DrLove
Diamond Member
A Cartoon Network employee? - How appropriate - Time to bring this clown show cartoon for children to a merciful end!
www.ucsusa.org

According to AP news, the White House has installed two political operatives at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta for the purpose of monitoring and controlling the scientific information released by the CDC on the pandemic. The two political operatives were directed to keep an eye on Robert Redfield, the director of the CDC, and on the CDC’s scientists. This action is highly unusual as compared to past administrations – while past administrations appointed CDC directors, they did not install other political appointees to the CDC.
The White House began pushing for the installation of political appointees at the CDC after a handful of leaks were “upsetting the apple cart,” as one administration official put it. In particular, the White House was angered about the public revelation that the White House had blocked the release of a CDC report on how to reopen communities safely in May. The news stories on this report led the White House to renew their efforts to exert control over the CDC.
The two individuals appointed to the CDC, Nina Witkofsky and Chester “Trey” Moeller, do not have a public health background. Witkofsky’s background includes working as the events director for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, working as a publicist and talent booker for Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network, and working at the State Department to develop an international engagement program for US athletes and coaches. Moeller previously worked on George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign.
Witkofsky regularly communicated with Michael Caputo, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. Caputo carried out a number of actions to muzzle, bully, and undermine CDC scientists and staff, which included burying, editing, and delaying CDC studies; attempting to punish CDC communication staff that granted interviews with NPR; and defunding the CDC’s budget by $300 million for a politically-motivated “defeat despair” ad campaign. At the time that Witkofsky was regularly communicating with Caputo, Caputo and his team were trying to add a highly political review process to a well-respected report series, the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports.

White House Installs Political Operatives at the CDC
The White House installed two political operatives at the CDC to control what information the CDC releases on COVID-19.