How Heritage and MAGA media crafted Trump’s autopen attack
How Heritage and MAGA media crafted Trump’s autopen attack
The Heritage Foundation and MAGA media laid the groundwork for President Donald Trump’s unprecedented and lawless overnight claim that he is invalidating the pardons President Joe Biden issued to the January 6 House select committee.
Trump cited the committee, particularly its co-chair, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), in the calls for retribution against his foes that were a hallmark of his 2024 presidential campaign. In response, Biden issued preemptive pardons to the committee’s members and staff in the final hours of his presidency.
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Not sure if he has already said anything about the Fauci pardon, but almost certainly will be making the argument against him too.
I wrote about it a little in the post I made and plan to update with more information in a longer follow up post.
So Biden's pardon to Fauci is backdated to 2014, the year the NIH issued pause on funding for gain of function (GOF) research. The pause was only meant to apply to research that increased the contagion or virulence of a pathogen with enhanced pandemic potential (ePPP).
From the time the notice was issued, many scientists were worried about the use of the term GOF because most virology and vaccine research involves what is by definition GOF research. Any modification of genetic material during an experiment could meet the definition of GOF. Whether it is traditional vaccine research where genetic alteration is used to increase yields for vaccine strains or even steps of genetic modification for mRNA vaccines which don't require an inactive or weak pathogen to create a vaccine.
Anyway, this past summer during House Oversight COVID-19 Select Subcommitee Hearings into the NIH funding for the EcoHealth Alliance collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology, the subcommitee asked the deputy director of the NIH this question:
Rep Lesko: “Dr. Tabak, did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth?” Dr. Tabak: “It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research. If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did…the generic term is research that goes on in many, many labs around the country. It is not regulated. And the reason it’s not regulated is it poses no threat or harm to anybody.” https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-nih-repeatedly-refutes-ecohealth-alliance-president-dr-peter-daszaks-testimony-tabak-testimony-reveals-federal-grant-procedures-in-need-of-serious-reform/
The Subcommitee claims this contradicts previous testimony given by Anthony Fauci. It seems pretty clear Fauci was referring to GOF as it was used in the 2014 NIH pause and Tabak was using it regarding the broad definition. However, the conclusion of many is that Fauci willingly misled the American public when he said the NIH does not support GOF research.
Biden has never acknowledged this is what the pardon was about, but it would be quite the coincidence if the 2014 backdate had nothing to do with this.
And of course the Heritage Foundation has jumped on to the we need to end dangerous GOF funding train https://www.heritage.org/public-health/commentary/president-trump-should-reinstate-president-obamas-moratorium-risky
Out of a concern for public safety of course.