SCRUBS is returning & Jodie Foster is an old man screaming 'Get of my lawn!'
I noted Rebecca's "king of the hill?" earlier this week. She's weighing
in on the reboots. And I agree with her. But talk about a reboot that
none of us need, UPI reports:
Zach Braff has confirmed he is returning for the upcoming reboot of his classic medical comedy, Scrubs.
Braff posted screenshots of several media reports about the news on his Instagram Stories Wednesday.
Bill Lawrence, the show's creator, announced earlier this year that he had a Scrubs sequel series in development at ABC.
That
show was awful. It was not funny. Zach did not age well on the show
because you could barely tolerate his immaturity in season one, as the
show went on and on, it was embarrassing that this was supposed to be a
grown man and a doctor at that.
I liked Donald Faison, Christa Miller, Judy Reyes and Sarah Chalke but that show was awful. Jodie Foster is in the news:
Jodie Foster has said she doesn’t understand why young actors accept roles in “bad” movies.
The
62-year-old actor and former child star, who began working as a model
when she was just three years old and was nominated for her first Oscar
for Taxi Driver aged 14, has said that she cannot relate to young actors
who “just want to act” and “don’t care if the movie’s bad”.
Speaking
to Varietyat Cannes film festival, Foster said she still enjoyed acting
but added that she was picky about her projects and that she wasn’t
interested in “acting for the sake of acting”.
“I
see a lot of young actors, and I’m not saying I’m jealous, but I don’t
understand how they just want to act. They don’t care if the movie’s
bad. They don’t care if the dialogue is bad. They don’t care if they’re a
grape in a Fruit of the Loom ad,” she said.
“If
I never acted again, I wouldn’t really care. I really like to be a
vessel for story or cinema. If I could do something else, if I was a
writer or a painter or sculptor, that would be good too. But this is the
only skill I have.”
She added that in her own
career, she had “worked so much” by the time she turned 18 that she
needed to take a different approach when choosing her projects.
That's actually not true. In terms of her career, it's revisionary.
She grabbed anything offered once she came of age -- that's during college and that's up until she did THE ACCUSED.
But
more to the point, and she goes on with this claim in the report, her
thing about now she only takes films if she likes the narrative and
that's different from her career when she was a child? That's not
true. Brandy Foster, her mother would discuss the roles with her --
Jodie's discussed this in long interviews before. Her mom would explain
the story to her -- which is where her adherence to narrative stems
from -- and they would discuss that and they would discuss how the role
could shaper her as an actress -- in terms of talent and in terms of how
she'd be seen in the industry.
I
think it's less than honest to make the argument she does about young
actors today without her noting that her approach stems from what her
mother taught her. I know she's supposed to be strained with her family
(including her mother before she passed away) but Brandy Foster is why
Jodie was seen as an actress. Brandy shaped Jodie's career. And when
Jodie became an adult and went to college, she had to start over and she
took anything that was offered.
Her comments -- including last year's which UPI notes including her griping that 'kids today' don't spell check their e-mails -- come across like an elderly person barking, "Get off my lawn!"
Thursday, May 22, 2025. The bad bill passes the House this morning,
Chump's got a new bald spot, he's also a War Criminal and that's
apparently why the State Dept still hasn't released their annual human
rights watch report, CREW is suing for freedom of information but note
which 'independent' (partisan) group isn't, and much more.
Because he's stupid, Donald Chump destroyed the economy.
Because he's stupid and proud, he's unable to fix it. And the
country's going to suffer. Right now? Businesses are eliminating job
openings. Aliss Higham (NEWSWEEK) reports:
A
decrease in job openings typically indicates that employers are hiring
less, which can be a sign of an economic slowdown, business uncertainty,
or reduced demand for labor. For job seekers, it becomes more difficult
to find employment, and wage growth may slow due to less competition
for workers.
The
Robert Walters Global Jobs Index, published on May 20, found there was a
16.2 percent month-on-month decline in professional job vacancies in
the U.S. between March and April, due in part to President Donald
Trump's wide-ranging trade tariffs. On April 2—a day he dubbed
"Liberation Day"—he announced a minimum 10-percent tariff on all U.S.
imports and higher individualized rates on some countries.
