A woman has inspired an "unmasked shopping event" in Washington state after she was confronted in a grocery store for not wearing a mask. The irate shopper also doesn't appear to be a fan of vaccinations or handwashing.
"You're harassing me," Aubree Stone says in the video, as an employee of the grocery store asks her and her family to leave for refusing to wear a face covering.
"Get away from me and my child," Stone adds. "I cannot believe that you have the gall and the nerve to try and make somebody do something outside of their own will."
"It is a private business, would you like to see the law?" the employee, who identified herself as a manager, responds in the video.
According to local news outlet KXLY, the Spokane Valley Grocery Outlet -- where the incident occurred -- "has obvious signs at the main entrance telling customers they must wear a mask in order to shop."
After the incident, a Facebook event page was created that urges people to enter the store without a mask.
"We need to send a message to Grocery Outlet that this behavior is unacceptable. This particular manager is treating people very badly. Let's show up and say it's not OK!" the page states.
Prior to the incident, Stone also shared a Facebook image suggesting that playing in the mud was a defense against COVID-19. The image shows two children covered in dirt, along with the message: "This is how you build immunity Not by Vaccines or washing hands all the time or wearing Face Masks or staying indoors all the time".
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Secretary of Health John Wiesman announced last month that every Washingtonian in an indoor public space will be legally required to wear a face covering to combat the spread of COVID-19, effective June 26. A face covering is also required when unable to physically distance from others in an outdoor public space.
On Friday, writing for The New Yorker, Robin Wright lamented that under President Donald Trump, the rest of the world has cemented a view of America as racist and incompetent — and the country may struggle to redefine itself even after he is gone.
"On the eve of America’s anniversary — our two hundred and forty-fourth — much of the world believes that the country is racist, battered and bruised," wrote Wright. "'Europe has long been suspicious — even jealous — of the way America has been able to pursue national wealth and power despite its deep social inequities,' Robin Niblett, the director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, in London, told me. 'When you take the Acela and pass through the poorest areas of Baltimore, you can’t believe you’re looking at part of the United States. There’s always been this sense of an underlying flaw in the U.S. system that it was getting away with — that somehow America was keeping just one step ahead of the grim reaper.'"
However, he argued, Europeans are losing their envy for America, increasingly seeing it as a country with a corrupt and racist justice system and a culture that obsesses over the stock market as Main Street suffers.
"The Trump Administration’s ineptitude in handling the covid-19 crisis, as well as the President’s disdain for longstanding allies and international treaties, have compounded the damage to America’s image," wrote Wright. "A second poll, released last week by the European Council on Foreign Relations, reported that public perceptions of the United States are increasingly negative in virtually all of the European nations surveyed. In France, the country that backed the American Revolution and later donated the Statue of Liberty, forty-six per cent of the people polled said that their opinion of the U.S. has 'worsened a lot.' The proportion of respondents who still view America as a key ally is 'vanishingly small' — as low as six per cent in Italy."
America also suffered from a low global perception around the late 2000s, at the end of the Bush administration, and rebounded after the election of President Barack Obama. These gains have been wiped out under Trump.
According to a report from Politico, a White House-endorsed task force run by the Justice Department to go after COVID-19 price gougers and scam artists is running into interference from others in the White House who believe that the free market should be the arbiter of what is fair or not.
Earlier this year, as the country was swamped by the coronavirus pandemic that had the public sheltering at home and hospitals scrambling for enough personal protection equipment (PPE), the White House worked in concert with Attorney General Bill Barr to roll out a task force whose mission was to root out and prosecute individuals and companies indulging in price-gouging the much-needed medical supplies.
However, when it came to time to go after and prosecute perpetrators, some officials at the White House urged caution and a go-slow approach that has hindered the task force members from following through.
"Behind the scenes, according to people familiar with the discussions, some White House officials expressed reservations and concerns about the task force’s approach, and some disagreed with DOJ officials about how to use one particular legal authority," Politico's Betsy Woodruff Swan and Josh Gerstein wrote. "And now, three months after its inception, some advocates say the task force isn’t cracking down hard enough on Covid profiteers. DOJ spokespeople didn’t provide a list of price-gouging cases it has brought, and searches of department news releases reveal only a handful of cases."
