This article contains news and merciless liberal sarcasm.
Michael “leftist insurrection” Caputo (see my post here) “called an emergency staff meeting on Tuesday,” September 15, 2020, “to apologize for drawing negative attention to the Trump administration’s health care strategy” by posting “false accusations” (his words) on Facebook Live last weekend, “and signaled that he might be soon departing his role,” Politico reported (here).
A video he posted on Facebook Live disseminated “dangerous conspiracy theories” alleging CDC scientists “don’t want America to get well” and urging Trump supporters to “load up on ammunition … for a violent left-wing rebellion when the president wins re-election,” NBC News reported (here). He also said in the video his “mental health has definitely failed.”
Caputo blamed his meltdown “on a combination of physical health issues and … death threats against his family,” Politico said. Caputo has a long history, basically his entire adult life, of receiving death threats (story here), or maybe he’s clinically paranoid. Pick one.
It’s unlikely he’s receiving threats from Putin, because Putin doesn’t make threats, he kills.
News reports don’t say whether he’s suffering from physical exhaustion from having a much younger Russian wife (photo, right), who he’d promised to quit politics. Not Tuesday, but years ago.
“Three people with knowledge of Caputo’s decision-making confirmed that he was mulling stepping aside as the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs to take medical leave.” (He’s taking a 60-day leave.) “Caputo, a former Trump campaign official, has long complained of the stress caused by having been mentioned in the special counsel’s investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 election,” Politico said.
Yeah, well, that is understandable, because a lot of the people Mueller investigated — including several as chummy with Trump as he is — ended up in jail.
I’m not saying Caputo is a criminal; even scumbags like him are presumed innocent until found guilty of something in a court of law. And being crazy isn’t a crime in this country. Also, I’m not saying he’s crazy; he’s saying he’s crazy. Although it’s kinda obvious he is. What kind of nut talks about “leftist insurrection” when rightwingers have millions of AR-15s?
“During the meeting with his staff on Tuesday, Caputo made allusions to the fact that HHS had functioned for a long time in the past without a permanent top communications official, said one HHS official,” Politico said. In other words, they didn’t need him then, and don’t need him now.
“Caputo also disputed anonymous White House criticism about his mental health,” Politico added. Man, would I love to be a fly on that wall.
“HHS declined to comment.” Well, somebody over there still has their marbles. You probably have to go pretty far down the chain of command to find them, though.