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US Health Department’s Caputo has cancer, spokesperson says

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September 24, 2020 at 4:53 p.m. EDT
FILE - In this May 1, 2018, file photo, Former Donald Trump campaign official Michael Caputo, left, joined by his attorney Dennis C. Vacco, leaves after being interviewed by Senate Intelligence Committee staff investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington. A House subcommittee examining President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is launching an investigation into reports that political appointees have meddled with routine government scientific data to better align with Trump’s public statements. The Democrat-led subcommittee said Sept. 14, 2020 that it is requesting transcribed interviews with seven officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, including communications aide Michael Caputo. (J. Scott Applewhite, File/Associated Press)

ALBANY, N.Y. — Michael Caputo, who is on a 60-day leave from his role as spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after accusing government scientists of sedition, has metastatic cancer, a state lawmaker said Thursday.

Doctors have diagnosed cancer in the head and neck, David DiPietro, a Republican state assemblyman in western New York who said he was acting as a spokesperson for Caputo, told reporters. The Buffalo News first reported the diagnosis.

The squamous cell carcinoma originated in Caputo’s throat, DiPietro said. Caputo is now home in western New York with his family, the lawmaker said.

The Department of Health and Human Services had announced Sept. 16 that Caputo decided to take 60 days “to focus on his health and the well-being of his family.”

The loyalist of President Donald Trump was installed as assistant secretary for public affairs by the White House in April at a time of tense relations with Health Secretary Alex Azar.

Caputo, who was born in Buffalo and has no health care background, has faced scrutiny in recent weeks over news reports that he tried to gain editorial control over a scientific weekly published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Caputo also hosted a video on his Facebook page in which he likened government scientists to a “resistance” against Trump and warned that shooting would break out if Trump won reelection in November and Democratic rival Joe Biden refused to concede.

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