A socialist ‘hacktivist’ has helped expose the platform used by both US rioters and UK government ministers

Tom Coburg
23rd January 2021

On 6 January 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters invaded and occupied the Capitol building in Washington DC, the seat of the US Congress and Senate. The rioters damaged property and five people died. Two pipe bombs were reportedly found in buildings not far from the Capitol. In the aftermath, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for “incitement of insurrection”.

Now, thanks to the swift work of a ‘hacktivist’, more information is coming to light about what really happened during the lead-up to the invasion of the Capitol.
Home for hate speech

Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) ‘Hatewatch’ has accused social media platform Parler of being “a haven for recruitment and promotion for the Jan. 6 pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol building”. For example, it reports that Proud Boys member Jeremy Bertino wrote on Parler, “Find the traitors and get the rope. THIS IS OUR HOUSE!!”. It also reported that Kevin Greeson, one of those who died during the invasion of the Capitol building, posted “Let’s take this fucking Country BACK!! Load your guns and take to the streets!”

The reaction was swift. Following the Capitol invasion, Google and Apple suspended Parler from their app stores. Not long after, Parler was also suspended by Amazon from its web hosting service.

In its court filings, dated 12 January 2021, Amazon Web Services said:
this case is about Parler’s demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove from the servers of Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) content that threatens the public safety, such as by inciting and planning the rape, torture, and assassination of named public officials and private citizens.

And there’s this:

Parler has attracted prominent politicians and political activists. In July 2020, the Independent reported that subscribers included far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes. SPLC reports that Boogaloo’s Last Sons Of Liberty, as well as Infowars‘ Alex Jones and Owen Shroyer, are also Parler subscribers. And CNN Business names QAnon members as subscribers. According to the Independent:”The president is not on the app (yet), but his son Eric Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany are, along with his Republican allies like Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, [and Republican congressman] Matt Gaetz“.
UK subscribers

On the other side of the Atlantic, UK government minister Michael Gove was named as one of several Conservative MPs who opened accounts on Parler. Others include foreign office minister James Cleverly, health minister Nadine Dorries, trade minister Ranil Jayawardena, arch-Brexiter Steve Baker, and Conservative MP Ben Bradley.

According to the Guardian:

The most prolific Tory MP on the site was Bradley who sent 52 “parleys” and had more than 12,000 followers. Gove sent at least 26 parleys and had more than 5,000 followers.

Darren Grimes, who worked for BeLeave, was another Parler account subscriber. BeLeave was a pro-Brexit campaign group linked with Vote Leave that was fronted by Gove and Boris Johnson. Hate purveyor Katie Hopkins has a Parler account too.

Financial backers


It’s been revealed that a co-founder and now financial backer of Parler is Rebekah Mercer. Both she and her father Robert have also financed Breitbart News, formerly run by controversial right-winger and Brexit supporter Steve Bannon. And Bannon was also a “board member, vice-president, and part-owner” of Cambridge Analytica (CA), the discredited former data mining company.

But it gets even more complicated. According to the Guardian, Robert Mercer helped bankroll CA as well as Trump’s election campaign. Moreover, it’s claimed that a company called Emerdata is the successor to CA and its parent SCL. And in 2017, Rebekah Mercer set up Emerdata and made herself a director, together with former CA chief Alexander Nix.

As for web hosting, Vice reported on 11 January that Parler was being hosted by Epik, which SPLC describes as “cornering the market on websites where hate speech is thriving”. However, on 19 January, the Guardian reported that Parler is being hosted by Russia-based DDos-Guard, whose clients include the Russian ministry of defence.

As we go to press, the new Parler site appears to be experiencing ‘technical difficulties’. In a statement on its website Parler, denies its role in the Capitol building invasion:

Parler is gratified that the court refused to uncritically accept Amazon’s argument – widely repeated in the media – that the Parler platform was somehow used to plan, coordinate or execute the despicable January 6 riot at the Capitol.