"For
most employers, hiring additional employees is a luxury when tariffs
are raising operating costs, lowering demand, and could potentially keep
inflation and interest rates elevated," Noah Yosif, chief economist at
American Staffing Association, told Newsweek.
Didn't
help when Chump ranted and raved at Walmart for telling the truth last
week about tariffs but maybe he can rant and rave some more about how
employers will just have to 'eat it' on this and hire regardless.
Because he says so. That's not working out too well, by the way,
because he says so. US House Rep Thomas Massie has made that clear. Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:
One
House Republican is calling out the Trump administration’s lies that
the “big, beautiful” budget bill won’t raise the deficit.
Speaking
to CNN’s Manu Raju on Tuesday, Representative Thomas Massie said that
“Under the policies of this bill, we’re going to add $20 trillion
dollars to the debt over the next 10 years, which is three and a half to
$5 trillion more than would have been added otherwise.”
When Raju told Massie about the White House’s claims that the bill is deficit neutral, Massie chuckled.
“That’s a joke,” the Kentucky congressman, whose votes often align with libertarian principles.
Earlier in the day, President Trump attacked Massie after a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“I
don’t think Thomas Massie understands government. I think he’s a
grandstander, frankly,” Trump said. “We don’t even talk to him much, I
think he should be voted out of office.”
Rep.
Thomas Massie (R-KY) made an appeal for campaign donations on social
media on Tuesday night, hours after President Donald Trump labeled him a
“grandstander.”
Massie, a longtime deficit
hawk who votes against most bills no matter which party proposes them,
said House Republicans’ spending bill will exacerbate the deficit.
Of the bill, Nikki McCann Ramirez (ROLLING STONE) notes,
"The
so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" would make permanent President
Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, which were a boon to the wealthiest
earners in the nation. In order to pay for those cuts, the GOP plans to
kick millions of people off of Medicaid, food assistance, and other
critical social safety net programs." The bill passed this morning just
a little while ago Tuesday night on MSNBC, Lawrence O'Donnell
explained how these bills destroy House majorities when the midterms
roll around.
He
also noted in the video that US House Rep Chip Roy, a Republican,
always objects and always falls in line And that's just what Roy did
this morning. Republican Thomas Massie did do as he said he would and
voted against the bill.
Some reaction on BLUESKY.
Economist
Paul Krugman was on Lawrence O'Donnell's program last night. I don't
see the segment posted at MSNBC. But yesterday, Krugman wrote the following about the bill:
I have already focused
on the bill’s cruelty. It’s also deeply irresponsible, undermining
America’s hard-won reputation as a country that honors its obligations.
The cuts to Medicaid and food stamps won’t come close to offsetting the
revenue loss from the tax cuts for the rich. Neither will revenue from
tariffs. And can we all now acknowledge that DOGE’s promise to eliminate
hundreds of billions in “waste, fraud and abuse” hasn’t just failed? It
has ended up being a complete waste of time, which it has tried to
conceal with fraudulent claims of achievement, all while abusing
dedicated civil servants and driving them out of government in ways that
will impoverish America in the long run — and maybe not that long.
We’re a world leader in education, science and technology that is
systematically destroying the very basis of our success.
So
we’re looking at a large increase in an already high budget deficit
when we’re already at full employment, interest rates are already at
multiyear highs, and future growth prospects are declining.
Financial
markets normally cut wealthy nations with stable governments a lot of
slack, with reason. Rich, well governed countries have immense ability
to raise revenues if needed, especially if, like the United States, you
collect a smaller percentage of GDP in taxes than almost any other
advanced economy:
In other words, until now markets have believed that the U.S. has the
resources to deal with its deficit whenever it musters the political
will. And bond buyers have been willing to assume that we are a serious
country that will eventually get its fiscal house in order.
But markets’ patience with American dysfunction isn’t unlimited. Consider how quickly things went wrong for the UK. In 2022 Liz Truss,
Britain’s Prime Minister, announced a “mini-budget” that involved
cutting taxes and blowing up the budget deficit. Markets freaked out:
long-term interest rates soared and the pound plunged. The tabloid The
Daily Star famously set up a webcam showing a photo of Truss next to a
head of iceberg lettuce wearing a wig, and asked which would last
longer.
