motherjones--2020-04-15--A Texas Judge Just Greenlit Democrats’ Effort to Increase Vote-By-Mail

Any Texan worried that voting in person may put their health at risk because of the coronavirus can vote by mail during the next election , a state district judge ruled on Wednesday .
The Travis County District Court ruling on the lawsuit , filed by Texas Democrats in late March , temporarily suspends the rules that typically only allow the elderly , disabled , and incarcerated to vote by mail .
According to the court , anyone concerned about contracting the coronavirus while voting in person can claim the “ disability ” exception to vote-by-mail requirements .
Runoff elections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s challenger , originally scheduled for May , have been moved to July .
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded to the ruling with a letter to the state ’ s House Election Committee , arguing that “ fear of contracting COVID-19 unaccompanied by a qualifying sickness or physical condition does not constitute a disability.
” He also suggested that “ third parties ” who “ advise voters to apply for a mail-in ballot ” due to coronavirus concerns could be criminally charged .
The battle to determine how voting should happen amid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Texas .
Across the country , state lawmakers are scrambling to reconcile in-person voting with social distancing and , of course , the party line .
President Donald Trump is a vocal critic of mail-in voting , claiming that it introduces high risk of voter fraud , and “ for whatever reason , doesn ’ t work out well for Republicans.
” Just last week , the Supreme Court ruled against expanding vote-by-mail in Wisconsin on the eve of the state ’ s primaries .
The court ’ s decision , authored by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state from potential voter fraud , but included one notable caveat : “ The Court ’ s decision on the narrow question before the Court should not be viewed as expressing an opinion on the broader question of whether to hold the election , or whether other reforms or modifications in election procedures in light of COVID–19 are appropriate .
That point can not be stressed enough .
”

Any Texan worried that voting in person may put their health at risk because of the coronavirus can vote by mail during the next election, a state district judge ruled on Wednesday.
The Travis County District Court ruling on the lawsuit, filed by Texas Democrats in late March, temporarily suspends the rules that typically only allow the elderly, disabled, and incarcerated to vote by mail. According to the court, anyone concerned about contracting the coronavirus while voting in person can claim the “disability” exception to vote-by-mail requirements. Runoff elections, including for Sen. John Cornyn’s challenger, originally scheduled for May, have been moved to July.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded to the ruling with a letter to the state’s House Election Committee, arguing that “fear of contracting COVID-19 unaccompanied by a qualifying sickness or physical condition does not constitute a disability.” He also suggested that “third parties” who “advise voters to apply for a mail-in ballot” due to coronavirus concerns could be criminally charged.
The battle to determine how voting should happen amid locked-down states isn’t limited to Texas. Across the country, state lawmakers are scrambling to reconcile in-person voting with social distancing and, of course, the party line. President Donald Trump is a vocal critic of mail-in voting, claiming that it introduces high risk of voter fraud, and “for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans.” Just last week, the Supreme Court ruled against expanding vote-by-mail in Wisconsin on the eve of the state’s primaries. The court’s decision, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, sided with protecting the state from potential voter fraud, but included one notable caveat: “The Court’s decision on the narrow question before the Court should not be viewed as expressing an opinion on the broader question of whether to hold the election, or whether other reforms or modifications in election procedures in light of COVID–19 are appropriate. That point cannot be stressed enough.”


motherjones--2020-04-15--Donald Trump Is Treating His Decision to “Reopen” the Country Like Reality TV

Soon , President Trump will decide whether he will reopen the country on May 1—or earlier .
This is a decision that has literal life-or-death consequences , and it ’ s already becoming clear Trump plans on doing what is his habit : hyping the drama of the decision like he is previewing next week ’ s episode of his reality show ( even if it ’ s unclear what he even has the authority to reopen ) .
There is no real choice here .
As eager as Trump is for a quick economic rebound , public health officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ measures too soon would result in a spike of more deaths .
“ You ’ ve got to be realistic and you ’ ve got to understand that you don ’ t make the timeline , ” Dr. Anthony Fauci , director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , told CNN last week .
“ The virus makes the timeline.
” But Trump can ’ t resist a spectacle .
Last Friday , in his daily press conference , Trump teased the decision about whether to begin to reopen the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that May 1—a Friday—is a completely arbitrary date . )
“ I ’ m going to have to make a decision , and I only hope to God that it ’ s the right decision , ” he said .
“ But I would say without question it ’ s the biggest decision I ’ ve ever had to make.
” Trump promised an “ opening our country council , ” which will include the “ greatest minds , ” “ great business leaders , ” and “ great doctors ” advising him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the business community is willing to serve on it outside of his Cabinet officials and advisers .
We ’ ve seen all this before .
An early example of Trump ’ s Apprentice-style approach to the presidency was when Trump was weighing his options on the Paris climate agreement .
The decision-making process turned into a high-stakes contest between members of his Cabinet who publicly made their cases on whether the United States should leave or stay .
Several , like his then-EPA administrator , Scott Pruitt , took to Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ audition their arguments for the commander-in-chief .
After weeks of reports that Trump was waffling , he held a Rose Garden press conference in which he announced the US would exit in three years time .
The eventual winner of the contest was Pruitt , who joined him at the podium for the announcement .
He has also turned the once staid State of the Union into a theatrical event .
As David Graham wrote of Trump ’ s most recent address in the Atlantic : “ In an emotional peak , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deployed to Afghanistan—then announced , to her surprise and that of those watching in the chamber and at home , that her husband had actually returned home , making the family reunion a national TV event.
” At other times , as the New York Times observed , he has courted and narrowed the pool of Supreme Court nominees in a process that “ so mirrored ‘ The Bachelor , ’ several folks quipped , that Mr. Trump would ask his nominee , Will you accept this robe ?
” ) .
Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but now he ’ s gambling directly with people ’ s lives .
Instead of giving the country a measure of calm and direction , Trump has set off a familiar situation with this artificial May 1 deadline .
There have already been rounds of will-he-or-won ’ t-he headlines about Trump ’ s decision , recounting who is for and against reopening the economy and internal divisions over the matter .
Recently , Trump has set up a dramatic showdown with ( mostly ) Democratic governors , including those on the East and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to coordinate their COVID-19 responses and determine when and how to restart their economies .
Trump has claimed he holds the authority to override their decisions , tweeting Monday : “ For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion , some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states , not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government .
Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect.
” On Tuesday , he backed down , telling reporters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to put any pressure on any governor to open.
” The polarization and hype play to Trump ’ s base .
At a time when his only priority should be rescuing the nation , it ’ s clear he is focused largely on rescuing his ratings .

