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Clyburn says select subcommittee testimony shows political interference at CDC
After testimony from a CDC official revealed requests to delete email, top House Democrat seeks to interview CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield.CORONAVIRUS
Clyburn says select subcommittee testimony shows political interference at CDC
After testimony from a CDC official revealed requests to delete email, top House Democrat seeks to interview CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield.(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., speaks to reporters in the Capitol on Dec. 8, 2020.Erin Scott / Reuters
Dec. 10, 2020, 10:30 AM EST / Updated Dec. 10, 2020, 2:33 PM EST
By Heidi Przybyla and Monica Alba
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic is demanding more information from top officials in the administration after a career employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified about a political appointee’s efforts to “alter or rescind” information considered damaging to President Donald Trump.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., writes that the testimony raises “serious concern about what may be deliberate efforts by the Trump Administration to conceal and destroy evidence that senior political appointees interfered with career officials’ response to the coronavirus crisis” at the CDC.
The letter reveals that on Monday, Charlotte Kent, chief of the Scientific Publications Branch and editor-in-chief of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, stated in closed-door testimony that she had been instructed to destroy an email and that she understood the order came from Redfield.