The lettuce won, because Britain’s parliamentary system allowed it to get rid of a disastrous leader. We, unfortunately, can’t.
As
Lawrence noted Tuesday night, before the vote, the historical result
from something like this is losing the House in the midterms. Those
elections will take place in about 18 months. Control, if history
holds, of the House will go to the Democrats. Not good news for Chump.
And his disaster bill that just passed the House? If the Senate goes
along with it, it's going to further destroy the US economy.
It's
not a good time for Chump. Mike noted last night how Miss Sassy JD
Vance sounds like a raving lunatic. Yesterday's snapshot noted all the
morons Chump sent to testify before Congress on Tuesday -- all the
morons who demonstrated to the American people that they didn't
understand the law and apparently thought the Constitution was a text
unavailable in English so they not only couldn't read it, they also
couldn't refer to it. Of course, we all know that ignorance of the law
is no excuse for breaking it. And break it is all they want to do.
Let's again note US House Rep Jasmine Crockett from Tuesday's House
Judiciary Committee hearing:
US House Rep Jasmine Crockett: This entire situation could have been
avoided if people would just know their jobs and actually do their jobs
because the entire chaos that ensued, it ensued because of the unlawful
detainment and arrest of the mayor in the first place. But let me get
to my actual remarks. The Republicans have called today's hearing for
one reason purpose: To help an administration that's already rooted in
lawlessness and corruption execute their dangerous assault on American
democracy.
That's
true of everything the Chump administration does: This entire situation
coul have been avoided if people would just know their jobs and
actually do their jobs.
The
Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a
legal battle over whether the Department of Government Efficiency
(DOGE) must comply with public records requests under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA), like other federal agencies.
The
administration contends that DOGE, as a "presidential advisory body"
located within the White House, is exempt from FOIA's transparency
requirements, despite a lower court ruling that the department is likely
bound by the act.
Citizens
for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is suing. You might
think Judicial Watch was. But, no, they're scared and up in Chump's
ass. When it was then Vice President Dick Cheney's 2001 National Energy
Task Force, Judicial Watch at least pretended to be about protecting
the interest of the American people. I think I like it better now that
we don't have to pretend that they were ever anything other than a
partisan op run by a steroid freak.
I
find it hilarious that Chump and his Crime Syndicate are attempting to
argue that DOGE doesn't have to be transparent when not only did both he
and Musk repeatedly insist (lie) that DOGE was going to be transparent
but DOGE had access to our medical files, to our Social Security files,
to our IRS tax filings and now we're being told that DOGE doesn't have
to be transparent or respond to Freedom of Information requests.
On
the topic of DOGE, just a reminder since I keep seeing YOUTUBERS trying
to glorify Ben Cohen -- the ugly one, not the sexy British football
player -- let's note this from Ava and my "Media: The programs we deserve, the programs we don't:"
Just a day ago, the YOUTUBE program THE MAJORITY REPORT served up
more garbage with the segment "WATCH: Ben & Jerry's Cofounder
Arrested Protesting RFK Hearing."
Ben Cohen was at the
hearing to protest Gaza. But the two hosts (Sam Seder did not host or
participate in the segment) kept praising him for protesting Medicaid
cuts and for this and for that.
And as you listened to
them lap at the crotch of Ben Cohen -- while slipping in two sentences
about unnamed AIDS activists -- you saw just how much whoring and lies
take place from people who are supposed truth tellers.
Ben was there for Gaza. They tried to pretty it up but that's what he was there to protest.
Don't believe us?
Here's what he Tweeted:
Before
I was arrested at the Capitol for protesting the slaughter of children
in Gaza, I wrote this statement to explain my actions. Thanks, @Newsweek , for publishing it.
And on May 18th, he Tweeted:
We
are expected to be good Americans and look the other way as Israel
prevents food, water, and medicine from reaching the remaining people of
Gaza. Israel is literally starving them to death…We must speak out and
demand a change in policy. We can’t be complicit in starving kids to
death.
So they distorted the intent of his protest -- they whored to make him more sympathetic.
Where in the segment do they tell everyone that our 'left' 'buddy' Ben Cohen is a supporter of Musk and a supporter of DOGE?