Soon, President Trump will decide whether he will reopen the country on May 1—or earlier. This is a decision that has literal life-or-death consequences, and it’s already becoming clear Trump plans on doing what is his habit: hyping the drama of the decision like he is previewing next week’s episode of his reality show (even if it’s unclear what he even has the authority to reopen).
There is no real choice here. As eager as Trump is for a quick economic rebound, public health officials have been clear that easing social distancing measures too soon would result in a spike of more deaths.
“You’ve got to be realistic and you’ve got to understand that you don’t make the timeline,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN last week. “The virus makes the timeline.”
But Trump can’t resist a spectacle. Last Friday, in his daily press conference, Trump teased the decision about whether to begin to reopen the economy May 1. (Never mind that May 1—a Friday—is a completely arbitrary date.) “I’m going to have to make a decision, and I only hope to God that it’s the right decision,” he said. “But I would say without question it’s the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”
Trump promised an “opening our country council,” which will include the “greatest minds,” “great business leaders,” and “great doctors” advising him. It’s unclear who from the business community is willing to serve on it outside of his Cabinet officials and advisers.
We’ve seen all this before. An early example of Trump’s Apprentice-style approach to the presidency was when Trump was weighing his options on the Paris climate agreement. The decision-making process turned into a high-stakes contest between members of his Cabinet who publicly made their cases on whether the United States should leave or stay. Several, like his then-EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, took to Trump’s favorite channel, Fox News, to audition their arguments for the commander-in-chief. After weeks of reports that Trump was waffling, he held a Rose Garden press conference in which he announced the US would exit in three years time. The eventual winner of the contest was Pruitt, who joined him at the podium for the announcement.
He has also turned the once staid State of the Union into a theatrical event. As David Graham wrote of Trump’s most recent address in the Atlantic: “In an emotional peak, he praised an Army wife whose husband was deployed to Afghanistan—then announced, to her surprise and that of those watching in the chamber and at home, that her husband had actually returned home, making the family reunion a national TV event.” At other times, as the New York Times observed, he has courted and narrowed the pool of Supreme Court nominees in a process that “so mirrored ‘The Bachelor,’ several folks quipped, that Mr. Trump would ask his nominee, Will you accept this robe?”).
Trump is obsessed with ratings above else, but now he’s gambling directly with people’s lives.
Instead of giving the country a measure of calm and direction, Trump has set off a familiar situation with this artificial May 1 deadline. There have already been rounds of will-he-or-won’t-he headlines about Trump’s decision, recounting who is for and against reopening the economy and internal divisions over the matter.
Recently, Trump has set up a dramatic showdown with (mostly) Democratic governors, including those on the East and West Coasts who have established multi-state coalitions to coordinate their COVID-19 responses and determine when and how to restart their economies. Trump has claimed he holds the authority to override their decisions, tweeting Monday: “For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect.”
On Tuesday, he backed down, telling reporters, “I’m not going to put any pressure on any governor to open.”
The polarization and hype play to Trump’s base. At a time when his only priority should be rescuing the nation, it’s clear he is focused largely on rescuing his ratings.


motherjones--2020-04-15--Adam Schiff: Russia Is Still Interfering With US Elections—and Trump Is Covering It Up

The Russian government attacked the 2016 election to help Donald Trump .
In the years since , various intelligence officials have publicly stated that Vladimir Putin intends to intervene again in the 2020 election .
But Trump doesn ’ t want to hear that—and doesn ’ t want the public to know that .
Days after intelligence officials in February told House lawmakers during a classified briefing that Russia was already interfering in this year ’ s election and once again preferred Trump , an irate Trump ousted acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and replaced him with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jones , Rep. Adam Schiff ( D-Calif. ) , chair of the House Intelligence Committee , says that since then the Trump administration has been covering up intelligence on Russian interference .
Schiff notes that the danger of foreign intervention in the election “ predominantly comes from Russia .
They have never really stopped being at it , in terms of their social media campaign.
” A big problem , he points out , is that the US intelligence community , under Trump , can not be relied upon to highlight and combat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ count on the intelligence community to speak truth to power , to inform the Congress and the American people about what we ’ re seeing in terms of Russian interference.
” Listen to David Corn ’ s in-depth interview with Rep. Adam Schiff on this week ’ s edition of the Mother Jones Podcast .
The Maguire firing , Schiff says , was a sign that Trump will not allow the intelligence community to share with Congress information about Russian interference .
“ Since that time , ” Schiff remarks , “ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ on foreign intervention in the election ] has been dumbed down.
” He adds , “ We ’ ve already since seen Director Maguire was fired , in the briefing that we ’ ve had since and in our access to information since , a real constriction of frank and candid information about what the Russians are doing…It ’ s already had that impact .
Now even before Maguire was fired , there were materials that we had been requesting that we knew were in existence that had been compiled for us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” These materials , Schiff says , related to Russian efforts to intervene directly in the US election and through Ukraine : “ We ’ ve seen interconnection between Russian efforts to interfere through social media in our election and Russian efforts to interfere potentially through third countries like Ukraine.
” Schiff , who led the House Democrats ’ impeachment effort against Trump , now doubts that the intelligence community will keep Congress fully informed on Russian intervention .
Noting his admiration for the workforce of the intelligence community , he says , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agencies may have been among the last to fall in the sense of succumbing to pressure by the Trump administration .
But they , like so many other departments and agencies , now are not as forthcoming as they had been , and I think that places the country at greater risk.
” Schiff says it will be tough for the Democrats alone to thwart another Russian attack on another US election .
“ It is going to require , ” he says , “ people of good faith within the GOP to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not this cult of personality around this president .
Maybe the pandemic will bring this about or maybe it won ’ t .
It ’ s a very difficult job for one party to do .
”

