Author: PolitCens

Top State Department aides Wednesday defended President Donald Trump’s firing of State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve Linick earlier this year, telling lawmakers the decision was within the White House’s executive authority.“The IG’s removal was not about retaliation on any specific report or investigation,” Brian Bulatao, State Department undersecretary of management, told lawmakers.But congressional Democrats allege Linick’s firing was connected to two investigations his office was conducting into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s conduct.The first investigation involved Pompeo’s emergency declaration that allowed the Trump administration to circumvent the U.S. Congress to approve $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Congressional Democrats expressed concern the arms would be used against civilians in the war in Yemen.“Many of us here in Congress saw the situation on the ground in Yemen and said, ‘Enough.’ We thought that before we shipped instruments of death overseas, adequate precautions should be in place to ensure those instruments would not be used to blow up school buses or funeral processions. We did not want the United States to be party to the slaughter of innocents,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel said during a hearing on the matter.The IG’s report found Pompeo’s emergency declaration did “not fully assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian casualties and legal concerns associated with the transfer of PGMs (precision guided munitions) included in the Secretary’s May 2019 emergency certification.”Last week, Engel released internal documents from July that showed State Department officials asked the IG’s office to remove passages of the report expressing concerns about civilian casualties.Pompeo was also facing ethics concerns related to dinner parties he and his wife held at his home that he has said were related to his work at the State Department. Congressional Democrats noted that State Department officials were not present at the gatherings, saying the guest list appears related to the Secretary of State’s domestic political ambitions.FILE – State Department Inspector General Steve Linick departs after briefing House and Senate Intelligence committees at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Oct. 2, 2019.Republicans defended Trump’s decision to fire Linick as an example of his executive power.“The news of Inspector General Linick’s firing did come as a surprise,” Congressman Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Wednesday. “Inspectors general are an essential tool in helping Congress execute its constitutional oversight of the executive branch, and any time one is terminated, it naturally will raise some questions. However, inspectors general, like other officers in the executive branch, do serve at the pleasure of the president.”State Department aides say Linick was fired for numerous examples of poor job performance, including leaking information to the press, sending sensitive information to his personal email address and for failing to complete a timely audit of State Department financial procedures.“His failures were substantial and numerous, and fell into three broad categories — failure to execute on the core mission of the IG, failure to take care of the IG team and failure to lead with integrity,” Bulatao told lawmakers.Engel said he presumed the IG’s office was still investigating the concerns about Pompeo. Linick was one of five inspectors general fired earlier this spring. 
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A top U.S. spokesman on the coronavirus is taking a leave of absence after accusing government scientists of “sedition” and alleging their handling of the pandemic was meant to undermine President Donald Trump.  
 
In a statement Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Michael Caputo, the agency’s assistant secretary of public affairs. will be on leave for the next 60 days “to focus on his health and the well-being of his family.”
 
Caputo contended without evidence Sunday that a “resistance unit” of medical personnel “deep in the bowels” of the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to defeat Trump, even if it means the U.S.’s world-leading coronavirus death toll of more than 196,000 continues to rise.
 
He accused the scientists of abandoning science to become “political animals.”
 
On Tuesday, he apologized to co-workers.
 
Caputo has drawn intense criticism in Washington for attempting to alter the CDC’s weekly reports on U.S. coronavirus infections and deaths to adhere to Trump’s repeated assertions that the pandemic is under control and that a vaccine will soon be available, possibly before the election on Nov. 3, when Trump faces former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden for a four-year term in the White House.    
 
Caputo voiced a string of bizarre and unsupported accusations on Facebook Live and in subsequent newspaper interviews, saying his physical health has declined and his “mental health has definitely failed.”
 
Caputo, 58, expressed fears for his personal safety at the hands of Trump foes, telling his supporters, “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.”
 US Coronavirus Spokesman Accuses Government Scientists of ‘Sedition’ to Hurt Trump Health aide warns of left-wing armed insurrection if Trump wins reelectionThe coronavirus spokesman was named by the White House in April to oversee the government’s often disjointed response to the pandemic. Months ago, Trump acknowledged to journalist Bob Woodward that he intentionally misled Americans by depicting the virus as nothing much worse than the seasonal flu in order to avoid a panic in the country as the airborne virus swept into the U.S. from China.
 
Woodward’s new book “Rage” recounts how U.S. intelligence officials had earlier warned Trump that the coronavirus would be the most serious national security threat of his presidency.
 
Caputo’s belief that career government experts are working to thwart Trump’s reelection in his campaign against Biden echoes the president’s years- long claim that a “deep state” within the Washington bureaucracy is trying to undermine him.  
 
