{"id":13359,"date":"2026-07-22T07:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T02:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13359"},"modified":"2026-07-22T07:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T02:48:24","slug":"luke-russert-blame-maha-for-poopy-lettuce-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13359","title":{"rendered":"Luke Russert Blame &#8216;MAHA&#8217; for &#8216;Poopy Lettuce&#8217; Outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<p>MS NOW\u2019s <strong>Luke Russert<\/strong> laid into supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement, blaming them for gifting the country with \u201cpoopy lettuce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/tag\/the-weeknight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Weeknight<\/em><\/a>, Russert blasted \u201cMAHAs\u201d and cuts made during <strong>Elon Musk\u2019s<\/strong> time with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/tag\/doge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DOGE<\/a> (\u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency\u201d) as the reason for an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, which causes, among other things, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/video\/6401754014112?dicbo=v2-nO6xXDb&amp;intcmp=fn_article_mobileweb_bc_ob_more_from\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">explosive diarrhea<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As Russert noted, more than 30 states have contacted the Centers for Disease Control about <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/what-food-chains-and-companies-have-said-about-cyclosporiasis-outbreaks-12023009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cases<\/a> of the parasite, which is found on fresh produce. Five states have declared an outbreak. Russert referenced a Wired <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/cdc-cyclospora-lab-doge-downsized-it-last-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> noting that the specific lab meant to deal with outbreaks of cyclosporiasis was cut from 11 people to just three during DOGE cuts, which chopped $30 million in funding.<\/p>\n<p>Russert argued \u201cMAHAs\u201d are to blame for efforts to cut regulators and funding, leading to \u201cpoopy, poopy lettuce,\u201d a phrase his co-host <strong>Michael Steele<\/strong> used earlier in the show.<\/p>\n<p>Health and Human Services Secretary <strong>Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/strong> coined the term \u201cMAHA\u201d and used it during his independent presidential campaign in 2024 before joining Trump\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<p>Russert said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I blame a certain segment of people for this. And I want to tell you who they are. They\u2019re the MAHAs, the Make America Healthy Again. Now, I\u2019m sure if you had a social media account in the last three years, they popped up in your feed. Some of your friends, some of whom went to Ivy League universities, totally fell for this. And why is this the fault of the MAHAs? Because all the rational people, folks like you and me, said, you know, Republicans, when they\u2019re in power, they let the corporations write the regulations for themselves. They\u2019re not about making America healthy again. We saw that when they came after <strong>Michelle Obama\u2019s<\/strong> school lunch program, right? And what happened here? Well, the regulators got cut, the inspectors got cut and now we have the poopy poopy lettuce!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Watch above via MS NOW.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MS NOW\u2019s Luke Russert laid into supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement, blaming them for gifting the country with \u201cpoopy lettuce.\u201d On Tuesday\u2019s The Weeknight, Russert blasted \u201cMAHAs\u201d and cuts made during Elon Musk\u2019s time with DOGE (\u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency\u201d) as the reason for an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, which causes, among other&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/luke.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}