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The Russian government attacked the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. In the years since, various intelligence officials have publicly stated that Vladimir Putin intends to intervene again in the 2020 election. But Trump doesn’t want to hear that—and doesn’t want the public to know that. Days after intelligence officials in February told House lawmakers during a classified briefing that Russia was already interfering in this year’s election and once again preferred Trump, an irate Trump ousted acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and replaced him with a loyalist. In an interview with Mother Jones, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, says that since then the Trump administration has been covering up intelligence on Russian interference.
Schiff notes that the danger of foreign intervention in the election “predominantly comes from Russia. They have never really stopped being at it, in terms of their social media campaign.” A big problem, he points out, is that the US intelligence community, under Trump, cannot be relied upon to highlight and combat this threat: “We cannot count on the intelligence community to speak truth to power, to inform the Congress and the American people about what we’re seeing in terms of Russian interference.”
Listen to David Corn’s in-depth interview with Rep. Adam Schiff on this week’s edition of the Mother Jones Podcast.
The Maguire firing, Schiff says, was a sign that Trump will not allow the intelligence community to share with Congress information about Russian interference. “Since that time,” Schiff remarks, “I think what we’ve been briefed [on foreign intervention in the election] has been dumbed down.” He adds, “We’ve already since seen Director Maguire was fired, in the briefing that we’ve had since and in our access to information since, a real constriction of frank and candid information about what the Russians are doing…It’s already had that impact. Now even before Maguire was fired, there were materials that we had been requesting that we knew were in existence that had been compiled for us that they were refusing to turn over.” These materials, Schiff says, related to Russian efforts to intervene directly in the US election and through Ukraine: “We’ve seen interconnection between Russian efforts to interfere through social media in our election and Russian efforts to interfere potentially through third countries like Ukraine.”
Schiff, who led the House Democrats’ impeachment effort against Trump, now doubts that the intelligence community will keep Congress fully informed on Russian intervention. Noting his admiration for the workforce of the intelligence community, he says, “Sadly, I think the intelligence agencies may have been among the last to fall in the sense of succumbing to pressure by the Trump administration. But they, like so many other departments and agencies, now are not as forthcoming as they had been, and I think that places the country at greater risk.”
Schiff says it will be tough for the Democrats alone to thwart another Russian attack on another US election. “It is going to require,” he says, “people of good faith within the GOP to devote themselves to protecting our democracy, not this cult of personality around this president. Maybe the pandemic will bring this about or maybe it won’t. It’s a very difficult job for one party to do.”


motherjones--2020-04-15--Wellness Influencers Are Spreading QAnon Conspiracies About the Coronavirus

Wellness influencers have been having a field day over the coronavirus , with some taking advantage of people ’ s fears to hawk unproven supplements and drive traffic to their sites .
A few have even touted forsythia as a natural treatment , stealing a plot point verbatim from Contagion , the prescient 2011 Hollywood film that warned about the danger of medical misinformation in a pandemic .
Some have fused wellness hoaxes and pseudoscientific homeopathic treatments with QAnon and other far-right conspiracies .
One such notable influencer is Joseph Arena , a chiropractor who uses the title “ Dr. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Arena has pushed explicit QAnon theories about massive pedophile rings run by the deep state on his Instagram account and has directed his followers to pro-QAnon pages to find “ the truth.
” “ All of the FEMA camps and hospital beds that are being created to take in the millions of people who we are about to save .
Get ready , it is about to start , ” Arena said in a Instagram story last Tuesday , regurgitating a modified version of a conspiracy theory that first surfaced in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to put people in concentration camps under the pretense of martial law .
( Arena responded to a request for comment by threatening legal action if his name was included in this story . )
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai , a biology PhD , is an anti-vaxxer who says he invented email—a claim which has been rejected by journalists and historians .
On Instagram , where he has nearly 100,000 followers , he pushes QAnon-styled conspiracies about “ deep state ” federal bureaucrats working to undermine President Trump ’ s efforts to take down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of liberal and Hollywood elites .
One of Ayyadurai ’ s most recent posts says that the coronavirus is a tool for the “ deep state ” in “ consolidating its Power using its protected class of Hollywood & Academic whores.
” Azadeh Ghafari , a licensed psychotherapist who runs the Instagram account the.wellness.therapist , has long tracked the alternative medicine and pseudoscience community on the platform .
She says the wellness influencers who have been pushing snake-oil coronavirus cures are a bizarre turn from what she ’ s used to seeing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve looked at before .