According to one source with knowledge of the debate between the White House and Justice, "This was more of a philosophical dispute between people who wanted to go aggressively after those who were hoarding and gouging, and those more partial to letting the market sort it out,” before adding, "The White House folks had no involvement in charging decisions, but there is a degree of overlap with certain actions that need to be taken under the DPA [Defense Production Act], so there had to be some coordination.”
As a result, prosecutions have lagged.
"The resistance from White House staffers materialized shortly after the rollout of the task force, according to the people familiar with the situation. It came from staffers whom one source described as 'free-marketeers,' who felt the massive influx of people wheeling and dealing for PPE was a sign that the free market was working efficiently to move materials where they needed to go," the Politico report states. "Another source described two broad mindsets at play. The first mindset was held by those with prosecutorial sensibilities, who viewed the massive, lightning-fast influx of newcomers into the PPE sector with deep suspicion. The second was held by the free market proponents, who saw it as a sign the invisible hand was doing what it does best: moving goods where they needed to go."
According to Kyle Herrig of government watchdog group Accountable US, not enough is being done.
“The Trump administration has never met a consumer it wanted to protect or a nefarious business it wanted to prosecute. That the DOJ is allowing companies to take advantage of Americans during a global pandemic is as shocking as it is shameful,” he explained. “The lack of price-gouging enforcement has cost Americans millions of dollars and endangered lives — further proof that the administration is not looking out for its citizens in a time of crisis.”
June 2020 will go down in history as a month in which the coronavirus death toll continued to soar in the United States while the country was rocked by double-digit unemployment and huge protests in response to the horrific killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. And according to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, it will also go down in history as a terrible month for President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign.
In an article published on July 2, the Times reporters delve into some of the reasons why Trump’s campaign fared so badly in June — and one of the main reasons is his erratic response to the coronavirus pandemic. In June, the COVID-19 death count passed 100,000 in the U.S.; by July 3, it was up to up to 128,740, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Worldwide, the pandemic has killed more than 521,800 people.
“The disconnect between the surge in coronavirus cases and Mr. Trump’s dismissive stance toward the pandemic has been particularly pronounced, mystifying Democrats and Republicans alike,” Haberman, Martin and Burns explain. “This week, as some states halted their reopening because of a record-setting number of new cases, the president predicted the virus would “just disappear.”
June was also a terrible month for Trump because of his consistently bad poll numbers.
“In addition to public surveys showing him losing decisively to Joseph R. Biden, Jr. in a number of battleground states,” the Times journalists note, “private Republican polls in recent weeks show the president struggling even in conservative states, leading Mr. Biden by less than five points in Montana and trailing him in Georgia and even Kansas, according to GOP officials who have seen the data.”
Haberman, Martin and Burns point out that Trump’s other “missteps” in June range from his “inflammatory response to racial justice protesters” to his “ill-considered rally in Tulsa.” For their article, the Times interviewed more than 45 Republican strategists and officials — some of whom are in the Trump Administration — and they found a mood of despair and frustration.
“Letting Trump be Trump will delight some of his most committed supporters,” the Times reporters note, “but it is likely to dishearten Republicans who are already nervous about losing the Senate and yielding further ground in the House.”
One Republican who has been sounding the alarm, according to the Times, is former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — who has warned that Trump will lose to Biden if he continues to campaign like it’s still 2016. And Sen. Mitt Romney is also warning that Trump is dropping the ball.
“What I find hard to understand is that in order for the president to get reelected, he’s going to want to see a really strong economy,” Romney asserted. “So, I would think the president would be on the air hammering his base to get the economy back and win the election.”
Editor’s Note: Dr. William Schaffner, one of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been helping to keep people healthy for decades. In an interview which has been edited for clarity, he answered several questions about how you can stay safe as the nation heads into the holiday weekend with daily coronavirus cases exceeding 40,000, their highest.
How can Americans celebrate in the midst of a pandemic, especially when cases are going up?
We want everyone to enjoy themselves carefully. This will be a new July Fourth, not like the old July Fourth. And if we’re doing this carefully rather than carelessly, then I think we can all enjoy ourselves even though the environment will be different. And, of course, the things I’m going to focus on, things that have been in the news: Wear your mask. Number two, observe six-foot distancing. And lastly, avoid large group events.
