he said. “It’s not the same as the Ebola crisis.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, it’s estimated that the mortality rate from contracting coronavirus is two percent, which is why several governments across the world are taking significant measures to protect their people from getting infected.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mulvaney is saying that the press is now covering Coronavirus because “they think this will bring down the president. That’s what it’s all about.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) February 28, 2020</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></font></div><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">politico</font></h2><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
no lnx?

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Some supporters of President Donald Trump see a threat bigger than the spread of a highly contagious novel coronavirus: a conspiracy by deep state actors to use the virus against the president.
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>One key piece of evidence fueling their theory: An official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention making public statements on the outbreak is the sister of Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general who oversaw the Mueller probe and, according to a disputed report, once discussed removing Trump from office.
Advertisement</b>

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases — who got a shoutout from her brother for attending his 2017 confirmation hearing — warned Americans in a Tuesday media briefing that an outbreak in the U.S. is inevitable.

Messonnier’s comments got widespread attention, sparking calls for further actions by the administration, which had long struck a more reassuring note. The furor appeared to catch Trump flat-footed while en route back from his summit with the Indian prime minister, during which he had declared the outbreak "very well under control."

[pix
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The likes of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and Jim Hoft, publisher of the Gateway Pundit, a conspiratorial, pro-Trump site, have seized on the sibling connection, as have a large number of anonymous Twitter accounts.
</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Rod Rosenstein as we all know definitely worked to undermine the Trump administration, which is oddly exactly what his sister is doing by undermining the more logical and calm message the president’s team has issued on the virus,” conservative pundit Wayne Dupree charged in a Wednesday blog post.</span>

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Global financial markets have been sliding for several days over concerns about the fallout from the virus, a trend that threatens Trump’s rosy economic message as well as his political future.
Yet there is no evidence that federal health authorities are overstating the threat of coronavirus to prosecute a political vendetta against Trump, and some conservatives — even as they praised the administration’s response — rushed to defend Messonnier.
…
</font></div><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></h2><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></h2><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">buzzfeed</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">....
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, while in India on his first state visit, Trump <a rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1232058127740174339" target="blank">tweeted</a>,

“the Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in

contact with everyone and all relevant countries.” Two days later, the

president doubled down, railing against the media for spreading

hysteria.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC [<i>sic</i>] (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus [<i>sic</i>] look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible,” he <a rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1232652371832004608" target="_blank">wrote</a>.</font></p><p><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Echoing

the message, hyperpartisan news sites, conspiracy theorists, and

scammers have sown panic. In the last two weeks, a narrative has

solidified among his base: The virus is a <a rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1232332782401134593" target="blank">deep state plot</a>, possibly created by the <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/a-pro-trump-blog-has-doxed-a-chinese-scientist-it-falsely" target="blank">Chinese government</a>, to hurt Trump’s reelection chances.</font></b></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Infowars <a rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/oneunderscore_/status/1232682774978584578" target="blank">ran</a>

</b> a video claiming the Department of Homeland Security was buying up

emergency food provisions; the site's sidebar advertised food rations on

its online store.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Jordan Sather, a YouTuber aligned with the pro-Trump

QAnon conspiracy theory, has told followers that coronavirus is a “new

fad disease,” the release of which was “planned.” Sather has also

promoted the idea that QAnon followers can <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-conspiracy-theorists-magic-cure-for-coronavirus-is-drinking-lethal-bleach" target="_blank">protect</a>

themselves from COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, by

drinking chlorine dioxide — otherwise known as bleach. </span>Limbaugh and

other pro-Trump media sites have also <a rel="nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/MarshallCohen/status/1232733193175998464" target="blank">attacked</a> Messonnier, the sister of Rod Rosenstein — a longtime Trump <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/04/rod-rosenstein-resigns-kisses-trump-ass-on-his-way-out-the-door" target="blank">punching bag</a> and former deputy attorney general.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, on Tuesday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow <a rel="nofollow" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/484561-kudlow-claims-coronavirus-has-been-contained-its-pretty-close-to-air" target="blank">claimed</a> the US had an “airtight containment” of the virus. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, during <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51276323" target="blank">an interview</a>

last month with Fox Business, said the coronavirus’s toll on mainland

China could boost US employment. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/market-plunge-over-coronavirus-fears-underscores-political-risk-to-trump/2020/02/24/331aa162-572a-11ea-9000-f3cffee23036_story.html" target="_blank">claimed</a>

that vaccine development will be on "Trump time" and said to expect a

faster release to the public. Anthony Fauci, head of the National

Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/coronavirus-spread-flu-pandemic" target="_blank">told BuzzFeed News</a>