You would assume these hippies are progressives , ” she said .
“ There is this faction of ultra-conservative , some Christian , mixed in with anti-vaxxers , mixed in with health and lifestyle folks.
” “ These folks have latched onto these wellness , holistic , spaces .
They use scientific language , and then they layer pseudoscience on top if it .
It sounds like they know what they ’ re talking about , because they use certain expressions that make sense , but then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gharafi added .
While the coronavirus appears to have accelerated the spread of QAnon believers and beliefs into online wellness and anti-vaxx spaces , cross-pollination between the communities has been bubbling for at least a couple years .
Travis View , an independent conspiracy theory researcher who hosts the podcast QAnon Anonymous , pointed out the case of Jennifer Mac , a lifestyle blogger who rebranded toward the end of 2018 as a QAnon follower .
“ Wellness bloggers are generally anti-establishment and anti-mainstream narrative and distrustful of authority , which lines up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” View said on the phone .
“ The thing about QAnon is that it is a fairly large online audience of people who are looking for validation .
If you are in the business of building an audience , QAnon followers can be a valuable pool to draw from.
” Rose Henges , a Christian mom blogger and YouTube creator with almost 79,000 followers on Instagram , has also drawn from Q ’ s waters .
As BuzzFeed News has noted , on her Instagram account she spreads QAnon conspiracies next to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has shared baseless claims about impending “ military tribunals , ” and how the “ deep state planned this as a real pandemic ” to distract from supposed plans for children who have been “ farmed ” and are living underground .
Angel Quintana , another wellness Instagram influencer , has posted conspiracies about how the coronavirus is “ an alien depopulation agenda ” and that the disease is only contracted through “ tainted adrenochrome ” injections or radiation from 5G cellular installations , playing on a larger unsubstantiated and persistent conspiracy theory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Instagram TV video , she describes when she “ stumbled on a video from one of our QAnons ” that discussed “ the tunnels in New York City potentially where they have been doing some of the child trafficking—storing the children over the years…for sacrificing and using their blood in the adrenochrome.
” While other wellness influencers have stopped short of posting outright QAnon material , they have shared other outlandish far-right conspiracy theories .
Janny Organically , a holistic medicine influencer with over 60 thousand followers whose display name is “ Reflexive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about Dr. Anthony Fauci being tied to George Soros .
Theories that Soros , the liberal megadonor , has an invisible hand in major world affairs to the perceived detriment of Republicans are a go to anti-Semitic conspiracy for right-wingers .
Some of these wellness influencers now dabbling in conspiracy tout doctor or medical credentials unrelated to epidemiology .
Kelly Brogan , who has a medical degree and is trained in psychiatry , has posted conspiracy theories to her verified Instagram account about Bill Gates ’ supposed conflicts of interest related to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how the “ mainstream media narrative ” about the virus is a coverup .
Last week , she posted videos of conspiracy theorist David Icke , who has been banned from Australia for denying the holocaust .
Rashid Buttar is another influencer with over 10,000 followers on Instagram with a long history of pushing alternative medicine ; while he touts his credentials as a medical doctor , he was charged by the North Carolina Medical Board in 2008 for unprofessional conduct after charging “ exorbitant fees ” to cancer patients , three of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Recently , he ’ s been pushing fringe theories about the coronavirus ’ s link to 5G , and that it was intentionally engineered to spur crackdowns on civil liberties .
Janny Organically ’ s display name , Reflexive Contrarian , describes the prevailing ethos of the most fringe members of the wellness community .
While they fuse dubious homeopathy with outlandish far-right hoaxes , they usually don ’ t otherwise explicitly espouse far-right ideologies .
While other types of conspiracy theorists draw lines between figures that they do and don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ commonly antagonize all mainstream narratives , replacing them with whatever they think makes more sense .
Instead of throwing their support behind one hero , and opposing anyone else who thwarts their narrative , as other conspiracy communities do , you ’ ll see them target Trump , Fauci , Gates , and the federal government broadly , all in the same Instagram story series .
Ghafari says some skepticism of the medical community is a natural reaction to a history of groups being spurned and ignored , pointing to communities of color @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system .
But she noted what ’ s happening in wellness influencer circles , which are often dominated by well-off white people , as something different .
“ When I see this behavior happening , there ’ s a level of fear going on , particularly in the white community .
They feel out of control , they don ’ t know who to trust , and it ’ s manifested in this manner , ” she said .
Ironically , their pronouncements create new problems by spreading harmful , untrustworthy misinformation to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s distributing , ” she said .

