NJ Wasted $$ on Hollywood, ‘Green’ Schemes & Corruption Instead of Needed Ventilators

Contributing Writer
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Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy now blaming President Trump for the shortfall…

Phil Murphy photo
Phil Murphy/Photo by PhilMurphyNJ (CC)

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) States hit hardest by the Wuhan virus pandemic appear to have two things in common: Democratic governors and a collective failure to prepare for the crisis despite ample warnings often coming from their own state health departments.

New York. California. Washington. Louisiana. Michigan. And New Jersey.

Each state ranks at the top of the list of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths. They all have Democratic governors and Democratic mayors in their largest cities, and each governor has taken to blaming President Trump while being dependent on the president for critical resources they failed to properly stockpile.

On Wednesday, Trump singled out New Jersey and said the state got off to a “very late start” on containing the deadly super virus.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, took offense and fired back during a press briefing.

“I don’t think that there’s any state in America that was on this earlier than we were,” Murphy told reporters. “The facts don’t support that. Period, full stop.”

But if public relations briefings, conference calls with reporters and last-minute scrambling for critical medical equipment counts as leadership, then Murphy is indeed first in line.

New Jersey trails only New York in total Wuhan virus infections and deaths. As of Friday, 4:03 a.m., New Jersey had 25,590 positive cases and 539 deaths. Twenty-four hours earlier, the state reported roughly 16,500 infections and 335 deaths, thus indicating exponential growth.

Tragically, the state has 2,200 ventilators and about 350 new patients a day need them. That means New Jersey has only a six-day supply of the lifesaving breathing devices.

The Wuhan virus attacks the lungs making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to breathe. Ventilators function as artificial lungs and pump oxygen into ICU patients. Without them, many more people will die.

But Murphy and his gubernatorial predecessors were warned. In fact, pandemic preparedness information and vital equipment estimates, like ventilators, are readily available on state government websites.

Ignored Warnings

The New Jersey Department of Health and the state’s Office of Emergency Management are tasked with maintaining and deploying a “Strategic State Stockpile” of pandemic medical equipment and supplies — similar to the Strategic National Stockpile that has thousands of desperately needed ventilators.

The agencies also disseminate pandemic information to state leaders, hospitals, medical personnel, schools, businesses and the general public. And none of the information is hard to find.

An Office of Emergency Management webpage titled “Pandemic Influenza: Basic Preparedness,” says that the “New Jersey Department of Health has the best resources available for New Jersey residents,” and hosts links to other state websites, plus FEMA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A hosted CDC link leads to multiple “Pandemic Preparedness Resources,” including a report that says, “Guidance and tools developed for pandemic influenza planning and preparedness can serve as appropriate resources for health departments in the event the current COVID-19 outbreak triggers a pandemic.”

Another linked CDC report reads: “Although pandemics occur infrequently, planning and preparing for a pandemic is important to ensure an effective response.”

But Murphy didn’t prepare, and like other Democratic governors, he’s woefully behind and playing a political blame-game.

The New Jersey Department of Health clearly says the state’s strategic stockpile should provide “pharmaceuticals, ventilators, intravenous fluids, and surgical masks” during a pandemic. And that based on previous pandemics, “attack rates” are “likely to be as high as 35 percent,” or one-third the state’s population.

Not all infected patients would need intensive care and a ventilator, but Department of Health estimates indicate New Jersey’s 2,200 ventilators and the State Strategic Stockpile are terribly insufficient — and that’s not the Trump administration’s fault.

“Community-level estimates suggest that demand for inpatient and intensive care unit beds and for assisted ventilation may increase by more than 25 percent during a pandemic,” states a 2015 health department report, titled “Pandemic Influenza Plan.”

Three years ago, the pandemic report also asked: “What is the expected increase in emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and intensive care unit services? How many patients will need ventilatory support?”

Former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, was New Jersey’s chief executive at the time. Both Christie and Murphy (elected 2018) failed to facilitate answers to several key questions raised in the pandemic report: “What is the expected increase in emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and intensive care unit services? How many patients will need ventilatory support?”

Now, Murphy is defaulting to New York’s “ventilator allocation guidelines” that call for rationing care to Wuhan virus patients. Put another way, “ethics” boards and officials will decide who is allowed access to the limited supply of ventilators; effectively deciding who lives and who dies.

Where did the ventilator money go?

