Politics Random, Random

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Looks like they left the barn door open again...

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Trump ends Fauci’s security detail and says he’d feel no responsibility if harm befell him
By WILL WEISSERT and ZEKE MILLER
Updated 1:08 PM EST, January 24, 2025

FLETCHER, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump has ended the federal security detail for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who advised him on the COVID-19 pandemic, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

Fauci is the latest in a string of former Trump aides-turned-critics to see their federal protection canceled despite ongoing threats to their lives.

Speaking to reporters in North Carolina on Friday, Trump said he wouldn’t feel any responsibility if harm befell the former government officials. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, said that Fauci’s federal security detail was ended on Thursday and that he has since hired private security.

When asked about Fauci and former national security adviser John Bolton, Trump said, “They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security, too.”

Trump, a Republican, earlier this week revoked protection details for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, as well as Bolton. All have faced threats from Iran since they took hard-line stances on the Islamic Republic during Trump’s first administration and fell out with him in the years after he left office in 2021.

Fauci was a regular at Trump’s side early in the COVID-19 outbreak but grew critical of Trump after the president tried to undermine public health guidance. Fauci faced regular threats to his life and has received federal protection for years.

Bolton, Hook and Pompeo had their security details repeatedly renewed by the Biden administration because of credible and ongoing threats from Iran. Fauci’s was also repeatedly renewed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, because of domestic threats.

“You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you worked for government,” Trump said.


https://apnews.com/article/fauci-trump- ... 30750e863a

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Trump fires at least 12 independent inspectors general in late-night purge
The dismissals could clear the way for the president to install loyalists in the crucial role of identifying fraud, waste and abuse in the government.

January 24, 2025 at 11:08 p.m. EST

By David Nakamura and Lisa Rein
The White House late Friday fired the independent inspectors general of at least 12 major federal agencies in a purge that could clear the way for President Donald Trump to install loyalists in the crucial role of identifying fraud, waste and abuse in the government.

The inspectors general were notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated immediately, according to people familiar with the situation, who like others in this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private messages. The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires Congress to receive 30 days’ notice of any intent to fire the inspectors general.

Some of the government’s largest agencies were involved, including the Departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Energy.

Most of those dismissed were Trump appointees from his first term, which stunned the group.

“It’s a widespread massacre,” said one of the fired inspectors general. “Whoever Trump puts in now will be viewed as loyalists, and that undermines the entire system.”

Another fired watchdog said that the new administration “does not want anyone in this role who is going to be independent.”

“IGs have done exactly what the president says he wants: to fight fraud waste and abuse and make the government more effective,” the second person said. “Firing this many of us makes no sense. It is counter to those goals.”

White House aides did not respond to a request for comment.

Some inspectors general are presidential appointees, while others are designated by the heads of their agencies. They serve indefinite terms and typically span administrations to insulate them from shifts in political winds. A president can remove them but must notify both chambers of Congress in advance.

During his first term, Trump fired five inspectors general in less than two months in 2020 — including at the State Department, whose inspector general had played a minor role in the president’s impeachment proceedings and had begun investigating alleged misconduct by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Some lawmakers criticized the move as a retaliatory purge.

Inspectors general are designated to act as watchdogs in federal agencies, with investigatory powers to look into allegations of waste, fraud and abuse.

Before the firings, there were 74 inspectors general across the federal government, some with large staffs numbering in the thousands.

The news left some employees in the offices “absolutely shocked,” said one senior executive in an inspector general’s office, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

“This is totally unprecedented. It’s what we were fearing. There was noise during the transition about him doing this and some statements made during his campaign” by Trump’s aides, the executive said.

Matt Viser contributed to this report.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... -agencies/

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Mueller, She Wrote
‪@muellershewrote.bsky.social‬
Maddow is echoing this tonight.

‪Mueller, She Wrote‬ ‪@muellershewrote.bsky.social‬
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NEW: I'm hearing from some federal workers that - at least at the VA - RNs, LPNs, and NA's that were offered a job that had been rescinded, are being re-offered their jobs over the next one to two days. DM me if you receive a rescission of the rescission. The pushback is WORKING. Thank you to all!

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Steve Herman
‪@newsguy.bsky.social‬

Follow



On Air Force One from Las Vegas to Miami, President Trump says Palestinians in Gaza should be relocated.

“I’d like Egypt to take people. I’d like Jordan to take people,” he tells reporters.”We just clean out that whole thing.”

On Greenland: “I think we’re going to have it. I think the people want to be with us,” President Trump tells reporters on AF1. “I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it’d be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen because it’s for the protection of the free world.”

Canada is a “country that should be a (US) state,” reiterates President Trump. “They’ll get much better treatment, much better care and much lower taxes, and they’ll be much more secure.”

Happy2BeHere‬ ‪@happy2behere.bsky.social‬
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14m
If Don Cornholeo could read anything other than a Big Mac wrapper he might learn that the U.S. has recognized Denmark’s sovereignty since 1917
www.danishmuseum.org/explore/exhi...

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This is from a US television show that was called Designing Women. It aired from 29 September 1986 - 24 May 1993.

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CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately, upending expectations of an extended withdrawal

By MIKE STOBBE
Updated 4:24 PM EST, January 27, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all agency staff who work with the WHO must immediately stop their collaborations and “await further guidance.”

Experts said the sudden stoppage was a surprise and would set back work on investigating and trying to stop outbreaks of Marburg virus and mpox in Africa, as well as brewing threats from around the world. It also comes as health authorities around the world are monitoring bird flu outbreaks among U.S. livestock.

The Associated Press viewed a copy of Nkengasong’s memo, which said the stop-work policy applied to “all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual.” It also says CDC staff are not allowed to visit WHO offices.

President Trump last week issued an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, but that did not take immediate effect. Leaving WHO requires the approval of Congress and that the U.S. meets its financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The U.S. also must provide a one-year notice.

His administration also told federal health agencies to stop most communications with the public through at least the end of the month.


“Stopping communications and meetings with WHO is a big problem,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a University of Southern California public health expert who collaborates with WHO on work against sexually transmitted infections.

“People thought there would be a slow withdrawal. This has really caught everyone with their pants down,” said Klausner, who said he learned of it from someone at CDC.

“Talking to WHO is a two-way street,” he added, noting that WHO and U.S. health officials benefit from each other’s expertise. The collaboration allows the U.S. to learn about new tests and treatments as well as about emerging outbreaks — information “which can help us protect Americans abroad and at home.”

The CDC order isn’t the only global health effect of Trump’s executive orders. Last week, he froze spending on another critical program, PEPFAR or the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The anti-HIV program is credited with saving 25 million lives, including those of 5.5 million children, since it was started by Republican President George W. Bush but was included in a freeze on foreign aid spending slated to last at least three months.

PEPFAR provides HIV medication to more than 20 million people “and stopping its funding essential stops their HIV treatment. If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge,” International AIDS Society President Beatriz Grinsztejn said in a statement.

A U.S. health official confirmed that the CDC was stopping its work with WHO. The person was not authorized to talk about the memo and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A WHO spokesperson referred questions about the withdrawal to U.S. officials.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

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AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

https://apnews.com/article/cdc-who-trum ... 11ccdfe1f6

[Owendonovan]

In a way, I'd like the world to turn its back on the US.