Thursday, October 15, 2026

The Snapshot

Thursday, October 15, 2026.  Inflation rises, Chump's unhinged as he continues his DESPERATION TOUR, the tour is dragging down GOPers running for elected office, Priss Pot Hegseth remains a huge problem for the administration, Senator Patty Murray calls out the damage Chump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Junior are doing, and much more. 




Chump the snowflake, clown, grifter and whiner just got served.  Finya Swai (THE HILL) reports:

Former Vice President Kamala Harris ripped President Trump over his restrictions on White House press access, suggesting he should resign from office if he does not want journalists to scrutinize his administration.

“If you want to do things in secret, then why don’t you just leave the White House?” Harris said Tuesday in an interview with actor Keke Palmer on her podcast, “Baby, This is Keke Palmer.”

Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from accessing the White House complex and revoked their journalists' hard passes in September, claiming the ban was a “result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”

“It shows the extent to which the current occupant of the White House has such a fragile ego that he can’t, as president of the United States, tolerate major news outlets listening to what he’s saying and watching what he’s doing,” Harris said.


She is exactly right.  If tubby can't handle the heat, he needs to go into hiding.  He can do that by announcing he is stepping down from the office.  It would be a holiday gift to the nation.  But if he's going to remain as president, he's going to have to accept reality and stop screaming "FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS!"  



The news is not good for Chump.  AFP notes, "US consumer inflation was hotter than anticipated in September, government data showed Wednesday, as Washington's war with Tehran pushed energy costs higher, deepening strains on American households ahead of next month's midterm elections."  Steve Kopack (NBC NEWS) adds: 

Inflation in September picked back up again after three months of largely stagnating. Overall, prices rose 3.7% from a year ago, and up 0.6% from August.

“The index for gasoline rose 9.1 percent in September, accounting for over half of the monthly all items increase,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

Friday’s number is the final inflation report before November’s pivotal midterm elections, where business owners and consumers have said they will be voting with their bottom line in mind.

Since August, oil prices have risen to more than $106 per barrel from about $80. The price of regular gas, which most consumers buy, has risen 45% since late February, when the Iran war was launched. The price of diesel, which powers businesses, farms, the shipping industry and other critical sectors, has risen 70% since then.

And that's with 19 days left for midterm voting.  November 3rd is the official day to vote, early voting is taking place in many states currently.  19 days and the economic news is yet again bleak.  And it's the last report before the midterms.  Chump asked voters to pretend he was on the ballot.  And they likely will. 




As of Tuesday morning, the national average gas price was $4.34 per gallon, according to AAA, up from $2.98 per gallon just before the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran in late February.

That means gas prices have risen more than 46 percent since the start of the war, for an additional $73.5 billion, according to researchers at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs. That amounts to an additional $561.20 per U.S. household.

The surge in costs is bad news for President Donald Trump and the Republicans hoping to maintain control of the House and Senate, as Trump made lower gasoline and energy prices a key point in his 2024 presidential campaign. Last October, the White House touted Trump’s leadership as “bringing relief at the gas pump.”

At the time, the average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. was a little over $3. Shortly after the White House announcement, Trump said gas prices would soon drop below $2 per gallon. Five months later, the average price of a gallon of gas was nearly $4. The prices have risen even further since.


Inflation?  Chump's responsible.  BBC NEWS reminds: 

Higher tariffs - which are levies that businesses pay on the goods they import - directly raise prices for US companies unless the overseas firms they are buying from lower prices to absorb some of the cost.

In response to the higher tariffs introduced by the president, the New York Fed found exporters reduced prices very little, meaning US-based businesses ended up absorbing nearly 90% of the cost of the added tax.

Indirectly, higher tariffs also affected the prices of locally made goods, as many US producers rely on parts, materials or ingredients from overseas.

Overall, the Fed found that every percentage point increase in average tariffs led to nearly a 0.25% price increase for consumer goods after one year.