At $20,000 to $36,000 apiece, state officials could have easily afforded to stockpile ventilators in accordance with multiple federal warnings and state Department of Health guidelines and warnings. But taxpayer money went elsewhere.

When virus infections were first skyrocketing in Feb., a state corruption report outlined millions of taxpayer dollars lost through government waste, fraud and abuse, including public employees being paid to donate blood, taxpayer-funded guns for retired police officers, and retirement bonuses that cost $8 million a year in Jersey City alone.

A sliver of government pensions and retirement commitments could have easily purchased enough ventilators to meet health department pandemic estimates. The total cost is nearly $142 billion for state and local employees, public college and university employees, and retired workers.

New Jersey’s 2020 budget is $39 billion. It’s also stuffed with crony-capitalist spending, like the state tax incentive program for multi-billion-dollar Hollywood studios. According to New Jersey’s nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, the five-year program could lead to a $425 million taxpayer loss.

NJ Gov. Murphy Chose Govt Pensions, Labor Unions & ‘Green’ Spending Over Ventilators 1
Joe Pennacchio/IMAGE: YouTube

Prior to the Wuhan virus pandemic, state Sen. Senator Joe Pennacchio said the money “could and should be spent on critically-needed services.”

New Jersey’s labor-friendly Democratic party has also stepped up efforts to push more “green” spending initiatives. New Jersey is one of 12 states that has endorsed the Green New Deal, and both labor and social justice activists have been holding town hall meetings to further exert influence over public officials.

In December, eight New Jersey politicians were arrested over five days for schemes that allegedly included receiving $10,000 in a coffee cup, a mayoral candidate receiving a bag stuffed with thousands of dollars in cash at his campaign headquarters, a city councilman accepting an envelope full of bribe money, and a public official who diverted thousands of dollars in charity donations for his personal use.

“To say we have a long and sordid history of corruption in this state would be understating it,” said New Jersey’s attorney general after the arrests.

Political corruption, wasteful spending, catering to labor unions and misplaced priorities siphoned off untold sums of taxpayer resources that could have purchased thousands of ventilators and funded the New Jersey’s State Strategic Stockpile.

Trump to the Rescue

President Trump approved a disaster declaration for New Jersey on March 26 and opened the floodgates of federal support. But New Jersey is just one of many states competing for limited federal resources.

That hasn’t stopped the state’s Democratic congressional delegation from taking advantage of the dilemma and casting political aspersions on Trump. They’ve accused him of not delivering a robust wish list of emergency medical items, including ventilators, that state officials failed to maintain.

The Trump administration has allotted hundreds of ventilators to New Jersey, to which Murphy tweeted, “While I am thankful to the President for the latest shipment of ventilators – we need more and I will not stop until we get the support we need.”

Thursday evening, Murphy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “All of us have to do one of the biggest post-mortems when the dust settles… we got to figure out how the heck we got in this spot and make sure we never get in this spot ever again.”

REPS: Make Sure CHURCHES Can Access Nonprofits' Virus Relief, Too

Joshua Paladino
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‘Our churches are the heart and soul of this nation, and this can be their finest hour…’

Bipartisan Reps. Tell Executive Branch Coronavirus Relief Money Should Help Churches
Grace Episcopal Church in St. Francisville, La. / PHOTO: Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Republican and Democratic representatives sent a letter to the heads of the Treasury Department, Labor Department and Small Business Administration, asking them to ensure that churches have access to coronavirus relief funds, according to a press release from Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La.
Some religious leaders said provisions in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act needed to be clarified. They worried that the law would let only tax-exempt groups collect the money if they were designated as nonprofits by the Internal Revenue Service.
The federal government regards all churches as tax-exempt, so they do not need to apply for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. Some church leaders thought the lack of formal 501(c)(3) status would impede their ability to benefit from the CARES Act.
Johnson and fellow Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise wrote the letter, along with Democratic Reps. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and James Clyburn of South Carolina.
“It was clearly the intent of Congress to make certain that America’s churches and religious institutions have the exact same access to relief through the CARES Act as all other non-profit organizations, and we need that to be affirmed immediately by the executive branch,” Johnson said. 
“Our churches are the heart and soul of this nation, and this can be their finest hour, and there is no justification why our government should unjustly leave them behind during these difficult times,” he continued.
The IRS allows churches to apply for formal tax-exempt status so that they are not accidentally excluded from tax benefits, but most churches do not submit applications due to the administrative and legal fees.
“Places of worship are the center of many of the communities in my congressional district, and they are suffering as a result of the necessary social distancing measures that are in place,” Clyburn said.
“Congress clearly did not intend that churches’ eligibility for relief under the CARES Act should depend on previously filling out a form that was not legally required,” he added. “Such an arbitrary requirement, if imposed, would add insult to injury for many of the most vulnerable communities I represent.”

