https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-june-30-2020/
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Twitch suspends Trump's account for hate speech
https://www.jpost.com/international/twitch-suspends-trumps-account-for-hateful-speech-633315
US President Donald Trump's Twitch account was suspended on Monday for violating the site's rules regarding hateful content, gaming news outlet Gamespot reported.
“Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch. In line with our
policies, President Trump’s channel has been issued a temporary
suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending
content has been removed,” a Twitch spokesman said in a statement,
according to Gamespot.
The
statement gave examples of hate speech used in some of Trump's
livestreams, citing both a 2016 rally that was recently rebroadcast, and
the recent campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Both examples could be
perceived as racist and hateful against Mexicans.
The
example from the 2016 rally was the now-infamous quote regarding
Mexican immigrants. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending
their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re
sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those
problems to us,” Trump said at the time. “They’re
bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I
assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us
what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense – it only makes
common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.”
New revelations stir old questions about Trump and Russia
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/30/politics/donald-trump-russia-taliban-phone-calls/index.html
Reports that a Russian military intelligence agency put a bounty on the heads of US troops
in Afghanistan launched the President's team into a new cycle of
confusion, apparent half-truths and contradictions as a fresh storm
raged over Trump's mysterious deference to Moscow and its strongman
leader, President Vladimir Putin.
Conflicting messages from the
President and his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, only deepened the
intrigue about what is really going on.
None of what they are saying clears up an episode that comes as new reporting for CNN from veteran Washington reporter Carl Bernstein
lifts the lid on Trump's desperate flattery of Putin, his ignorance of
basic world events, the way he was manipulated by smarter world leaders
and his "near-sadistic" -- according to one source -- behavior toward
female world leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
'Blood is on their hands': Rep. Banks says NYT revealed sensitive details on Russia bounty intel
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-times-russia-bounty-story-rep-banks
"Having served in Afghanistan during the time the alleged bounties
were placed, no one is angrier about this than me," Banks wrote. "Now
it’s impossible to finish the investigation. All b/c the @nytimes will
do anything to damage @realdonaldtrump , even if it means compromising
nat'l security."
The White House said Monday that Trump wasn't
briefed on U.S. intelligence assessments concerning the bounties because
the information had not been verified.
Press Secretary Kayleigh
McEnany told reporters Monday that Trump — even now — had not been
briefed on the allegations because the intelligence “would not be
elevated to the president until it was verified."
The result was an odd situation in which eight Republican lawmakers
attended a briefing at the White House on Monday about explosive
allegations that the president himself was said to have not been fully
read in on.
GOP Lawmakers Urge Action After Russia-Afghanistan 'Bounties' Briefing
https://time.com/5861497/gop-russia-afghanistan-briefing-bounties/
The White House seemed to be setting an unusually high bar for
bringing the information to Trump, since it is rare for intelligence to
be confirmed without a shadow of doubt before it is presented to senior
government decision-makers. McEnany declined to say why a different
standard of confidence in the intelligence applied to briefing lawmakers
than bringing the information to the president.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry, the top
Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said, “After today’s
briefing with senior White House officials, we remain concerned about
Russian activity in Afghanistan, including reports that they have
targeted U.S. forces.”
Trump battles NY Times on Afghanistan story, deletes inflammatory video
https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-battles-ny-times-on-afghanistan-story-deletes-inflammatory-video
The president’s first instinct, as always, was to blame the press.
When
a damaging story emerged, Donald Trump said he hadn’t been told about
it, and besides, it was another “phony hit job” by the New York Times,
and the paper should name its unnamed sources which, he said, were
probably made up.
Trump went further yesterday, calling the report
“possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News New
York Times, wanting to make Republicans look bad!!!”
Much remains
murky about what the president was or wasn’t told about Russia and
Afghanistan. But unnamed administration officials have since confirmed
the guts of the story to the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NBC,
CNN and the AP, among others.
Kayleigh McEnany kept the focus on the Times yesterday, telling “Fox
& Friends” that “it is truly egregious when you have anonymous
sources spewing out this information on the pages of the New York Times
anonymously, giving them false information.” I understand the
frustration about leaks, which have plagued Trump from the beginning,
but it’s hard to simultaneously argue that the information is both
classified and false.
Some Republicans, led by Liz Cheney, have
joined Democrats in demanding to know why the president wasn’t briefed,
if that’s the case.
Pentagon says ‘no corroborating’ evidence to stand up NYT report on Russian bounties
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-says-no-corroborating-evidence-to-stand-up-nyt-report-on-russian-bounties
The Defense Department said late Monday that there
is “no corroborating evidence” to support the explosive New York Times
report last week that said the Russian military offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Robert O’Brien, the national security adviser, said in a statement
that since the allegations in the report were not verified by the
intelligence community, Trump has not been briefed on the matter.
A White House official told Fox News on Monday that Trump has now
been briefed on the issue. It’s unclear exactly when this briefing took
place, but the official says it took place sometime “after the NY Times
reported on unverified intelligence.”
The statement is at odds with the White House, which insisted that Trump has still not been briefed.
St. Louis couple pulls firearms on protesters cutting through their private street
"The peaceful protesters were not the
subject of scorn or disdain by the McCloskeys," their attorney, Albert
S. Watkins, said in a statement to CNN. "To the contrary, they were
expecting and supportive of the message of the protesters. The actions
of violence, destruction of property and acts of threatening aggression
by a few individuals commingling with the peaceful protesters, gave rise
to trepidation and fear of imminent and grave."
Watkins
says his clients acted, "lawfully on their property," and that "their
actions were borne solely of fear and apprehension, the genesis of which
was not race related. In fact, the agitators responsible for the
trepidation were white."
Golden State Killer pleads guilty to 13 murders
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53226327
Joseph DeAngelo, the man known as
the Golden State Killer, has admitted to 13 murders in a deal with US
prosecutors meant to spare him the death penalty.
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