Based on the evidence of which we are aware, the Parler platform was not used in that manner

No hiding place

In the immediate aftermath of the Capitol invasion, hacker donk_enby, who according to Vice considers herself an anarcho-socialist, archived much of Parler‘s content so as to preserve self-incriminating postings. Vice reports she scraped “56.7 terabytes of data, which included every public post on Parler, 412 million files in all—including 150 million photos and more than 1 million videos”. She added how she was helped in the task by the Archive Team.

She also clarified, “Everything we grabbed was publicly available on the web, we just made a permanent public snapshot of it”. A webpage on the Parler archive explains how to access the data. That webpage is part of the Distributed Denial of Secrets site, which includes many other data collections.

Meanwhile, ProPublica has published a selection of 500 videos that were posted on Parler and which help show what happened in the invasion of the Capitol building.
Collateral damage

US attorney and activist Malaika Jabali warns:

Parler may be homeless now, but there is an entire world that welcomes the hatred and violence it cultivates

It’s all about the company you keep; or, to put it another way, which sewer you choose to swim in.

And with the downfall of Trump, there could be more casualties from the Capitol invasion and Parler bans.

One of Trump’s last moves as president was to embolden anti-vaxxer hysteria

Peter Bolton
24th January 2021

The one-year anniversary of the outbreak of coronavirus (Covid-19) passed last December. But following the approval of multiple vaccinations from several different pharmaceutical companies, the end seemed within sight. Just as a return to normality begins to look possible, though, this notion seems increasingly threatened by the rise of a familiar foe of science, progress, and public health. The long-simmering anti-vaccination movement is going into overdrive in its attempts to portray mass vaccination as some kind of evil conspiracy.

The Trump administration established a prolific record of opposing science and promoting all manner of conspiracy theories. But it has perhaps exceeded even its own standards, with one last dismal act of support of anti-vaxxer hysteria.

Over $850,000 in bailout money

On 18 January, the Washington Post reported that the US federal government granted several anti-vaccine groups bailout money from public coffers. This was in the waning days of the disgraced Trump administration. Five of the most prominent organizations belonging to the anti-vaxxer movement received more than $850k in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP was formed to help small businesses and non-profit organizations struggling under the crippling financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The process has been controversial due to applicants’ ability to self-certify the loans’ approval. The Post also reported that corporate restaurant giants such as Shake Shack, and a defense contractor with billions in sales, “benefitted handsomely” from the loans. Meanwhile “debt collectors and high-interest lenders pocketed more than $500 million”.

A who’s who of the ‘anti-vaxxer’ movement

The five anti-vaccine groups that received PPP money are:
The National Vaccine Information Center.
Mercola Health Resources.
The Informed Consent Action Network.
The Children’s Health Defense.
The Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center.

The Children’s Health Defense is perhaps the most high profile and notorious of these groups. And it was founded by a member of the US’s prominent Kennedy political dynasty, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On 17 January, Kennedy wrote an article in which he claims that health officials are “depriving people of the information they need to make informed decisions [about coronavirus vaccinations]”.

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY 1953

The proof is in the outbreaks

Reluctance to vaccinate children, amongst a small but growing section of the US public, has led to localized outbreaks. These outbreaks are of diseases that were thought to have been consigned to the history books decades earlier. In January 2019, USA Today reported that a county in Washington state, known as an anti-vaxxer hotspot, had experienced over 70 cases of measles so far that year.

The articles states:

The county has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state: Nearly one in four Clark County kindergarten students during the 2017-18 school year did not get all their immunizations, according to data from the Washington Department of Health. At three schools in the county, more than 40 percent of kindergartners did not receive all recommended shots before starting school.

Meanwhile, in December 2019, the World Health Organization reported that “vaccination rates globally have stagnated for almost a decade”. And as a result of these suboptimal vaccine rates, “more than 140,000 people died [worldwide] from measles in 2018″. This was while “measles cases surged globally, amidst devastating outbreaks in all regions”.

