I was unaware of this

This from JC

The most recent GOP debate was interrupted by an 8-minute blackout that was perfectly-timed to delete Vivek Ramaswamy’s entire answer to Megyn Kelly’s question about vaccine problems:

https://substack.com/redirect/020262e5-0448-472e-8b29-74945f337457?

The trouble started when Megyn asked candidate Ramaswamy about the horrifying failure of the federal vaccine liability program:

“The Trump administration and private industry developed the covid vaccine in record time. The program protected the drug companies from virtually all lawsuits over vaccine injuries. The government has a program to compensate for such harm but critics say it is a black hole of bureaucracy. 12,000 claims filed, 10% decided, only 8 payouts so far, in a forum with no right to counsel, no hearings, no appeals. Mr. Trump says he’s very proud of Warp Speed. Should he be?”
First, to assuage Trump supporters, Megyn’s question was totally unfair to Trump. Trump created neither the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 nor the 2005 PREP Act, which shield pharma from legal liability for vaccine injuries. Those laws were passed under Presidents Reagan and Bush, respectively, and both laws passed with wide bipartisan support.

The next problem was that both Megyn and Vivek immediately got in the ditch by confusing those two laws. Megyn’s question properly asked about the PREP Act and its Orwellian CICP program, deservedly called a ‘black hole of bureaucracy,’ which has only paid out eight covid vaccine claims in the last three years. Worse, the average payout on those eight claims was insultingly low, around $1,200.

It’s a punchline to a bad joke.

Vivek and Megyn both promptly confused the two programs. In fairness, it can be a little confusing. Bush’s PREP Act and its CICP program handle Emergency Use Authorized “countermeasures.” Reagan’s NCVIA and its vaccine court handle FDA-approved vaccines. PREP covers covid vaccines. (I am currently preparing a lawsuit to challenge the PREP Act.)

Much more interesting to me was how the debate moderators panicked and pulled the plug on Vivek’s answer. I’ll skip discussing how awful that was. Consider it stipulated. But consider this: the debate was live streamed. Moderators must have had prior instructions to delete this question and Vivek’s answer.

Who gave that instruction?

Next, consider the blackout in its historical context. Can you ever recall something like this happening before? A Presidential candidate’s answer censored in real time to “protect” voters from “misinformation?” About drugs?

It has never happened before.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are truly in a brave new world when our overseers control which answers to Presidential debate questions we get to hear. Orwell would probably be jumping up and down, pointing and shouting about having told us so. But they gave away the game by ham-handedly blacking the question out.