Donald Trump HHS Spokesperson Michael Caputo Deletes Twitter Account Following A Late-Night Rant
The top spokesperson for the HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) deleted his Twitter account after receiving backlash for a late-night rant, wherein he suggested tear-gasing journalists and argued with other Twitteratis on the social media platform. The HHS spokesperson is currently undergoing an investigation from a House subcommittee.
Taking to his official Twitter account, Caputo, reportedly, wrote "gas all of them," as he responded to a post by a self-described journalist who shared a video on the platform claiming they were about to be tear-gassed. Referring to another user as a feminine hygiene product on the social media site, he mocked the person saying he had four followers.
By Monday afternoon, Caputo's personal Twitter account showed a message saying, "This account doesn’t exist.” The assistant secretary for public affairs at the Health and Human Services Department, Caputo is an important part of Trump's coronavirus response as he leads on public messaging to provide Americans information about public health and how to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, HHS said in an email sent to Bloomberg.
Trump's former campaign aide, Caputo is currently the subject of a House subcommittee investigation into whether political appointees have manipulated routine government scientific data to coincide with the president's public statements about the pandemic. Led by Democrats, the subcommittee has revealed that it is requesting transcribed interviews with seven CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and HHS officials, including Caputo.
Caputo has openly refused CDC statements regarding the coronavirus and posted a Facebook video on Sunday, falsely claiming that the CDC has a “resistance unit” against Trump, The New York Times reported. His Facebook page has been made private after this post.
Caputo, and scientific adviser Paul Alexander, urged officials to modify the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, which is a long-running weekly journal that focuses on the latest science-based research and data on infectious diseases. The report, known as MMWR, has been a private government information resource for scientists, researchers, and doctors tracking outbreaks.
The officials pressured CDC to alter the reports in order to match them with Trump’s public statements about the coronavirus, according to Politico. The Democratic members of the subcommittee sent a letter to CDC Director Robert Redfield and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, saying they are gravely concerned about the report of political interference in a journal that has not been politically influenced for a long time.
Pointing at nearly 200,000 Americans killed and several dying each day from the virus, the Democrats said the public needs and deserve truthful scientific information so that they can keep themselves and their families healthy.