Wellness influencers have been having a field day over the coronavirus, with some taking advantage of people’s fears to hawk unproven supplements and drive traffic to their sites. A few have even touted forsythia as a natural treatment, stealing a plot point verbatim from Contagion, the prescient 2011 Hollywood film that warned about the danger of medical misinformation in a pandemic.
Some have fused wellness hoaxes and pseudoscientific homeopathic treatments with QAnon and other far-right conspiracies. One such notable influencer is Joseph Arena, a chiropractor who uses the title “Dr.” and has more than 40,000 followers. Arena has pushed explicit QAnon theories about massive pedophile rings run by the deep state on his Instagram account and has directed his followers to pro-QAnon pages to find “the truth.”
“It’s unlike what I’ve looked at before….There is this faction of ultra-conservative, some Christian, mixed in with anti-vaxxers.”
“All of the FEMA camps and hospital beds that are being created to take in the millions of people who we are about to save. Get ready, it is about to start,” Arena said in a Instagram story last Tuesday, regurgitating a modified version of a conspiracy theory that first surfaced in the 1970s about Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to put people in concentration camps under the pretense of martial law. (Arena responded to a request for comment by threatening legal action if his name was included in this story.)
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, a biology PhD, is an anti-vaxxer who says he invented email—a claim which has been rejected by journalists and historians. On Instagram, where he has nearly 100,000 followers, he pushes QAnon-styled conspiracies about “deep state” federal bureaucrats working to undermine President Trump’s efforts to take down a pedophile ring run by a cabal of liberal and Hollywood elites. One of Ayyadurai’s most recent posts says that the coronavirus is a tool for the “deep state” in “consolidating its Power using its protected class of Hollywood & Academic whores.”
Azadeh Ghafari, a licensed psychotherapist who runs the Instagram account the.wellness.therapist, has long tracked the alternative medicine and pseudoscience community on the platform. She says the wellness influencers who have been pushing snake-oil coronavirus cures are a bizarre turn from what she’s used to seeing.
“It’s unlike what I’ve looked at before. You would assume these hippies are progressives,” she said. “There is this faction of ultra-conservative, some Christian, mixed in with anti-vaxxers, mixed in with health and lifestyle folks.”
“These folks have latched onto these wellness, holistic, spaces. They use scientific language, and then they layer pseudoscience on top if it. It sounds like they know what they’re talking about, because they use certain expressions that make sense, but then add false things to that,” Gharafi added.
Video Related: How QAnon Is Mutating for 2020
While the coronavirus appears to have accelerated the spread of QAnon believers and beliefs into online wellness and anti-vaxx spaces, cross-pollination between the communities has been bubbling for at least a couple years. Travis View, an independent conspiracy theory researcher who hosts the podcast QAnon Anonymous, pointed out the case of Jennifer Mac, a lifestyle blogger who rebranded toward the end of 2018 as a QAnon follower.
“Wellness bloggers are generally anti-establishment and anti-mainstream narrative and distrustful of authority, which lines up with QAnon’s populist message,” View said on the phone. “The thing about QAnon is that it is a fairly large online audience of people who are looking for validation. If you are in the business of building an audience, QAnon followers can be a valuable pool to draw from.”
“If you are in the business of building an audience, QAnon followers can be a valuable pool.”
Rose Henges, a Christian mom blogger and YouTube creator with almost 79,000 followers on Instagram, has also drawn from Q’s waters. As BuzzFeed News has noted, on her Instagram account she spreads QAnon conspiracies next to posts about “holistic living.” Henges has shared baseless claims about impending “military tribunals,” and how the “deep state planned this as a real pandemic” to distract from supposed plans for children who have been “farmed” and are living underground.
Angel Quintana, another wellness Instagram influencer, has posted conspiracies about how the coronavirus is “an alien depopulation agenda” and that the disease is only contracted through “tainted adrenochrome” injections or radiation from 5G cellular installations, playing on a larger unsubstantiated and persistent conspiracy theory about such communication towers. In one Instagram TV video, she describes when she “stumbled on a video from one of our QAnons” that discussed “the tunnels in New York City potentially where they have been doing some of the child trafficking—storing the children over the years…for sacrificing and using their blood in the adrenochrome.”
While other wellness influencers have stopped short of posting outright QAnon material, they have shared other outlandish far-right conspiracy theories. Janny Organically, a holistic medicine influencer with over 60 thousand followers whose display name is “Reflexive Contrarian,” has pushed a conspiracy about Dr. Anthony Fauci being tied to George Soros. Theories that Soros, the liberal megadonor, has an invisible hand in major world affairs to the perceived detriment of Republicans are a go to anti-Semitic conspiracy for right-wingers.
Some of these wellness influencers now dabbling in conspiracy tout doctor or medical credentials unrelated to epidemiology. Kelly Brogan, who has a medical degree and is trained in psychiatry, has posted conspiracy theories to her verified Instagram account about Bill Gates’ supposed conflicts of interest related to the coronavirus, while pushing other theories about how the “mainstream media narrative” about the virus is a coverup. Last week, she posted videos of conspiracy theorist David Icke, who has been banned from Australia for denying the holocaust.
Rashid Buttar is another influencer with over 10,000 followers on Instagram with a long history of pushing alternative medicine; while he touts his credentials as a medical doctor, he was charged by the North Carolina Medical Board in 2008 for unprofessional conduct after charging “exorbitant fees” to cancer patients, three of whom died, for “ineffectual therapies.” Recently, he’s been pushing fringe theories about the coronavirus’s link to 5G, and that it was intentionally engineered to spur crackdowns on civil liberties.
One holistic medicine influencer has pushed a conspiracy about Dr. Anthony Fauci being tied to George Soros.
Janny Organically’s display name, Reflexive Contrarian, describes the prevailing ethos of the most fringe members of the wellness community. While they fuse dubious homeopathy with outlandish far-right hoaxes, they usually don’t otherwise explicitly espouse far-right ideologies. While other types of conspiracy theorists draw lines between figures that they do and don’t trust, these wellness influencers more commonly antagonize all mainstream narratives, replacing them with whatever they think makes more sense. Instead of throwing their support behind one hero, and opposing anyone else who thwarts their narrative, as other conspiracy communities do, you’ll see them target Trump, Fauci, Gates, and the federal government broadly, all in the same Instagram story series.
Ghafari says some skepticism of the medical community is a natural reaction to a history of groups being spurned and ignored, pointing to communities of color who have been mistreated by the medical system. But she noted what’s happening in wellness influencer circles, which are often dominated by well-off white people, as something different.
“When I see this behavior happening, there’s a level of fear going on, particularly in the white community. They feel out of control, they don’t know who to trust, and it’s manifested in this manner,” she said. Ironically, their pronouncements create new problems by spreading harmful, untrustworthy misinformation to large groups of followers. “It’s distributing,” she said.