How should people decide whether to get together with friends?
So the first thing you have to ask a friend is: Who is at the barbecue or whatever the group activity is, and how many people are there? You know, we always have a block party barbecue and everybody goes down to Tommy’s house and the whole neighborhood shows up. Well, that’s a very large group and you ought to rethink that.
And even if the group is smaller, just two or three neighbors, can you have a conversation with those neighbors beforehand to find out whether they’ve been on the same wavelength as you have? Have they all been wearing masks, observing six-foot distancing? Largely staying at home, avoiding groups? Or is there one family in that group that has been out there doing things casually? If they’re doing things casually and your family has been concerned about it, then maybe you want to say, you know, I’ll see you next July Fourth. Thank you for your kind invitation. But you will understand we’ve really been very conservative about this. Enjoy yourself.
So you can have nice conversations. Nobody is a good guy or a bad guy, but you can understand that people need to inquire a little bit about what sort of groups they’re attending. And so that kind of thinking, I think, will help if you, it’s anticipatory thinking.
Let’s say you’ve got your mask on, but then you want to take a drink. How’s that going to work?
So let’s think about this. One of the things I’ve said many times is that I don’t like to use four-letter words – such as “safe” – because safes implies complete safety. The moment we walk out the front door, we assume a certain amount of risk. The trick is to do a number of things, each of which is imperfect. But if we put a whole series of them together, then we’re in pretty good shape. We have reduced the risk if we’re comfortable with the people at the party. Then we can take off our masks as we eat and drink.
You don’t have to be perfect, but everything you can do adds to your level of comfort and improves your sense of safety and reduces your risk quicker.
Why is this extra caution so important at this moment in particular? Is it because of the increasing cases?
Well, the word “increasing” tells the story. We have opened up, but we have not opened up in a careful and prudent fashion in most parts of the country. And if we are going to flatten the curve and try to reduce the transmission of this serious virus, I think the next two or three weeks are going to be very, very important.
The virus has now spread essentially all over the United States. It was once localized pretty much to cities, particularly larger cities, but now it’s gotten out into rural areas everywhere. And if we’re not careful, it’s going to keep spreading all over the United States. And Dr. Fauci’s ominous predictions will come true (Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before Congress on June 30, 2020 and said he would not be surprised if the U.S. experiences 100,000 cases a day), because the virus has the capacity to spread in rural areas the way it does in urban areas.
Dr. Anthony Fauci testifying June 20, 2020 before Congress.
With the virus now in rural areas, does this mean it’s everywhere?
It’s everywhere in the United States. I think there are very few counties left, even very rural counties, that haven’t had at least one case. That’s certainly true in Tennessee. We may have two, maybe three counties left that haven’t had a case where they’ll have one by the end of the summer.
On CNN last night, I heard you mention that not wearing a mask is like failing to stop at a red light. Can you elaborate on that?
In certain circumstances, when we live together as a society, we curtail our individual rights and inclinations because we all live together. There’s the old saying, you you’re not permitted to shout fire in a crowded theater. That’s an abuse of free speech. The traffic signal is a very simple, easily understood analogy where if you drive on the red, you’re exercising your freedom, your own inclination, and you’re endangering yourself. But the problem is, really, you’re endangering others.
And that’s the way it is with communicable diseases. Another example was for a long time, smoking was thought to be just an individual problem until it was discovered that secondhand smoke increased the risk of lung cancer and other illnesses in people around the smoker. Then all of a sudden, smoking became not only an individual issue, but an issue that applied to the group. So now we’re restricting smoking in public places, not because it endangers the individual, but it endangers bystanders.
And that’s a very, very important concept. This is a contagious effect. Your actions can indeed influence all those people around you. And that sets out the circumstances. There is a long tradition, legal and philosophic, and religious, in our society that says you have to be constrained in your own inclinations. You must be cognizant of those around you and take responsibility for that.
Under fire for his silence in the face of America's spiralling coronavirus caseload, President Donald Trump heads to Mount Rushmore on Friday for a night of fireworks that he hopes will soothe a nation he has struggled to unite.
On the eve of the country's Independence Day, the Republican leader will speak in the shadow of four of his notable predecessors: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, whose heads are carved into the granite in South Dakota.