NY Dems Attack Franklin Graham Charity for Setting Up Coronavirus Hospital

Contributing Author
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‘It’s a shame that the federal government has left New York with no other choice but to accept charity from bigots…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) After Samaritan’s Purse—a humanitarian relief organization run by Christian evangelist Franklin Graham—announced it would aid coronavirus patients in New York City, a couple of government officials responded by attacking the organization.

Samaritan’s Purse set up a temporary hospital in Central Park to help New York City combat the spread of COVID-19. Instead of thanking the group for its aid, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson slammed Graham, whom Johnson accused of having an “anti-LGBTQ” history.

New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman, who is gay, similarly claimed Samaritan’s Purse is full of “bigots.”

“It’s unacceptable that a New Yorker infected with COVID-19 could be subjected to discriminatory treatment from an organization whose leader calls us ‘immoral’ and ‘detestable,’” Hoylman said in a statement, calling Graham a “homophobic pastor” whose aid must “sadly” be accepted.

“Sadly, beggars can’t be choosers: New York needs every ventilator we can get,” Holyman continued.

Graham responded to the New York politicians’ accusations on the Todd Starnes show, unequivocally disputing the claims of anti-gay bias.

“We don’t discriminate against anybody” Graham said.

“Our doors are open for all New Yorkers—regardless of their race, ethnicity or their sexual preference,” he continued. “We treat everybody the same.”

He also called on the bigoted anti-Christian lawmakers to put aside their partisan prejudices in order to fight the common enemy that the pandemic has become.

“This virus is a tsunami that is hitting our shores,” Graham said. “It’s killing Republicans. It’s killing Democrats. It’s killing independents. And we just need to say forget the politics right now. Let’s work together to save lives.”

Schumer ‘Appalled’ By Trump Letter Calling Him a ‘Bad’ Senator

Contributing Author
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‘No wonder AOC and others are thinking about running against you in the primary…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was “appalled” over a letter from President Donald Trump, in which the president slammed Schumer as a “bad” senator who will soon be ousted by the left.

“If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers), and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the ‘invisible enemy,’” Trump said in the letter.

“No wonder AOC and others are thinking about running against you in the primary,” he continued. “If they did, they would likely win.”

Trump sent Schumer the letter on Thursday after Schumer had asked the president to invoke the Defense Production Act and appoint a military leader to oversee the production and disbursement of equipment to New York hospitals.

Trump responded by reminding Schumer that he had already used the Defense Production Act, and that there already is a “senior military officer” in charge of distributing the supplies.

The president has made public declarations about his invocation of the act, including a requirement that General Motors adapt some of its plants to produce ventilators and an expected mandate forcing 3M to make face masks.

The act also provided the basis for a new Justice Department task force that will confiscate and redistribute medical supplies that price-gouging hoarders are attempting to sell at a hefty markup.

Schumer Warns Intelligence Community to Protect Whistleblower In Case Trump Exposes Him
Chuck Schumer / IMAGE: Maddow Blog via Twitter

While scrambling to meet New York’s emergency needs with ramped-up production,  Trump did not let its left-wing leaders off the hook for being caught unprepared.

“As you are aware, the federal government is merely a back-up for state governments,” he wrote in the letter to Schumer. “Unfortunately, your state needed far more of a back-up than most others.”

Reports last week indicated that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had ignored a 2015 audit warning about a critical shortage of ventilators.

The president also accused Schumer of letting politics and personal grudges get in the way of his public obligations.

“While you have stated that you do not like Andrew Cuomo, you ought to start working alongside him for the good of all New Yorkers,” Trump wrote.

After Schumer received the letter, he told MSNBC that Trump needs to “stop the pettiness.”

“I’m just appalled,” Schumer said. “I say to the president, ‘Just stop the pettiness. People are dying. And so, President Trump, we need leadership, we need to get the job done. Stop the pettiness. Let’s get it done. Let’s roll up our sleeves. I sent the letter with the best of intentions, trying to improve a very bad situation.”

