A Department of Health & Human Services document that targeted celebrities for recruitment for a COVID-19 ad campaign listed Ronda Rousey’s 2019 arrest on RAW as a real incident.
POLITICO reports that HHS assistant secretary of public affairs Michael Caputo had come up with a $300 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign designed to “defeat despair” surrounding the pandemic, which was intended to produce celebrity-starring ads. Ronda Rousey was on the list with her status in the document as “Pending Answer.” She was listed as having demographics of General Public, women, and conservatives. But the most interesting part is the “Additional notes” where it lists the following:
“Publicly supported Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders for 2016 election. Anti-feminist views at times. Arrested during WWE event in 2019.”
To be clear, that arrest was part of a WWE storyline on the April 1st, 2019 episode of Raw before WrestleMania 35. Rousey, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair were “arrested” after an out-of-control brawl.
Also listed in the document is The Rock, who is listed as having declined the opportunity to participate. HHS Secretary Alex Azar has ordered a review of the campaign, and according to POLITICO’s sources the campaign is no longer scheduled to run before the election and may not run at all.