Taking On a Bumbler From TrumpCare

Check out this poor schlub being interviewed by Rep. Katie Porter of California. 
More important, check out the faces behind him – presumably colleagues or family.
They are wincing as Dr. Robert R. Redfield is exposed as yet another Trumpite bumbler in the time of Covid-19.

Rep. Porter, in her first term, has become the scourge of corporate and government “leaders” who try to out-wait her few minutes of questioning.
Originally from Iowa, Rep. Porter went to Yale University and Harvard Law School, where her mentor was Elizabeth Warren. 

On Thursday, she was doing what she does best, in a hearing into the lack of preparation for the rampaging virus – specifically the lack of tests and who will bear the cost when any tests are finally available after a scandalous delay.

Rep. Porter said she had violated her own rule of not alerting the hapless witnesses. She sent her line of questioning to Dr. Redfield’s office a week ahead of time so he could be prepared. But he appears to know nothing, nothing -- staff work in the time of Trump.

Dr. Redfield is a 68-year-old relic, a virologist who previously “served” in government during the early days of AIDS.

In his unprepared and ignorant fashion, Donald Trump tried to do away with government medical and research agencies but was forced to find a few people who could pretend to expertise, while Trump’s family and friends filled their gunnysacks with loose cash.

In 2018, Dr. Redfield was brought in as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. 

Not even having the bluster of a bank president, Dr. Redfield was confronted by the terror of the House. Rep. Porter had her facts and figures on hand – how much a test would cost. But most people seeking emergency treatment could not afford this perhaps life-saving process.

Would the government cover the cost of a test, Rep. Porter asked.
Dr. Redfield  took the punches, waited for the bell to ring.

But Rep. Porter kept telling him: not good enough. She wanted to know if the government would take care of its people. She told him she has researched his powers. You can do this, according to law, she said.

Rep. Porter does this better than I can describe it, better than any lawmaker I have ever seen. Most legislators talk about themselves. She talks about law, about reality. 

Watch the video. It’s a Perry Mason moment – the stunning reversal in real time—that almost never happens in trials or hearings.

In the end, battered and beaten, Dr. Redfield succumbs, seems to promise government coverage.

I do not know if his foggy submission has any legality.
Trump might well fire him any hour now, say it was all a mistake. 

Once again, Katie Porter has exposed the stupidity and callousness of this regime.
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Dr. Redfield: 
https://www.cdc.gov/about/leadership.htm
 
Rep. Porter:
https://porter.house.gov/about/