Trump has often assailed what he sees as the Washington political opposition — Democratic lawmakers, the national news media and long-entrenched civil servants.  
 
Caputo claimed CDC scientists “haven’t gotten out of their sweatpants except for meetings at coffee shops” to plot “how they’re going to attack Donald Trump next. There are scientists who work for this government who do not want America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.”
 US Official Apologizes After Accusing Scientists of Conspiring Against Trump HHS is standing by Michael Caputo in the face of calls by congressional Democrats for his dismissal Caputo described his own dismay with life working for the government.
 
“I don’t like being alone in Washington,” he said, describing “shadows on the ceiling in my apartment. There alone, shadows are so long.”
 
He said the mounting number of COVID-19 deaths was taking a toll on him.
 
Caputo told The Washington Post that “since joining the administration, my family and I have been continually threatened, and in and out of criminal court dealing with harassment prosecutions. This weighs heavily on us, and we deeply appreciate the friendship and support of President Trump as we address these matters and keep our children safe.”
 
The White House had no comment on Caputo’s claims. He deactivated his personal Twitter and Facebook accounts on Monday, while HHS called him “a critical, integral part of the president’s coronavirus response, leading on public messaging as Americans need public health information to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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The next big date on the U.S. political calendar is Tuesday September 29th   — when the first of three debates will be held between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. But there will be a third person on stage that night — the moderator. VOA’s Steve Redisch examines how that person impacts the course of the debate.
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President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are spending time honing their skills ahead of their first debate on Sept. 29 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Also busy preparing is Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday.” He will be the moderator, selected by The Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has sponsored the debates since 1987. It is Wallace’s second time as a presidential debate moderator. Jim Lehrer holds the record for moderating 12 presidential debates. In 1996 and 2000, the late anchor of the “PBS NewsHour” moderated all three debates. “Some of the tips that Jim Lehrer had, for example, if somebody says, ‘I’ve got a seven-point plan for that.’ He would say, ‘Well, give me your first three points,” said Mary Kate Cary, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where she saw Lehrer lead a workshop on moderating debates. Cary said Lehrer explained that “if you ask a long and complicated question, you will get a long and complicated answer.”  Some experts believe a moderator’s job goes beyond asking questions. “I think the most important job of the moderator is follow-up. When they give an answer, or if there is a debate occurring, to know the appropriate questions to ask in the follow-up,” said John Koch, debate director at Vanderbilt University.According to Cary, Lehrer would prepare by trying to “know everything that you possibly can about the people who are debating and all their positions so that if someone says something about a certain policy, you know immediately whether they’re making news, and you can react and say, ‘Oh, you’ve never said that before,’ and sort of point that out to the audience.” Fact vs. fiction The role of the moderator as a fact-checker is “quite controversial,” according to Jennifer Mercieca, associate professor of communications, at Texas A&M University. “In 2012, there was a huge controversy with (moderator) Candy Crowley. She fact-checked (presidential candidate Mitt) Romney during the debate. It had sort of been a tense back and forth between the two candidates, and she intervened to try to sort of move along the conversation. There was a huge outcry on the right for her doing that,” Mercieca said. Fact-checking should be the candidates’ job, according to Koch. “If Biden says something that’s not true, Trump should say something. If Trump says something that’s not true, Biden should say something. I don’t necessarily think that’s a job/role of the moderator during the 90 minutes of debate.” he said. When met with an untrue statement from a candidate, Lehrer thought “the moderator should pause and say, ‘I’d like to give you an opportunity to clarify what you just said.’ Or turn to the opponent and say, ‘Would you like to react to what he just said?’” according to Cary, who recalled Lehrer saying there is “the danger of appearing as a partisan” if he acted as a fact-checker. 2020 moderators While Wallace moderated a presidential debate in the 2016 election cycle, the other 2020 moderators are all doing it for the first time. Steve Scully of C-SPAN moderates the second presidential debate Oct.15. It will be held in Miami and is a town hall format. Undecided voters will ask the candidates questions. Scully was the backup moderator for all the 2016 debates.  Kristen Welker, who covers the White House for NBC News, moderates the third presidential debate Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.  There will be one vice-presidential debate — Oct. 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today, will be the moderator. “I think this is a good group of well-respected journalists,” said Cary. She recalls the best advice from Lehrer. “The quote that I always think is, ‘If anybody is quoting me, the moderator, afterwards, I have failed,” she said. 