motherjones--2020-04-15--Joe Biden Is the Democratic Nominee. Progressives Are Worried About His Cabinet.

A mere 24 hours after Bernie Sanders called it quits on his second presidential run , the Vermont senator ’ s youthful supporters had a message for Joe Biden : Don ’ t let us down .
“ We need you to champion the bold ideas that have galvanized our generation and given us hope in the political process , ” said a letter from the # EarnOurVote initiative , a coalition of eight youth-focused groups , including the Sunrise Movement , March for Our Lives , and Justice Democrats .
Their four-page memo outlined the “ commitments ” the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support from voters under 45 during the primaries—should take up in the general election campaign to “ earn the support of our generation and unite the party.
” One of their main requests : that Biden appoint ardent progressives to key executive branch positions .
The groups want left-of-center lawmakers who endorsed Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren to co-chair Biden ’ s transition team ; they want liberal economists like Joseph Stiglitz to serve on Biden ’ s National Economic Council ; and they want a “ trusted progressive ” to run the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keeping a Biden administration “ free of corruption.
” They also wanted Biden to refrain from appointing any “ current or former Wall Street executives or corporate lobbyists , or people affiliated with the fossil fuel , health insurance , or private prison corporations , to your transition team , advisor roles of cabinet.
” The document is the first high-profile manifestation of an organized effort among progressive activists , scholars , and lawmakers that quietly came together over the last few weeks as Biden—not Sanders—salted away the Democratic nomination for president .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the former vice president ’ s candidacy stems from his ties to the banking industry and centrist economists , among other things .
Now that Biden is moving ahead to the general election , progressives are determined to exert what power they have to shape his future appointments .
In 2008 , liberals felt they ’ d been steamrolled by the Obama transition , which unfolded largely without their input .
The team installed Clinton-era neoliberals such as Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers into high-level roles , in which capacity they were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recovery from the Great Recession .
Eight years later , progressive groups had armed themselves for an ideological battle over the make-up of the would-be Clinton administration .
The Roosevelt Institute , a liberal think tank , had built a bench of 150 candidates for critical economic policy jobs under Clinton .
The Revolving Door Project , a progressive watchdog group that tracks corporate influence , dug into potential appointees it found undesirable based on their connections to business interests .
Elizabeth Warren had brought Clinton her own list of potential appointees .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the capital he ’ d accumulated in his formidable primary fight on changes to DNC rules that he believed would level the playing field for party outsiders like himself .
Clinton , a policy wonk at heart , ultimately left little room for influence when it came to her potential appointees .
But progressives were heartened by some of her choices , such as inequality expert Heather Boushey , the chief economist at the left-leaning Washington Center for Equitable Growth .
Clinton had tapped her as the chief economist on her transition team @ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House ’ s National Economic Council .
At first blush , Biden ’ s long political career and Obama ties might make him seem like a worst-case scenario for progressives who want to exert some influence .
He ’ s spent nearly five decades at the highest levels of federal elected office , and his team had been intimately involved in the 2008 Obama transition that many on the left decried .
But the former vice president ran a campaign that , for the most part , remained ideologically agnostic and scant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ combination with his White House experience , may actually set the table well for progressives hoping to exercise some control , says Chris Lu , who served as a deputy secretary of labor during the Obama administration and executive director of the Obama–Biden transition .
“ Biden ’ s team knows it ’ s not just about the 100-day legislative strategy—they know he needs a regulatory strategy around what Trump regs need to be turned around , and a budget , which is usually unveiled sometime in February , ” Lu explains .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the progressive community , because a lot of their ideas can be translated more readily by folks who understand the process.
” There are also some signs that Biden wants to cooperate with the left .
Last month , Biden adopted Elizabeth Warren ’ s bankruptcy proposal , a plan that would reverse much of the 2005 bankruptcy bill he had championed as a US senator .
As progressive youth groups released their list of demands last week , Biden announced that he supported dropping the Medicare qualifying age to 60 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ middle-income students—modest overtures to the progressive activists .
And on Monday , Sanders and Biden announced that their trusted advisers would team up on six policy “ task forces ” focusing on topics such as the economy , climate change , and criminal justice , an effort the Biden campaign says will lay the groundwork for Biden ’ s general election platform and presidential transition .
So far , the reception among liberal leaders and Sanders loyalists has been flat .
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( D-N.Y. ) , who had endorsed Sanders , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s concessions were “ almost insulting ” in their meagerness .
Rep. Pramila Jayapal ( D-Wash. ) , who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus , told the Times she needs to see “ real movement ” from the former veep .
Lu has been in touch with a number of the progressive groups seeking advice on how to have a say in Biden ’ s appointees .
He ’ s encouraged them to think about positions that touch a lot of decisions , such as those in the Office of Management and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He also says they should consider whom they might want named to lower-level positions beyond the Cabinet .
“ Everyone sort of thinks about the Cabinet—and the Cabinet is important , ” Lu says , “ but who runs NOAA , for instance , can send an important signal about climate change priorities , and if you want something done on workers ’ rights , you need someone at OSHA who gets it.
” Other important players are reprising some aspect of their 2016 roles .
The Roosevelt Institute—to which a pair of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Morgan and Bharat Ramamurti , recently decamped—has been reaching out to experts , sources familiar with their work tell Mother Jones , but the think tank isn ’ t currently performing the same bench-building effort it undertook in 2016 .
“ We believe it ’ s important to have progressive , reform-minded personnel that are ready and able to use the full power of the government to make a difference in people ’ s everyday lives , ” said spokesperson Ariela Weinberger when asked about the early outreach .
The Revolving Door , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with allied groups to identify people they ’ d prefer that Biden not appoint to his administration .
Among those on Revolving Door ’ s no-fly list : Larry Fink , chair and CEO of the financial services behemoth BlackRock , who Biden donors floated as a Treasury pick at a recent fundraiser ; Erskine Bowles , a former Bill Clinton chief of staff who co-chaired an Obama administration task force that called for cuts in benefits for the elderly , veterans , and government workers ; and Jeffrey Zients , Obama ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Council who now serves as president of the Cranemere Group , a London-based private equity firm .
He ’ s a bundler for the Biden campaign and , during his White House tenure , Zients had been a proponent of austerity .
“ I fear he might be this generation ’ s Robert Rubin , ” Hauser says , referring to the finance-friendly Clinton administration Treasury secretary .
One remaining question is what role Elizabeth Warren ’ s will play .
The Massachusetts senator has remained front and center in the debate over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus pandemic , releasing plans to safeguard the economy and protect voting rights .
She endorsed Biden on Tuesday , but has yet to announce any formal collaborations with the former vice president .
* But there ’ s reason to believe she may reprise her 2016 efforts .
Don ’ t forget that Warren ’ s entrance into national politics came by way of her feud with Biden over bankruptcy legislation in the aughts .
She was a Harvard bankruptcy professor , then , and Biden was a senator whom she accused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the credit card companies.
” In those days she saw him as a man from whom working families needed to be protected .
Now he ’ s the standard-bearer of the party that wants to speak for them .
*This story has been updated to reflect Elizabeth Warren ’ s endorsement of Joe Biden .

