Connect with us

News

White House: ‘Science Should Not Stand in the Way’ of Fully-Opening Schools

Published

on

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says President Donald Trump is adamant all schools should re-open in the fall and all children should return to school “every day.”

Defending the President’s insistence, McEnany explained to reporters, “and when he says ‘open’ he means open in full, kids being able to attend each and every day at their school.”

“The science should not stand in the way of this,” McEnany added, appearing to be reading from prepared notes. She said she had talked with Trump in the Oval Office. It was unclear if those were his words she was quoting.

McEnany doubled down, and began quoting from Dr. Scott Atlas, who is not an immunologist or a virologist, but a radiologist specializing in MRI techniques for the brain and spine. Atlas in 2016 served as a health care advisor to presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani’s campaign, which says his “research includes free market solutions to health care.”

“Of course we can do it, everyone else in the Western world, our peer nations are doing it, we are the outlier here, the science is very clear on this.”

Factually, however, the current infection rate for nearly if not all of America’s peer nations is exponentially lower than it is for the U.S.

Later, McEnany added:  “The science is on our side here.”

The press secretary seemed to be telling Americans to pick and choose from the science the administration likes, to support the president’s goals.

McEnany also urged schools to re-open, citing a “lack of reporting of abuse,” and “mental depressions that are not addressed.”

Under the Trump administration immigrant children have been separated from their families and housed in concentration camp-like facilities where conditions can be horrific, and died in the hands of federal government agents.

Watch:

Later, McEnany accused The Washington Post of engaging in “Media Bias,” by altering her comments, rather than saying she misspoke, if that’s true. In fact, it’s doubtful she did misspeak, given that this is a standard line for the administration.

“We don’t want the guidance from CDC to be a reason why schools don’t open,” Vice President Mike Pence said on July 8. “I think that every American, every American knows that we can safely reopen our schools. . . . We want, as the president said this morning, to make sure that what we’re doing doesn’t stand in the way of doing that.”

Vaccine Scientist and professor Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, pushed back:

This article has been updated to include McEnany’s criticism and related elements.

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

‘I’m Sure I Was’: Bondi Admits Being at the Center of Explosive Trump Post

Published

1 hour ago

on

October 7, 2025

By

During Tuesday’s combative Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, a “defiant” Attorney General Pam Bondi hurled personal attacks at Democratic Senators, with at least one exchange resulting in a “heated shouting match.”

Several Democratic senators chastised the Attorney General for her actions at the Department of Justice, including Sen. Mazie Hirono, who accused Bondi of turning the DOJ into the “Department of Revenge and Corruption.”

“Rather than pursuing cases without fear or favor, this DOJ seeks to favor the president’s friends and instill fear in his alleged enemies,” the Hawaii Democratic Senator declared. “If you’re a friend of the president, this corrupt DOJ will bend over backwards to help you, just like it dropped the bribery investigation of Tom Homan.”

READ MORE: ‘How Tony Soprano Talks’: Trump Says ‘Our People’ Will Get Back Pay After Shutdown

“Like it’s considering paying money to January 6th rioters, and like it has put antitrust enforcement decisions in the hands of well-connected lobbyists. But if you’re on the wrong side of this president, you will face the wrath of DOJ, no matter what the facts, law, or justice support.”

Hirono noted that former Trump FBI director James Comey was “indicted days after the president’s social media directive.”

“Experienced career prosecutors are fired just because they were assigned to work on January 6 cases. Blue states are sued to get highly sensitive, private voter data, whereas red states are left alone. The double standard is clear, and the American people are waking up to the corruption and favoritism and the lawlessness of the DOJ,” the senator alleged.

Hirono also brought up President Trump’s social media post addressed to “Pam,” which many believe was supposed to be a private message to the Attorney General. In it, he called for the prosecution of his former FBI director.

READ MORE: ‘Imminent Danger’: Experts Sound Alarm Over Trump’s Insurrection Act Threat

“We can’t delay any longer,” Trump wrote, “it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

Hirono asked, “Are you the Pam that the president was referring to?”

Bondi replied, “I’m sure I was.”

“So, it’s very clear to me,” Hirono added, “that when the president posted something like that, that he considers the DOJ to be his law firm, and you, his lawyer, and in fact, very shortly after the post, to you, Comey gets indicted.”

READ MORE: ‘The Ground Has Shifted’: Experts Warn After Trump’s ‘Gnat’ Speech to U.S. Navy

 

Image via Reuters 

Continue Reading

News

‘How Tony Soprano Talks’: Trump Says ‘Our People’ Will Get Back Pay After Shutdown

Published

4 hours ago

on

October 7, 2025

By

The White House reportedly is exploring ways to bypass a federal law mandating government employees furloughed during a shutdown receive back pay once the government reopens. President Donald Trump appeared to suggest that he would not be paying some federal workers — not based on job type but on some other metric.

Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich on Tuesday asked the president, “Is it the White House’s position that furloughed workers should be paid for their back pay?”

“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” Trump replied.

READ MORE: ‘Imminent Danger’: Experts Sound Alarm Over Trump’s Insurrection Act Threat

He then attempted to blame Democrats.

“I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about,” Trump said. “But for the most part, we’re gonna take care of our people.”

He did not explain who he meant by “our people.”

“There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way. Okay?” Trump added.

NBC News reported that a draft White House memo “clashes with a 2019 law that requires back pay for federal workers. The law, called the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, says all federal employees, whether furloughed or deemed essential and working without pay, must receive back pay after a shutdown ends.”

President Trump signed that legislation into law.

READ MORE: ‘The Ground Has Shifted’: Experts Warn After Trump’s ‘Gnat’ Speech to U.S. Navy

Critics blasted the president’s remarks.

The Steady State, a consortium of over 330 former national security officials, wrote that “the President of the United States [was] explaining how he will ‘take care’ of his people, and ‘take care’ of some others — the second ‘take care’ is Tony Soprano. This is how dictators take and hold power.”

Similarly, Sophia A. Nelson, an award-winning author and journalist, wrote: “This is how Tony Soprano talks. Not the President of the United States.”

READ MORE: Supreme Court Appears Poised to Strike Down Ban on Anti-LGBTQ ‘Conversion Therapy’

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

Supreme Court Appears Poised to Strike Down Ban on Anti-LGBTQ ‘Conversion Therapy’

Published

6 hours ago

on

October 7, 2025

By

The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to strike down a Colorado ban on so-called conversion therapy for minors — a practice that purports to alter the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people but has been denounced by every major medical organization in America as harmful and potentially dangerous. The decision could have nationwide consequences for LGBTQ youth in more than twenty states.

Conversion, or reparative, therapy is not backed by science, and those who have experienced it have likened it to torture. There is evidence that it can lead to suicide.

A Christian therapist who does not perform the practice has challenged Colorado’s ban on First Amendment free speech grounds. The New York Times and NBC News both report the Supreme Court appears likely to strike down the ban, which could possibly end bans nationwide.

The Times, describing oral arguments at the high court as “lively,” reported that attorneys for the therapist, from the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Trump administration, “said there were no studies indicating such therapy causes harm. The state’s lawyer countered that there is a ‘mountain of evidence’ that conversion therapy is ineffective and harmful.”

READ MORE: ‘Imminent Danger’: Experts Sound Alarm Over Trump’s Insurrection Act Threat

Talking Points Memo reported that “no amount of medical consensus can convince the Court’s majority that conversion therapy is a debunked, harmful practice — they poke holes in the mountain of evidence on the anti-conversion therapy side (this time, that the many studies weren’t precisely tailored to the case at hand) and elevate pseudoscience on the other.”

Slate on Monday reported that the case is “riddled with distorted facts, fabricated injuries, and flimsy evidence.”

“For instance, the plaintiff, Kaley Chiles, has disclaimed any desire to change her minor patients’ sexual orientation or gender identity, so it is unclear why she has standing to challenge the law in question. Her lawyers insist that banning conversion therapy hurts patients who voluntarily seek it out, but their proof for this assertion is anonymous Reddit posts. Chiles’ attorneys also claim that even LGBTQ+ advocates believe sexual orientation can be altered—but according to the very researchers cited in their brief, they ‘profoundly misrepresented’ those findings through ‘deceptive’ quotations.”

READ MORE: ‘The Ground Has Shifted’: Experts Warn After Trump’s ‘Gnat’ Speech to U.S. Navy

Legal organizations responded.

“Colorado’s law on conversion therapy targets precisely the type of treatment by professionals that states have a strong interest in, and long history of, regulating,” the Constitutional Accountability Center said in a statement. “The First Amendment does not prohibit states from protecting its residents through this sort of regulation simply because the medical treatment that mental health professionals provide is done through speech.”

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement: “We don’t have to imagine the devastation forcing children to go to conversion therapy causes. It’s already well-reported: anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are just some of the horrific and preventable outcomes for the young people subjected to this dangerous, unethical practice.”

READ MORE: ‘Pre-Crime’: Hundreds of National Security Experts Warn Trump Order Threatens Democracy

 

Image via Shutterstock

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.