A familiar face of conspiracism

Trump himself has been a long-time exponent of anti-vaccination myths. He’s also voiced conspiracy theories about the pandemic, especially during the crucial early months of the outbreak. Trump’s handling of the crisis is widely viewed as one of the major reasons behind his 2020 election loss to Democratic Party challenger Joe Biden. The US, despite being the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, holds the dubious distinction of having the most coronavirus cases and the most coronavirus related deaths in the world.

Though Trump is gone, the damage caused by these dangerous peddlers of pseudo-science will continue beyond his presidency. And the Biden administration will likely take a less oppositional stance toward science and reason-based public health measures than Trump. But the threat that these groups pose to containing the coronavirus outbreak – and that of other deadly diseases – will remain.

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY 1953

Who Was John Birch? - VAXOPEDIA

Trump supporter charged over Capitol riot and urging assassination of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The Canary
24th January 2021

A 34-year-old Donald Trump supporter has been arrested for allegedly taking part in the storming of the US Capitol and posting violent threats. The threats included a call to assassinate Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Miller is from the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Texas. He was arrested on Friday 22 January after being named in a five-count federal complaint.

“Just want to incriminate myself”

Authorities allege that Miller posted photos and videos on his social media accounts that show him inside the Capitol on 6 January. He was among supporters of then-president Donald Trump who stormed the building on that day.

He also reportedly called for violence in online posts. One tweet read: “Assassinate AOC,” a reference to Ocasio-Cortez.
 
In another tweet, Miller posted, “They are right next time we bring the guns,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.

Miller also threatened a US Capitol police officer during an exchange on Instagram. He wrote that he planned to “hug his neck with a nice rope”, the affidavit states.

It also states that after posting a photo on Facebook showing him inside the Capitol, Miller responded to a comment on the picture with: “just want to incriminate myself a little lol,”.

“They thought they were going to succeed”

Ocasio-Cortez posted Miller’s charging documents on Twitter on 22 January and then tweeted:

On one hand you have to laugh, and on the other know that the reason they were this brazen is because they thought they were going to succeed.

Miller’s lawyer, Clint Broden, said his client regrets his actions. Broden said Miller took these actions “in a misguided effort to show his support for former President Trump”. He went on to add:

His social media comments reflect very ill-considered political hyperbole in very divided times and will certainly not be repeated in the future…

He looks forward to putting all of this behind him.

Miller is scheduled to appear at a detention hearing on Monday 25

Viral Video Warns Donald Trump Set to Take Charge    of  'Army of Domestic Terrorists'

BY KHALEDA RAHMAN ON 1/19/21

In author Don Winslow's latest viral video assailing President Donald Trump, a chilling warning is issued—that Trump will take charge of an "army of domestic terrorists" after leaving office and start a civil war in the United States.

The video has already amassed more than three million views since it was posted on Twitter on Monday.

In the clip, a voiceover says that when Trump stops being the commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces or nuclear arsenal on Wednesday, he will assume control of a "different army" and "encourage and incite violence" in the years to come.

To combat the threat, the video urges Americans to "fight back" by forming a "citizen army" to monitor the online activity of extremists and aid authorities.

The purpose of the video "is to put forth the idea of creating a real network of citizen detectives to uncover and expose white supremacy and domestic terrorism," Winslow, a bestselling crime novelist and vocal Trump critic, told Newsweek.

"For citizen detectives to become amateur intelligence analysts that would feed information to law enforcement."

He added: "The reality is that law enforcement has missed the boat on white supremacy and domestic terrorism and the historical record supports that. It's not hyperbole."

Winslow said the two-minute video posted on Monday has connected with people because "it exposes what we know is out there," adding that Trump "has created this army and after January 20th—directly or indirectly—he will lead them."

