What’s Newt Reading | April 29, 2020

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff is retaining control of transcripts in the Russian Conspiracy Hoax. What is he trying to hide from the American public? Is this transparency? - Newt Schiff’s Secret Transcripts By The Editorial Board Wall Street Journal Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is leading Democrats in an effort to suppress details of how the narrative that President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia was promoted. In April 2018, when Republicans on the Intelligence Committee wrapped up their investigation into the bogus theory and found no collusion, Schiff and other Democrats accused them of hiding incriminating evidence. Five months later, the committee voted unanimously to release the transcripts of the investigation’s 53 witness interviews. The documents were then sent to the intelligence community for declassification, and the process is complete for 43 interviews. But Schiff is refusing to make the transcripts public and blocking declassification of the other 10. It seems Schiff wants to protect promoters of the collusion theory from scrutiny. After all, the evidence is ready to be released to the public, yet he’s defying his own committee’s vote. “What doesn’t Mr. Schiff want America to see?” Halting elective surgeries and other non-emergency procedures seemed reasonable. But doing so has forced hospitals to lay off and furlough health care workers at unprecedented levels. - Newt Most US Hospitals Are Empty. Soon They Might Be Closed for Good By Rick Jackson Newsweek Initially, federal and state directives to halt all non-emergency procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic seemed reasonable. “But instead of merely preserving hospital beds and other resources, this heavy-handed injunction has created a burden of its own design: a historic number of empty beds in systems left untouched by the pandemic.” These hospitals have had to furlough workers at unprecedented levels to stave off temporary budget shortfalls. Worse, more lasting outcomes could take hold if immediate action isn’t taken. By barring all elective surgeries, hospitals have been denied billions of dollars in revenue in just the last month alone. Hospitals are now making and spending half of what they were this time last year. And the layoffs will continue. Even before this pandemic, many hospitals, especially rural ones, were vulnerable to closure. Now they have more empty beds than ever before. And rural hospitals aren’t the only ones that will close. Having less health care workers means a severely constrained ability to treat not only the coronavirus, but also a host of other ailments. Plus, “the fastest way to get Americans back to work is to allow hospitals to treat patients.” Andrew C. McCarthy writes that when it comes to civil restrictions related to COVID-19, the government owes a "burden of proof" to the public through science. - Newt Government Bears the Burden of Proof on Coronavirus Restrictions By Andrew C. McCarthy National Review Everything is politicized today, including science. The politicization of science has ingrained “the argument from authority” in our political life, damaging the American republic through government’s responses, at all levels, to the coronavirus. “And it will keep doing damage unless and until we restore the burden of proof.” In the US, where liberty supersedes authority and government derives its powers and legitimacy from the consent of the governed, “the argument from authority should never be the final word.” True, expertise is critical, especially in science, but it is not right because it says so — nor does it have “declarative authority.” Instead, expertise “is there to help us, not order us. It has to compete. It has to convince. And unless it does, it should have no power to infringe on our liberties.” Look at the justice system, where Americans don’t need to give up their fundamental freedoms just because of what experts say. No, the government bears the burden of proof. Accused Americans are presumed innocent — and therefore entitled to their fundamental liberties — unless the government can prove beyond a reasonable doubt — with facts and proof, not speculation — that they be deprived of liberty and property. So, government officials “must grasp that they may not impose stifling restraints on liberty without convincing the public that these restraints are necessary, that no lesser restrictions will do, and that enforcement will not be arbitrary or discriminatory.” The media likes to portray a divided country full of protest and conflict, but a new survey shows that, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the American people want national unity and less partisanship. - Newt McLaughlin-Poll: Americans Are United Against Virus, Overwhelmingly Distrust China By John McLaughlin and Jim McLaughlin Newsmax A new national survey conducted by McLaughlin found that, contrary to what one sees on television, the coronavirus pandemic “has rallied Americans in a manner not seen since Sept. 11, 2001.” Indeed, the pandemic has created an environment where Americans want their country to come “together to confront the challenges ahead” and reject partisan politics. The pandemic also “reveals an enormous distrust of China among Americans of all political stripes.” For example, American voters now favor reducing dependence on Chinese exports and trust the Chinese government less than before the pandemic. Fearing repercussions from the Chinese communist dictatorship, the European Union releases a non-critical report on China's COVID-19 response. – Newt Pressured by China, EU Softens Report on COVID-19 Disinformation By Matt Apuzzo New York Times “Bowing to heavy pressure from Beijing, European Union officials softened their criticism of China this week in a report documenting how governments push disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.” European officials delayed and then rewrote the report in ways that “diluted the focus on China,” an important trading partner. The EU was worried about the repercussions of irking Beijing. The initial report noted that China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic, which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan. “But China moved quickly to block the document’s release, and the European Union pulled back. The report had been on the verge of publication, until senior officials ordered revisions to soften the language.”