Tuesday, June 30, 2020
'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.
Trump is facing the thing he dreads most
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/opinions/trump-facing-thing-dreads-most-dantonio/index.html
Declaring in 2016 that "I alone can fix it," Donald Trump made the country's fate all about him. He promised
so much "winning" we'd get sick of it, and asked "What have you got to
lose?" As President he made everything into a fight between Team Trump
(good) and everyone else (bad). He bullied those he couldn't persuade
and even survived an impeachment trial. But now, confronted with a
pandemic, an economic crisis, and a moment of reckoning over racism, the
limit of the president's method is obvious, and he seems on the brink
of becoming the thing he most dreads: A loser.
With his limited mind, deficient heart
and empty soul on full display, Trump is discovering that a man who
declares "I alone can fix it" runs the risk of being blamed when
everything breaks down. This is why his 2016 campaign aide Sam Nunberg says Trump
is risking one of the worst defeats in history and political TV host
Joe Scarborough is speculating about Trump quitting. Trump is "acting
like he doesn't want to get re-elected," says Scarborough. "He's acting like he really wants to lose badly and take the Republican Party down with him."
Exposed by his own actions, the man who
makes everything into a referendum on himself has given Americans
another clear choice. He has demonstrated that what we've got to lose
are our lives and that the choice really is between him, or us. Now
we'll have to decide whether we will all join Team America and deliver
to the bully his just deserts.
White House Was Reportedly Aware of Intel on Russian Bounties for U.S. Troops in 2019
https://time.com/5861541/white-house-russia-bounties-2019/
Top officials in the
White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence
indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the
deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously
reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the
intelligence.
The assessment was included in at least one of
President Donald Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings at the
time, according to the officials. Then-national security adviser John
Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence
assessment in March 2019.
Multiple intelligence streams suggest Russians paying bounties for US troops, Trump not briefed: official
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/multiple-intelligence-streams-russian-bounties-for-us-troops-trump-not-briefed
Meanwhile, a White House official acknowledged to Fox News on Monday
that Trump has now been briefed on the intelligence behind reports of
Russian bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. 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.”
This
statement is at odds with answers Kayleigh McEnany, White House press
secretary gave to members of the White House press corps during Monday’s
briefing. McEnany said - “The president has not been briefed on the
matter” – and gave multiple variations of that answer throughout the
briefing. But the White House official said, “Kayleigh meant the
President had not been previously briefed on the matter (before the NYT
report came out)”
Israel coronavirus cases continue to rise, 432 confirmed in 24 hours
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/Y47SFC30Q
The Health Ministry says 3.5% of those tested, found positive for coronavirus with numbers growing in hard-hit Jerusalem and Ashdod; 43 hospitalized in serious condition, 24 on ventilators
Coronavirus: Has China or the US tested more?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53221801
Trump's claim
"We have more cases because we do the greatest testing... Other countries, they don't test millions."
The US has carried out almost 31 million coronavirus tests, according to the latest data.
That is more than any other Western country, but significantly less than China's reported total of over 90 million.
Based on these figures, China has carried out about one test for
every 15 people, compared with about one in 11 in the US. So that's
slightly more per head of population in the US.
This has got to be the worst of Trump's outrages
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/opinions/russian-bounties-trump-outrage-opinion-begala/index.html
"Dignified transfer." That's what the military calls the solemn process of returning fallen heroes
to the family they loved and the country they served. If you have ever
witnessed it, you're never quite the same after. August 13, 1998, was by
far the most difficult day I had as a senior White House aide to
President Clinton. Al Qaeda terrorists led
by Osama bin Laden had bombed our embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
and Nairobi, Kenya, a week earlier. Twelve Americans were killed; some were State Department servants, others were Marines. All were heroes.
Yes, like you I thought I had lost my capacity to be shocked by Trump. Trump himself has witnessed a dignified transfer.
He has seen the flag-draped coffins unloaded, heard the muffled sobs
of the heartbroken, seen the bottomless grief in the eyes of a child
who's lost a parent. How can it be that, after reportedly being briefed
about Putin targeting American troops for death Trump has offered Putin rewards,
like an invitation to rejoin the leading democracies of the G-7 and
come to the US for a meeting of the leaders of the free world. An
American president who truly loved the troops might perhaps invite Putin
to join bin Laden at the gates of hell.
From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html
In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump
was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so
often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian
President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so
abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped
convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of
state and defense, two national security advisers and his
longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a
danger to the national security of the United States, according to White
House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents
of the conversations.
The calls caused former top
Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and
John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as
intelligence officials -- to conclude that the President was often
"delusional," as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign
leaders. The sources said there was little evidence that the President
became more skillful or competent in his telephone conversations with
most heads of state over time. Rather, he continued to believe that he
could either charm, jawbone or bully almost any foreign leader into
capitulating to his will, and often pursued goals more attuned to his
own agenda than what many of his senior advisers considered the national
interest.
Monday, June 29, 2020
EU preparing to reopen its borders -- but probably not to Americans
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/europe/eu-travel-ban-us-coronavirus/index.html
The
European Union is preparing to reopen its external border to 15
countries outside of the bloc as early as Wednesday. However, one
country that won't be featured on the proposed list is the United States of America, according to two EU diplomats.
The
diplomats, who were not permitted to discuss the matter before the EU's
27 member states had reached an agreement, have confirmed to CNN that
EU governments have been given until lunchtime Tuesday to agree on the
list of 15 countries allowed entry.
On
the proposed list of 15 nations is China, where the virus originated.
However, the EU will only offer China entry on the condition of
reciprocal arrangements. The other 14 countries are: Algeria, Australia,
Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda,
Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay.
As had been widely expected, the US -- where the coronavirus is currently resurging -- will not be on that list.
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