Trump Picks RFK Jr. As Health Secretary

Written By Guest User

Plus, Florida sues FEMA for denying aid to Trump supporters, and more Gaetz backlash

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Good morning,

Already ready for a drink tonight? You’re probably not alone. Despite a trend toward nonalcoholic beers and mocktails, alcohol consumption is still way up since it spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Back in 2020 lockdowns (we remember), Americans started drinking more, citing stress, isolation, and overall uncertainty about the future.

  • But new research from 2021 and 2022, published this week in Annals of Internal Medicine, shows that the trend did not slow. If anything, drinking increased and more people reported heavy or binge drinking.

    • What is heavy drinking? 4+ servings/day or 8+ servings/week of alcohol for women, or 5+/day or 15+/week for men.

  • Researchers expected the 2020 numbers to go back to pre-pandemic levels, “like what we saw with 9/11 and Katrina,” Dr. Brian Lee, a hepatologist who led the study said. However, he and his co-authors note that the “sustained increase” could come from the “normalization of and adaptation to increased drinking due to stress from the pandemic and disrupted access to medical services."

If you want some suggestions for what to watch/read/eat this weekend – and NOT drink 😉 – check out the bottom of the Newsletter.

Have a good one!

Mosheh, Jill, Sari, & Lauren

PS: Don’t forget to refer friends & family to subscribe to the Mo Newsletter… you could get free Mo News merch — DETAILS at the bottom of this newsletter!

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— Mosheh

📌 TRUMP PICKS RFK JR. AS HEALTH SECRETARY, FACES BACKLASH FOR GAETZ AG PICK

President-elect Donald Trump continued a week of nonstop cabinet announcements by announcing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will be his Secretary of Health and Human Services. The environmental lawyer and former presidential candidate is vowing to “Make America Healthy Again” and put an end to the “chronic disease epidemic.”

  • During his campaign, Trump said he would let Kennedy “go wild” with health and food policies. The HHS Secretary is responsible for overseeing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health, among others, with a massive budget of about $1.7 trillion. Kennedy has vowed to fire hundreds of staff across the agencies, and reprioritize the focus of their health research.

  • The Kennedy choice is alarming to a number of public health experts inside and outside the government. He is one of the most prominent vaccine skeptics in the world, and has pushed disproven claims linking vaccines to autism. He has said he does not plan to ban any vaccines, but is seeking more data about them.

SENATE CONFIRMATION CHECK
Kennedy is expected to face challenges in the Senate over his controversial health claims. As recently as two weeks ago, Trump’s campaign co-chair Howard Lutnick said publicly on CNN that they had no intention of nominating Kennedy for the position. That changed in recent days.

How we got here: Over the last few decades, Kennedy built a following of supporters backing his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He was a lifelong Democrat (like the rest of the Kennedy family) but left the party in the last year, arguing that it is no longer in line with his views. After his independent presidential bid failed, he joined the Trump campaign and worked to shore up support with his message of making food healthier.

PUSHBACK AFTER THE PICKS
It remains to be seen how RFK Jr. will fare in the Senate, but another one of Trump’s other picks looks like he will have an even more difficult time. The new Senate Majority Leader, Sen. John Thune (R-SD), says he is unsure whether Matt Gaetz will get the 50 votes necessary to become Attorney General. He said Thursday that Gaetz and Kennedy both deserve “a process.”

  • The incoming Senate will have 53 Republicans, and some have already expressed concern with the nomination. Gaetz is known to be fiercely partisan, and he recently faced a federal sex trafficking investigation in Congress related to his relationship with young women.

Many Republican Senators sidestepped questions about Gaetz, with few fully backing his nomination to be the nation’s top law enforcement official. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asserted Thursday that he believes “between 5 and 10 Republicans” are “seriously considering” rejecting Gaetz’s nomination. We will see.

ETHICS COMMITTEE PROBE
The House Ethics Committee is set to meet today to vote on releasing its “highly damaging” report investigating claims that Gaetz engaged in sex trafficking and illicit drug use.

  • The committee has no power to discipline Gaetz, since he technically resigned from the House of Representatives Thursday. But, the status of the report is still in question.

    • Just one Republican Representative would need to join Democrats on the panel to release the findings.

  • Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a senior member of the Judiciary panel — which would review Gaetz appointment — told reporters on Thursday that he wants access to the report.

    • However, it is unclear if the Senate has the power to demand records from the House.