that a vaccine will only be safe and available for limited distribution

to doctors and the most vulnerable patients, those who are elderly or

have a compromised immune system, within two years. Republican Arkansas

Sen. Tom Cotton, while speaking on Fox News last week, claimed the virus

<a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/qanon-supporters-and-anti-vaxxers-are-spreading-a-hoax-that" target="_blank">could be</a> a lab-made bioweapon, a hoax popular among QAnon followers.</font></p><div class="clearfix js-ad-placement ad-inline ad-placement--wide ad-promo-inline ad-flexible"><div data-wireframe-width="970" data-wireframe-height="250" class="ad-wireframe-wrapper ad-wireframe-wrapper--labeled ad-wireframe-wrapper--hidden"><div id="BF_WIDGET_212-1" data-module="ad-promo-inline" class="xs-relative ad-ex ad-promo-inline ad-ex--inline js-ad js-ad-212-1 ad-flexible" data-infinite-idx="1" role="complementary" aria-label="Advertisement" data-instance-id="7"> <div id="bf-item-212-1-1"> <div class="ad-awareness-wrapper js-awareness-wrapper"><div class="ad-awarenessinner js-awareness-inner"><div class="ad-awarenessmedia js-awareness-media"> <font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx">.buzzfeednews.com › article › ryanhatesthis › trump-supporters-...</cite></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="TbwUpd"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" /></div><div class="eFM0qc"><span /></div></div><div class="g"><div data-hveid="CAQQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiNsc6Qo_LnAhUHsp4KHVRvD1cQFSgAMAN6BAgEEAA"><div class="rc"><div class="s"><div><span class="st"><span class="f">17 hours ago - </span>Trump speaks at a <em>news</em> conference on the <em>coronavirus</em> outbreak at ... <em>Rush Limbaugh</em> (upon whom he bestowed the Presidential Medal of ... “Low Ratings <em>Fake News</em> MSDNC [sic] (Comcast) & @CNN are ... Last month, Facebook said it would be removing “content with <em>false</em> claims or <em>conspiracy theories</em> ...</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div data-hveid="CAEQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiNsc6Qo_LnAhUHsp4KHVRvD1cQFSgAMAR6BAgBEAA"><div class="rc"><div class="r"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/26/trump-backers-coronavirus-conspiracy-117781">
</a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/26/trump-backers-coronavirus-conspiracy-117781">Trump backers see a coronavirus conspiracy - POLITICO</a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx">www.politico.com › news › 2020/02/26 › trump-backers-coronavirus...</cite></div><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="TbwUpd"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" /></div><div class="eFM0qc"><span /></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div data-hveid="CAEQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiNsc6Qo_LnAhUHsp4KHVRvD1cQFSgAMAR6BAgBEAA"><div class="rc"><div class="s"><div><span class="st"><span class="f">17 hours ago - </span>Trump backers see a <em>coronavirus conspiracy</em> ... The likes of conservative radio host <em>Rush Limbaugh</em> and Jim Hoft, publisher of the Gateway ... Trump — who rose to political prominence by promoting the <em>false</em> idea that Barack ... “Low Ratings <em>Fake News</em> MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything ...</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div data-hveid="CAkQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwiNsc6Qo_LnAhUHsp4KHVRvD1cQFSgAMAV6BAgJEAA"><div class="rc"><div class="r"><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/484506-limbaugh-claims-coronavirus-is-being-weaponized-to-bring-down-trump">
</a><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md"><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/484506-limbaugh-claims-coronavirus-is-being-weaponized-to-bring-down-trump">Limbaugh claims coronavirus is being 'weaponized' to 'bring ...</a></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx">thehill.com › homenews › media › 484506-limbaugh-claims-coronavi...</cite></div><div class="B6fmyf"><div class="TbwUpd"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" /></div><div class="eFM0qc"><span /></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="s"><div><span class="st"><span class="f">2 days ago - </span>Conservative radio host <em>Rush Limbaugh</em> on Monday suggested on his show that an outbreak of <em>coronavirus</em> in China was being "weaponized" by the <em>news</em> media against President Trump. ... "You think I'm <em>wrong</em> about this? ... of the <em>coronavirus</em> outbreak, and repeated a debunked <em>conspiracy theory</em> that the ...</span><div class="TXwUJf"><span>Missing:</span> <s>fake</s> ‎| Must include: <a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=rush+limbaugh+corona+virus+false+%22fake%22+conspiracy+news&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiNsc6Qo_LnAhUHsp4KHVRvD1cQ5t4CMAV6BAgJEAk">fake</a></div></div></div></div><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></font></h2><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;">=</span></font></h2><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></h2><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/top-trump-economic-advisor-slammed-for-claiming-coronavirus-contained-after-cdc-warns-of-spread/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">Top Trump economic advisor slammed for claiming coronavirus ‘contained’ after CDC warns of spread</a></font></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-badash/" title="Posts by David Badash" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Badash</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement/" title="Posts by The New Civil Rights Movement" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New Civil Rights Movement</a> </span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">February 26, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor, is falsely claiming the U.S. has “contained” the coronavirus, literally minutes after reports broke that the CDC is warning of a spread of the deadly virus that has killed 2600 people, mostly in China.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/bernie-sanders-knocks-self-described-great-genius-trump-on-his-lies-about-the-coronavirus/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">Sanders knocks self-described ‘great genius’ Trump on his lies about the coronavirus</a></font></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/walter-einenkel/" title="Posts by Walter Einenkel" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Walter Einenkel</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/daily-kos/" title="Posts by Daily Kos" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Daily Kos</a> </span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">February 26, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Bernie Sanders hit at Donald Trump for completely screwing up efforts to protect Americans from the spread of the coronavirus.</font></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">==</font></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>