In recent months, Winslow and screenwriter, producer and director Shane Salerno have produced videos condemning Trump that have reached a massive number of people. A video posted last week about the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that Winslow presented as evidence to support Trump's second impeachment has amassed more than nine million views.



"We have to be much more diligent about what is being done online," Winslow said. "Trump's digital war—which went unchecked for four years—has very serious and violent consequences in the real world. January 6, 2021 made that clear."

Noting that many of the Trump loyalists that stormed and ransacked the Capitol that day had wielded Trump flags, Winslow said the outgoing president has spent four years "building an army"—a word he says he uses intentionally because "they are an army loyal to him and not loyal to their country."

Some of the people who have been arrested since the Capitol attack were featured in the video, as a voiceover explained that "the greatest threat facing Americans today comes from within—radical extreme conservatives, also known as domestic terrorists."

It adds: "They're hidden among us, disguised behind regular jobs. They are your children's teachers. They work at supermarkets, malls, doctor's officers and many are police officers and soldiers."

The voiceover also says that Trump had "spoken directly to white supremacists in their language" for years, noting that when asked to disavow white supremacy during a presidential debate last year, e instead told the far-right Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by."

On January 6, he "greenlit them" and "they suited up," it adds. "They flew in. They took hotel rooms. They loaded their weapons and prepared their bombs and they attacked with the intention of killing Nancy Pelosi and hanging Vice President Mike Pence."

In the coming years, Trump will "play the role of arsonist and fireman," the voiceover continues. "He will start a civil war and then say things were more peaceful when he was president. We have to fight back."

But to do so, the video says "computers can be more valuable than guns" and proposes that citizens use their electronic devices to track extremists online and report them to authorities.

It noted that before Osama bin Laden—who plotted the September 11, 2001 attacks—was killed, he was located by a CIA analyst "working on a computer thousands of miles away."

Winslow added that the events of January 6 were "a turning point for America" and were "as important" as the 2001 attacks.

"The image of the U.S. Capitol being taken, largely without force, is forever burned in our minds," he said.

"One of the aspects that is not discussed is the sheer casualness that many of the domestic terrorists exhibited. They are walking around the Capitol confident and largely without fear. Why? What would have given them that confidence? The President of the United States telling them to do it, essentially giving them an order."

 ANOTHER Q

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/

Conservatives are freaking out over Biden’s new LGBTQ protections

He hadn't even been in office for a day before he was accused of attacking religion and erasing women.

By Alex Bollinger Thursday, January 21, 2021

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Photo: VP Brothers / Shutterstock

Yesterday, on his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order to fight discrimination against LGBTQ people, and naturally anti-LGBTQ activists – both conservative Christians and anti-transgender “feminist” activists (TERFs) – are hopping mad.

“Ultimately, if this executive order is able to be fully carried out, it will affect everyday Americans who hold biblical and conservative values,” said Tony Perkins of the SPLC-designated hate group Family Research Council.

Related: During last hours in office, Trump is fuming that Lady Gaga will perform at Biden’s inauguration

Biden’s executive order instructs executive agencies that the Biden administration considers discrimination against LGBTQ people to already be banned under federal laws that ban discrimination “because of sex” and to look for ways to implement federal law in light of that. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of this interpretation of the law in Bostock v. Clayton Co. decision last year.

While the Trump administration fought against implementing it, the Biden administration is already getting hate from anti-LGBTQ activists about it.

“The Biden administration is planning to go much further in its assault on biological reality and is expected to order schools to abolish girls’ sports and force boys and girls to use the same showers and locker rooms, and maybe even bunk together on school trips,” Perkins warned, adding that “the world’s major religions will be forced to violate their consciences” as a result of Biden’s order.

None of it is true.

Over on Twitter, the hashtag #BidenErasedWomen is trending. TERFs (transgender exclusionary radical feminists) are saying that the executive order to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity somehow means that women don’t exist anymore.