They
don't. Cohen isn't just praising both Musk and DOGE in the occasion
Tweet, he's started a website -- DOGE VS BLOB -- praising DOGE and
hailing it's 'work.' You know it's work, right? Lies about Social
Security has all these people ripping it off. Actions like firing
needed employees and trying to take over buildings that the federal
government does not own.
The question becomes is THE
MAJORITY REPORT just that damn stupid or are they lying to you because
they actually know Ben's gone over to the dark side?
Stupid or a whore?
It's always a question these days considering what crawled back into the Oval Office.
Marcia
told you the truth back on May 7th about Ben Cohen and his applause for
DOGE and his embrace of it. But THE MAJORIY REPORT won't and they're
not the only ones.
When I'm
asked about problems on our side -- the left -- I think about that. I
think about how a tiny sliver of crackpots are called by the left. A
small number. And those crackpots never include people like John
Stauber. He's anti-trans, pro-Chump, he's gone full MAGA with a war on
science and so much more. But hes also got friends still -- STILL -- on
the left and they don't want him called out. So they look the other
way.
Ben Cohen is
repugnant and not a part of the left. He made the choice when he
embraced DOGE. People like him do not need to be applauded. They need
to be called out.
While
THE MAJORITY REPORT lied and whored for Ben Cohen -- including that he
was there to protest what Robert Kennedy Jr was doing to destroy the
safety net -- they did do a sentence on AIDS activists.
Didn't name them. They were too busy raving over DOGE lover Cohen.
Here's FREE SPEECH TV doing an actual report on the AIDS activists who protested Junior
I guess they aren't 'celebrity' enough for lazy YOUTUBErs to cover.
What an embarrassment for YOUTUBErs.
Chump has become a non-stop embarrassment. And I don't just mean his hair; however, Isabel Keane (INDEPENDENT) reports, "President
Donald Trump appeared to debut a new bald spot Wednesday, much to the
amusement of the internet. Many took to social media to joke after
photos and videos taken during a contentious Oval Office meeting with
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa seemingly revealed a glowing
bald patch." Poor Chump. Balding and at the same time most of
America's learned that he can no longer get an erection. On that, an
update. Due to the fact that this dysfunction has been going on for
some time and the heart medicine he's on, he now has another south of
the beltline problem: Shrinkage. Due to the lack of blow flood, he's
complained that it's smaller. It's a button now, a little nubbing. He
can't get hard and it's about an inch long. Inch worm, inch worm.
There are so many reasons people laugh at the Convicted Felon. Mainly because he's a dirty joke. And greedy. And corrupt. Kevin Breuninger (CNBC) reports:
The
Trump administration has formally accepted a Boeing 747 jet that was
gifted to the U.S. by the government of Qatar, the Pentagon said
Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
accepted the luxury plane "in accordance with all federal rules and
regulations," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to
CNBC.
The
Wall Street Journal called out President Donald Trump over his opaque
cryptocurrency business in a new editorial all but accusing him of using
his office to enrich his family.
After
observing that “Trump likes to blur lines between personal business and
public office,” the Journal submitted that he would “help himself by
calling off his Thursday gala with the top 220 holders of his
meme-coin,” or at least by disclosing “his crypto contest’s winners so
Americans know who may be trying to buy access to the President.”
Trump
announced his intention to release a meme coin shortly before moving
back into the White House this January. And in April, he announced that
the top 220 holders of the coin would be invited to a private dinner
with him, while the top 25 would also enjoy an “ultra-exclusive private
VIP reception.”
As the influential Journal
editorial board noted, the “real identities” of the meme coin holders
are not public, though a majority of the top 220 and supermajority of
the top 25 are believed to have bought their coins on foreign exchanges.
As
Ann noted Tuesday, Senator raised that issue with State Dept Secretary
Marco Rubio in a committee hearing and Marco played dumb. Little Liar
Marco, Ann dubbed him. Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes Marco's cry baby explosion in that hearing:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio flippantly said he does not have to listen to court orders at a Senate hearing Tuesday.
Senator
Chris Van Hollen asked Rubio about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia,
who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador on the government’s own
admission. Rubio repeated the Trump administration’s false claims of
Abrego Garcia’s gang membership and alleged crimes.
