What’s Newt Reading | May 6, 2020

What Newt’s Reading DC journalist: 'I want a coronation' of Joe Biden. The truth (or fairness) doesn't matter to Democrats — only winning — even at the expense of the alleged victim. – Newt Washington Journalist: 'I Want a Coronation' of Biden, Not an Investigation of Allegations By Joe Concha The Hill In a letter to the editor published Tuesday in the New York Times, Washington journalist Martin Tolchin argued that he wants a "coronation" for former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee, not an investigation into the allegation of sexual assault against him. “I don’t want an investigation. I want a coronation of Joe Biden,” wrote Tolchin, a founder of Politico. “Would he make a great president? Unlikely. Would he make a good president? Good enough. Would he make a better president than the present occupant? Absolutely.” Tolchin added that his priority is to get President Trump out of the White House, not justice for the alleged victim. Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer, accused Biden of sexually assaulting her when she worked in his office in 1993. The underlying purpose of the Flynn perjury trap was for the Obama-Biden administration to hamstring the Trump administration from governing and reversing Obama's failed policies. – Newt The FBI Set Flynn Up to Preserve the Trump–Russia Probe By Andrew C. McCarthy National Review According to internal FBI documents unsealed last week, top officials at the bureau openly questioned if their “goal” was to get then-national security adviser Michael Flynn to lie or admit to breaking the Logan Act in order to “prosecute him or get him fired” when they interviewed him in January 2017. We already knew that the FBI “set a perjury trap for Flynn, hoping to lure him into misstatements that the bureau could portray as lies” to oust him from his new position. But the new disclosures answer why Flynn was set up, not just what happened. “The objective of the Obama administration and its FBI hierarchy was to continue the Trump–Russia investigation, even after President Trump took office.” But the FBI had to conceal the investigation from the president. At the time, President Trump and most of his advisers were novices in government, easy for the FBI to brush back. But Flynn knew how the system worked and would be able to discover the Obama administration’s “extensive but secret effort to depict Trump and his minions as Russian operatives — an effort the FBI was determined to keep pursuing.” So, Flynn had to go, and the perjury trap was set. It succeeded. Bernie Marcus: Missouri’s lawsuit against the Chinese Communist Party outlines all the ways the CCP failed the world during the COVID-19. The communist dictatorship must be held accountable. – Newt Coronavirus Devastation — Hold China Accountable, This State's Action a Good Start By Bernie Marcus Fox News It has been well publicized that China mishandled the coronavirus outbreak and covered it up, lying to the world. Indeed, Beijing is largely responsible for the virus becoming a global pandemic. But we don’t know key details about China’s behavior. However, a new lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt may get some answers. The suit, which seeks to hold the Chinese government accountable for the devastation caused by the virus, alleges that the CCP “delayed in notifying the World Health Organization (WHO) last December of the outbreak in China, in violation of international health regulations. Missouri also claims that the CCP intentionally withheld from the WHO evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus for several weeks — critical information about its severity.” The suit also alleges that China hoarded personal protective equipment, even taking over factories that make masks on behalf of American companies to keep them for itself. Missouri is doing the right thing, and other states should file similar suits. Remdesivir, approved COVID treatment, shows the value of our strong system of patent protection for biopharmaceuticals. While there’s room for some reform, the Left’s price controls & government theft of IP would destroy the system that creates these cures. – Newt Remdesivir Affirms the American Way By John F. Cogan and George P. Shultz Wall Street Journal “The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of Gilead Sciences’ drug remdesivir to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients.” Science has been the biggest factor in remdesivir’s success, but America’s market and legal system also played a crucial role. Private biotech and pharmaceutical companies, financed by investor capital, try to create new medications. Patent protections provide companies additional incentives, providing government protection of intellectual property. Plus, charging “more than the cost of production, at a price customers are willing to pay, allows developers to recoup costs.” Ultimately, “drug companies and their investors reap rewards from their successes and suffer losses when their efforts fail.” This system allowed Gilead to create remdesivir. But progressives and other critics of the pharmaceutical industry have proposed a national price-control policy, misunderstanding the process of developing drugs. Reducing profits would reduce incentives and lead to fewer life-saving drugs. “If industry critics and progressive politicians had their way years ago, remdesivir likely would not be available today.” We have never seen the focus and energy of the global biopharmaceutical industry (lead by the US) combined on one goal: beat COVID-19. As for a vaccine this year…who would dare bet against this much brainpower and entrepreneurial spirit! – Newt Vaccines for Millions Ready This Year: The Impossible Dream? By Riley Griffin Bloomberg Companies and governments are racing to be the first to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, with everyone trying to compress a process that normally takes years into months. For its part, the White House has an initiative that aims to compress research, testing, and manufacturing of a vaccine by as much as eight months. The plan hasn’t been rolled out in full, but the government “would bear some of the financial risk that would normally fall to individual drugmakers.” The Trump administration would also “facilitate the running of multiple processes in parallel to build out manufacturing for vaccines, some of which could fail.” Private companies, meanwhile are also working hard to develop a vaccine. Newt's Latest Podcasts: