Report: Trump Appointed Health Official Warns — Without Evidence — Of CDC Deep State

In a Facebook Live stream on his personal account, Michael Caputo, assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, accused CDC scientists of “sedition” in their response to the pandemic and suggested killing him is “where this is going,” the New York Times reported Monday. 

The wild allegations come after Politico reported Friday that Caputo — who was a political appointee — and his team have attempted to tamper with weekly science reports from the CDC on the pandemic (when asked by Politico why Caputo and his team had demanded changes to the reports, he said his scientific adviser, Dr. Paul Alexander, was simply “analyzing the work of other scientists.”)

They also come as Trump wages his own crusade against scientists working for the federal government who the president says, without evidence, are attempting to undermine him — which is a sentiment Caputo repeated in his Facebook Live stream: Scientists “deep in the bowels of the C.D.C. have given up science and become political animals,” Caputo alleged.

Caputo acknowledged that his “mental health” had “definitely failed,” as he spoke about “shadows on the ceiling” in his apartment that were “there alone.”

The health official also ranted about conspiracy theories, predicting Joe Biden will refuse to concede when Trump wins in November and warning ammunition will be hard to come by because of the “shooting” that will happen at Trump’s Inauguration.  

In response to a request for comment by the Times, the CDC said “Mr. Caputo is a critical, integral part of the president’s coronavirus response,” and commended him for taking the lead “on public messaging as Americans need public health information to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic.”