Schumer then doubled-down on his accusation that Trump’s administration is leaving New York to fend for itself in the fight against the coronavirus.

He admitted that Trump did indeed appoint a “senior military official” to oversee the distribution of medical supplies, but then said that he was “concerned” about Trump’s choice, Rear Adm. John Polowczyk. Schumer also said that Peter Navarro, who has been tapped to enforce the Defense Production Act, “was not up to the job.”

All of this proves that Schumer would rather spread “incorrect sound bites” and criticize the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, Trump said, than work together to get things done.

“Fortunately, we have been working with your state and city governments, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, to get the job done,” Trump continued. “You have been missing in action, except when it comes to the ‘press.’ … I’ve known you for many years, but I never knew how bad a Senator you are for the state of New York until I became president.”

Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

New DOJ Task Force Seizes Supplies from Hoarders, Redistributes to NY and NJ

Contributing Author
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‘If you are amassing critical medical equipment for the purpose of selling it at exorbitant prices, you can expect a knock at your door…’

BARR: Mueller Expressed Never Disputed Accuracy of AG's Report Summary
William Barr / IMAGE: Senate Judiciary Committee

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The Department of Justice is sending hundreds of thousands of medical supplies it confiscated from hoarders to New York and New Jersey.

On Monday, the FBI located the supplies—which include at least 192,000 N95 respirator masks, 598,000 medical gloves and 130,000 surgical masks—and alerted the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS then activated the Defense Production Act to seize the supplies.

“If you are amassing critical medical equipment for the purpose of selling it at exorbitant prices, you can expect a knock at your door,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement.

“The Department of Justice’s COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force is working tirelessly around the clock with all our law enforcement partners to ensure that bad actors cannot illicitly profit from the COVID-19 pandemic facing our nation,” he added.

Barr also said those who continued hoarding of necessary medical supplies would be prosecuted.

“Cracking down on the hoarding of vital supplies allows us to distribute this material to the heroic healthcare workers on the frontlines who are most in need,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in the statement.

President Donald Trump created the specific price-gouging task force last week.

He asked the intelligence community to prioritize tracking down vendors and others hoarders who were holding onto medical supplies in order to sell them for excessive profit and manipulate the markets.

This operation is the “first of many such investigations that are underway,” said Peter Navarro, an assistant to the president.

“Our FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies are tracking down every tip and lead they get, and are devoting massive federal resources to this effort,” Navarro said in a statement.

“All individuals and companies hoarding any of these critical supplies, or selling them at well above market prices, are hereby warned they should turn them over to local authorities or the federal government now or risk prompt seizure by the federal government,” he said.

Mich. Gov. Begs for Trump-Touted Drug After She First Advised Against It

Contributing Author
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‘We want to ensure that doctors have the ability to prescribe these medicines…’

Michigan GOP Leader Apologizes for Saying Dem. Governor 'Batsh** Crazy'
Gretchen Whitmer/Photo by University of Michigan’s Ford School (CC)

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Just one week after threatening to take “administrative action” against doctors who prescribed experimental drugs for coronavirus patients, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, considered a rising Democratic star, has flip-flopped.

As the state’s confirmed coronavirus cases continued to surge, Whitmer asked the federal government this week to send anti-malarial drugs, including hydroxychloroquine, from the Strategic National Stockpile to the state’s hospitals.

Whitmer defended her flip-flop, saying the state is trying to remain “nimble” in its response to the coronavirus.

“We want to ensure that doctors have the ability to prescribe these medicines,” she said during a press conference.

“We also want to make sure that the people who have prescriptions that predated COVID-19 have access to the medication they need,” she continued. “And so all of the work that we’ve done is trying to strike that balance.”

Anti-Trump leftists previously scoffed at the notion, with some efforts to discredit the treatment appearing to be politically motivated.

Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs sent a letter to the state’s healthcare system last week warning physicians and nurses not to “inappropriately” prescribe the medications, claiming they do not have a “legitimate medical purpose.”

“These drugs have not been proven scientifically or medically to treat COVID-19,” the letter stated.

Although clinical trials have yet to officially confirm the drug’s efficacy in treating COVID-19, the Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency authorization to use it following strong anecdotal evidence and an endorsement from President Donald Trump.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced in a statement that “scientists in America and around the world have identified multiple potential therapeutics for COVID-19, including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.”