Chump's many mistakes impacted the stock market.  Stan Choe (AP) explains, "Worries about worsening inflation are weighing on Wall Street Wednesday and pulling the U.S. stock market further from its record.  The S&P 500 dropped 0.9% and was on track for a fifth loss in the six days since setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 88 points, or 0.2%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower."  It's Chump's economy and he owns it. Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (WASHINGTON POST) notes, "In a Reuters/Ipsos poll last week, 78 percent of Americans said Trump’s policies bore at least some responsibility for higher costs, while 57 percent of Republicans said their expenses were rising faster than their paychecks. Economists and Federal Reserve officials have pointed to the administration’s tariffs and higher energy costs stemming from the Iran war as factors putting renewed upward pressure on prices." Jack Crosbie (ROLLING STONE) captures the distorted nonsense Chump serves up in place of an actual plan:

"TRUST IN TRUMP," the White House posted back in June. "Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!" Since then, Trump has escalated in Iran and rambled incoherently on the stump while hosting rallies for midterms candidates. He's asked for strike packages to hit Iran again before the election, if needed. Got a problem with that? "Trust the process," the White House posted yesterday. 

American voters aren't this stupid, even if Trump thinks they are. With his approval rating in the dirt and even his own party turning against him, it's clear that people recognize that Trump's choices - namely, invading Iran and setting up ludicrous tariffs - are what created the economic situation we're currently dealing with. And the final indignity is that wages simply aren't catching up. The New York Times notes that hourly wages fell by 0.5 percent in August and are down 0.7 percent in the past year, putting them right around the level they were when Trump first took office. Your pay has not gone up, but the prices have. 








 The GOP is on the defense.  Which is why a number of them are resorting to lies as they attack opponents.  Stephen Collinson (CNN) notes: 

It’s getting ugly out there.

The worse GOP midterm prospects look, the darker the rhetoric from top Republicans becomes as they single out Democratic candidates as weird, threatening and antithetical to what it means to be and look like an American.

President Donald Trump is mocking the name of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and slandering him as a “jihadist.”

Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday made a joke that implied James Talarico is gay. Trump keeps claiming the Democratic Senate nominee is a vegan who is incompatible with the carnivorous Lone Star State. Talarico is now often seen pictured with a plate of meat.

The president has also revived his searing racially derogatory rhetoric suggesting that Haitians and Africans are invading key election states like Ohio.

And after federal officials searched the home of Somali-born Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Monday, he underscored concerns he’s using executive power to target a political foe by questioning whether she had constitutional rights as a naturalized citizen “from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.”

Trump’s rhetoric is hardly a surprise, given the linguistic excesses of his presidential campaigns, yet it’s still jarring to see such overt racial language delivered from behind a presidential podium.


And yet Chump continues his DESPERATION TOUR.   Obsessed with promoting himself he lumbers around the stage in one of those cheap foreign suits that look like meat casing on his morbidly obese body.  He's playing defense as well. Sarah Ewall-Wice (DAILY BEAST) explains: 

Republican strategist Kevin Madden said that with just three weeks to go before the election, Trump’s strategy, based on where he has been heading, would qualify as “defensive.”

“Judging by the president’s schedule, there is a strong focus on shoring up the base in Republican strongholds,” he observed.

Trump kicked off his final midterm sprint with a rally in Durant, Oklahoma, a district he won by more than 55 points less than two years ago. He followed that with a rally in Mobile, Alabama, a district he won by 36 points.

Of the fifteen rallies the president has attended or announced to date, all but one were in districts he won in 2024, and he won all but one by double digits.

His average margin of victory in the districts he’s gone to or will visit, according to the upcoming schedule, was more than 25 points.



President Donald Trump’s me-me-me approach to the midterm elections is backfiring spectacularly, according to a damning new poll.

The president’s strategy aimed to mobilize conservative voters by turning the upcoming midterm elections into a personal referendum, but instead of galvanizing Republicans, it has inspired Democrats to act, Politico’s latest poll found.

In the survey released Tuesday, opposing the president and his policies emerged as the single biggest factor driving Democratic voters, with 44 percent identifying it as their primary motivation. Only 33 percent of conservative voters cited supporting the administration as their main reason for casting a ballot.

The widening enthusiasm gap comes as public standing for the administration reaches historic lows. A newly published Pew Research Center survey shows 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance, with a shocking 31 percent of his own 2024 voters now expressing dissatisfaction.

Overall support among his voter base has plunged to 67 percent—down from 75 percent in July and a staggering drop from the 95 percent approval he enjoyed at the start of his term.

