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Clyburn says select subcommittee testimony shows political interference at CDC – NBC News

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WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic is demanding more information from top officials in the administration after a career employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified about a political appointee’s efforts to “alter or rescind” information considered damaging to President Donald Trump.

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., writes that the testimony raises “serious concern about what may be deliberate efforts by the Trump Administration to conceal and destroy evidence that senior political appointees interfered with career officials’ response to the coronavirus crisis” at the CDC.

The letter reveals that on Monday, Charlotte Kent, chief of the Scientific Publications Branch and editor-in-chief of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, stated in closed-door testimony that she had been instructed to destroy an email and that she understood the order came from Redfield.

In the Aug. 8 internal email to Kent and other health officials, previously reported by Politico, Paul Alexander demanded the CDC insert new language in a previously published scientific report on coronavirus risks to children.

“CDC tried to report as if once kids get together, there will be spread and this will impact school reopening. … Very misleading by CDC and shame on them. Their aim is clear. … This is designed to hurt the president for their reasons which I am not interested in,” the email read.

Alexander is an assistant professor of health research at McMaster University near Toronto who served as a scientific adviser to Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official with no medical or scientific background who became an HHS spokesman.

Kent stated that she received a call the following morning from another career official instructing her to delete the email at the request of Redfield. She said she did not speak directly to Redfield but understood the directive came from him. When Kent tried to find the email, she said it had already disappeared, according to committee aides who briefed reporters.

The CDC is among the key agencies responsible for communicating with the public about the Covid-19 pandemic. Scientists have long maintained a firewall around their findings and reports to prevent political interference.

In response to Thursday’s letter, an HHS spokesperson said the “characterization of the conversation with Dr. Kent is irresponsible. We urge the Subcommittee to release the transcript in full which will show that during her testimony Dr. Kent repeatedly said there was no political interference in the MMWR process.”

“Despite HHS working diligently to accommodate the Select Subcommittee’s many requests, the Subcommittee is not operating in good faith,” the spokesperson added.

Clyburn is seeking to interview Redfield regarding the allegation, as well as additional document production by Dec. 15, and plans to issue a subpoena if Trump officials don’t meet the deadline. The Federal Records Act requires federal officials to preserve certain documents and makes certain intentional efforts to destroy them illegal, Clyburn’s office warned in the letter.

Redfield did not immediately responded to request for comment on the letter.

After the “troubling” testimony by Kent, HHS “abruptly canceled” four transcribed interviews the select subcommittee had scheduled with other CDC employees, part of a broader pattern of “obstruction” that includes failure to deliver key documents to the subcommittee, Clyburn said.

The incident is not isolated, Clyburn continued in the letter. Kent also testified that the CDC delayed publication of an article regarding the coronavirus outbreak at a Georgia summer camp to ensure it would not become public until after Redfield’s July 31 testimony before the committee. At the hearing, Redfield testified he believed schools should reopen for “face-to-face learning” in September and did not discuss the report showing significant virus spread at the camp.

It’s not the first time Redfield, who has been director since March 2018, has been accused of allowing politics to influence the agency. In August, the CDC modified testing guidelines to no longer encourage asymptomatic people to get tested, sparking a strong backlash from top scientists.

In September, emails obtained by Politico showed Alexander instructing press officers and others at the National Institutes of Health about what Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, should say during media interviews.

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Harris tells Black churchgoers that people must show compassion and respect in their lives

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STONECREST, Ga. (AP) — Kamala Harris told the congregation of a large Black church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday that people must show compassion and respect in their daily lives and do more than just “preach the values.”

The Democratic presidential nominee’s visit to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest on her 60th birthday, marked by a song by the congregation, was part of a broad, nationwide campaign, known as “Souls to the Polls,” that encourages Black churchgoers to vote.

Pastor Jamal Bryant said the vice president was “an American hero, the voice of the future” and “our fearless leader.” He also used his sermon to welcome the idea of America electing a woman for the first time as president. “It takes a real man to support a real woman,” Bryant said.

“When Black women roll up their sleeves, then society has got to change,” the pastor said.

Harris told the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke, about a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by robbers. The traveler was beaten and left bloodied, but helped by a stranger.

All faiths promote the idea of loving thy neighbor, Harris said, but far harder to achieve is truly loving a stranger as if that person were a neighbor.

“In this moment, across our nation, what we do see are some who try to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos,” Harris told the congregation. “The true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”

She was more somber than during her political rallies, stressing that real faith means defending humanity. She said the Samaritan parable reminds people that “it is not enough to preach the values of compassion and respect. We must live them.”

Harris ended by saying, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” as attendees applauded her.

Many in attendance wore pink to promote breast cancer awareness. Also on hand was Opal Lee, an activist in the movement to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday. Harris hugged her.

The vice president also has a midday stop at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro with singer Stevie Wonder, before taping an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton that will air later Sunday on MSNBC. The schedule reflects her campaign’s push to treat every voting group like a swing state voter, trying to appeal to them all in a tightly contested election with early voting in progress.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, headed to church in Saginaw, Michigan, and his wife, Gwen, was going to a service in Las Vegas.