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Members of so-called Generation Z are less – not more – likely to fall for the spread of misinformation and fake news, according to recent studies and polls published by news outlet Axios.  A recent study published in Science Advances found that Americans older than 65 – also known as baby boomers – are more likely to share fake news links on Facebook than younger Americans born after 1996 (Generation Z).Survey data from 2016 showed that boomers shared nearly seven times as many fake news articles on Facebook than younger Americans between the ages of 18 and 29. “Our most robust and consistent finding is that older Americans were more likely to share articles from fake news domains,” stated the study. “This relationship holds even when we condition on other factors, such as education, party affiliation, ideological self-placement, and overall posting activity.”  Among Gen Z college students, 83% receive most of their news from online news sites and social media, Axios reported from a College Reaction poll of 868 students.  Social media and online content play a huge role as Gen Z’s source of information. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey focused on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, “95% of 13- to 17-year-olds have access to a smartphone, and a similar share (97%) use at least one of seven major online platforms.” But only 7% of Gen Z college students found social media to be the most trustworthy news source. Instead, more than 50% of Gen Z students said they believe online newspapers and news sites to be the most trustworthy, Axios reported.  The gap between the sharing of false information among age groups could be because of Gen Z and younger Americans’ better understanding of social media and the distribution of online content, Axios stated.   Gen Z’s online experience with social media could be what makes them more likely to spot the difference between credible sources and fake news.  Alexandra Macia contributed to this report. 
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At opposite ends of the country, President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden presented vastly different views Monday about the cause of the historic, destructive wildfires in the Western United States, which have killed at least 35 people.In California, the president — brushing aside concerns about climate change as a catalyst for the increasing number and intensity of such fires — reiterated his call for Western states to practice better forest management.“When trees fall down after a short period of time, they become very dry — really like a matchstick,” said Trump on arrival in California. “And they can explode. Also leaves. When you have dried leaves on the ground, it’s just fuel for the fires.” Trump’s “climate denial” did not cause the fires, Biden said in his home state of Delaware. But if the president gets a second term, “These hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating and more deadly.”Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about climate change and wildfires affecting Western states, Sept. 14, 2020, in Wilmington, Del.Speaking outdoors with a field of wheat as the backdrop fewer than 50 days before the national election, Biden added, “If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze?”The former vice president said Trump’s approach is to ignore the facts and “deny reality,” calling that a full surrender to the effects of climate change.Amid the real peril, this is also a time of extraordinary possibilities, said Biden, adding that as president he would take “urgent action” to combat global warming.  Trump has stayed mostly silent about the widespread devastation in the three solidly Democratic states — California, Oregon and Washington — where more than a million hectares (2.5 million acres) of land has burned.  Among those briefing Trump in California on Monday was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a vocal critic of the president.  U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a briefing on wildfires in McClellan Park, California, Sept. 14, 2020.Newsom noted that 56% of the land in California is federally owned, so the federal government has a major responsibility in improved forest management along with the state.  “It’s a big problem, and it will get solved,” said the president.  Newsom told Trump, “We feel very strongly the hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting dryer. Something has happened to the plumbing of the world, and we come from a perspective, humbly, that we assert the science that climate change is real. Please respect the difference of opinion out here with respect to the fundamental issue of climate change.”  California Gov. Gavin Newsom listens during a briefing with President Donald Trump at Sacramento McClellan Airport, in McClellan Park, Calif., Sept. 14, 2020, on the western wildfires.Trump replied, “Absolutely.”  The president, however, also predicted that the climate “will start getting cooler.””Just watch. I don’t think science knows, actually.”  Trump has often questioned the science of climate change, instead blaming poor forest management for the spread of the fires and their intensity. His visit to California, where polls show the majority of voters sharply oppose his reelection, gave the president an opportunity to offer sympathy for the victims of the fires and emphasize the federal firefighting assistance he has approved.  “We say God bless you to those who were killed in this serious fire. We are showing and give support to the people of California,” Trump said.  The president has dispatched more than 26,000 federal personnel and 230 helicopters to fight the fires, according to the White House.U.S. President Donald Trump awards the Distinguished Flying Cross to California National Guard Sergeant Cameron Powell during a ceremony to honor Powell and six other helicopter crew members at McClellan Park, California, Sept. 14, 2020.Trump also presided Monday over a ceremony to award seven members of a California National Guard helicopter crew the Distinguished Flying Cross for rescuing hundreds of stranded campers who had become surrounded by fire. Smoke and flames have combined to envelop the cities of San Francisco, Seattle and Portland with some of the worst air quality in the world.   The massive clouds of smoke blanketing the region have endangered the health of millions of residents. Air quality across the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon was characterized by state environmental officials as “hazardous” or “very unhealthy.”  Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.  Visibility has been less than a half kilometer in some places, according to the National Weather Service, making it dangerous to drive.  Ken Bredemeier in Washington contributed to this report.  
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