“We
deported gang members. Gang members, including the one you had a
margarita with. And that guy is a human trafficker, and that guy is a
gang banger, and the evidence is going to be clear in the days to come,”
Rubio said, referring to Van Hollen’s visit to El Salvador last month
to verify Abrego Garcia’s well-being.
Van
Hollen interrupted and tried to refute Rubio’s lies, telling Senate
Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch that Rubio “can’t make
unsubstantiated claims like that.”
“Secretary
Rubio should take that testimony to federal court in the United States
because he hasn’t done it under oath,” Van Hollen asserted, only to be
reprimanded by Risch. Then, Rubio made his outrageous claim about the
federal judiciary.
“There is a division in our
government between the federal branch and the judicial branch. No judge,
and the judicial branch, cannot tell me or the president how to conduct
foreign policy,” Rubio said. “No judge can tell how I have to outreach
to a foreign partner or what I need to say to them. And if do reach to
that foreign partner and talk to them, I am under no obligation to share
that with the judiciary branch.”
We deported gang members! Little Liar Marco insisted. 'No judge can touch me!'
Marco
Hammer? I think he'll find out very soon that any judge can touch
him. But again, gang members? No. And our Director of National
Intelligence knew that was a lie. Did she not share her 'intelligence'
with others? Erin Banco (REUTERS) reports, "A
top adviser to Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. director of national
intelligence, acknowledged in a March 24 email that the Venezuelan
government may not have specifically directed the activities of a gang
that the Trump administration has used to justify fast-tracking
deportation of immigrants, but argued that a link between Venezuela and
the gang was 'common sense'." No one has ever accused Tulsi Gabbard or
Chump of having common sense. So it turns out the whole lie just got
exposed. The intelligence community cannot back up Chump's allegation
that this is gang related.
No
wonder Chump disobeyed the court order halting the plane from leaving
America. If he hadn't done that, if a judge had been allowed to
actually examine and rule, it would have been clear that the whole thing
was made up. That Chump lied and that his lie destroyed lives.
New emails obtained by the NYT
erase any doubt that DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s chief of staff Joe Kent was
doing political damage control when he ordered the intel officials to
redo its analysis that contradicted President Trump’s claims about Tren
de Aragua:
“We need to do some rewriting” and
more analytic work “so this document is not used against the DNI or
POTUS,” Joe Kent, the chief of staff to Ms. Gabbard, wrote in an email
to a group of intelligence officials on April 3, using shorthand for Ms.
Gabbard’s position and for the president of the United States.
Chump put those 300 men into slavery. They were kidnapped in this country
and shipped to a gulag in El Salvador. And he lied. He lied. Grasp
that. This is the stuff of War Crimes.
As
we've noted repeatedly, human rights are not an issue that matters to
the Convicted Felon. He proved that yet again with his Middle East
whore last week as he played footsie with terrorists and despots. Now TIME's Debbie Sharnak explains that the US State Dept's annual human rights report is on hold for 'changes:'
When
they are released, these reports will now reportedly exclude
information on issues such as government efforts to deny freedom of
movement and peaceful assembly, failures to retain or provide due
process for political prisoners, and the harassment of human rights
organizations. The Trump Administration has also signaled it will cut
sections about the rights of women, the disabled, and the LGBTQ+
community.
These Country Reports offer a
detailed account of the state of every country’s human rights practices
and are meant to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid
allocations and security assistance. The reports have taken on added
importance over the years. They’re increasingly used as a tool to
pressure governments to improve their practices, while advocacy
organizations and lawyers rely on them to aid in asylum cases and
demonstrate fear of persecution. By revising and cutting out substantial
sections addressing an array of rights concerns that the U.S. has cared
about for almost five decades, the Trump Administration is undermining
the definition of human rights as a concept.
These
State Department reports were first introduced at a key moment in U.S.
human rights history—although they did not arrive without controversy.
As human rights grew as an important organizing concept in the 1960s and
the 1970s around the world, U.S. presidents were largely resistant to
incorporating it into U.S. foreign policy decision-making. President
Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford’s powerful Secretary of State, Henry
Kissinger, encapsulated this opposition by claiming that taking into
account morality or human rights in foreign policy was “totally devoid
of contacts with reality and would lead to empty posturing.” Instead,
Kissinger’s State Department was dominated by Cold War concerns that
relied on a realist approach to foreign policy and focused on great
power politics that eschewed concerns like human rights.