The “Souls to the Polls” effort launched last week and is led by the National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders, which is sending representatives across battleground states as early voting begins in the Nov. 5 election.

“My father used to say, a ‘voteless people is a powerless people’ and one of the most important steps we can take is that short step to the ballot box,” Martin Luther King III said Friday. “When Black voters are organized and engaged, we have the power to shift the trajectory of this nation.”

On Saturday, the vice president rallied supporters in Detroit with singer Lizzo before traveling to Atlanta to focus on abortion rights, highlighting the death of a Georgia mother amid the state’s restrictive abortion laws that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court, with three justices nominated by Donald Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade.

And after her Sunday push, she will campaign with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.

Harris is a Baptist whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. She has said she’s inspired by the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother’s native India as well as the Black Church. Harris sang in the choir as a child at Twenty Third Avenue Church of God in Oakland.

“Souls to the Polls” as an idea traces back to the Civil Rights Movement. The Rev. George Lee, a Black entrepreneur from Mississippi, was killed by white supremacists in 1955 after he helped nearly 100 Black residents register to vote in the town of Belzoni. The cemetery where Lee is buried has served as a polling place.

Black church congregations across the country have undertaken get-out-the-vote campaigns for years. In part to counteract voter suppression tactics that date back to the Jim Crow era, early voting in the Black community is stressed from pulpits nearly as much as it is by candidates.

In Georgia, early voting began on Tuesday, and more than 310,000 people voted on that day, more than doubling the first-day total in 2020. A record 5 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the mobilization effort launched last week, not Oct. 20.

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NDP and B.C. Conservatives locked in tight battle after rain-drenched election day

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VANCOUVER – Predictions of a close election were holding true in British Columbia on Saturday, with early returns showing the New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives locked in a tight battle.

Both NDP Leader David Eby and Conservative Leader John Rustad retained their seats, while Green Leader Sonia Furstenau lost to the NDP’s Grace Lore after switching ridings to Victoria-Beacon Hill.

However, the Greens retained their place in the legislature after Rob Botterell won in Saanich North and the Islands, previously occupied by party colleague Adam Olsen, who did not seek re-election.

It was a rain-drenched election day in much of the province.

Voters braved high winds and torrential downpours brought by an atmospheric river weather system that forced closures of several polling stations due to power outages.

Residents faced a choice for the next government that would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago, between the incumbent New Democrats led by Eby and Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the vote last election

Among the winners were the NDP’s Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon in Delta North and Attorney General Niki Sharma in Vancouver-Hastings, as well as the Conservatives Bruce Banman in Abbotsford South and Brent Chapman in Surrey South.

Chapman had been heavily criticized during the campaign for an old social media post that called Palestinian children “inbred” and “time bombs.”

Results came in quickly, as promised by Elections BC, with electronic vote tabulation being used provincewide for the first time.

The election authority expected the count would be “substantially complete” by 9 p.m., one hour after the close of polls.

Six new seats have been added since the last provincial election, and to win a majority, a party must secure 47 seats in the 93-seat legislature.

There had already been a big turnout before election day on Saturday, with more than a million advance votes cast, representing more than 28 per cent of valid voters and smashing the previous record for early polling.

The wild weather on election day was appropriate for such a tumultuous campaign.

Once considered a fringe player in provincial politics, the B.C. Conservatives stand on the brink of forming government or becoming the official Opposition.

Rustad’s unlikely rise came after he was thrown out of the Opposition, then known as the BC Liberals, joined the Conservatives as leader, and steered them to a level of popularity that led to the collapse of his old party, now called BC United — all in just two years.

Rustad shared a photo on social media Saturday showing himself smiling and walking with his wife at a voting station, with a message saying, “This is the first time Kim and I have voted for the Conservative Party of BC!”

Eby, who voted earlier in the week, posted a message on social media Saturday telling voters to “grab an umbrella and stay safe.”

Two voting sites in Cariboo-Chilcotin in the B.C. Interior and one in Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland were closed due to power cuts, Elections BC said, while several sites in Kamloops, Langley and Port Moody, as well as on Hornby, Denman and Mayne islands, were temporarily shut but reopened by mid-afternoon.

Some former BC United MLAs running as Independents were defeated, with Karin Kirkpatrick, Dan Davies, Coralee Oakes and Tom Shypitka all losing to Conservatives.

Kirkpatrick had said in a statement before the results came in that her campaign had been in touch with Elections BC about the risk of weather-related disruptions, and was told that voting tabulation machines have battery power for four hours in the event of an outage.

— With files from Brenna Owen

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Breakingnews: B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad elected in his riding

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VANDERHOOF, B.C. – British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad has been re-elected in his riding of Nechako Lakes.

Rustad was kicked out of the Opposition BC United Party for his support on social media of an outspoken climate change critic in 2022, and last year was acclaimed as the B.C. Conservative leader.

Buoyed by the BC United party suspending its campaign, and the popularity of Pierre Poilievre’s federal Conservatives, Rustad led his party into contention in the provincial election.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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