During this public health crisis, the voice of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is being prominently heard by the public.
Therefore picking the person to be that voice should be done carefully.
So who better than a highly partisan Republican political strategist and media consultant who worked on the scandal riddled 2016 presidential campaign of President Donald Trump and endorsed criminally convicted campaign manager Paul Manafort with a history of problematic Twitter posts?
The new spokesman for DHHS is former Trump campaign worker Michael Caputo. Almost immediately after being named to the position of DHHS mouthpiece under Alex Azar, Caputo began deleting Twitter posts.
But anyone familiar with the internet knows anything posted online is forever.
Caputo's now-deleted tweets made racist comments about Chinese people, claimed Democrats wanted the coronavirus to kill millions of people and accused the press of creating fear about the pandemic—that has now killed over 50,000 Americans—just to hurt President Trump.
Before the purge, Caputo's profanity laden Twitter archive was equally full of the kind of childish insults employed by another prominent figure in the Trump administration. The new DHHS spokesman almost everything from before April 12.
But what too many people fail to realize is the Internet Archive's "The Wayback Machine" exists.
CNN looked at more than 1300 of Caputo's deleted tweets, comments and retweets from late February to early April. Many of them concerned the global pandemic.
They found the records full of conspiracy theories, problematic language to attack Trump critics and racist commentary.
On March 12, Caputo commented "millions of Chinese suck the blood out of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the ass out of anteaters."He told another Twitter user "Don't you have a bat to eat?" and called another a stereotypical Chinese surname, posting "You're very convincing, Wang."
When asked to comment on his online behavior, Caputo told CNN his deleted tweets were "fair game, dude."
"I don't care. It doesn't matter to me at all."
When asked why the massive purge occurred if he was unconcerned with his online behavior, Caputo claimed he deletes all of his tweets "every month and I do it because it drives people mad."
"[W]hen you tweet in spirited fashion, KFile is going to have them. I've known that all my days."
"So I don't mind what you've done."
Caputo stated his racist comments were only because he was "a defender of the President" posting in a "spirited manner."
But he added his tweets will be different from his appointment forward.
"[I'm] now a servant of the American people and some might be disappointed, but my tweets will be different."
The DHHS spokesman whose primary job will be dealing with the press said falsely claimed most people in the United States view the press as "the enemy of the people" for "carrying water for the Chinese Communist Party."
Caputo is also a close friend and ally of criminallt convicted Trump associate Roger Stone. The new government employee is leading a campaign to have Stone pardoned after he was found guilty of lying to Congress, obstructing a congressional inquiry and witness tampering after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation brought charges against him.
Despite his claim that people love his tweets, Caputo resigned from the 2016 Trump campaign after tweeting "Ding Dong the witch is dead" after campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was fired and replaced by criminally convicted Paul Manafort.
Reactions to Caputo's addition to the Trump administration failed to show the level of love the DHHS spokesman said he commands.
However many felt Caputo was a perfect fit due to his inappropriate online behavior.
Since taking office in January 2017, President Trump's administration has seen a record number of turnover. Some offices remain unfilled since his inauguration while others have only had "acting" personnel. Whether Caputo will last or join the list of people who were there and gone within weeks remains to be seen.
