Trump stokes coronavirus conspiracy theory involving Rod Rosenstein’s sister
"Trump's coronavirus response is worse than incompetent [...] And this is consistent with the diseased propaganda that grips the brains of basically the entire Republican Party. Right-wing commentators are already pushing conspiracy theories about the outbreak, no doubt driven by fear that the disease will hurt Trump's reelection prospects — like some crackpot who falsely asserted COVID-19 is a Chinese bioweapon, which was then amplified by Ben Shapiro, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and the Trump administration itself. Others are suggesting that one CDC official is raising the alarm because she is the sister of former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who was pushed out for insufficient fealty to Trump). On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh scoffed: "Yeah, I'm dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks," and asserted the media was hyping up the disease in an attempt to harm Trump. He said the fatality rate was a mere 2 percent, adding, "That's less than the flu, folks.""
Published 6 hours ago on February 26, 2020
President Donald Trump is singling out a particular official with the Centers for Disease Control for warning against the possible spread of the coronavirus.
The president is furious that CDC officials warned Tuesday that the COVID-19 virus could potentially shut down schools and businesses, and he reportedly blames Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the agency and the sister of former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein — as Rush Limbaugh did on his national radio program.
“This person running this agency, who does she donate to?” Limbaugh said during his syndicated show .. https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/02/25/crazy-bernie-panic-becomes-media-pandemic/ . “Well, her brother is Rod Rosenstein. I’m guessing, let me check. I need to double-check this, because what I’m seeing here is ‘Messonnier’s sister is Rod Rosenstein’ — unless Rosenstein’s had a sex-change operation, that can’t be right.”
Trump, perhaps following the lead of Limbaugh and fringe right-wing blogs, has focused his anger on Messonnier, according to CNBC’s Eamon Javers.
[two tweets]
“She never should have said that,” a senior administration official told me. “It’s bad. It’s great to make emergency preparations, it’s not great to make predictions.”
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
