3 Stories You Should Read 9/09/2020: West Coast Wildfires, ¨This is deadly stuff¨, Russian Meddling

September 9, 2020 Confluence

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In the category of: Devastation

Wildfires rage in California, Oregon and Washington

About 40 large fires are ravaging the US West Coast.
California: The Creek Fire in Madera and Fresno counties has burned an area roughly the size of Central Park every 30 minutes over the past several days.
Washington: More acres were burned in the state Monday than were charred in the past 12 fire seasons, Gov. Jay Inslee said.
Oregon: The state has experienced “historic wildfires” almost every year in Gov. Kate Brown’s time in office, but this year’s fires are “unprecedented,” she said.

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In the category of: Blatant Lies

Trump Admits He Lied About COVID-19 Threat In New Woodward Book

President Donald Trump knew in early February that the coronavirus posed a unique and deadly threat to the United States, and was “more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

At the time, Trump repeatedly publicly downplayed the virus as no more dangerous than the flu.

The revelation is one of many in journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, “Rage,” for which Trump granted Woodward a series of interviews.

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in a Feb. 7 call with Woodward. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

“This is deadly stuff,” he repeated.

“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward on March 19, according to a copy of the book obtained by CNN. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

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In the category of: See no evil

Ex-U.S. official was told to halt assessments on Russian 2020 election meddling threat: whistleblower

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told a former top aide to stop providing assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the Nov. 3 election, according to a whistleblower complaint released on Wednesday.

Brian Murphy, a former Homeland Security deputy undersecretary for intelligence, said in the complaint that Wolf told him in mid-May to begin reporting instead on threats posed by Chinese and Iranian interference.

The instruction had come to Wolf from White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Murphy cited Wolf as saying.

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