One British Twitter user declared that Biden had “erased female people and their sex based rights from US law” but she doesn’t appear to actually understand the law.

The President of the United States just erased female people and their sex based rights from US law.

Possibly without even fully grasping the magnitude of what he has done.

I think twitter should make some noise and let him know.#BidenErasedWomen https://t.co/FfDsDGkSpB

— Dr. Jane Clare Jones (@janeclarejones) January 21, 202

Biden’s executive order expands the number of cases where federal anti-discrimination laws like Title VII can be used and did not ban anti-discrimination laws from being used in cases about discrimination against women.

But that didn’t stop the angry tweets about how women don’t have rights anymore.

Biden has erased the sex-based rights of half the population, hard won rights that he signed away in one day. #BidenErasedWomen

— CJ (@CJ_liberte) January 21, 2021

Other anti-transgender activists on Twitter focused entirely on sports.

On day 1, Biden unilaterally eviscerates women's sports. Any educational institution that receives federal funding must admit biologically-male athletes to women's teams, women's scholarships, etc.

A new glass ceiling was just placed over girls.https://t.co/cGWZqDpxl8

— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) January 21, 202

But many people using the hashtag were also arguing against transphobia, pointing out that the first president to take office with a woman vice president maybe has a better record on women’s rights than his predecessor.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/

American evangelicals are really disgusted by a British Cadbury Eggs commercial they can’t see

The ad that will never air in America is "graphic and offensive" to their delicate sensibilities, so they're sharing a video of it with their followers so they'll be sure to see it. Because that makes sense.

By Bil Browning Thursday, January 21, 2021

Photo: Shutterstock

One Million Moms, the astroturf offshoot of the anti-LGBTQ hate group American Family Association, is incredibly upset by a commercial that will never appear on their televisions. The British spot is for Cadbury Eggs.

The ad shows people eating the chocolate Easter candy in various ways. But the gay couple who appear in the commercial for six seconds, they say, are “graphic and disturbing.”

Related: Heartwarming new Doritos ad is about a dad accepting his gay son

Real-life couple Callum Sterling and Dale Moran went viral this month after they were featured in a Cadbury Cream Egg commercial. The two men share one of the chocolate treats as other people demonstrate other ways to eat the confection.

Monica Cole, the perpetually perturbed head of the group, sent a breathless email alert to her decidedly-less-than a million followers alerting them of the chocolate commercial that describes the men as “disgusting” and “gross.” The group uses the words by attributing them to random “Christians and non-Christians” who have commented on the internet.

The alert also quotes a far-right columnist who compares the men to dogs.

“This video is graphic and offensive,” Cole warns right after including a link to the video.


Christians who enjoy the yearly sugary confection should be upset “how the company celebrates the risen Savior,” Cole advises. Easter eggs are a leftover symbol of spring from the original pagan holidays that Easter replaced on the calendar. They have nothing to do with the crucifixion.

“A portion of each sale goes to help finance Cadbury’s social agenda that has nothing to do with chocolates and candies,” Cole warns before linking to a “petition” that harvests email addresses for their mailing list. Supporters are urged to donate money to support the group’s agenda.

Responding to “offended” Christians, Sterling posted on social media.

“I’m super happy this has all happened. The love we have received totally outways the fear based negative comments. Makes me proud to live in the UK and to have so much love in my life,” he wrote.

“And let’s be honest, I’m sure there would be half as many complaints if it was two ‘beautiful’ cis gendered hetero looking caucasian women. ‘I’m not homophobic but …’ nah mate, you’re dumb, and homophobic. At Least admit it."

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/

Trump blocked Dr. Fauci from going on Rachel Maddow’s show “for months.” Biden has already let him.
Dr. Fauci made his most open rebuke of the Trump administration to date during his MSNBC appearance. "I had pressure put on me, but I resisted it."
By Juwan J. Holmes Sunday, January 24, 2021
Rachel Maddow (left) and Dr. Anthony Fauci (right) on the Rachel Maddow Show Photo: MSNBC/Screenshot

In an appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show on January 22, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr. Anthony Fauci revealed that he had wanted to appear on the MSNBC show for months, but the requests were “just blocked” by the Trump administration.

