2 months ago
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PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Christine Grady, a bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the wife of Anthony Fauci, was notified of a layoff amidst a restructuring at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
👥 Who’s Involved: Christine Grady, Anthony Fauci, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., NIH officials including Clifford Lane and Emily Erbelding.
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📍 Where & When: The layoffs were announced on Tuesday; related locations include NIH and Indian Health Service field offices in Alaska, Montana, and Minnesota.
💬 Key Quote: An NIH official described Grady as “a good person with a major conflict of interest,” referring to ethical challenges faced during the suppression of the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis.
⚠️ Impact: The restructuring could mean significant changes in administration at NIH.
IN FULL:
Christine Grady, a prominent bioethicist and the wife of controversial former National Institutes of Health (NIH) official Anthony Fauci, is among several health officials who received layoff notifications on Tuesday, according to reports. This move comes as part of a post-pandemic restructuring effort by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
These layoffs aim to consolidate administrative roles and modify what has been perceived as an ineffective status quo in the U.S. health administration. Alongside Grady, Clifford Lane, deputy director of clinical research and special projects at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Emily Erbelding, director of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, have also been dismissed.
Like her husband, Grady is controversial. In 2002, she co-authored a paper with him arguing for lower care standards for medical trial participants in the Third World. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in which her husband played a prominent role, she published a paper defending the ethics of corporations “pressuring employees to get vaccinated” and “embarrass[ing] vaccine resistors,” and pushed for children to be enrolled in vaccine trials.
An NIH official cited a potential conflict of interest involving Grady, stating her marriage to Fauci impacted the ability of NIH to address ethical issues openly, especially on critical episodes like the Wuhan lab leak—which he denied or minimized for years.
Anonymous comments by an NIH source revealed that Grady was caught in a “conflicted role” due to her personal ties. “One of the problems when the coverup was going on of the Wuhan lab leak, that whole fiasco, was that they were not listening to anyone giving ethics advice,” the source explained. “If they had had someone at the table with knowledge of this, they would have said: ‘Hey do you want to play it this way, or be more transparent?’… That’s something Christine Grady could have, or should have, done. She wasn’t able to do it because she was Fauci’s wife.”
President Donald J. Trump has announced a series of new tariff rates at his administration’s “Liberation Day” event at the White House Rose Garden, including the imposition of a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all foreign imports. In addition to the 10 percent blanket tariff, Trump is set to impose a series of targeted trade levies on imports from 60 nations—with the tariff rate often being set at half that which the targeted country places on American exports as an act of generosity.
“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. April 2nd, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to Make America Wealthy Again,” Trump said. “For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike. American steelworkers, autoworkers, farmers, and skilled craftsmen—we have a lot of them here today—they really suffered gravely; they watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs; foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream.”
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The America First leader went on to note: “We’re also standing up for our great farmers and ranchers who are brutalized by nations all over the world. Canada imposes a 250-300 percent tariff on many of our dairy products.”
Among the countries and regions facing additional tariffs above the 10 percent blanket rate are China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, India, the European Union, South Africa, and South Korea. Notably, Chinese imports will be hit with a tariff rate of 34 percent and Indian goods will be tariffed at 26 percent.
Notably, Brexit has spared the United Kingdom, which faces only the base rate of 10 percent, from the 20 percent tariff imposed on the European Union.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2025
Jack Montgomery contributed to this report.
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President Donald J. Trump has announced a series of new tariff rates at his administration's "Liberation Day" event at the White House Rose Garden, including the imposition of a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all foreign imports. In addition to the 10 percent blanket tariff, Trump is set to impose a series of targeted trade levies on imports from 60 nations—with the tariff rate often being set at half that which the targeted country places on American exports as an act of generosity. show more
PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: New polling shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a prominent America First conservative, soundly defeating Senator John Cornyn, a “moderate” who opposed President Donald J. Trump’s 2024 candidacy, in a GOP Senate primary race.
👥 Who’s Involved: Ken Paxton, John Cornyn, pollsters Fabrizio, Lee & Associates.
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📍 Where & When: Polling was conducted from January 28 to February 2 among 600 likely Texas primary voters.
💬 Key Quote: “John Cornyn has waved the white flag on election integrity, border security, protecting the 2nd amendment, and everything else constitutional conservatives care about.” — Ken Paxton.
⚠️ Impact: Cornyn’s ouster would strengthen the America First movement in the Senate, where establishment Republicans such as the outgoing Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski still hold significant sway.
IN FULL:
A recent poll by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has strong support among GOP primary voters, signaling his potential to oust incumbent Senator John Cornyn in a future U.S. Senate race. An initial ballot had Paxton leading Cornyn 53 percent to 28 percent, while a second “informed ballot,” after respondents had been given more information about the pair, increased the margin to 70 percent against just 14 percent.
Paxton, a MAGA stalwart who describes Cornyn as a representative of “the Bush wing of the GOP,” has gained favor with grassroots Texas Republicans for his aggressive lawsuits challenging Biden government policies on immigration and election integrity.
Cornyn, a Senator since 2002, portrays himself as a so-called “moderate” who supports President Donald J. Trump. However, critics—including Paxton—argue he is a Republican in name only, or RINO, who initially opposed the America First leader’s efforts to regain the White House and refused to challenge the lawfare prosections leveled against him by the Biden Justice Department and state Democrats. Previously, he has opposed President Trump’s border wall, and he is currently counter-signaling his tariff policies.
D.C. scuttlebutt: One-time Trump campaign chief Chris LaCivita is going (back) to work for routine Trump-basher John Cornyn?
You can't have it both ways, Chris.
Either you're running the RNC and the "outside political operation" for @realDonaldTrump, or you're backing his…
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) March 5, 2025
“John Cornyn condemned the House GOP for investigating Soros-backed DA Alvin Bragg’s political persecution of President Trump,” Paxton said in March, arguing the incumbent “was always desperate for the bogus witch hunt to succeed.”
He went further in early 2024, describing Cornyn as a Republican who “has waved the white flag on election integrity, border security, protecting the 2nd amendment, and everything else constitutional conservatives care about.”
Angela Paxton, Ken’s wife and a Texas state senator since 2018, is a key political ally of her husband in the Lone Star state, often energizing his base with her public appearances and evangelical ties through their founding of Stonebriar Community Church.
🚨 BREAKING: New Poll shows Ken Paxton would DEMOLISH John Cornyn in a primary for U.S. Senate in Texas:
Initial Ballot:
Paxton 53%
Cornyn 28%
Informed Ballot
Paxton 70%
Cornyn 14%
Source: Frabrizio, Lee and Associates
1/28/25-2/2/2026
N=600 Texas GOP Likely Primary Voters pic.twitter.com/Rr5wwZVRej
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 2, 2025
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