The billionaire real estate mogul-turned-president, who has seemingly turned a blind eye to the shocking increase in the number of virus cases in many US states, has been openly exuberant about the Rushmore event.
Some 7,500 people are expected to attend -- and social distancing is not on the agenda.
"We're going to have a tremendous evening. It's going to be a fireworks display like few people have seen. It's going to be very exciting," he said Thursday.
Will Trump speak about the pandemic that has claimed nearly 130,000 American lives, and the resurgence of cases in the country's south and west?
The nation's top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, has said the uptick "puts the entire country at risk."
So will Trump wear a face mask, setting an example for the nation after resisting for months, as many politicians and others, even in his own camp, have asked him to do?
The Republican president is in a political predicament, badly trailing his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the polls with four months to go before the presidential election.
For now, he is sticking with one tried-and-true message, that he conveyed Thursday: the coronavirus crisis is being "handled," the US economy is "roaring back," and 2021 is going to be a "phenomenal" year.
But in contrast with Europe, infection rates and daily case totals are increasing in the United States, and some states are beating their own grim records nearly every day.
Fauci has warned that the country could eventually see 100,000 new cases a day if things don't change.
For now, many states have paused efforts to reopen their economies. Some have even backtracked and reimposed restrictions on bars, restaurants and beaches.
- No social distancing -
The man in the Oval Office can expect a warm welcome in South Dakota, a sparsely populated state that he won easily in 2016 with more than 60 percent of the vote.
The state's Republican governor, Kristi Noem, is certainly not going to spoil his party.
"We told those folks that have concerns that they can stay home," Noem told Fox News.
"Those who want to come and join us, we'll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we will not be social distancing."
The last sitting US president to visit Mount Rushmore was George W Bush, in 2002.
Trump has long expressed his fascination for the imposing monument, which was sculpted in the Black Hills from 1927 to 1941.
In 2017, he even joked about someday seeing his face etched in stone with his four predecessors -- which is unlikely to happen.
"The rock that surrounds the sculpted faces is not suitable for additional carving," says National Park Service spokeswoman Dana Soehn.
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum wanted to "represent the first 150 years of the history of the United States -- the birth, growth and preservation of our country," she said.
"The National Park Service takes the position that... the work is complete in its present form."
The Lincoln Project, a group formed by anti-Trump Republicans, took on the president's Rushmore trip in its own way.
In a video released on the eve of Trump's visit, the group highlighted famous quotes from Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln to showcase their legacies.
As for Trump, the group said: "America's worst president will neither be remembered nor revered."
Salon obtained an exclusive preview of the 35-second spot, which is titled "Goalposts" and will run on digital platforms starting Thursday. The ad syncs Graham's increasingly high thresholds for measuring the president's success with a rolling COVID-19 death toll counter, highlighting the three-term incumbent's efforts to stay ahead of a grim reality that has consistently surged past his projections — including at home.
"South Carolina is hitting a new daily case record almost every single day, and we are home to one of the highest growth rates in the country," Harrison told Salon. "But Lindsey's television interviews are not about protecting South Carolinians or making sure small businesses and families can get by during this time of economic upheaval. Instead, he is using his position to play political games and push for the cutting of unemployment relief, even while this state is becoming an epicentre of the virus.
"We need leadership who will speak truth to power — no matter who sits in the Oval Office," campaign spokesman Guy King added. "This moving of the goalposts is little more than blatant political maneuvering and proves again that Senator Graham cares far more about defending those in power than helping the families of South Carolina. This cavalier posture is especially troubling from a senator representing a state near last place in coronavirus testing."
Graham, who chairs the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, might now find himself facing another grim reality. He appears locked in a locked in a dead heat with the upstart Harrison, a Yale and Georgetown Law graduate who rose to become the first Black chairman of the state's Democratic Party. Graham's unctuous praise of President Donald Trump throughout the president's term, and specifically the pandemic, may be to blame.
Graham — who self-quarantined in March after he was exposed to the virus during a visit to Trump's Florida club, Mar-a-Lago — has over the last three months consistently downplayed the pandemic in defense of Trump's botched response, and the new ad seizes on that striking series of resets.
April 8 Fox News appearance: "If we can hold the death rate below 50,000, then I would say we've acted decisively." (Total of ~15,000 reported U.S. deaths.)
Then in an April 24 Fox News appearance, the same day that reported U.S. deaths pass Graham's 50,000 high-water mark: "We're going to be well below the 100,000 minimum expected."
Then, pulling from a May 14 Politico article — the same month that deaths pass 100,000: "To quote Senator Lindsey Graham, 'The closer you can have it to 120,000 deaths, I think you can say you limited the casualties in this war.'"
June 22, quoting MSNBC's Brian Williams: "120,000 souls have lost their lives."
The ad concludes with the June 30 testimony from the country's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who told Congress: "I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 [cases] a day if this does not turn around, so I am very concerned."
The next day, the death toll hit 128,000. Graham remained silent.
Though the upstart Harrison outraised Graham during the first three months of 2020 — $7.3 million to Graham's $5.6 million — the incumbent senator still commands a $13 million war chest, the largest in South Carolina history, as well as a household name.
A deeper dive into that most recent poll reveals possibly more trouble. Fifty-six percent of South Carolina voters said they held an unfavorable view of Graham, while only 35% took a positive view of the senator.
Additionally, Harrison claimed an 18% lead among independents — 46% to 28% — though registered Republican still dominate the deep red state stronghold.
Editor's note: Salon — with no advanced knowledge of the Harrison campaign's ad — published an article Thursday morning laying out a similar pattern in more detail.
Government contracts obtained by consumer advocacy group Knowledge Ecology International show that the Trump administration is giving pharmaceutical companies a green light to charge exorbitant prices for potential coronavirus treatments developed with taxpayer money by refusing to exercise federal authority to constrain costs.
Through the Freedom of Information Act, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) last week got hold of a number of heavily redacted agreements between the Trump administration and major pharmaceutical companies like Johnson & Johnson, Regeneron, and Genentech.
Five of the seven documents reviewed by KEI are classified as "other transaction agreements," which allow federal agencies to loosen regulations designed to protect the public in order to help companies streamline the product development process.
In the case of four contracts for potential Covid-19 treatments or vaccines with Johnson & Johnson, Genentech, Regeneron, and Roche issued by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the Pentagon, the Trump administration omitted a standard condition requiring that products developed with taxpayer money be made available to the public "on reasonable terms."
"This means that the government has limited its ability to intervene if the pharmaceutical companies (which are party to the agreements and are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to conduct the research) charge unreasonable prices for the resulting Covid-19 vaccines or treatments," KEI noted in a press release.
KEI also found that federal contracts with Genentech and Regeneron for coronavirus treatments contain passages restricting the government's ability to "have generic manufacturers make and distribute through pharmacies and other commercial outlets an effective diagnostic test, drug, or vaccine for Covid-19."
The details of the contracts come just days after the Trump administration faced backlash from consumer groups for refusing to require Gilead to charge a reasonable price for its Covid-19 treatment remdesivir. On Monday, as Common Dreamsreported, Gilead announced it will charge U.S. hospitals around $3,120 per privately insured patient for a treatment course of remdesivir, which was developed with the help of at least $70.5 million in taxpayer funding.
"Allowing Gilead to set the terms during a pandemic represents a colossal failure of leadership by the Trump administration," Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Access to Medicines Program, said in a statement Monday. "The U.S. government has authority and a responsibility to steward the technology it helped develop."
As the Washington Postreported Wednesday, "[Johnson & Johnson] has a $456 million contract with BARDA to develop a coronavirus vaccine and a $152 million contract to conduct screening of drug compounds that could be Covid-19 treatments."
"Regeneron has contracts worth up to $130 million to develop two therapies for the disease," the Post noted. "Roche's Genentech subsidiary has contracts worth $47 million to develop a pair of therapies."
James Love, the director of KEI, told the Post that "the amount of money the government is throwing at companies is unprecedented."
"Normally when you write bigger checks," Love said, "you should have more leverage, not less leverage."
On CNN Thursday, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman deconstructed President Donald Trump's unwillingness to address the national crises in America.
"According to three people familiar with his comments, Trump has brushed off efforts to address historic racial inequality, as something 'his people' won't care about," said anchor Jim Sciutto. "Maggie, you have covered this president and the White House. Clearly, he wants to leave the outbreak behind him, even as the numbers rise. Is there anyone in that building who is telling him honestly, directly, that he can't do that?"