“I’ve been wanting to come on your show for months and months,” he told Rachel Maddow, the show’s out host. “You’ve been asking me to come on your show for months and months, and it’s just gotten blocked.”

Related: Rachel Maddow returns to air & reveals her partner was deathly sick with COVID

In one of his most revealing interviews yet, Dr. Fauci exposes what it was like working under the Trump administration, which ended just four days ago. Part of that was his limited participation in publicly addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

While 400,000 American lives were lost in the last year, it seems that President Donald Trump (R) and Alex Azar, then-secretary of the Department of Human & Health Services (HHS) — which oversees NIAID — were focused on preventing Dr. Fauci from going on-air with one of the president’s biggest critics.

“Let’s call it what it is: It just got blocked because they didn’t like the way you handle things, and they didn’t want me on. It was so clear,” he told Maddow.

Dr. Fauci, who is now the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, explained that officials in the previous administration asked why he wanted to appear on her show, and the 80 year-old said that he “just likes the way [she] handles things,” and he told them that “I like her, she’s really good.”

“It doesn’t make any difference. Don’t do it,” was the purported response Dr. Fauci received.
Under the new Biden administration, “I don’t think you’re going to see that now,” Dr. Fauci opined. “I think you’re going to see a lot of transparency…. you’re not going to see deliberate holding back of good people when the press asks for them.”

“The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence and science is, and know that’s it — let the science speak — it is somewhat of a liberating feeling,” he said.

Dr. Fauci also made his most open rebuke of the Trump administration to date during the appearance, although he didn’t disparage any specific individuals and tried to show respect for his former boss due to his “respect for the office.”\

“I don’t take any pleasure in criticizing Presidential leadership, or the people around the President, but we had a situation where science was distorted and/or rejected, and a lot of pressure was put on individuals and organizations that were not directly related to what their best opinion would be, vis-à-vis the science.

“I had pressure put on me, but I resisted it, and I had to do something that was not comfortable, but I did it. I had to be directly contradicted not only the president, but some of the people around the president who were saying things that were not consistent with the science,” Dr. Fauci recalled.

He also went on to address the open secret that the administration had considered firing him.

“I am not a political appointee, so you know, this whole idea of “we’re gonna fire him” and that kind of stuff – I mean, I didn’t want to be at odds with the president, because I have a lot of respect for the office of the presidency, but there was conflict at different levels with different people at different organizations, and a lot of pressure being put on [me] to do things that are just not compatible with the science.

“I think the only way that happens is when you have leadership from the very top, and people surrounding the leadership, that essentially let that happened.”

Fauci also suggested he wasn’t the only medical official that had to resist the political “influence” asserted over the coronavirus pandemic response, namely including those in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“People were influenced, unfortunately. But I’ve got to tell you, at the same time that some might have been, a lot of people weren’t,” he said. “There were a lot of people in the CDC and the FDA who were really suffering under that.”

“I’ve served, now, this is my seventh administration, Rachel – and I’ve been advising administrations and presidents on both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, people with different ideologies – and even with differences in ideology, there never was this real affront on science.

“So it was a real [embarrassment] that I haven’t seen in the 40 years that I’ve been doing this. So it’s one of those things that are chilling when you see it happen.”

“It was a tough situation, it really was,” Dr. Fauci concluded.

Trump blocked Dr. Fauci from going on Rachel Maddow’s show “for months.” Biden has already let him. / LGBTQ Nation

Deborah Birx Says Some Donald Trump White House Staff Believed COVID Was a Hoax
BY KHALEDA RAHMAN ON 1/24/21 NEWSWEEK


White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on November 19, 2020 in Washington, D.C.TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES


Dr. Deborah Birx has said there were some staff in former president Donald Trump's White House who believed COVID-19 was a hoax.

