‘It’s like every red flag’: Trump-ordered HHS ad blitz raises alarms
Staffed in part by associates of a longtime GOP operative, the ad campaign includes CeCe Winans, Dennis Quaid and others pushing an optimistic line about coronavirus.
Dan Diamond
121d ago
EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s $300M-plus ad blitz to “defeat despair” on coronavirus involves celebrities like Dennis Quaid — and contractors who are business associates of a top political appointee.
7,917
The Trump administration took $300 million from the CDC mid-pandemic so they could make ads with Dennis Quaid saying Trump did a good job. Unreal.
politico.com/news/2020/09/2… pic.twitter.com/GMY2egz0BW
So... let me get this straight ... these Trumpists stole a quarter BILLION dollars from the CDC and other agencies that was meant for actually fighting the virus and are giving it to Caputo’s BUSINESS PARTNERS to make feel-good “corona yay!” celebrity ads?
Caputo's stunning reign of propaganda and grift at HHS is a preview of how every agency would function in a Trump second term. This is how Trump wants things to work.
politico.com/news/2020/09/2… pic.twitter.com/HyUvpofWXO
Trump had Michael Caputo - Roger Stone's co-conspirator and literal Kremlin employee - steal $300 million from CDC during a deadly pandemic TO LAUNDER TO A RUSSIAN FILMMAKER.
THIS ALL SINKING IN YET? politico.com/news/2020/09/2… pic.twitter.com/LEpIJOFijP
🤨🤨🤨Caputo, the departed HHS commissar, raided CDC and FDA other funds for a $300 million pre-election advertising campaign in which one contractor was required to hire Caputo's business partner, @ddiamond reports
Money for a national #COVID19 vaccine communication/education campaign: $0
Money for a PR campaign to “defeat despair”: ~$300 million
What if $300 million was used to instead promote mask-use, and celebrities got together to share the public health guidelines?
Let me get this straight. HHS wants to spend $300 million lying to the public about the administration's COVID response. But making regular COVID tests free for every American is somehow too expensive? 🤔 🤔 🤔
A $300 million “good news”
HHS ad campaign, at taxpayer expense, ahead of the election
(with $15 million going to the business partner of the HHS official who conceived of it)
Wow story from @ddiamond
Cece Winans and Dennis Quaid are in Trump’s HHS ad praising his response to the coronavirus
@MichaelEMann $300M in YOUR tax dollars was reallocated to Trump's reelection. That's 300 MILLION dollars that Trump is taking to spend personally on HIMSELF instead of saving ANYONE from COVID. Trump cares THAT much more about HIMSELF than peoples' lives. Vote him out!
Some perspective: Biden raised $365M last month. Record-breaking! A huge deal! Gave him $141M more in the bank than Trump.
Trump wiped out that advantage by taking $300M from health agencies during a pandemic for his re-election. politico.com/news/2020/09/2…
politico.com/news/2020/09/2…
@CNNSotu @nycsouthpaw @jaketapper $300M in YOUR tax dollars was reallocated to Trump's reelection. That's 300 MILLION dollars that Trump is taking to spend personally on HIMSELF instead of saving ANYONE from COVID. Trump cares THAT much more about HIMSELF than peoples' lives. Vote him out!
@therecount $300M in YOUR tax dollars was reallocated to Trump's reelection. That's 300 MILLION dollars that Trump is taking to spend personally on HIMSELF instead of saving ANYONE from COVID. Trump cares THAT much more about HIMSELF than peoples' lives. Vote him out!
@GarrettHaake @Taniel $300M in YOUR tax dollars was reallocated to Trump's reelection. That's 300 MILLION dollars that Trump is taking to spend personally on HIMSELF instead of saving ANYONE from COVID. Trump cares THAT much more about HIMSELF than peoples' lives. Vote him out!
@maggieNYT $300M in YOUR tax dollars was reallocated to Trump's reelection. That's 300 MILLION dollars that Trump is taking to spend personally on HIMSELF instead of saving ANYONE from COVID. Trump cares THAT much more about HIMSELF than peoples' lives. Vote him out!
Trump literally stealing $300 million from the Centers for Disease Control in the middle of #COVID19 to fund pro-Trump advertising blitz in run-up to election. #TammanyHall #BananaRepublic #coronavirus politi.co/369Wugm via @politico
‘It’s like every red flag’: Trump-ordered HHS ad blitz raises alarms politi.co/369Wugm via @politico
if you are not familiar with the debacle that has been this very expensive HHS ad campaign, be sure to read @ddiamond
Any random day in the Trump presidency would be a top five scandal in any previous presidency.
"The health department is moving quickly on a highly unusual advertising campaign to 'defeat despair' about the coronavirus, a $300 million-plus effort shaped by a political appointee close to Trump..."
The way to defeat despair is to defeat Trump.
Huge $300M public messaging campaign on COVID should’ve been led by CDC+AD Council, not a trump campaign official with no background in health or science, and his friends. Mistakes in it, or agendas not based on science /pub heath, will harm people
$300m of US tax-payers money pulled from Health Dept to fund positive ads on coronavirus right before the election, dreamed up by Trump’s dark arts fixer Michael Caputo, to combat ‘lefty scientists’. Very sinister propaganda effort. The big lie on health
Instead of $300 million to give me and my family the access to covid testing available in all other developed countries, the US regime flushed that money for this garbage propaganda campaign to market its own perfection.
Inexcusable dereliction.
‘It’s like every red flag’: Trump-ordered HHS ad blitz raises alarms politi.co/369Wugm via @politico
I'm not easily outraged, but this is outrageous: grabbing $300million of taxpayer dollars that were earmarked to fight COVID, and using them instead for a feel-good and arguably political ad campaign
And to think outgoing HHS spokesperson Caputo was recommending that his staff listen to the Grateful Dead... Instead he leaves us with Dennis Quaid, Dr. Oz, for feel good ad campaign that raises a whole host of suspicions...
Good morning, @RepDonBacon, @JeffFortenberry and @BenSasse. Johns Hopkins reports that 203,789 of your fellow Americans have died from COVID-19, the plague that @realDonaldTrump, with your help, allowed to infect the US.
‘It’s like every red flag’: Trump-ordered HHS ad blitz raises alarms politi.co/369Wugm via @politico
"CDC hasn’t yet done an awareness campaign about Covid guidelines — but they are going to pay for a campaign about how to get rid of our despair? Run by political appointees in the press shop? Right before an election?" politi.co/369Wugm via @politico
Shunning the experts. Instead, courting celebrities to put on a happy face about coronavirus.
Gee, what else COVID related could we have spent millions of dollars on? Testing? Tracing? Masks? No, a PR campaign about how great we are doing on COVID is a much better idea.
Trump-ordered $300m HHS ad blitz ahead of Nov 3 election raises alarms politi.co/369Wugm via @politico
Trump and Caputo are launching a $300 m ‘Happy Happy Joy Joy’ celeb-laced ad blitz from HHS to ‘defeat despair’ about the pandemic. Funding was yanked from CDC. Supposedly it will feature Trumpkin Dennis Quaid and quack Mehmet Oz.