The Department of Health and Human Services’ new spokesperson repeatedly made racist comments about Chinese people and claimed Democrats wanted the coronavirus to kill thousands of people. Michael Caputo, a longtime Republican political operative and Trump ally, was appointed last week as assistant secretary for public affairs at HHS.

In since-deleted social media posts archived online, Caputo tweeted, “Millions of Chinese suck the blood out of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the [bleep] out of anteaters.” In follow-up tweets, Caputo wrote, “Don’t you have a bat to eat?” and “You’re very convincing, Wang.”