In an interview with on CBS News' Face The Nation, Birx spoke about the challenges she faced while working with the Trump White House on combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There were people who definitely believed that this was a hoax," Birx, the former coordinator of the Trump administration's coronavirus task force, told Margaret Brennan when asked if there were coronavirus deniers in the Trump White House.


Pressed on why, Birx said: "I think because the information was confusing at the beginning, I think because we didn't talk about the spectrum of disease... they saw people get COVID and be fine, and then they had us talking about how severe the disease is and how it could cause these unbelievable fatalities of our American public."


Birx claimed Trump "appreciated the gravity" of the pandemic in March last year, but said the president was being fed information that wasn't coming from her.

"It took a while after I arrived in the White House to remove all the ancillary data that was coming in," she told Brennan.

"There was parallel data streams coming into the White House that were not transparently utilized and I needed to stop that."

She added: "I saw the president presenting graphs that I never made...Someone inside was creating a parallel set of data and graphics that were shown to the president."

Birx said she "censored" by the Trump administration and wishes she had been more outspoken, particularly on the issue of testing. "I didn't know how far I could push the envelope," she said.

Birx also insisted that her role on the Trump task force was not political. "I thought that I could be helpful, which is the only reason I go and do anything," she said.

She also said she believes the former president's language had played a significant role in "derailing" the response to the pandemic, which has so far claimed more than 400,000 lives in the U.S.

"When you have a pandemic where you're relying on every American to change their behavior, communication is absolutely key," she said.

"And so every time a statement was made by a political leader that wasn't consistent with public health needs, that derailed our response. It is also why I went out on the road because I wasn't censored on the road."

Birx announced last month that she would retire, after it was reported that she had traveled out of state over Thanksgiving weekend, even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was urging Americans to avoid family gatherings and travel over the holiday.

In a statement last month, Birx said she was accompanied by family members to her property in Delaware, but insisted the purpose of the visit was to winterize with property and not to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Birx told Brennan she plans to retire from her current role at the CDC in the next four tsix weeks.

"It hurt my family... all of this," Birx added. "This tested my resilience because it tested my family."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, has also spoken about how he was kept from speaking about the pandemic on national media by the Trump administration.

He told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Friday that he was "blocked" from going on her show. On Thursday, he told reporters that Trump often put him in an "uncomfortable" position, and that the new administration felt "liberating."

   

MEET THE NEW BOSS SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

Biden will continue Trump's Abraham Accords framework, says NSA

Presenting the Abraham Accords
Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

Biden will continue Trump's Abraham Accords framework, says NSA
New National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tells top Israeli official Biden administration will 'build on' Trump's Mideast peace process.
Tags: Meir Ben Shabat Joe Biden Abraham Accords

David Rosenberg , Jan 24 ,2021

The Biden administration will continue its predecessor’s Middle East peace efforts, the new National Security Advisor said, vowing the White House will ‘build on’ the Abraham Accords deals brokered by the Trump administration.

Just days into its term, the new Biden administration is already working to reverse a plethora of Trump administration policies ranging from border security and illegal immigration to energy, the coronavirus pandemic, and travel.

But White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reassured his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, that the new administration will not deviate from the Trump White House’s bid to broker normalization deals between Israel and moderate Arab states.

While some Democrats had criticized the Trump administration for brokering the deals in the absence of a breakthrough between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Sullivan told Ben-Shabbat in a Saturday night telephone call that the Us would work to ‘build on’ the last administration’s “success”, Reuters reported.

“They discussed opportunities to enhance the partnership over the coming months, including by building on the success of Israel’s normalization arrangements with UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco,” according to a statement on Sullivan’s conversation with Ben-Shabbat.

Israel National News - Biden will continue Trump's Abraham Accords framework, says NSA