This weekend, first Politico, then The New York Times and other news media organizations published accounts of how Mr. Caputo and a top aide had routinely worked to revise, delay or even scuttle the core health bulletins of the C.D.C. to paint the administrations pandemic response in a more positive light. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports had previously been so thoroughly shielded from political interference that political appointees only saw them just before they were published.
Mr. Caputos 26-minute broadside on Facebook against scientists, the news media and Democrats was also another example of a senior administration official stoking conspiracy theories about the deep state the label Mr. Trump often attaches to the federal Civil Service bureaucracy and public anxiety over the election.
Mr. Caputo predicted that the president would win re-election in November, but that his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., would refuse to concede, leading to violence. And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin, he said. The drills that youve seen are nothing.
There were no obvious signs from administration officials on Monday that Mr. Caputos job was in danger. On the contrary, Mr. Trump again added his voice to the administrations science denialism. As the president visited California to show solidarity with the fire-ravaged West, he challenged the established science of climate change, declaring, It will start getting cooler. He added: Just watch. I dont think science knows, actually.
Mr. Caputos remarks also dovetailed in part with those of Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime confidant of both Mr. Caputo and Mr. Trump. Mr. Stone, whose 40-month prison sentence for lying to Congress was commuted by the president in July, told the conspiracy website Infowars on Friday that Democrats were striving to rig the November vote, and that Mr. Trump should consider declaring martial law if he lost re-election.
Mr. Caputo noted with pleasure during his Facebook monologue that Grant Smith, a lawyer for Mr. Stone, was among the followers who had joined his talk on Sunday. Mr. Caputo has 5,000 Facebook friends, and his video was viewed more than 850 times and shared by 44 followers. He has now shut down his account.
Over all, his tone was deeply ominous: He warned, again without evidence, that there are hit squads being trained all over this country to mount armed opposition to a second term for Mr. Trump. You understand that theyre going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think thats where this is going, Mr. Caputo added.read more
Trump Health Aide Falsely Alleges Conspiracies and Warns of Armed Revolt