Chump's a tyrant himself and he demonstrates it with his lack of respect for human rights.
He
served up more crazy drama on the world stage yesterday as he carried
out a planned ambush on the president of South Africa. Tom Bogoioni (RAW STORY) reports:
CNN
host Dana Bash and fact-checker Daniel Dale pounced on Donald Trump
Wednesday afternoon after the U.S. president "ambushed" South Africa
President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office with patently false claims
of murders of white farmers in his country.
After
Trump showed a highly manipulative video disparaging South Africa, he
followed up by making sweeping assertions and arguing with the African
leader, which seemed to have stunned CNN's Bash.
Cutting
away, Bash told her audience, "Okay we're going to continue to monitor
what has been a truly extraordinary what? Half an hour plus inside the
Oval Office. I just, I want to go back to Daniel Dale because there's a
lot of fact-checking to do."
:
Dale
jumped in, explaining, "The last nine months of 2024 in South Africa:
19,696 murders. How many of them occurred on farms? 36."
"36
about 0.2 percent," he re-emphasized. "That includes employees like
security staff, farm workers. How many of them were actual farmers?
Seven out of more than 19,000 and it's not even clear that those are all
white farmers. Contrary to what the president said, many farmers in
South Africa are Black."
"Even the white ones
who have been victims of crime, it's not clear, have been targeted for
racial reasons," he elaborated. "Experts and white farmers themselves in
South Africa have repeatedly told media outlets and think tanks that
they feel they are often targeted for robbery and even attacks because
they are geographically isolated and therefore vulnerable."
During
a high-profile meeting at the White House today with South African
President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump inaccurately described a private
memorial in South Africa, the Witkruis Monument, as a "burial site" for
white farmers. Referencing a video of the monument, Trump stated, "These
are burial sites, over 1000 of white farmers... both sides of the road,
you have crosses."
In
reality, the Witkruis Monument, located in Limpopo province, is a
symbolic memorial, not a cemetery. It features thousands of
white-painted metal crosses meant to represent victims of farm
attacks—arranged across a private plot but containing no graves. Trump's
comments are the latest in a series of controversial statements that
have drawn criticism for misrepresenting the scope and nature of rural
violence in South Africa.
The
monument itself has long faced scrutiny for its narrow focus on white
victims, despite farm attacks impacting South Africans of all races.
Critics argue the site promotes a racially selective narrative that
overlooks the broader context of rural crime.
He is an idiot, he is a racist, he is an enemy of democracy. We have to take back the House in the 2026 mid-terms.
We
didn't have room yesterday for a press release from Senator Patty
Murray's office in full. I noted that I would post it later Wednesday.
I just realized I did not do that. We don't really have room for it
today but let's wind down with it:
READ MORE — CNN: After NIH staffing cuts, cancer patient in clinical trial worries she may lose crucial time; Washington Post: NIH scientists have a cancer breakthrough. Layoffs are delaying it.
Senator Murray: “If RFK Jr.’s mass firings
weren’t having an impact on clinical care at NIH, he would provide those
details and tell us which positions he’s eliminated. He’s not—because
he knows that if he did, he would be caught lying. This isn’t just about
Natalie, this is about the millions of Americans like her who are
already being harmed by the destruction Secretary Kennedy is causing at
HHS, or will be soon.”
****FROM TODAY – WATCH and READ: Senator Murray’s exchange with RFK Jr.***
***FROM LAST WEEK –WATCH: Senator Murray rebuts Secretary Kennedy’s claims about her constituent, Natalie***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the
following statement on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s outburst during today’s Senate
Appropriations hearing, where Secretary Kennedy repeatedly lied, dodged
Senator Murray’s questions, and made a number of totally unfounded
allegations, in particular relating to Senator Murray’s constituent,
Natalie, who is suffering from Stage Four colorectal cancer and whose
care was delayed as a direct result of the Trump administration’s
staffing cuts across HHS. Senator Murray brought up Natalie’s story to
Secretary Kennedy at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
(HELP) Committee hearing last week; additional background on that
exchange is below.
