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> Take this incompetent Democrat fuck on a drive over a river and kick him off a bridge.
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The Oregon Health Authority briefed reporters on monkeypox, or
hMPXV, and unveiled a new website with data about case numbers
and vaccine access. Here�s what you need to know:

As the Biden administration scrambled last month to defuse anger
over its sluggish response to the monkeypox outbreak, Health and
Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra floated an idea: Tell
people the states need to do more.

The federal government could only provide the tools and guidance
needed to slow the disease�s spread, he told White House and
health officials. It was up to the states to contain it, and the
administration should make that clear.

The idea caused immediate alarm, according to people familiar
with the matter. The Biden administration would look like it was
ducking responsibility for managing a growing health crisis,
officials cautioned. On top of that, it could alienate state
health departments that had been critical to the fight against
the coronavirus � and would be necessary allies if the U.S. had
any hope of stamping out monkeypox.

Audio: Health Secretary Xavier Becerra declares monkeypox a
public health emergency

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Despite the warnings, Becerra went out days later and made his
case.

�We don�t control public health in the 50 states, in the
territories and in the tribal jurisdictions,� he told reporters
on July 28. �We rely on our partnership to work with them. They
need to work with us.�

The states, he added, �are ultimately the ones to determine how
health care is administered in their jurisdictions.�

Activists and public health experts who had spent weeks
pressuring the administration to ramp up its response were
incensed. State officials wondered if they were being set up as
scapegoats.

And inside the White House, the episode reinforced the belief
that the Health secretary�s eagerness to pass the buck made him
ill-suited to manage the health crises that have shaped
President Joe Biden�s first term.

�He doesn�t want to take the heat for others,� one senior
administration official vented. �He�s just out of his depth.�

Chief HHS spokesperson Sarah Lovenheim rejected the idea that
Becerra wanted to put more responsibility on the states, calling
it �made up.�

�There was never a conversation in which the secretary suggested
anything of the sort, nor would he ever. He values our
partnership with the states and has acted aggressively since
Week One of the outbreak to tackle it,� she said.

The internal frustration over the monkeypox outbreak has, once
more, put Becerra on the hot seat.

There is no chance of Biden firing his Health secretary, senior
administration officials said, especially amid multiple public
health emergencies and just months to go until the midterms. But
there is growing chatter that Becerra might soon find an off-
ramp.

Some White House aides believe Becerra, a former California
congressman and attorney general, may resign at the end of the
year to run for Senate in 2024, according to three people
familiar with the discussions.

It�s an idea that Lovenheim quickly dismissed.

�He would tell you he�s not doing that today, tomorrow or next
year,� she said. �He�s not running for the U.S. Senate.�

In a statement, White House chief of staff Ron Klain praised
Becerra as �steadfastly committed to delivering on the
president�s agenda and handling a daunting array of crises,�
adding that his leadership has made the administration stronger.

Ashish Jha, the White House�s Covid response coordinator,
defended Becerra as a close partner in combating the pandemic
and monkeypox.

�He is remarkably tuned in to the issues,� he said. �There�s not
a single decision I can think of where HHS was not meaningfully
involved.�

Health Secretary: �Zero� people have died from monkeypox unlike
Covid

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The White House also rejected the notion that there have been
tensions and called the suggestion that Becerra advocated
shifting more responsibility for the monkeypox response to the
states a �gross mischaracterization.�

The public support, however, masks private misgivings. According
to eight current and former administration officials and others
familiar with the matter, there are intensifying doubts that
Becerra has the ability to help steer the administration through
a critical period for public health.

As Health secretary, Becerra oversees a sprawling array of
agencies including the Food and Drug Administration and Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet he�s often reluctant to
take a strong hand in coordinating their work, a dynamic that
officials said has hampered the public health responses and
allowed internal disputes to spill into the open.

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And though Becerra is widely seen as a talented politician and
public speaker, his political experience hasn�t always
translated into intricate health policy communication.

On the same call where Becerra sought to shift responsibility
for the monkeypox response to the states, he also bristled at a
seemingly straightforward question about whether the government
could successfully contain the outbreak.

�I almost want to turn that question back at you,� Becerra
challenged one reporter. �And ask you, how many vaccines do you
think we need at this stage?�

White House: Monkeypox emergency declaration will speed vaccine
production

SharePlay Video
Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University public health
professor, initially considered himself a big Becerra supporter.
�I thought he could be a great secretary despite not having
public health background,� said Gostin, who has informally
advised the administration. �But he really hasn�t shown the kind
of courage and urgency that I would�ve liked to have seen.�

Lovenheim fiercely disputed the complaints about Becerra,
characterizing him as a strong leader on Covid and monkeypox who
has proven his critics wrong on a succession of urgent issues,
from housing migrant minors at the southern border to the
Supreme Court�s decision on abortion.

�Anonymous sources said he wasn�t managing the inherited
unaccompanied children crisis; he found a way to shelter every
child. Anonymous sources said he wasn�t tackling Covid; he
closed vaccination rate disparity gaps and made ample tools
available for free,� she said. �Anonymous sources said he wasn�t
ready to protect reproductive rights; he announced a plan within
days of the Dobbs decision that he had worked on ahead of it.�

Becerra has presided over the health department during a
historically difficult stretch, his defenders inside and outside
the administration said. And he has served as an eager team
player even as his own priorities have been overshadowed by
overlapping crises.

Indeed, when Becerra initially agreed to run HHS, some of his
advisers urged him against accepting the role, two people
familiar with the matter said. They�ve since watched with
frustration as he�s taken blame on various fronts, attributing
it to his status as an outsider to the close-knit Biden world.

Other supporters argued that Becerra�s detractors misinterpret
his deferral to subordinates as passivity. Rather, they said
it�s motivated by a desire to ensure there�s widespread input
across the department � and a lack of concern with who
ultimately gets the credit. They note Becerra has won praise in
other parts of the administration for throwing himself into work
on more familiar terrain for the lawyer and longtime politician,
like abortion rights and efforts to strengthen the Affordable
Care Act.

�He focuses, like I think good managers do and good leaders do,
on uplifting those around him,� said Crist�bal Alex, a former
deputy Cabinet secretary in the White House who worked closely
with Becerra. �What he does is grab another chair and pull it up
to the table so that important voices are also heard that
otherwise wouldn�t be there.�

But the current scrutiny of his management style is not new. He
was dogged by similar criticism roughly a year ago, as the
administration sought to navigate the rollout of the first Covid
booster shots. The effort quickly turned fraught, as the CDC and
FDA battled over who should get the vaccines and on what
timeline.

Officials at the White House privately blamed Becerra for
failing to resolve the conflict quickly � and pointed to it as
an example of his broader unwillingness to get involved in the
substance of public health issues.