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A mere 24 hours after Bernie Sanders called it quits on his second presidential run, the Vermont senator’s youthful supporters had a message for Joe Biden: Don’t let us down.
“We need you to champion the bold ideas that have galvanized our generation and given us hope in the political process,” said a letter from the #EarnOurVote initiative, a coalition of eight youth-focused groups, including the Sunrise Movement, March for Our Lives, and Justice Democrats. Their four-page memo outlined the “commitments” the former vice president—who failed to win much support from voters under 45 during the primaries—should take up in the general election campaign to “earn the support of our generation and unite the party.”
One of their main requests: that Biden appoint ardent progressives to key executive branch positions. The groups want left-of-center lawmakers who endorsed Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren to co-chair Biden’s transition team; they want liberal economists like Joseph Stiglitz to serve on Biden’s National Economic Council; and they want a “trusted progressive” to run the Presidential Personnel Office with the aim of keeping a Biden administration “free of corruption.” They also wanted Biden to refrain from appointing any “current or former Wall Street executives or corporate lobbyists, or people affiliated with the fossil fuel, health insurance, or private prison corporations, to your transition team, advisor roles of cabinet.”
The document is the first high-profile manifestation of an organized effort among progressive activists, scholars, and lawmakers that quietly came together over the last few weeks as Biden—not Sanders—salted away the Democratic nomination for president. The distaste many on the left have for the former vice president’s candidacy stems from his ties to the banking industry and centrist economists, among other things. Now that Biden is moving ahead to the general election, progressives are determined to exert what power they have to shape his future appointments.
In 2008, liberals felt they’d been steamrolled by the Obama transition, which unfolded largely without their input. The team installed Clinton-era neoliberals such as Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers into high-level roles, in which capacity they were in turn given the keys to the recovery from the Great Recession.
Eight years later, progressive groups had armed themselves for an ideological battle over the make-up of the would-be Clinton administration. The Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank, had built a bench of 150 candidates for critical economic policy jobs under Clinton. The Revolving Door Project, a progressive watchdog group that tracks corporate influence, dug into potential appointees it found undesirable based on their connections to business interests. Elizabeth Warren had brought Clinton her own list of potential appointees. Sanders, meanwhile, chose to spend the capital he’d accumulated in his formidable primary fight on changes to DNC rules that he believed would level the playing field for party outsiders like himself.
Clinton, a policy wonk at heart, ultimately left little room for influence when it came to her potential appointees. But progressives were heartened by some of her choices, such as inequality expert Heather Boushey, the chief economist at the left-leaning Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Clinton had tapped her as the chief economist on her transition team and her likely pick to lead the White House’s National Economic Council.
At first blush, Biden’s long political career and Obama ties might make him seem like a worst-case scenario for progressives who want to exert some influence. He’s spent nearly five decades at the highest levels of federal elected office, and his team had been intimately involved in the 2008 Obama transition that many on the left decried. But the former vice president ran a campaign that, for the most part, remained ideologically agnostic and scant on policy details. That, in combination with his White House experience, may actually set the table well for progressives hoping to exercise some control, says Chris Lu, who served as a deputy secretary of labor during the Obama administration and executive director of the Obama–Biden transition.
“Biden’s team knows it’s not just about the 100-day legislative strategy—they know he needs a regulatory strategy around what Trump regs need to be turned around, and a budget, which is usually unveiled sometime in February,” Lu explains. “That’s to the benefit of the progressive community, because a lot of their ideas can be translated more readily by folks who understand the process.”
There are also some signs that Biden wants to cooperate with the left. Last month, Biden adopted Elizabeth Warren’s bankruptcy proposal, a plan that would reverse much of the 2005 bankruptcy bill he had championed as a US senator. As progressive youth groups released their list of demands last week, Biden announced that he supported dropping the Medicare qualifying age to 60 and canceling student debt for some low- and middle-income students—modest overtures to the progressive activists. And on Monday, Sanders and Biden announced that their trusted advisers would team up on six policy “task forces” focusing on topics such as the economy, climate change, and criminal justice, an effort the Biden campaign says will lay the groundwork for Biden’s general election platform and presidential transition.
So far, the reception among liberal leaders and Sanders loyalists has been flat. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who had endorsed Sanders, told the New York Times that Biden’s concessions were “almost insulting” in their meagerness. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told the Times she needs to see “real movement” from the former veep.
Lu has been in touch with a number of the progressive groups seeking advice on how to have a say in Biden’s appointees. He’s encouraged them to think about positions that touch a lot of decisions, such as those in the Office of Management and Budget and the National Economic Council. He also says they should consider whom they might want named to lower-level positions beyond the Cabinet. “Everyone sort of thinks about the Cabinet—and the Cabinet is important,” Lu says, “but who runs NOAA, for instance, can send an important signal about climate change priorities, and if you want something done on workers’ rights, you need someone at OSHA who gets it.”
Other important players are reprising some aspect of their 2016 roles. The Roosevelt Institute—to which a pair of former Warren policy aides, Julie Margetta Morgan and Bharat Ramamurti, recently decamped—has been reaching out to experts, sources familiar with their work tell Mother Jones, but the think tank isn’t currently performing the same bench-building effort it undertook in 2016. “We believe it’s important to have progressive, reform-minded personnel that are ready and able to use the full power of the government to make a difference in people’s everyday lives,” said spokesperson Ariela Weinberger when asked about the early outreach.
The Revolving Door, led by Jeff Hauser, is working with allied groups to identify people they’d prefer that Biden not appoint to his administration. Among those on Revolving Door’s no-fly list: Larry Fink, chair and CEO of the financial services behemoth BlackRock, who Biden donors floated as a Treasury pick at a recent fundraiser; Erskine Bowles, a former Bill Clinton chief of staff who co-chaired an Obama administration task force that called for cuts in benefits for the elderly, veterans, and government workers; and Jeffrey Zients, Obama’s final director of the National Economic Council who now serves as president of the Cranemere Group, a London-based private equity firm. He’s a bundler for the Biden campaign and, during his White House tenure, Zients had been a proponent of austerity. “I fear he might be this generation’s Robert Rubin,” Hauser says, referring to the finance-friendly Clinton administration Treasury secretary.
One remaining question is what role Elizabeth Warren’s will play. The Massachusetts senator has remained front and center in the debate over the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, releasing plans to safeguard the economy and protect voting rights. She endorsed Biden on Tuesday, but has yet to announce any formal collaborations with the former vice president.*
But there’s reason to believe she may reprise her 2016 efforts. Don’t forget that Warren’s entrance into national politics came by way of her feud with Biden over bankruptcy legislation in the aughts. She was a Harvard bankruptcy professor, then, and Biden was a senator whom she accused of performing “energetic work on behalf of the credit card companies.” In those days she saw him as a man from whom working families needed to be protected. Now he’s the standard-bearer of the party that wants to speak for them.
*This story has been updated to reflect Elizabeth Warren’s endorsement of Joe Biden.


motherjones--2020-04-14--Adam Schiff: House Dems Investigating How Trump Handled Coronavirus Intelligence