At the appropriations hearing today, Secretary Kennedy claimed to Senator Murray: “You
told me two or three days ago, four days ago that we had cut a clinical
trial in your state and it turned out what you said turned out to be
completely untrue and you knew it was not true because you
corresponded.” This was not at all what Senator Murray suggested or
what happened. At the HELP hearing on May 14th, Senator Murray laid out
how Natalie’s treatment in a trial at the NIH Clinical Center had been
delayed by the staffing cuts, according to her doctors at NIH, and then
she asked Secretary Kennedy directly how many staff were cut from the
NIH’s Clinical Center. Video and transcript of their initial exchange
on May 14th is HERE. A full transcript of their exchange today is available HERE.
“RFK Jr. is a shameless liar and a dangerous conspiracy
theorist—he should have never been confirmed. As much as he lies and
deflects, I’m not going to stop holding him accountable for the real
harm he is inflicting on people in this country.
“Natalie’s care has been complicated, but here’s what’s not:
her NIH doctor told her twice that her care was explicitly delayed due
to NIH staffing cuts—specifically, that she would have to wait eight
weeks rather than four to have her cells re-infused. On the question of
credibility, I will trust an NIH doctor over an anti-vaccine conspiracy
theorist every day.
“After an initial contact with RFK Jr.’s office last
Wednesday, it was complete radio silence with no answers until about an
hour before today’s hearing. It should not take me raising this issue
with RFK Jr. face-to-face to make sure NIH is working the way it’s
supposed to.
“I still have no answer about how many NIH clinical staff
have been fired. I still have no answer why Natalie was told by her NIH
doctor that her care was being delayed due to staffing cuts. For weeks,
my staff has been demanding answers about agency staffing cuts.
“Meanwhile, my staff has been in constant touch over the past
three weeks with dedicated career staff at NIH and FDA—the same people
the Trump administration is trying to push out the door—to address
Natalie’s case. But it has been no thanks to RFK Jr. or HHS political
leadership.”
“If RFK Jr.’s mass firings weren’t having an impact on
clinical care at NIH, he would provide those details and tell us which
positions he’s eliminated. He’s not—because he knows that if he did, he
would be caught lying. This isn’t just about Natalie, this is about the
millions of Americans like her who are already being harmed by the
destruction Secretary Kennedy is causing at HHS, or will be soon.”
__________________________________
At last week’s HELP Committee hearing
with Secretary Kennedy, Murray grilled Kennedy on the Trump
administration’s moves to slash staff and block funding at the National
Institute of Health (NIH), and laid out how is affecting one of her
constituents, Natalie Phelps of Washington state: “One of my
constituents, Natalie Phelps—a mom of two from Bainbridge Island in
Washington state. She has been fighting aggressive Stage Four colorectal
cancer for nearly five years now. Her best hope now is a clinical trial
at the NIH Clinical Center. She flew out to the NIH just a few weeks
ago for her first appointment, and her care team wanted her to come back
in four weeks to start treatment. But because of the thoughtless, mass
firing of thousands of critical employees across NIH and HHS that you
have carried out, Natalie’s doctors at that clinical center have told
her that they have no choice but to delay her treatment by an additional
four weeks. Now, an extra four weeks may not sound like a long time
but, I will tell you, for Stage Four cancer patients like Natalie, this
could mean the difference between life and death.” Video of the full
exchange between Senator Murray and Secretary Kennedy is available HERE.
Later in the hearing, Secretary Kennedy asserted that Natalie was
ineligible for her clinical trial and called her story a “canard,”
saying: “Senator Murray had raised the issue of a constituent of
hers who she said had been denied a place in a clinical trial in
Washington due to the RIF. We’ve been able to run down that case. The
patient was medically ineligible for that trial. It had nothing to do
with the RIF. And NIH has been trying to get her into another clinical
trial, but none of our clinical trials have been shut down because of
the RIF. That was a canard.”
Senator Murray returned to the hearing to respond directly to Secretary Kennedy: “Secretary
Kennedy came back and said my constituent, who I spoke about earlier,
[her care] was not delayed by staffing cuts. First off, she is already enrolled
in that clinical trial. It’s not a question of eligibility—the issue,
as I stated clearly, was the delay in care that she got. And what you
stated, Secretary Kennedy, is not true.”