HHS found that the anti-malarial treatments have “shown activity in laboratory studies against coronaviruses,” including the virus that causes COVID-19.

“Anecdotal reports suggest that these drugs may offer some benefit in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients,” HHS said in a statement. “Clinical trials are needed to provide scientific evidence that these treatments are effective.”

Rep. Al Green Attacks Trump, Republicans for Phantom ‘Hate Crimes’ Over ‘Chinese Virus’

Ben Sellers
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‘This virus does not discriminate—people do. It is incumbent upon all of us to denounce hatred and bigotry in all its forms…’

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Al Green / IMAGE: ABC13 Houston via Youtube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) House Democrats continued to make clear their priority during the ongoing coronavirus emergency that President Donald Trump should avoid hurting China‘s feelings.

“The use of pejoratives … to refer to novel coronavirus has reverberated from the White House to televisions across the globe,” wrote Democratic Reps. Al Green of Texas, Judy Chu of California and Pramila Jayapal of Washington.

Trump has roundly condemned China’s government cover-up of the severity of coronavirus, costing critical preparation time for other countries around the globe.

Although the Asian super-power now claims to have successfully stop the spread within its boundaries, China’s own citizens have refuted the claim, saying long hospital lines and round-the-clock incinerators suggest otherwise.

During press briefings on the pandemic response, Trump has pointedly called it the “Chinese virus,” while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged other leading nations to embrace similar nomenclature, citing precedents such as the “Spanish flu” and “West Nile virus.”

China has retaliated by spreading propaganda, even among official sources within the country, to suggest that the American military had originally introduced the virus, which emerged last year in the city of Wuhan.

In their missive, the House Democrats claimed, without further evidence, that Asian–Americans had been subjected to physical attacks directly related to the use of slanderous, Sinophobic slurs by Trump and others.

“In recent weeks, there has been an alarming rise in anti-Asian hate crimes across the country, with some people even needing to be hospitalized for attacks they have sustained simply because their race,” Chu wrote, without providing evidence. “It pains me that the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have actually made things worse by intentionally stoking xenophobia and anger.”

Due to a two-year lag in the FBI’s reporting of nationwide crime statistics, including hate crimes, no data were publicly available to substantiate those claims. The source of the Democrats’ information remained unclear.

Jayapal spoke not only to the potential for violence, but also the emotional harm, saying it caused “tremendous trauma in these communities” for Chinese Americans to hear the oppressive communist regime they fled thusly criticized by the leader of their adoptive country.

“The President must not only stop using these harmful terms and tropes, he must condemn and investigate all anti-Asian American hate crimes and discrimination,” Jayapal said, also without providing evidence of any crimes. “Stigma is the enemy of public health and we need leaders, especially the President of the United States, to strongly condemn the increasing number of racially-motivated attacks and racist rhetoric about the Asian community.”

Green—who ranks high among Congress’s foremost authorities on race-baiting—had yet to link the virus to discrimination against African Americans. However, he chimed in with a more generalized denunciation of oppression, for lack of a better reason to be outraged.

“This virus does not discriminate—people do,” he railed. “It is incumbent upon all of us to denounce hatred and bigotry in all its forms and ensure the safety and well-being of those communities that may be unfairly targeted.”

Dem Rep.: Senate Should Have Removed Trump to Save Lives from COVID

Ben Sellers
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Dem Rep.: Senate Should Have Removed Trump to Save Lives from COVID

‘President Trump has demonstrated that he’s incapable of leading the country during a crisis, and his inaction has cost lives…’

Alma Adams / IMAGE: MSNBC via Youtube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) After President Donald Trump’s February acquittal over bogus impeachment charges of abuse of office and contempt of Congress, his subsequent approval bump was enough to make Democrats scramble to change the subject.

But in the midst of a new national health crisis, one partisan-leftist congresswoman tested the revisionist waters Wednesday, insisting Trump should have been convicted—not for any high crimes or misdemeanors, but on the basis of his future response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m getting to the age where I don’t have time to mince words: If the Senate had removed President Trump in January, I believe our country’s response would have been swifter, more competent, and would have saved lives,” claimed Rep. Alma Adams, D-NC, according to the News & Observer.

“President Trump has demonstrated that he’s incapable of leading the country during a crisis, and his inaction has cost lives,” continued the 73-year-old radical.