In 19 days, control of the House could shift to the Democrats.  Control of the Senate could shift as well.  And if control of the House shifts, Dems are prepared.  Lisa Mascaro (AP) notes:


House Democrats are preparing an ambitious 100-days agenda focused on delivering their campaign promises — making life more affordable and conducting vast oversight of the Trump administration — if the party seizes majority control in next month's elections.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker if the party wins power, said the Democrats will be united “right out of the gate” on reinstating Affordable Care Act tax breaks, reversing Republican Medicaid cuts, holding votes against the Iran war and undoing President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
They expect to launch the agenda in the first 100 hours, once the new Congress is seated in January.

Those are things worth pursuing.  And the American people agree.  Justine Fernandez (BLUSHER) reports on a new poll:

Two-thirds of U.S. adults now say they favor a national health insurance plan sometimes called Medicare-for-all, according to a September 2026 KFF Health Tracking Poll. The 66% support marks the highest level KFF has recorded since it began asking Americans about the proposal, up from 53% in 2020. The poll comes as healthcare affordability remains a major concern for voters heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

Support is not evenly divided along party lines, but the idea has attracted substantial support from Democrats and independents. About 84% of Democrats and 72% of independents said they favor Medicare-for-all, while 66% of Republicans opposed the proposal. KFF found that 79% of Americans also favor having the federal government do more to help provide health insurance to more people, including majorities among Democrats, independents and Republicans.

The poll surveyed 1,328 U.S. adults from September 16 through 21, 2026, with most respondents registered to vote. Healthcare expenses ranked as the leading economic concern among those surveyed, with 60% saying they were very or somewhat worried about affording healthcare costs, compared with 59% worried about gasoline prices and 52% concerned about grocery costs. The findings suggest that frustration with the cost of coverage and medical care is helping fuel interest in major changes to the healthcare system.

Support for Medicare For All has grown and grown.  Democrats need to remember that -- especially in 2028 when selecting the presidential candidate. 




In other news, we now know who is responsible for the many problems surrounding Chump's 'fix' of The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and, spoiler, it's not an Olympian.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports: 

The Virginia company that resurfaced the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool under a $14.7 million no-bid contract botched the job in at least 85 places, according to an inspection report the contractor commissioned.

The 75-page “failure analysis,” completed Aug. 6 by Atlantic Coating Inspection, which was obtained by the Washington Post, blames improper materials and a rush to finish in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations – but it makes no mention of vandalism to the liner, which is the explanation President Donald Trump has repeatedly given for the pool’s problems.
The report documents nearly 40 blisters caused by trapped moisture or chemical fumes, peeling in nearly two dozen spots, and buckling along eight of the pool’s 10 expansion joints.

Some of the peeling probably happened because crews were still applying the coating on June 3, the day before the pool was refilled. The material needed 72 hours to cure, but one photo shows workers still using spray guns the day after water started flowing in.

And yet Chump blamed vandals.  He specifically blamed Olympian David Hearn.  He's never apologized.  He's never corrected the record.  For someone as litigious as Chump, it would probably serve him well to be sued by Hearn.  As the president, he is not above the law and he is not allowed to lie about citizens.  


Turning to Chump's toy boy Priss Pot Hegseth, Isabel van Brugen (DAILY BEAST) reports: 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has backed unleashing new strikes on Iran as part of a major operation ahead of the midterm elections, according to a report.

Hegseth, 46, and the leadership of U.S. Central Command are the strongest backers of resuming attacks, a source familiar with the discussions told Axios. Most of President Donald Trump’s advisers, however, favor maintaining economic sanctions and “other forms of pressure” for now.
The push comes as the war, which the 80-year-old president promised would last “a few weeks,” is nearing the end of its seventh month and has claimed the lives of 21 U.S. service members, with hundreds of others wounded.

Hegseth is getting mocked in public. 





And his attempts to control who worships and who doesn't in the military continues to be a sore spot. 



There is a development in Chump's war on the press.  From yesterday's MORNING EDITION (NPR):


STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have an update on the White House's attempt to ban news organizations from the White House because President Trump doesn't like them. Last night, a federal judge ruled again that the president must let them into the White House for the foreseeable future. NPR's David Folkenflik is covering this case. David, good morning.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: OK. What kind of ruling is this?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, so the judge made a ruling like this that lasted for a period of weeks when he had a chance to think about this motion. This motion was for something called a preliminary injunction, which basically says - is there enough evidence to suggest that the plaintiffs, the people suing - that is CNN, MS NOW and Politico - could prevail at trial? This injunction, this ruling, stops the White House from being able to bar the 70-some journalists for these three outlets from the White House for the length of the case, that is, until it goes to the trial phase. So it's not final, but it gives us some real insight into the judge's thinking.

