Trump’s Ban of News Organizations Goes Beyond Obama, Biden Actions

In banning CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House, the Trump administration has argued that the move is similar to actions taken by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. But the ban goes beyond what those presidents did.

In a Sept. 21 press release, three days after President Donald Trump said the news organizations would be barred “effective immediately,” the White House said that “[a]ccess changes are nothing new,” and that “Democrat Administrations have restricted, punished, and locked out the press” for “years.” The release listed several examples of incidents involving the press during the Obama and Biden administrations.

“There’s no basis to suggest that Biden and Obama ‘did it too,'” Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, told us. “Trump’s action is singular and unprecedented,” he said, noting that Trump has instituted a “full ban of multiple news media” and “is targeting news organizations because they are publishing content he finds unflattering.

GOP Ads Mislead on Public Option Proposals’ Impact on Rural Hospitals

As Democrats release a flurry of midterm ads portraying GOP cuts to Medicaid as a threat to rural healthcare, Republicans have countered with ads claiming Democratic candidates in Texas and Pennsylvania would put dozens of rural hospitals out of business by creating a public health insurance option. But the ads cite an industry-backed study whose assumptions don’t apply to all public option proposals. 

In Texas, according to ad-tracking service AdImpact, President Donald Trump’s political operation has spent more than $6.9 million on an ad claiming James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate, “supports a radical healthcare plan” that “could close 30 hospitals.”

And in central Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, which includes the state capital of Harrisburg, an ad from a group backed by House Republican leadership claims Democrat Janelle Stelson supports “a plan to close up to 25 Pennsylvania rural hospitals” and accuses her of “closing the hospitals your family depends on.” 

Talarico, a state legislator, is running against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the closely watched Texas matchup. Stelson, a former local news anchor, is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Scott Perry. Both races are rated toss-ups by the Cook Political Report.

'TELL IT LIKE IT IS' FactChecking RFK Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense Keynote

Headlining a conference for Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit he previously led that regularly spreads vaccine misinformation, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a litany of familiar false and misleading claims, particularly about vaccines.

For a few months earlier this year, Kennedy had largely stopped talking about vaccines, reportedly at the request of the White House. Facing a surge of measles cases not seen in a generation, Kennedy had also at times offered a lukewarm recommendation to vaccinate, frustrating his hardline anti-vaccine supporters.

But in August, Kennedy appeared with President Donald Trump during the signing of an executive order that called for splitting up the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine. Trump inaccurately said the MMR vaccine is “quite lethal,” and Kennedy proceeded to falsely claim on cable television that there was new evidence to support breaking up the combination shot. The secretary also began an ongoing beef with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania over measles-associated deaths in the state.

Then, on Sept. 17, Kennedy gave the keynote speech for the one-day conference of Children’s Health Defense in Washington, D.C. Children’s Health Defense describes itself as working to “restore and protect the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins.” But the organization is one of the biggest sources of inaccurate vaccine information.

RFK Jr.’s Faulty Claim that U.S. Measles Response Is ‘Better’ Than ‘Any Other Country’

When asked about the largest surge in measles in over 30 years, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. is doing or has done “better … than any country in the world” in controlling outbreaks of the disease. But plenty of nations don’t have the high caseload America is now experiencing.

In recent remarks in Florida, Kennedy gave what has become his standard response when asked about measles.

“We’re doing a better job than any country in the world at controlling the measles outbreak. This is a worldwide epidemic,” he said when a reporter asked at an Aug. 26 event. “Mexico has 11 times the amount of measles cases as we do. Canada has four times the amount of measles cases. Britain has two times. … Every place there’s been a measles outbreak, I’ve sent the CDC in to cooperate with the state health agencies, and we’ve brought it to an end overnight.”

Kennedy has been claiming a superlative response and invoking international comparisons for months. In April, when testifying before Congress on multiple occasions, he repeatedly said that under his leadership the U.S. had “done better” at controlling, preventing or limiting measles outbreaks than any other country in the world, calling measles a “global outbreak.”

In June, when measles was surging in Virginia, Kennedy similarly told a local news outlet, “There’s a global measles epidemic right now. We’ve done better than any country in the world in controlling it.”