The Trump Atrocity Happening in Plain Sight on the Media’s Watch

It’s maddening that PEPFAR should find itself in political peril. The program was established by a Republican president, and has typically enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress until recently. Among its most enthusiastic backers are evangelical Christians, both in America and Africa; evangelicals have long been deeply involved in health care in Africa and actually run a number of the hospitals there that help dispense the life-giving medications. They, and others, point out that the program has been a tremendous success, untouched by significant corruption scandals, despite its huge size.

Today, Shepherd Smith is part of a vigorous evangelical effort to persuade the U.S. Congress to revive PEPFAR. He and his wife, Anita Moreland Smith, started doing HIV/AIDS relief work in Africa back in the mid-1980s; they’ve been there more than 60 times. They head an organization based in Washington, D.C., called Children’s AIDS Fund International.

Smith told me that no one seems to know with any precision about the current status of PEPFAR programs across Africa. “I do hear a lot, but there’s no good information anywhere,” he said. “It’s an absolute mess. We do know that some PEPFAR programs are still operating, while others have closed. Virtually all of the orphan and vulnerable children’s sites have been closed.”