washington spectator

2 good art on CNP<div>
</div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SEE WASH SPECT ARTLS THREE PRONG TRUMP ELECTION STATATEGY:</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">open up everything to boost economy (really only possible leg to stand on //voodoo tax cut, rest is wedge culture war BS) but that means minimize covid risK</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div>
</div><div>pseudo event, tobacco playbook 3rd party bs:  NOTE RWI NICHE SLEEPER CELLS]</div><div>
</div><div>NOTE CORP  CNP ALEC KOCH TP BASTARDS USE HYDROXY IN CYNICAL? FURY?  MOVE TO RE-OPEN ECONOMY</div><div>9/20 </div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/</a></div><div>
</div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">On July 27, a dozen physicians posed in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., dressed in white lab coats with “America’s Frontline Doctors” stitched over the pocket. The group’s chief spokesperson was Dr. Simone Gold, an emergency physician from Los Angeles. They were introduced by Jenny Beth Martin, the founding CEO of Tea Party Patriots, as participants in the “White Coat Summit.” The doctors made spirited arguments for the use of hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for Covid-19 and against wearing masks and imposing lockdowns—all running counter to the recommendations of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn1" name="ftnref1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[1]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Although the event was billed as a “press conference,” few journalists attended. A video posted by a bystander showed only a handful of attendees, most of them dressed in tourists’ shorts and T-shirts. But the event was livestreamed by Breitbart News and quickly went (so to speak) viral.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">There was a rapid backlash. Much of the media attention focused on Dr. Stella Immanuel, one of Gold’s cohort. Following the press conference, the Daily Beast posted a video of Immanuel, who is also a Pentecostal preacher, delivering a sermon claiming that various female ailments were caused by sexual visitations from “demons.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Immanuel has since disappeared from the America’s Frontline Doctors online roster, but the group has continued to get traction. On August 10, Pat Robertson’s show on the Christian Broadcasting Network carried an interview with Simone Gold and an endorsement of her hydroxychloroquine cure. On August 21, Alex Jones’s NewsWars carried an interview with another member of America’s Frontline Doctors, Mark McDonald. McDonald—a child psychiatrist—<a href="https://www.newswars.com/frontline-doctor-silenced-by-youtube-and-facebook-speaks-out-about-hydroxychloroquine/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">maintained</a>, “If all Americans had access to hydroxychloroquine, the pandemic would essentially end in about 30 days.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Science has shown otherwise. Despite early hopes last spring, there is mounting evidence that hydroxychloroquine is a problematic—and even dangerous—treatment for Covid-19. One expert with firsthand knowledge is Nick Sawyer, an academic emergency physician in Sacramento, Calif. In July he <a href="https://cdn.ymaws.com/californiaacep.org/resource/resmgr/docs/lifeline/2020/lifeline_magazine_summer2020.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">wrote</a> an article for Lifeline, the publication of the California chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, describing his harrowing two weeks of service in the Covid wards of Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. Sawyer was part of a team of California doctors dispatched by Governor Gavin Newsome to offer emergency assistance at the epicenter of the epidemic, at the height of the New York City outbreak.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Sawyer is now dealing with the spike in cases in California, this time with the benefit of four months of additional Covid research. “The science on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating Covid-19 is settled—multiple high-quality studies have shown that it shows no benefit,” he notes. Far more concerning, Sawyer says, is its potential harm: “Hydroxychloroquine can cause unstable cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death.” Over recent months, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, and other organizations have issued <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/joint-statement-of-the-american-medical-association-american-pharmacists-association-and-american-society-of-health-system-pharmacists-on-new-fda-action-to-remove-emergency-use-authorization-of-medications-to-treat-covid-19-301082292.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">warnings</a> that the drug should be withdrawn as a Covid-19 treatment. “It’s irresponsible for America’s Frontline Doctors to continue to push this medication on the unwitting American population,” Sawyer states.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Why, then, would Gold’s band of physicians continue its campaign to pitch the treatment to the public? Simone Gold has repeatedly described her group as a “grassroots organization” acting in the service of its patients.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn2" name="ftnref2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[2]</a> In fact, it has been a highly orchestrated effort, months in the making, assembled by conservative Washington insiders in direct consultation with the White House, with the goal of reopening the economy in time to benefit Trump’s reelection prospects—regardless of the toll in human lives.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">The first public mention of the initiative may have been a Washington Post story on April 13, as the virus raged across New York City and Covid-19 deaths passed the 20,000 mark.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn3" name="ftnref3" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[3]</a> The Post reported the creation of a new conservative coalition [biz man group 100?]  “pushing for the White House and GOP lawmakers to push back against health professionals who have urged more caution.” The leadership was listed as Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation, Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks, and Lisa Nelson of the American Legislative Exchange Council. A fourth individual, Jenny Beth Martin, is the founding director of the Tea Party Patriots. She would play a key role in organizing the events to come, including the doctors’ Washington “summit” in July.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Brandon, Nelson, and Martin are all prominent members of a secretive organization called the Council for National Policy, a shadowy coalition that coordinates initiatives among conservative megadonors, political operatives, and media owners, many of them Christian fundamentalists (see “<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/nelson-shadow-network/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">Holding Democracy Hostage</a>”).<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">The Post story quoted an interview with Richard Viguerie, a co-founder of the CNP, on the mission of the initiative: “The sooner we get the economy going and back up, the better it’s going to be for conservatives and Republicans in this election year. . . . Conservatives feel the government has overreacted, and it’s got to end.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn4" name="ftnref4" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[4]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">The new coalition, called Save Our Country, officially debuted on April 27, as U.S. Covid deaths approached 55,000.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn5" name="ftnref5" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[5]</a> Headed by economist Art Laffer, its maiden press release featured quotes from Brandon, Nelson, and Martin. “The long-term consequences of a prolonged societal shutdown outweigh the damage done by the virus itself,” Martin stated. “We must immediately reopen the economy.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn6" name="ftnref6" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[6]</a> Earlier that week, The New York Times reported that the Save Our Country coalition’s members were mobilizing their networks for state-level rallies, filing lawsuits, and commissioning polls, all to counter the lockdowns: “Nonprofit groups including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots have used their social media accounts and text and email lists to spread the word about protests across the country.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn7" name="ftnref7" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[7]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">But the state-level protests turned out to be of limited utility, and the group began to look for new avenues. In April, CNP Action, the lobbying arm of the CNP, began a series of weekly conference calls to discuss Covid strategy. On May 11—as U.S. Covid deaths reached 74,270<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn8" name="ftnref8" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[8]</a>—one of the calls was intercepted and <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2020/05/19582/coalition-pro-trump-doctors-forming-defend-president%E2%80%99s-covid-19-blunders" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">published</a> by the Center for Media and Democracy and the Associated Press.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Among the participants were CNP President William Walton, CNP member Nancy Schulze,<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn9" name="ftnref9" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[9]</a> and Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. Schulze, the wife of former nine-term Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Dick Schulze, opened the call with a warning that two-thirds of the American people were wary of reopening the economy. But, she added, “Doctors are seen by the American people—they have a 92 percent trust rate with the American people according to polling. . . . There is a coalition of doctors, doctors’ coalition, who are extremely pro-Trump, that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health care, and these doctors could be activated for this conversation now for reopening. NOTE RWI NICHE SLEEPER CELLS]<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">“The one thing the left does give credence to, in that they tend to be motivated by a secular worldview, the one thing that they do appreciate and listen to is science, and we have doctors that have the facts, that lived this themselves, that are in the trenches, that are saying it’s time to reopen,” Schulze continued. “I’ve been working with them for three years. There’s a coalition of doctors . . . including the most respected doctors in this country, that are ready to speak if somebody will just call on them.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Walton told her, “We need to not just make the economic argument, we need to make the health argument, and we need doctors to make that argument, not us. THIRD PARTY TOBACCO PR BS And so that would be great if you, if we could tee that up.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Schulze said she’d be happy to put him in touch “with any and all of these doctors, and I have submitted 27 of these doctors’ names to the campaign for the doctors’ coalition that they’re in the process of building.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Mercedes Schlapp asked Schulze if she had spoken with Hannah Castillo, director of coalitions for the Trump campaign. “I know they’ve been working on building that coalition. I know they’re going through the vetting process right now. As long as you have the names, that would be helpful. . . . Those are the type of guys we want to get out on TV and radio to help push out the message.