“I spoke with Natalie, actually, last night. She asked her NIH doctor directly why, when she was informed of the delay, and her doctor at NIH said very plainly TWICE: her care was delayed because of staffing cuts. And
Mr. Chairman, I think it’s important for the record to show, my staff
has put in inquiries with HHS leadership and they’ve been unresponsive
so far.And, just to make clear, this is just one case of many. But those
are the facts,” Senator Murray said.
Senator Murray has been a leading voice in Congress raising the alarm over HHS’ unilateral reorganization plan and slamming the closure
of the HHS Region 10 office in Seattle and the CDC’s National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Spokane Research Laboratory.
Senator Murray has sent oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events
to lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking
Americans health and safety and will set our country back decades, and
lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and
through no fault of their own.
In particular, Senator Murray has been leadingthe charge against
the Trump administration’s efforts to gut lifesaving research at NIH
and pushed out nearly 5,000 NIH skilled scientists, grants
administrators, and other employees at the agency. When the Trump
administration attempted to illegally cap indirect cost rates at 15
percent, Senator Murray immediately and forcefully condemned the move, led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in a letter decrying the proposed change, and introduced amendments to Senate Republicans’ budget resolution to reverse it, which Republicans blocked.
Murray has led Congressional efforts to boost biomedical research.
Previously, over her years as Chair of the Labor-HHS Appropriations
Subcommittee, Senator Murray secured billions of dollars in increases
for biomedical research at NIH, and during her time as Chair of the HELP
Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to
advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. Senator
Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments.
Senator Murray forcefully opposed the
nomination of notorious anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. to be Secretary
of HHS, and she has long worked to combat vaccine skepticism and highlight the importance of scientific research and vaccines. Murray was also a leading voice against the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead CDC, repeatedlyspeaking up about her serious concerns with the nominee immediately after their meeting. In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in
the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance
of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need
to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the
2019 hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in
under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with
former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander pressing Trump’s CDC
Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to
promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.
Senator Murray’s opening remarks at today’s hearing, as delivered, are below:
“Secretary Kennedy—things are not going well. It is clear what you
are doing across HHS is devastating to children, families, seniors, and
the millions of Americans HHS programs support.
“You were required to send us an operating plan detailing how you’re
spending funds that Congress provided for programs families rely on. You
sent us what you titled the ‘Hill Version,’ which had over 530
asterisks in place of funding levels.
“Mr. Secretary, we need the real version with actual funding
levels. This committee needs to know how you are spending taxpayer
dollars right now—and what programs you’re cutting and eliminating.
“You are blocking billions in funding that Congress appropriated from
going out the door, including $3 billion at NIH, and $1 billion in Head
Start and $3 billion in child care funding alone.
“And that’s on top of all of the other funding you’ve illegally
ripped away: $11 billion from state and local health departments, $1
billion supporting local substance use and mental health programs, and
$66 million in Title X funds for cancer screenings, birth control, and
preventive care.
“You are dismantling HHS, throwing away generations of investments in
our health care system and firing critical employees. We’re talking
about the people who administer Head Start, LIHEAP, and Meals on Wheels.
Or entire teams working on preventing chronic disease and Alzheimer’s,
tracking IVF success rates and safety, maternal health, and much more.
“On top of all of this, you propose a budget with truly devastating cuts that would leave America sicker and weaker.
“But you’re not waiting to see whether Congress approves that budget
proposal. This administration is starting to unilaterally implement it
right now—in defiance of Congress and the laws we have passed. If you
aren’t already, you are sprinting down the road of illegally impounding
billions in funding, through intentional action and through
incompetence.
“To my colleagues on this dais: We heard several weeks ago, what we
risk by ceding American leadership on biomedical research. If we bless
these staffing and funding cuts across HHS, that means deciding we are
comfortable with China leading the future development of every drug,
device, and vaccine. The supply chain challenges we faced during the
pandemic will be the new normal. Our access to the latest treatments and
cures will depend on other countries.
“It’s time to stand up and assert Congress’ authority. This Committee
has dedicated itself in a bipartisan manner over decades to make sure
we are the global leader in research and development. And now all of us
know this administration is setting us back where it may take decades to
regain that position.
“If we don’t, decades of scientific breakthroughs and medical
discovery—and the bipartisan work to support them—risks being burned to
the ground, and it will be very hard to rebuild.”
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