The impeachment trial, which ended in February after consuming much of the nation’s attention in the months leading up, likely cost government officials precious response time in preparing for the pandemic.

The first US cases were reported in late January. Federal officials, including Trump, were briefed on the severity of the crisis not long after.

On Jan. 31, Trump assembled top health advisers in the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force to work on a coordinated response, with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar directly overseeing the efforts.

The failures of bureaucratic agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to effectively mobilize during the month of February prompted Trump to designate Vice President Mike Pence to oversee the task force as the concerns over the virus quickly escalated.

Had Pence been in the process of transitioning to the Oval Office following Trump’s theoretical removal, however, it is not clear that his response to the virus would have been sooner or more effective.

WHO’s Really Responsible?

Alma, conveniently, let herself and fellow legislators off the hook.

“I don’t know if Congress could have done more—you’ve seen a swift, bipartisan response that’s moved faster than the usual speed of Congress,” she said.

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Travelers wear masks to protect against the coronavirus. / IMAGE: CBS News via Youtube

“Perhaps we could have used the power of the purse to procure PPEs (personal protective equipment),” she conceded.

Both the Obama administration and the state governments in “blue” localities most heavily impacted by the virus, including New York and California, have faced scrutiny for depleting crucial stockpiles of medical equipment, such as face masks, and ignoring government audits that alerted to a critical shortage of ventilators.

To Adams’ credit, she was urging officials to prepare for the worst as early as Jan. 30, when she co-signed a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia requesting a review of the occupational-hazard standards for healthcare workers.

“While it is currently too early to determine the virulence of 2019-nCoV or the rate of transmission, there is a high potential for it to become a grave danger to health care workers,” said the letter. “If 2019-nCoV proves to be highly communicable, virulent, and easily transmissible in a health care setting, OSHA will need to take immediate and decisive action.”

But Rep. Ted Budd, R-NC, a Trump ally in a district adjacent to Adams, noted that China had sought early on to mislead about the impact of the virus.

Lawmakers including Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., also have called for the UN’s World Health Organization to be held accountable for its complicity in the Chinese disinformation campaign.

Although many serious news outlets—have acknowledged China’s cover-up efforts, some left-wing media continue to mislead, allowing China to spread propaganda.

Meanwhile, Chinese citizens have contradicted the official accounts that there are no new cases, citing long hospital lines and round-the-clock incinerators.

Early Efforts Unheeded

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President Donald Trump addresses the crowd at a rally in Charlotte, NC, before Super Tuesday. / PHOTO: Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines

Trump was both skeptical and cautiously optimistic of the outcome until mid-March, when he declared a national emergency.

Seeking to reassure the public at a March 3 rally in Adams’s home district of Charlotte, Trump said he had recently convened the heads of pharmaceutical companies to start working on a potential vaccine.

“They’re gonna have vaccines, I think, relatively soon,” he said. “… We will bring these therapies to the market as rapidly as possible.”

Despite the gauntlet of regulatory hurdles that stand in the way, companies including Moderna are projecting to have a vaccine on the market by fall.

Additionally, Trump—who announced in early February, during a pre-game Super Bowl interview, that he had shut down travel from China—continued to call for tighter border restrictions.

“There are fringe globalists who would rather keep our borders open than keep the infection [out],” Trump said at the March 3 rally.

But that action was rebuffed by hard-line liberals like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose city has since become the new epicenter for the US health crisis.

Trump also called for unity in response to the crisis.

“The political attacks—some of the Democrats really must stop,” he said at the rally. “We’ve gotta all work together on this one to save our people.”

Alma, however, took every opportunity to snipe at the president over his efforts to stave off a mass panic.

“I think the president should have and could have moved a lot more swiftly on this issue,” she claimed on March 10, the same day that the WHO declared a global pandemic, causing the previously bullish US economy to tank.

“He should have taken it more seriously,” Adams continued. “I think he just tried to shrug it off and did not want to really admit that we have a crisis.”

In the wake of her more recent comments, Adams doubled down on Twitter, twice retweeting the statement while adding, “I said what I said.“

Disease Expert Touts Early Success w/ Trump's 'Game-Changer' COVID Cure

Joshua Paladino
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Disease Expert Touts Early Success w/ Trump's 'Game-Changer' COVID Cure

‘I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. I’m very serious…’

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) An infectious disease specialist joined Fox News‘ “The Ingraham Angle” Wednesday night to share an optimistic opinion about hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that has been effective in treating COVID-19.
Dr. Stephen Smith, founder of The Smith Center for Infectious Diseases and Urban Health, said hydroxychloroquine in combination with azithromycin, a common antibiotic, is a “game-changer,” echoing prior statements made by President Donald Trump.