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Schulze replied, “I’ve been working with Hannah for over six weeks now, so they already have been vetted. But they need to be put on the screen.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn10" name="ftnref10" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[10]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Dr. Simone Gold, a 54-year-old emergency physician from Los Angeles, was ready for her close-up. On April 22, Gold had tweeted a stand-up of herself wearing a white “Emergency Dept.” coat, in front of Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai hospital emergency room, suggesting that concerns over the virus were inflated. She pointed out that the hospital “parking lots are empty, the emergency department volume is down, the patient census is down, and that’s really in most of the areas I’ve been to.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn11" name="ftnref11" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[11]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">On May 7, she brought a more explicit anti-lockdown message to a program on the Whiskey Politics show on Salem Radio, part of the massive Salem Media conglomerate owned by two leading members of the Council for National Policy.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn12" name="ftnref12" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[12]</a> It was headlined “DR. SIMONE GOLD GOES PUBLIC! What the Government WON’T Tell Us About COVID-19.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">“It’s not at all clear that overall, that social distancing is going to make a huge impact,” Gold said.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn13" name="ftnref13" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[13]</a> “We’re all acting like as though there’s a huge medical crisis. There’s a medical issue, we should handle it responsibly, but what’s going on in our country now is a terrible legal crisis. Our constitutional rights are being trampled on right and left.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn14" name="ftnref14" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[14]</a> Gold later added, “There’s always viruses . . . but I’m not sure that it’s front-page news.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn15" name="ftnref15" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[15]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">The Guardian reported that over the same period, the Save Our Country coalition spent $50,000 on videos on social media platforms “targeting independents and Republicans with the message that Covid-19 mostly hits the elderly to minimize risks for others.”<span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; transition-duration: 300ms; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-property: color;">[16] GUK<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">On May 19—as U.S. Covid deaths reached 84,640<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn17" name="ftnref17" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[17]</a>—the CNP’s doctors coalition (billed as “A Doctor A Day”) made its debut with an open letter to Donald Trump signed by “500+ doctors” (a number that was later revised to over 800). “In medical terms, the shutdown was a mass casualty incident,” it stated. “It is impossible to overstate the short, medium, and long-term harm to people’s health with a continued shutdown.” The lead signatory was Dr. Simone Gold.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">On June 16—with U.S. Covid deaths approaching 110,000<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn18" name="ftnref18" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[18]</a> and the U.S. economy in freefall—the Save Our Country coalition published an open letter to President Trump and Leader McConnell, urging “that the multi-trillions of dollars of federal government debt spending in the wake of the Coronavirus come to a stop.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn19" name="ftnref19" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[19]</a> Twelve of the 20 signatories (among them Brandon, Nelson, and Martin) were members of the CNP, including CNP President William Walton and Executive Director Bob McEwen.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">The push to reopen the schools became a full-court press. On July 7, Trump assembled a White House meeting on the subject. Jenny Beth Martin spoke as both the CEO of Tea Party Patriots and “as a mom.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">“Mr. President, you were right, and I hope you will trust your instincts,” she told Trump. “America is not meant to be shut down. And we have to reopen schools this fall. I’ve been in touch with almost a thousand doctors from around the country. I helped Dr. Simone Gold spearhead a letter to you signed by 800 physicians and surgeons who talked about the side effects of the lockdowns. I’ve done a second letter with over 150 doctors, 240 nurses, 330 educators, 70 national groups, and thousands of parents and concerned Americans who want to see schools reopened.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">A video of Martin’s statement appeared, billed as “Mom Gives Unexpected Speech Directly to Trump” without naming her or her affiliation. It was posted on various social media platforms, including Glenn Beck’s YouTube channel, The Blaze (where it clocked over 400,000 views as of August 4).<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn20" name="ftnref20" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[20]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Dr. Simone Gold was now preparing to join Jenny Beth Martin on center stage. On July 22, Gold warmed up for her appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, with over 157,000 YouTube subscribers. Kirk, a member of the Council for National Policy, heads a group called Turning Point USA, which recruits right-wing campus activists. (Donald Trump addressed its Youth Action Summit last December, and Donald Trump Jr. is quoted on its website stating, “I’m convinced that the work by Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk will win back the future of America.”)<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn21" name="ftnref21" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[21]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">The introduction for Kirk’s show summed up the case Gold and her colleagues would make over the coming weeks: “Charlie is joined in studio by board-certified emergency physician Dr. Simon [sic] Gold, who says nearly everything we’ve been told about the Chinese Coronavirus is a lie. She and Charlie take a deep dive into the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and why the U.S. government is barring physicians from prescribing the drug—endangering potentially 100,000 lives, at least. Charlie also takes on Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, asking if Dr. Gold challenges the effectiveness of wearing masks. Dr. Gold makes a stunning and factual assertion about the death rates and who exactly is to blame for what she believes is one of the biggest lies ever perpetrated against the American people.” <a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn22" name="ftnref22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[22]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Gold’s “stunning assertion” was the often-repeated claim that doctors were falsifying death certificates, speculating without foundation that they were inflating Covid-19 cases by “20 to 30 percent.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn23" name="ftnref23" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[23]</a> Gold also asserted, “Masks are really foolish, they don’t do anything. . . . There’s zero scientific justification for the mask.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn24" name="ftnref24" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[24]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Jenny Beth Martin emphasized a social media campaign from the start. Her Tea Party Patriots website posted the program of the White Coat Summit, offering the participating doctors a two-hour session devoted to expanding their social media reach: “YouTube and other social media vastly exceed television news as the information source for most Americans. Interviews and Q/A with social media personalities with large followers is the best way to talk to Americans. Doctors who want to answer questions from these modern journalists will have the opportunity.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">By the time Jenny Beth Martin hosted Gold’s White Coat Summit on July 27, U.S. Covid-19 deaths had skyrocketed to over 136,000.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn25" name="ftnref25" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[25]</a> The physicians’ presentation carried a lethal stew of misinformation. Dr. Bob Hamilton, a pediatrician from Santa Monica, assured viewers, “Children are not passing [the virus] on to their parents or their teachers.” (A few days later, the CDC released a report on a massive transmission event in June at a Georgia summer camp, with a median age of 12.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn26" name="ftnref26" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[26]</a>)<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Dr. Richard Urso—an ophthalmologist—praised hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for the virus, but it was not clear that Urso had ever had any significant experience treating Covid-19 patients. Another speaker was Dr. Daniel Erickson, a Bakersfield physician who co-owns an urgent care facility. In April he had been censured by the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine for his “reckless and untested musings” opposing stay-at-home orders and promoting the conspiracy theory about doctors misattributing deaths to Covid-19.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn27" name="ftnref27" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[27]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">The social media strategy paid off. Gold and her colleagues’ video, livestreamed on Breitbart News, reportedly reached 185,000 concurrent users.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn28" name="ftnref28" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[28]</a> The New York Times’ Kevin Roose reported that over its six hours on Facebook, it was the second-most-engaged post on the platform, with 14 million views.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn29" name="ftnref29" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[29]</a> (The audiences for network news broadcasts, by comparison, range from 9 to 12 million.) A few hours after the presentation, President Trump tweeted the video to his 84.5 million followers. Donald Trump Jr. told his 5.3 million Twitter followers, “This video is a much [sic] watch!!! So different from the narrative everyone is running with.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn30" name="ftnref30" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[30]</a> Trump redoubled his support at his press conference the following day, stating “I think they’re very respected doctors.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn31" name="ftnref31" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[31]</a><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">But major social media platforms reacted with relative speed. Facebook took the group’s video down a few hours after it was posted, and Twitter and YouTube followed suit, all three on the grounds that the video violated their Covid-19 misinformation policies.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn32" name="ftnref32" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[32]</a> Twitter took the unusual step of suspending Trump Jr.’s account for 12 hours.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Gold had built the original America’s Frontline Doctors website on a SquareSpace platform, but SquareSpace took it down. Gold rebuilt the website (omitting Stella Immanuel of “demon sperm” renown) and started raising money through PayPal and fundly.com. The doctors’ program also remained on the Tea Party Patriots site.</div>=</div></div>