Michael Caputo

For the American football player, see Michael Caputo (American football). For the West Virginia politician, see Mike Caputo.
Michael Caputo
Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Public Affairs
In office
April 16, 2020 – January 20, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byRyan Murphy (acting)
Succeeded byMark Weber (acting)
Personal details
Born
Michael Raymon Caputo

(1962-03-24) March 24, 1962 (age 62)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationUniversity at Buffalo (BA)

Michael Raymon Caputo (born March 24, 1962)[1] is an American political strategist and lobbyist. In April 2020, Caputo was appointed as assistant secretary of public affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration. He worked for the Reagan Administration with Oliver North, and later as director of media services on the campaign for President George H. W. Bush in the 1992 United States presidential election. Caputo moved to Russia in 1994, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and was an adviser to Boris Yeltsin. He worked for Gazprom Media in 2000 where he worked on improving the image of Vladimir Putin in the U.S. He moved back to the U.S. and founded a public relations company, and then moved to Ukraine to work on a candidate's campaign for parliament.

Caputo was campaign manager for Carl Paladino's failed 2010 bid for Governor of New York. Caputo worked for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign from November 2015 to June 2016, and was in charge of communications for New York. He left the campaign after publicly supporting the removal of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Caputo was investigated by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

While working in a top position in the HHS for the Trump administration, Caputo sought to change, delay, suppress and retroactively edit scientific reports on COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control that were deemed unflattering to Trump or inconsistent with Trump's rhetoric,[2][3][4] and has accused CDC scientists of sedition.[5]

On September 14, 2020, Caputo posted a Facebook video in which he claimed, without evidence, that "there are hit squads being trained all over this country" to mount armed opposition to a second term for President Trump.[6] He also stated "You understand that they're going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think that's where this is going." Two days later Caputo took a two-month medical leave. Caputo said of himself that his physical health was in question, and his "mental health has definitely failed."[7] On September 24, it was announced that he had been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma that had spread from his throat to his neck and head.[8]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference hernandez was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Papenfuss, Mary (2020-09-13). "Health Official Out To Manipulate CDC Reports Has Deep Russian Ties". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  4. ^ Diamond, Dan. "Trump officials celebrated efforts to change CDC reports on coronavirus, emails show". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  5. ^ LaFraniere, Sharon (September 14, 2020). "Trump Health Aide Falsely Alleges Conspiracies and Warns of Armed Revolt". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  6. ^ "Chris Hayes On HHS Officials Undermining Science To Boost Trump Politically | All In | MSNBC". MSNBC on YouTube. 2020-09-14.
  7. ^ LaFraniere, Sharon (September 15, 2020). "Trump Health Aide Pushes Bizarre Conspiracies and Warns of Armed Revolt". The New York Times. Vol. 169, no. 58817. pp. A1, A8. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  8. ^ Trump advisor diagnosed with head cancer following leave of absence, Louise Hall, The Independent, September 24, 2020