Leftists have vigorously sought to dismiss the possibility of an effective, market-ready treatment as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the US economy and calls into question Trump’s once-easy path to re-election.
In one particularly egregious smear effort, a left-wing couple poisoned themselves by ingesting fish-tank cleaner, claiming to media outlets and authorities that Trump had convinced them to do it. The husband died as a result.
Smith, however, countered the narrative, telling Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the drug combination’s proper use in a clinical setting had yielded undeniably positive results.
“I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. I’m very serious,” he said.

Dr. Mehmet Oz confirmed Smith’s analysis.
“In terms of symptoms, their temperatures—their fevers broke instead of three days, which is the norm over there on this treatment, they got two days,” Oz said Thursday on “Fox and Friends.” “We think it’s real.”
Smith said he has 72 patients with COVID-19, and he is treating “everybody with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. We’ve been doing so for a while.”
He said none of his patients who received hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for at least five days had required intubation, or using a tracheal tube connected to a ventilator for respiratory support.
“The chance of that occurring by chance—according to my sons, Leon and Hunter, who did some stats for me—are .000-something,” Smith said. “It’s ridiculously low.”
Political leaders, hospitals, and doctors have been requesting more ventilators because COVID-19 causes acute respiratory distress and eventual failure as fluid builds in the lungs and prevents the flow of oxygen throughout the body.
Hydroxychloroquine—which has long been prescribed for malaria and was considered, but ultimately rejected, as an Ebola treatment—is currently undergoing clinical trials to gauge its efficacy in treating COVID-19.
Based on widespread anecdotal evidence, though, the Food and Drug Administration already has issued an emergency authorization for the drug’s use.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the leading disease experts on Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, urged caution in placing too much faith in it, although he acknowledged that he agreed with Trump in “substance” regarding its life-saving potential.
The president, however, said he saw little downside in casting a hopeful glance at it.
“It’s not a drug that you have a huge amount of danger with,” he said during a March press briefing. “It’s not a drug that may have an unbelievable effect, like kill you … I sure as hell think we oughta give it a try.”
Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Cheapskate Bloomberg Charges Ex-Campaign Staff $400 for 'Free' iPhones, MacBooks

Joshua Paladino
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‘How can workers be expected to pay taxes on something they didn’t want?…’

Dems Close Gap on Trump's 2020 Cash Advantage
Michael Bloomberg/Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC)

(Joshua Paladino,  Liberty Headlines) As a growing number of former employees threatened to sue billionaire Michael Bloomberg‘s erstwhile presidential campaign, the laid-off staffers opened their last paychecks to find hundreds of dollars missing.
The campaign deducted more than $400 from paychecks to cover the cost of taxes on cellphones and laptops that the campaign provided for staffers, NBC News reported.
The Bloomberg campaign bragged about recruiting campaign staffers by giving them brand-new iPhone 11s and MacBooks.
Former employees said campaign officials told them that they could keep the gadgets after they were done working for Bloomberg. They said they were not aware that the Bloomberg campaign would charge them for the devices.
A spokesperson for the Bloomberg campaign said the staffers were informed that they would have to pay taxes for the iPhones and MacBooks.
More than 50 former campaign staffers have joined a lawsuit that seeks damages from the Bloomberg campaign for dishonestly claiming that employees would have jobs through November, whether Bloomberg stayed in the race or not.
If the plaintiffs succeed in turning the case into a class-action lawsuit, then more than a thousand plaintiffs from seven states could join the lawsuit.
Sally Abrahamson, who represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said the Outten & Golden law firm will investigate the campaign’s decision to deduct “purported taxes on cell phones and laptops.”
“It doesn’t sound right. How can workers be expected to pay taxes on something they didn’t want?” Abrahamson said to NBC News. “The law certainly doesn’t allow an employer to pay wages with anything but money.”
An anonymous Bloomberg campaign spokesperson defended the campaign’s actions.
“This campaign paid its staff wages and benefits that were much more generous than any other campaign this year,” the spokesperson said. “Staff worked 39 days on average, but they were also given several weeks of severance and healthcare through March, something no other campaign did this year.”

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