by Steve Benen | Jul 28, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
There’s a lot to like about the Consumer Product Safety Commission. After all, the sole purpose of the independent government agency is to evaluate all kinds of consumer products and warn the public about potential hazards.
With this in mind, Politico published a report last week that at first glance seemed wholly uncontroversial. According to the article, the commission is overhauling its system for tracking consumer-product-related injuries at hospitals, enabling officials to act more quickly to emerging problems.
Starting next year, Politico added, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System will “automatically pull from patients’ electronic health records to flag issues with consumer product safety in near real-time.”
In a normal political environment, this would probably seem like good news. If, for example, a new toaster model was causing a series of injuries that required hospitalization, the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s new tracking system would be able to pick up on the national trend quickly and pull the toaster from shelves to prevent additional harm.
This is not, however, a normal political environment. KFF Health News, in conjunction with CNN, published an unsettling report noting that as part of the endeavor, the commission is “demanding that some of the nation’s biggest health systems turn over detailed, personally identifiable medical records of all patients who seek help at their emergency rooms.” From the article:
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, responsible for tracking and issuing recalls of dangerous products sold in the U.S., began discreetly pressuring hospital executives this year to share personally identifiable health data with a private contractor. […]
In a stark departure from its product-focused mission, the agency’s goal is to obtain millions of Americans’ medical
by Dr. Martha Edwards MD, FAAP | Jul 28, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
Parents deserve honest answers about vaccines. They deserve physicians who will listen to their concerns, explain the evidence and help them make informed decisions. Above all, they deserve confidence that the nation’s leading public health institutions are communicating science and not suggesting that there’s uncertainty where none exists.
That is why the recent changes to information presented on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website regarding vaccines and autism are so concerning. News organizations reported in November that the website had been wrongly edited to say, “The statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.” Last week, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said that in exchange for his support for Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services made “a sign of good faith” and “modified the CDC’s autism and vaccines webpage.”
The science has not changed: Vaccines do not cause autism.
But those changes have done nothing to mitigate the concerns. The website continues to wrongly say that a rejection of a link between vaccines and autism isn’t based on evidence. It also says, “Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.”
As pediatricians who have spent our careers caring for children and their families, we know that trust is one of the most valuable tools in medicine. Trust takes years to build and moments to erode. At a time when public confidence in health institutions has already been tested, government agencies should be strengthening that trust by communicating what decades of scientific evidence have consistently shown, not reopening questions that have long been settled.
The science has not changed: Vaccines do not
by Ebony Davis | Jul 28, 2026 | Iran, News, Politics
President Donald Trump said Monday that Israel would have been “terminated” without U.S. military intervention against Iran, arguing that his administration’s strikes on Tehran’s nuclear program prevented destruction to America’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Michigan, Trump defended the U.S. campaign against Iran, saying it fundamentally altered the balance of power in the region.
“You know who wouldn’t survive without us? Israel. Bibi’s coming, he’ll tell you,” Trump said. “If I didn’t get involved, and I didn’t blow up those nuclear, essentially, soon to be nuclear weapons to dust, Israel would have been terminated months ago.”
Later Monday, while delivering remarks at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, Trump touted the United States’ strikes in Iran, saying the U.S. had destroyed Tehran’s navy and air force, while diminishing its drone and missile manufacturing capabilities.
While he touted the U.S. military strikes on Iran as a major success, the audience was notably less enthusiastic about his remarks on the war than they were about immigration and the southern border.
Trump was in Milford to bolster support among auto workers and voters in the key battleground state by highlighting his administration’s efforts to revive domestic manufacturing, expand auto industry jobs and strengthen the economy ahead of the midterm elections.
Trump’s remarks came one day before he is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Trump said he and Netanyahu remain “pretty close” on Iran ahead of their scheduled meeting Tuesday, though he acknowledged minor differences without elaborating.
The U.S. and Iran halted attacks
by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Iran, Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics, World
After months of reporting about Russia taking deliberate steps to assist Iran during the U.S. war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators during a congressional hearing last week that Russia is, in fact, “enabling some of the things Iran is doing.”
Evidently, Donald Trump isn’t sure whether to believe his own Pentagon chief or not.
Six weeks ago, as the Group of Seven summit in France was wrapping up, the American president offered some curious praise to his friend in Moscow. “I want to thank Vladimir Putin, he was very neutral,” the Republican said, referring to the Russian president’s role in the war with Iran. Even at the time, the comment was bizarre, given the overwhelming evidence that Putin hasn’t been neutral at all.
Late last week, on the heels of Hegseth’s testimony, Trump reiterated his belief that Russia, in his “opinion,” is “not participating” in the war. In a statement published to his social media platform, he added that his beliefs were based on private assurances he said he received from Putin.
Hours later, asked about the contradiction between Hegseth’s line and the Kremlin’s, the American president again said he “trusts” what he’s been told by the Russian leader.
One day later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced new plans to share intelligence about Russia’s latest assistance to Iran — the latest in a series of such declarations. Zelenskyy previously said his country’s government had “irrefutable” evidence Russia had provided intelligence to the Iranian regime during the war, but he simply couldn’t get the White House to take an interest in it.
So when Trump fielded questions from reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday afternoon,
by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
The first step was taken roughly 10 months ago, when Donald Trump ordered a deadly military strike against a civilian boat in international waters, and according to the White House, the operation killed 11 people. Two weeks later, there was another, followed by a third strike four days later.
Week after week, month after month, the operations kept going, as the administration continued to target these boats and kill much of their crews. Different news organizations have competing tallies on the precise number of strikes, but there’s a consensus that there have been dozens of operations that have killed hundreds of people.
The underlying questions that emerged last fall haven’t changed. They also haven’t been answered. We don’t know whether there have been other strikes that haven’t been disclosed. We don’t know who has been killed. We don’t know if Team Trump is telling the truth about whether the targets were actually narco-terrorists.
We also don’t know whether any of these extrajudicial killings have been legal, though a great many legal experts have argued that they are not. Indeed, NBC News reported in November that the senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing the lethal strikes reached the same conclusion.
There will likely be some who will argue that the ends justify the means and that if these military strikes curtail the drug trade in the United States, then it will be worth it.
Except that’s wrong, too. The Washington Post reported:
The Trump administration’s deadly military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats have not reduced the amount of cocaine entering the United States, but they’re prompting criminal organizations to develop new strategies and tactics
by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Health, Health science, Maddowblog, News, Politics
Over the past year or so, leading Trump administration officials from the Pentagon to the Department of Transportation have sparked controversies by making unfortunate and unnecessary changes to online public resources.
But arguably the most important website change happened last fall when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally intervened and directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its website, which used to reflect the scientific consensus, alerting the public to the fact that vaccines do not cause autism.
The revised online resource told the public, “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” This was a ridiculous assertion at odds with basic logic — by this reasoning, the claim “saxophones do not cause autism” is also not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that saxophones cause autism — and it was certainly unbecoming of the CDC, which used to represent the international gold standard in its field.
Roughly nine months later, this issue returned to the fore when Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, endorsed Erica Schwartz’s nomination to lead the CDC after it agreed to change the centers’ website on vaccines and autism.
Cassidy was apparently impressed by what he characterized as a constructive move. “I am confident that [Schwartz] knows what she is doing and will stand against those who don’t,” the senator told The Washington Post. He added that “as a sign of good faith, HHS modified the CDC’s autism and