INSKEEP: OK. What is the judge's thinking?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, so the judge really didn't credit the Justice Department's arguments about national security, about concerns about accuracy, about really anything because President Trump had been so vocal about not liking the coverage of those three outlets. And in fact, that's what Theodore Boutros, the lawyer for the outlet, said was the best witness they had was the President of the United States and his own statements. Here's what Judge Timothy Kelly said in his ruling. In part, he said, quote, "it's not hard to conclude that President Trump likely banned plaintiffs from the White House because he believes that their reporting is generally inaccurate and biased against him."

And he found that the president, the administration had essentially violated two forms of constitutionally protected free speech or violated their free speech, that is, in two different ways. That's, of course, part of the First Amendment. He said essentially, the White House was retaliating against these outlets for their coverage. And he said there was a due process violation. That is, they made their decision. They conveyed it pretty much instantaneously and put it in place over that weekend of mid-September and, son of a gun, they gave them no chance to appeal that until after it was always (ph) in place. He didn't say that national security doesn't matter. He said he wasn't really crediting it in this case.

INSKEEP: Because Trump himself had been so blatant about his motives and so explicit about his motives. So where does...

FOLKENFLIK: That's right.

INSKEEP: ...The case go from here?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, you know, as I said, this suggests that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are very likely to prevail at trial. Officially, that's where it's headed. You know, oftentimes, the parties tend to work this out at this point, save everybody the need for a trial. The White House didn't return my request for comment, but let's acknowledge the president often likes to keep going. He likes to tie the institutions that he has targeted up in court. It's expensive. It's complicating. It's distracting. And he doesn't like to yield to challenges to his authority. And we're seeing this play out in a variety of court cases that are happening, both involving the press, which the president has taken great aim at, and others that he's tangling with as well.




Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

READ MORE:  Senator Murray announces members of new public health initiative

NYT: A Public Health-Minded Senator Asks: What Comes After Trump and Kennedy?

***LIVESTREAM OF DISCUSSION FROM KHQ HERE***

***PHOTOS OF EVENT HERE***

Pullman, WA — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, formally launched the Public Health for America Working Group. Senator Murray delivered a speech outlining the mission of the working group and then was joined by WSU faculty and state and local public health officials for a panel discussion on the working group’s goals and the future of public health in Washington state and across the country.

Murray’s working group will seek to develop the ideas, safeguards, and legislation needed to restore trust in public health and build a stronger, public health system that is more resilient to political attacks. It follows nearly two years of unprecedented attacks by President Trump and Secretary Kennedy on the agencies, scientists, and institutions that keep Americans safe and healthy.

“I’ve worked with health secretaries under five presidents. Republicans and Democrats. People I agreed with and people I disagreed with. But at the end of the day, every one of them understood that their job was to protect the health of the American people. They listened to the scientists. They trusted the experts. And when a crisis hit, we could pick up the phone and work together. I have never seen anything like what we’re seeing now. The genuine malice toward experts. The sheer hostility towards science. None of that is a policy disagreement. It’s a complete break from how every administration before this one—of either party—has approached the job. I’m not going to mince words here: Trump and RFK Jr. have put our public health system on life support. Trust among the public is in free fall. Our nation has simply never been more unprepared for serious public health threats,” said Senator Murray. “All of us who care about the future of public health need to come to grips with a hard reality: If we had a healthy public health system—it would not have been so easy to snap in half. Instead, the system we had before was already underfunded, already stretched thin, and already far too vulnerable to politics. If we are going to meet this moment, we have to build something stronger. And we have to start by rebuilding trust.”

“The charge of my working group is simple. First, we need to repair the trust that has been shattered. And second, we need to reinforce it against future political attacks. We have to build something that can’t be broken the next time someone decides science is inconvenient. Public health policy can’t become a political football that shifts every four years based on political ideology. It has to be reliably grounded in science and facts,” Senator Murray continued. “I’ll tell you: I’ve passed more bipartisan health policy into law than nearly all of my colleagues in Congress. And I’ve done it by understanding you can’t reach a deal without trust—it’s the foundation of every deal I’ve ever brokered. You build trust by listening to people’s concerns, understanding their perspectives, and answering their questions honestly—even when that means saying you don’t know the answer yet…But we know that when it comes, we need a public health system that is already trusted, and already prepared. Not one that is warped by politics and distracted by conspiracies. Families are counting on us to keep them safe. I know—because I’ve been that mother worried about the pesticides being sprayed near my kids. I’ve been that teacher worried about outbreaks spreading in my classroom. Every one of those times—I knew I could trust what CDC told me. I want every family in this country to have that again.”