Rep. Adam Schiff ( D-Calif. ) has been a relentless chaser of Trump corruption .
As the top ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and 2018 , he pushed for a robust investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal , as the Republicans then in control of the House resisted such efforts and sought to protect Donald Trump .
After Schiff became chairman of the committee last year , he oversaw the congressional probe of the Trump-Ukraine scandal , ran the House impeachment hearings , and led the House impeachment managers during the Senate trial .
Once Trump was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seemed that Schiff ’ s investigative pursuits might peter out in the remaining months before the coming election .
But the coronavirus pandemic and Trump ’ s lackadaisical and inept response has raised questions about the intelligence that was shared with the White House about the looming crisis—it ’ s been reported Trump received classified warnings in January and February—and whether Trump ignored the intelligence .
And Schiff says he is now on the case .
In an interview with Mother Jones , Schiff notes that his intelligence committee is investigating what information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days of the coronavirus epidemic , what material reached Trump , and how the president responded .
Schiff says this review seeks to “ determine when did the intelligence community first start reporting about this .
What were they telling us , frankly , about the danger of pandemics even before this one ?
What did they first observe going in in China ?
When did it first make its way into the President ’ s Daily Briefing [ from the intelligence agencies ] or get briefed to Congress ?
” Listen to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rep. Adam Schiff on this week ’ s edition of the Mother Jones Podcast .
Schiff points out that there has been much public reporting “ in terms of when the earliest indications [ were ] , ” but many questions remain : “ What level of the intelligence community was concerned about this ?
Was it flashing red lights , as some have characterized it , or was it much less , as others have characterized it ?
” Part of the investigation will focus on what Trump knew and when he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the information was in the public record .
You had the Chinese reporting the virus .
You had the WHO reporting the virus .
You had the president ’ s own people publicly talking about the danger and even well after the virus was an established fact—that it was spreading and coming to the United States—you still had the president talking it down like it would be no worse than the flu…and it was under control.
” Another component of the committee ’ s investigation , according to Schiff , is an examination @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other parts of the federal government , as the coronavirus threat emerged .
“ You would hope , ” Schiff says , “ that as various health agencies are hearing about and learning about this new respiratory disease in China and the Chinese government is making declarations about it , that you could turn to the intelligence community to try to find out the ground truth of those representations .
Is it as bad as the Chinese say ?
Is it worse than what the Chinese have to say ?
What do we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other countries ?
” Members of Congress did receive briefings from the intelligence community on the spread of the coronavirus , but Schiff won ’ t characterize what they were told until his investigation is further along .
Part of the review will focus on whether Congress was fully briefed on the threat .
“ We ’ ll want to know when…the chief executive was informed , ” Schiff remarks .
Schiff says that the committee will “ absolutely ” hold hearings and release a report on the coronavirus intelligence .
But it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this quickly .
The investigation will require questioning witnesses in classified sessions— ” something we don ’ t have the capacity to do right now , ” Schiff explains , given that social distancing prevents gatherings of legislators , staffers , and witnesses in the tightly-controlled and shielded areas used for meetings that cover top-secret information .
He adds , “ We ’ re really just beginning the review and we want to get it right .
I don ’ t want to leap to a conclusion one way or another.
” Schiff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ establish a commission—modeled on the 9/11 commission—that would kick into action early next year and investigate the US government ’ s preparation ( or lack thereof ) for the coronavirus crisis and the steps and missteps the Trump administration took in reacting to the pandemic .

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has been a relentless chaser of Trump corruption. As the top ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and 2018, he pushed for a robust investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal, as the Republicans then in control of the House resisted such efforts and sought to protect Donald Trump. After Schiff became chairman of the committee last year, he oversaw the congressional probe of the Trump-Ukraine scandal, ran the House impeachment hearings, and led the House impeachment managers during the Senate trial. Once Trump was acquitted by the Senate Republicans, it seemed that Schiff’s investigative pursuits might peter out in the remaining months before the coming election. But the coronavirus pandemic and Trump’s lackadaisical and inept response has raised questions about the intelligence that was shared with the White House about the looming crisis—it’s been reported Trump received classified warnings in January and February—and whether Trump ignored the intelligence. And Schiff says he is now on the case.
“You had the president’s own people publicly talking about the danger and even well after the virus was an established fact—that it was spreading and coming to the United States—you still had the president talking it down like it would be no worse than the flu.”
In an interview with Mother Jones, Schiff notes that his intelligence committee is investigating what information the intelligence community obtained in the early days of the coronavirus epidemic, what material reached Trump, and how the president responded. Schiff says this review seeks to “determine when did the intelligence community first start reporting about this. What were they telling us, frankly, about the danger of pandemics even before this one? What did they first observe going in in China? When did it first make its way into the President’s Daily Briefing [from the intelligence agencies] or get briefed to Congress?”
Listen to David Corn’s in-depth interview with Rep. Adam Schiff on this week’s edition of the Mother Jones Podcast.
Listen to the latest episode of the Mother Jones Podcast: Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.
Schiff points out that there has been much public reporting “in terms of when the earliest indications[were],” but many questions remain: “What level of the intelligence community was concerned about this? Was it flashing red lights, as some have characterized it, or was it much less, as others have characterized it?” Part of the investigation will focus on what Trump knew and when he knew it: “So much of the information was in the public record. You had the Chinese reporting the virus. You had the WHO reporting the virus. You had the president’s own people publicly talking about the danger and even well after the virus was an established fact—that it was spreading and coming to the United States—you still had the president talking it down like it would be no worse than the flu…and it was under control.”
Another component of the committee’s investigation, according to Schiff, is an examination of how the intelligence agencies interacted with other parts of the federal government, as the coronavirus threat emerged. “You would hope,” Schiff says, “that as various health agencies are hearing about and learning about this new respiratory disease in China and the Chinese government is making declarations about it, that you could turn to the intelligence community to try to find out the ground truth of those representations. Is it as bad as the Chinese say? Is it worse than what the Chinese have to say? What do we know about whether it is appearing in other countries?”
Members of Congress did receive briefings from the intelligence community on the spread of the coronavirus, but Schiff won’t characterize what they were told until his investigation is further along. Part of the review will focus on whether Congress was fully briefed on the threat. “We’ll want to know when…the chief executive was informed,” Schiff remarks.
Schiff says that the committee will “absolutely” hold hearings and release a report on the coronavirus intelligence. But it won’t be easy to do this quickly. The investigation will require questioning witnesses in classified sessions—”something we don’t have the capacity to do right now,” Schiff explains, given that social distancing prevents gatherings of legislators, staffers, and witnesses in the tightly-controlled and shielded areas used for meetings that cover top-secret information. He adds, “We’re really just beginning the review and we want to get it right. I don’t want to leap to a conclusion one way or another.”
Schiff has also introduced a bill that would establish a commission—modeled on the 9/11 commission—that would kick into action early next year and investigate the US government’s preparation (or lack thereof) for the coronavirus crisis and the steps and missteps the Trump administration took in reacting to the pandemic.