Michael Caputo, a new spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, has deleted several recent tweets in which he made racist comments about Chinese people and falsely accused Democrats of wanting Americans to die from coronavirus in order to hurt Trump’s re-election.
The tweets, which were first reported on by CNN, feature comments made in March like, “Sure, millions of Chinese suck the blood out of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the ass out of anteaters but some foreigner snuck in a bottle of the good stuff. That’s it.” In another tweet, Caputo responded to a critic with “Don’t you have a bat to eat?” and in another, Caputo referred to a user who goes by “ericstar” as “Wang.”
Caputo also quote tweeted MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, who commented on how poorly the United States was doing in containing the virus, and wrote, “Who knew @chrislhayes is Chinese?”
In another tweet, Caputo falsely said, “The Dems’ strategy to defeat @realDonaldTrump requires 100s of thousands of American deaths” and that “100s of thousands must die and the US economy must collapse for the Democrat 2020 victory strategy to succeed. They’re getting so excited for the carnage. Sick people.”
Caputo, a former Trump adviser, was appointed as HHS’ Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs last Thursday. According to CNN, he deleted nearly all of his past tweets made before April 12.
Representatives for HHS did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. Caputo told CNN that he was a “defender of the President” who is “now a servant of the American people.”
“Some might be disappointed, but my tweets will be different,” Caputo also said.