"There are many people who are telling him that honestly, Jim," said Haberman. "What has become clear to people, or should have by now, this president wants to run his re-election effort a certain way, and that does not relate to talking about the coronavirus unless it's about describing his administration's response in glowing terms that just don't comport with reality. Certainly for the first many weeks as the pandemic was growing."
"The president wants to have culture wars, he wants to fight on white grievance, and he wants to have a discussion around race that he thinks appeals to his base of supporters, and he has resisted all suggestions he do it a different way," added Haberman.
Vice President Mike Pence had to postpone a trip to Arizona after Secret Service agents preparing the event tested positive for COVID-19.
"Vice President Pence’s trip to Arizona this week had to be postponed by a day after several Secret Service agents who helped organize the visit either tested positive for coronavirus or were showing symptoms of being infected," The Washington Postreported Thursday. "Pence was scheduled to go to Phoenix on Tuesday but went on Wednesday instead so that healthy agents could be deployed for his visit, according to two senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private details of the trip."
"On Monday night, the Secret Service urged Pence’s staff to delay the Tuesday trip until Wednesday because at least one agent on the ground had a confirmed case of covid-19 and other agents and federal officers preparing for the Arizona visit were showing signs of illness, according to two administration officials," the newspaper explained. "The Secret Service needed time to bring in healthy agents and other personnel to replace the ones who were either sick or most likely sick, one of the officials said. The official said the Secret Service estimated that a total of eight to 10 agents and other officers from sister agencies — all of whom were helping prepare for Pence’s visit to Arizona — had fallen ill."
The leader of the free world was blasted online for focusing on cable ratings as coronavirus cases surge across America.
" CNN should move [Chris Cuomo] back to the morning slot. He was rewarded for bad ratings with a much better time slot - and again got really bad ratings. Getting totally trounced by Fox News," Trump argued. "Give him another shot in the morning - He would easily beat Morning Joe’s poorly rated show!"
The president was quickly mocked for focusing on cable news ratings during a pandemic. Here's some of what people were saying:
On Thursday, in the wake of President Donald Trump announcing that he actually likes the way he looks in a protective face mask, Fox & Friends co-anchor Steve Doocy bemoaned the fact that America ever let mask-wearing become a political controversy. “For some reason, over the last couple of weeks, a month, masks have become political,” said Doocy.
Writing for The Daily Beast, Justin Baragona and Maxwell Tani pointed to a key source of politicization of masks — Doocy's own network.
"Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. months ago, Fox News hosts and guests have repeatedly criticized face coverings—either by openly mocking them or by claiming mandated mask-wearing is an infringement on personal freedom, particularly by Democratic officials eager to control the population," said the report. "During an April 24 broadcast of Hannity, for instance, guest host Mike Huckabee and Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy — both former Republican elected officials — groused about a then-new Houston mandate that would fine residents up to $1,000 if they didn’t wear a mask in public, calling it an example of local government 'trampling the constitutional rights of American citizens.'"
In another incident, "primetime star Laura Ingraham — who was actually an early and vocal proponent of mask-wearing — insisted that donning face masks had become a way for Democrats and liberals to enforce incessant panic. 'Now Rush Limbaugh made a great point, as he always does, on the radio the other day and he said the virus itself as it weakens and states start reopening, the media that have been selling panic, panic, panic for weeks and weeks and weeks, they have fewer images to sell their hysteria to justify continued lockdowns,' she said on the April 29 broadcast of The Ingraham Angle. 'But the masks, well they're kind of a constant reminder. You see the mask and you think, you are not safe. You are not back to normal. Not even close.'"
Fox News' criticism of masks tracked well with President Donald Trump's previous refusal to be seen wearing them. Two weeks ago, he even suggested state masks requirements were part of a plot to make him look bad.
On Thursday, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) called for President Donald Trump to disband the task force, directing particular ire at Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx. "They engender panic and hysteria and undermine what the president’s doing," he said.
Commenters on social media were enraged at the congressman's insinuation that facts about a public health crisis should be sidelined so as not to "undermine" the political aspirations of the president.
