COVID

Sen. Ron Johnson isn’t wasting any time now that Republicans hold the Senate. The Wisconsin lawmaker, who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has officially subpoenaed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for crucial documents on vaccine safety, including emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci, as reported by The Blaze.

Johnson announced the move on Wednesday, coinciding with the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for a role at HHS. With Republicans regaining control of the Senate after the 2024 elections, Johnson made it clear that his oversight efforts are just beginning.

“Yesterday, I subpoenaed HHS for documents on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — including a subset of Dr. Fauci’s emails — and the development and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines,” Johnson stated.

“Many of these records should have been turned over to me years ago, but the Biden administration opted to keep Congress and the public in the dark.”

Johnson has long called for transparency in federal health agencies, and he didn’t hold back in his latest statement.

“It is well past time to bring accountability and transparency back to our U.S. health agencies,” he wrote on social media, adding that he expects HHS to comply fully with the subpoena.

For years, Johnson has been pressing for answers. He revealed that he had sent approximately 70 oversight letters regarding the federal COVID response, but the Biden administration either ignored or inadequately addressed them.

Now, he’s putting real pressure on officials to respond, giving them a deadline of February 18.

As Johnson turns up the heat, one of the more curious details of the Biden administration’s final days has resurfaced—Joe Biden’s last-minute preemptive pardon for Dr. Fauci. In what many saw as a shield against incoming scrutiny, Biden issued the pardon to protect Fauci from any potential legal fallout under a Trump administration.

In a statement at the time, Biden defended the move, claiming that investigations into Fauci were “baseless and politically motivated” and only served to “wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”

Biden insisted that even innocent individuals suffer lasting reputational damage from such probes, even if they are ultimately cleared.

Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for decades, stepped down from his role in 2023. But his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic remains under scrutiny, with Johnson and other Republicans determined to get answers about government policies, vaccine safety, and public health decisions that shaped the nation’s response.

Johnson made it clear before the election that if Republicans took control, subpoenas would follow. “Just days after being named chairman of the Subcommittee, I have kept my word,” he stated. Now, with his first major subpoena issued, all eyes are on whether HHS will comply—or if they’ll continue stonewalling under new leadership in Washington.

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The Trump administration reinstated service members earlier this week who were previously discharged as a result of the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

More than 8,000 servicemembers were kicked out of the U.S. military following a 2021 COVID-19 vaccination policy that required everyone within the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Defense (DoD) receive a dose of the experimental drug. Many of those troops cited religious and personal reasons for their refusal, but were still discharged, according to the Washington Stand.

In an Executive Order posted on Monday, Trump wrote that the “vaccine mandate was an unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden on our service members.” It is also believed that Trump is working to get “full back pay for each servicemember that was discharged,” another outlet noted.

Keeping To Promises

Trump said during his inaugural address that he would “reinstate any servicemembers who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate, with full back pay.” 

That promise has at least come true in-part with this latest ruling. “Further, the military unjustly discharged those who refused the vaccine, regardless of the years of service given to our Nation, after failing to grant many of them an exemption that they should have received. Federal Government redress of any wrongful dismissals is overdue,” he added in the EO.

Other Military-Related Orders

On the same day, Trump also ordered an Iron Dome for America, similar to that used by Israel to protect from attack by “ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks.”

He further removed those who claim to be “transgender” from service, citing a longstanding DoD policy that servicemembers are ““[f]ree of medical conditions or physical defects that may reasonably be expected to require excessive time lost from duty for necessary treatment or hospitalization.” 

“For the sake of our Nation and the patriotic Americans who volunteer to serve it, military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty.  The Armed Forces must adhere to high mental and physical health standards to ensure our military can deploy, fight, and win, including in austere conditions and without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions,” the order added.

Finally, Trump reinstated a meritocracy-based approach wherein no “individual or group within our Armed Forces should be preferred or disadvantaged on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, color, or creed.” 

“President Trump has delivered on yet another of his campaign promises. His executive order will restore the American people’s faith and confidence in our military by offering the opportunity for those who were unfairly and improperly discharged to return to military service. Along with Secretary of Defense [Pete] Hegseth, President Trump is taking bold, decisive steps to make our military great again,” Center for Litigation at the America First Policy Institute executive director Michael Berry told the Washington Stand.

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John Ratcliffe, the newly confirmed director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), laid out his priorities in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

Ratcliffe, sworn in by Vice President J.D. Vance, emphasized the need to reform the agency, depoliticize its operations, and confront the geopolitical threats posed by China.

Ratcliffe made it clear that one of his first actions as CIA director will be addressing the agency’s lack of a formal assessment on the origins of COVID-19.

The virus, which has claimed over a million American lives, has been at the center of a heated debate over whether it originated naturally or leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

“I’ve been on record as you know in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Ratcliffe said.

“But the CIA has not made that assessment or at least not made that assessment publicly. So I’m going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure that the public is aware that the agency is going to get off the sidelines.”

The CIA has faced criticism in recent years, with allegations that analysts were bribed to dismiss the lab leak theory.

While the lab leak hypothesis has gained significant traction, the agency has yet to take an official stance, a position Ratcliffe intends to change.

Ratcliffe highlighted China as the top foreign threat to U.S. national security and vowed to provide President Donald Trump with the intelligence needed to counter Chinese aggression.

“As President Trump deals with President Xi [Jinping], he needs to be armed with the very best intelligence,” Ratcliffe said.

“If they caused or contributed to the death of a million Americans, the president needs to be armed with that.”

Ratcliffe’s stance on China is consistent with his tenure as Director of National Intelligence (DNI), during which he warned of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence and nefarious activities.

He co-authored a 2023 op-ed with former Deputy Director of National Intelligence Cliff Sims, detailing the growing threat posed by China.

The CIA director criticized the intelligence community for its slow response to the shifting global landscape, noting that much of the establishment remains focused on Russia, despite China emerging as the United States’ primary geopolitical adversary.

Ratcliffe argued that the U.S. intelligence and foreign policy establishment has failed to adapt to the realities of the 21st century, where China’s economic and technological advancements present a greater challenge than Russia.

“You have people who have been at the different intelligence agencies for so long and focused on the Russia threat — and, as you said, legitimately because [Vladimir] Putin is a bad guy and a regime with a huge nuclear stockpile that we need to talk about — but the Intelligence Community has been slow to adjust to the fact that China is the primary geopolitical threat we face,” Ratcliffe explained.

He cited the CCP’s influence in Washington, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood as factors that have hindered the U.S. response.

“From Washington, D.C., to Wall Street to Silicon Valley to Hollywood, there has been a desire to keep China from being labeled a bad guy because a lot of people make a lot of money from China and in China,” he said.

Ratcliffe also took aim at former CIA Director John Brennan, accusing him of steering the agency in the wrong direction during the Obama administration.

Ratcliffe’s goal, he said, is to return the CIA to its core mission of protecting U.S. national security and ensuring that intelligence is free from political interference.

As Ratcliffe takes the helm, he has signaled a commitment to tackling the major challenges posed by China, restoring accountability within the CIA, and ensuring that the agency is equipped to address the complex threats of the modern era.

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