ALL PART OF A BIGGER PLAN?
Gaetz was NOT on the short list for attorney general picks, given to Trump by aides. The plan to nominate the former Florida Congressman was supposedly hatched on Wednesday, hours before the announcement, while Trump was flying to Washington with Gaetz on board.

  • Regardless of how much planning came beforehand, the Gaetz pick falls in line with a few themes we’ve gleaned from Trump’s picks this week: prioritizing total disruption and loyalty over experience and independence.

    • It may also be a test to see if Senate Republicans will back all parts of his agenda.

  • Reminder: Even if Gaetz or any other picks fail to win approval by the Senate, there is talk in the White House about using the presidential power to conduct “recess appointments” to fill roles the next time Congress goes on vacation. That power allows a president to appoint cabinet officials without Senate approval. There have been no recess appointments since a Supreme Court ruling in 2014, but Trump is pressuring Senate Republicans to allow him to bring them back.

📌 FIRED FEMA SUPERVISOR SAYS SHE WAS WRONGLY BLAMED

A former supervisor at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is speaking out, after she was fired for advising workers assisting hurricane survivors not to go to homes with yard signs supporting Donald Trump. She says she has been hung out to dry, and was let go for following FEMA procedures.

  • Marn’i Washington was leading a survivor assistance team in Florida after Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall in September and October.

  • Washington told Fox News that she was just following FEMA protocol, which advised workers to avoid Trump supporters’ homes for their own safety. “This was the culture,” she said. “They were already avoiding these homes, based on community trends, from hostile political encounters.”

But, in their announcement firing her, FEMA officials say it was Washington who went against FEMA’s “core values.” Here is what Administrator Deanne Criswell had to say:

  • “This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. This was reprehensible. I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct.

FLORIDA IS INVESTIGATING

  • Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has directed Florida’s Division of Emergency Management to launch an investigation into "the federal government’s targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump."

    • The Attorney General of Florida is also suing FEMA and Washington to “find out how far this political discrimination reaches.”

  • Washington says she is being unfairly scapegoated: “What’s reprehensible is that they’re not being transparent…I am the person that jotted down the notes from my superiors.”

HOW WE GOT HERE
In the aftermath of hurricanes in the Southeast US, rumors and conspiracy theories spread on social media, including warnings that FEMA could seize land from survivors and that FEMA funds were being used to aid migrants at the border.

  • On the campaign trail, Trump helped spread some false claims about FEMA and the federal response to Helene.

  • There was fear that these falsehoods might incite violence against federal aid workers helping with the aftermath.

    • Washington, the former FEMA worker, said that’s exactly what happened: “You can ask FEMA for incident reports,” she told Fox News. “They have those…And unfortunately, again, the passionate supporters for Trump, some of them were a little bit violent.”

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATION

📌 FBI arrests Houston man who allegedly wanted to commit a ‘9/11’ style attack in the US (CNN)

📌 Black and Latino families displaced from Palm Springs neighborhood reach tentative settlement (AP)

📌 National Hurricane Center tells Floridians to monitor soon-to-be Tropical Storm Sara (CNN)

📌 New Pentagon report on UFOs marks new incidents, but no evidence of aliens (AP)

 🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌 President Biden begins final international summit in Peru (AP)

📌 Explosives and timer found on suspect’s body after attack on Brazil’s top court (CNN)

📌 Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal getting closer (REUTERS)

📌 Meet the New Zealand's parliamentarian who has gone viral for her Māori Haka dance in Parliament (MSN)

📌 Delhi shuts all primary schools as hazardous smog worsens (BBC)

 📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

📌 FBI raids Polymarket CEO’s home, seizing phone, electronics (CNBC)

📌 The Onion wins Alex Jones' Infowars in bankruptcy auction (NBC)

📌 E. coli cases climb to 104 in McDonald’s outbreak tied to slivered onions (AP)

📌 Berkshire Hathaway is hoarding cash in a pattern seen before the financial crisis. Does Warren Buffett know something that we don’t? (WSJ)

 🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 Craig Melvin will replace Hoda Kotb as co-anchor of the 'TODAY' show (MO NEWS)

📌 Eva Longoria reveals she moved her family out of “dystopian” US (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

📌 Dick Van Dyke says he's glad he "won't be around" for Trump's second term (VF)

📌 Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn is ending her retirement at age 40 to make a skiing comeback (CBS)

🎉 CHEERS TO THE FREAKIN WEEKEND

Guest User
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