Since taking office, President Trump and Secretary Kennedy have taken unprecedented steps to politicize public health agencies, overrule experts, promote misinformation, and undermine trust in the nation’s public health infrastructure.

Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal public health experts—including all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director for refusing to rubberstamp his anti-vaccine views before reviewing the scientific evidence. Under Secretary Kennedy, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has halted promising research, taken down data for deadly diseases, refused to accurately report measles deaths, promoted false anti-vaccine information, and more. These steps have severely undermined public trust—with polls showing trust in CDC recommendations dropping from 77% to 50% over Trump’s first year in office this term. 

The mission of Murray’s working group is not simply to restore what existed before January 2025, but to design a public health system that is stronger, more resilient, and structurally protected from political interference—no matter who holds the White House or controls Congress. The working group will convene roundtables with researchers, providers, state, local, and Tribal health officials, and former career federal scientists; host public conversations on the future of public health; engage directly with communities and trusted messengers; and respond in real time as key public health decisions unfold. Its findings will inform nonpartisan, evidence-based policy proposals as Murray works to build consensus around legislation to rebuild public health in America stronger and more resilient than ever before.


Senator Murray has a long record as a leader on public health, including; pushing for permanent funding for public health infrastructure; serving on the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security; and serving as the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for several years—including during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has negotiated and passed key public health legislation like the American Rescue Plan; PREVENT Pandemics Act; the SUPPORT Act which helped address the opioids crisis; the 21st Century Cures Act; and bills reauthorizing key Food and Drug Administration (FDA) programs and pandemic preparedness programs.

More information on the Public Health for America Working Group is available HERE.

Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:

“Public health is maybe not the hottest topic in politics or on social media—but the students here know how much it actually matters.

“Quick show of hands: how many of you had to learn through a screen during middle or high school?

“Exactly—that’s why today’s conversation matters.

“In public health, we say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s not just true of disease—it’s also true of corruption, incompetence, and political interference. Unfortunately, it is painfully clear right now that these are threats our public health system was simply not equipped to prevent.

“Curing them is going to take some serious work. That’s why I’m here today.

“Under President Trump and RFK Jr., we’ve seen an outbreak of corruption, chaos, and political interference ripping through our public health system. I’m not going to stand up here and list every single thing Secretary Kennedy has done to our public health system. We’d be here all afternoon—and frankly, I want to leave time to talk about how we fix it.

“But I do want to be straight with you about the damage. Because it is real, it is serious, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone.

“I’ve worked with health secretaries under five presidents—Republicans and Democrats. People I agreed with, and people I disagreed with. But at the end of the day, every one of them understood that their job was to protect the health of the American people.

“They listened to the scientists. They trusted the experts. And when a crisis hit, we could pick up the phone and work together.

“I have never seen anything like what we’re seeing now. The genuine malice toward experts, the sheer hostility toward science—none of that is a policy disagreement. It’s a complete break from how every administration before this one—of either party—has approached the job.

“I’m not going to mince words here: Trump and RFK Jr. have put our public health system on life support. Trust among the public is in free fall. Our nation has simply never been more unprepared for serious public health threats.

“Losing experts and staff across our health agencies, funding being illegally withheld—that’s bad enough. But we’re also dealing with a whole lot of disinformation coming at us online, often incentivized by some kind of profit-making scheme.

“How many of you have come across health advice on TikTok or Instagram in the last few days? How many of you were certain that information was absolutely correct? If you needed public health advice, where would you look for it? Would you ask your doctor? Talk to your parents? Would you check the CDC website? Would you ask AI?

“This is one of the big challenges we’ve got to grapple with, too. This isn’t about the sanctity of science or how experts are treated. At the end of the day, this is about our families.

“When a daycare needs help fighting a measles outbreak—that is public health. When a hospital is looking for recommendations to reduce maternal mortality—that is public health. When the library has concerns about its drinking water, when the rec-league has concerns about wildfire smoke, when the cafeteria has concerns about contaminated lettuce—raise your hand if you want to make sure our lettuce doesn’t give people life-threatening explosive diarrhea? That’s what I thought; me too—all of that is public health, and it is just the start.

“At the end of the day—public health is about public safety. We have to remember that. When our loudest public health megaphone becomes an echo chamber for conspiracies, that is a lot bigger than a political problem—it is a life and death problem.

“Not every national security threat is about war or AI. We cannot fully protect the American people if we just buy more bombs and leave public health in the dust.

“COVID taught us all this lesson very painfully, and it is outrageous to see this Administration trying to rewrite that history and erase the lessons we should be learning from—even as the world just nervously watched a potential outbreak in Russia.

“How are we supposed to be prepared for the next public health threat when it seems like our Health Secretary is more likely to cover up a measles outbreak than admit vaccines don’t cause autism?

“However, I want to be clear—as bad as things are right now, I’m not here to throw up my hands and just say how awful everything is. I’m here to roll up my sleeves and get to work on how we fix it.

“I believe with a dose of the right medicine—some hard work, some common sense, and serious accountability for RFK Jr. and Trump. We can break this fever. We can save our public health system.

“Think of how rapidly public health has deteriorated under RFK’s leadership— it stands to reason that we could build it back pretty quickly, too.

“But, after we do that, things cannot just go back to business as usual. All of us who care about the future of public health need to come to grips with a hard reality: if we had a healthy public health system, it would not have been so easy to snap in half.

“Instead, the system we had before was already underfunded, already stretched thin, and already far too vulnerable to politics. If we are going to meet this moment, we have to build something stronger—and we have to start by rebuilding trust.

“Which is why I decided to turn to some people I trust for help: Patty Hayes, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Dr. Jeffery Levi, Dr. Helen Chu, and Dr. Vin Gupta. This is a group of nonpartisan experts, dedicated to public health and public service, with experience managing the COVID response in King County and Seattle, conducting medical research on vaccines, and making science-based decisions at agencies like the FDA, the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, and the Office of National AIDS Policy.

“I’m incredibly excited and grateful to have these individuals joining me to launch the Public Health for America Working Group. I’m especially glad to be having one of our first events here at my alma mater, WSU, and to be joined by some incredibly knowledgeable local public health experts to discuss the challenges we face.

“The charge of my working group is simple. First, we need to repair the trust that has been shattered. Second, we need to reinforce it against future political attacks.

“We have to build something that can’t be broken the next time someone decides science is inconvenient. Public health policy can’t become a political football that shifts every four years based on political ideology. It has to be reliably grounded in science and facts.

“Sounds great, right? But how do we do it? I have ideas already: I believe we ought to limit the number of political appointees at our health agencies like CDC. I know we need more stable and consistent funding for our state and local health agencies, but there’s another dimension to this outside of policy—trust.

“I’ve passed more bipartisan health policy into law than nearly all of my colleagues in Congress—and I’ve done it by understanding you can’t reach a deal without trust. It’s the foundation of every deal I’ve ever brokered. You build trust by listening to people’s concerns, understanding their perspectives, and answering their questions honestly—even when that means saying you don’t know the answer yet.

“I am sincerely determined to talk to anyone and everyone about what comes next to rebuild public health in America. Then, out of those conversations, we will build trust, and we will bring back new ideas for legislation that will help build a stronger public health system.

“I started today by saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s what this working group is about—it’s a tall order, but Congress needs to deliver on this. Not just repairing the damage but making sure it can never happen this easily again.

“As smart as the members of this Working Group are, none of us know what the next public health threat will be. A measles outbreak worse than what we’re facing today? Anti-microbial resistance? Tick-borne diseases? There are so many possibilities. But we know that when it comes, we need a public health system that is already trusted and already prepared—not one that is warped by politics and distracted by conspiracies.

“Families are counting on us to keep them safe. I know because I’ve been that mother worried about the pesticides being sprayed near my kids. I’ve been that teacher worried about outbreaks spreading in my classroom.

“Every one of those times, I knew I could trust what CDC told me. I want every family in this country to have that again.

“To the students here today: this is your fight too. The public health system we build is the one you’ll inherit, and the one you’ll run. So, if you’ve got ideas—if anyone has thoughts they want to share—go ahead and email me at publichealth@murray.senate.gov.

“So, with that, it’s great to be here at WSU. This university trains the people who staff our public health system, and its research helps keep families safe far beyond Pullman. I’m excited to have a discussion with some great public health leaders about what comes next.” 

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The following sites updated: 



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