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)”

 

Trump Invites Republicans, Bars Democrats from Briefing on Putin's Bounty on US Troops

Trump's press secretary claims he wasn't briefed on Russia bounty intel

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.

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.

 

2020 Becomes the Dementia Campaign

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/07/2020-dementia-campaign-123106

The two people most likely to control the U.S nuclear arsenal, and with it the capacity to blow up civilization, through January 2025 are both well into their 70s and facing pervasive public speculation that they are becoming senile.

That is some funny stuff, no?

 

President Donald Trump’s own public blunders—saying that his father was born in Germany when it was really his grandfather or referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook as “Tim Apple”—have prompted commentary throughout his term questioning whether his cognitive faculties are deteriorating.

Hear why Roberts sided with liberals on Supreme Court abortion ruling

What's going on between Russia, US and Afghanistan?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53220163

Ambiguity

This episode also throws a stark light on the current state of US-Russia relations. US policy towards Moscow is suffering from a kind of schizophrenia.

On the one hand, the US is wary of Russian nuclear modernisation and suspicious of its broader plans in the Middle East and elsewhere; but on the other, this administration is strangely accepting of Russian denials, for example concerning its alleged intrusion into the US election campaign.

Much of this ambiguity is down to the person of President Trump himself, whom many see as rather admiring of strong, dictatorial leaders.

And to this extent, the handling of this intelligence report casts another light on the whole foreign policy process within the Trump administration.

It will add weight to those critics from both the Democratic side of politics and more hardline Republicans, like the former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who argue in their different ways that there is no strategic direction, no joined up thinking, and no leadership from the top.

Joe: GOP Senators, Speak Out For Our Troops Today | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Trump Says ‘Nobody Briefed’ Him On Alleged Russian Plot Offering Bounties On U.S. Soldiers

Trump's Response to Putin's Bounty on US Troops - "There Have Not Been Many Attacks on Us"

Trump Fights the Last War

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/trump-fights-the-last-war/

The president reasons: “Based on decisions being rendered now, this list is more important than ever before (Second Amendment, Right to Life, Religious Liberty, etc.).” Lest we miss the characteristically Trumpian subtlety, he adds, “VOTE 2020!”

If you needed a laugh to get you through just-another-day-at-the-Apocalypse, our “Conservative” president then proceeded to post no fewer than 21 tweets describing the combined hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure spending he plans to shovel out to states he hopes to win in November.

By the way, with Trump in the White House and the McConnell-led Republican Senate having slyly buried periodic public debates over the debt limit, the nation is now over $26 trillion in the red. If you’re keeping score, that’s an increase of over $6 trillion since January 20, 2017. Obama spending was unprecedented, but Trump is on pace to exceed it. And don’t tell me about the unforeseen coronavirus crisis; debt was already accumulating mountainously before the lockdown, and the president keeps saying more infrastructure spending is imperative — it may be the only thing he and congressional Democrats can agree on.

The point being that the president is not a conservative, in the sense either of political ideology or temperament. He has some conservative sensibilities and has mastered some right-wing tropes. But he’s not a conservative thinker wedded to a conservative policy agenda. That’s hardly a revelation. He’s not wired to think in those terms. He’s not a progressive, either.

 

As the pandemic rages, Trump indulges his obsessions

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-russia/index.html

"If wearing masks is important, and all the health experts tell us that it is in containing the disease in 2020, it would help if from time to time the President would wear one to help us get rid of this political debate that says if you're for Trump, you don't wear a mask, if you're against Trump, you do," the Tennessee Republican said on CNN's "Inside Politics."

Russian Bounty Report Seems Like the Kind of Thing Trump Should’ve Known, GOP Says

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/russian-bounty-report-seems-like-kind-of-thing-trump-shouldve-known-gop-says

Conservative commentator David Frum noted that the story being reported by the Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal “doesn’t mean it’s certainly true.” What it does mean, Frum wrote on Twitter, is that “very credible people in [the] U.S. intelligence service are angry and alarmed. Angry and alarmed enough to provide evidence to three leading media sources.” In addition to Trump’s denial, Frum cited former Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell’s claim that he never “heard” of the bounties and that of John Ratcliffe, the office’s current director, who tweeted that he had never “briefed” the president. But, he added, “it’s also not impossible” for these three officials to be “telling a version of the truth,” noting the possibility that “the information was withheld from Trump by briefers who have learned not to upset him”—given previous reports of Trump staff keeping Russia-related things from the president so as not to piss him off—as well as “that Grenell during his tenure at ODNI was simply not doing the work.” Frum remarked it to be “noteworthy” that no denials have come from the Pentagon, the C.I.A., or the National Security Council, all of which the Times said declined to comment.

Trump retweets video of supporter shouting 'white power'

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53212685

In the tweet, which was later deleted, the president thanked "the great people of The Villages" - referring to the retirement community north-west of Orlando where the rally took place. "The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!," he wrote.

The video included in the tweet showed a Trump supporter in a golf cart raising a clenched fist and shouting "white power". He appeared to be responding to a protester calling him a racist and using profanities. Other anti-Trump protesters shouted "Nazi" and other accusations at the rally-goers.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said the president "did not hear the one statement made on the video" but saw "tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters".

 

‘No Good Answer’ To Why Trump Wasn’t Briefed On Russian Bounty Intel, Chuck Todd Says | Sunday TODAY

Top conservatives demand answers on reports Russia paid Taliban to kill US troops

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-congressional-conservatives-demand-answers-from-white-house-on-reports-russia-paid-taliban-to-kill-us-troops

 

One of the top Republican lawmakers in the House joined on Sunday a growing list of legislators calling on the Trump administration to explain what it knew about the reports that Russian intelligence agents offered to pay bounties to Afghan militants who killed U.S. troops in the country. 

 

House Republican Conference chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming tweeted on Sunday morning that if the reports in the New York Times about the bounties is true, then the White House needs to explain what it knew about the intelligence and how it responded. Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House, specifically focused on the denials by both Trump and White House staff that neither the president nor Vice President Pence were briefed on the matter, and asked for more information on why this is the case.

"If reporting about Russian bounties on US forces is true, the White House must explain: 1. Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed?" Cheney tweeted. "Was the info in the PDB? 2. Who did know and when? 3. What has been done in response to protect our forces & hold Putin accountable?"

Russia offered cash rewards to Taliban fighters to kill US troops in Afghanistan

Panicking Trump tries to change the subject

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/27/opinions/trump-tries-to-change-the-subject-coronavirus-statues-ghitis/index.html

With the prospect of losing reelection by a landslide, Trump views any acknowledgment of the pandemic disaster as another mark against him. So, he not only lies about it himself, he sent Vice President Mike Pence to do a more elegant version of his misleading claims. Pence, appearing Friday for the first time in almost two months with the White House Coronavirus Task Force, claimed against all evidence, "all 50 states," are "opening up safely and responsibly." He told Americans, "we've all seen encouraging news as we open America again," misleadingly saying the upsurge in cases is "a reflection of a great success in expanding testing."

 

Trump Is OBSESSED With Convincing Voters That He's Not Mentally Unstable

White House admits Trump was involved in firing of top US attorney after Trump claimed he wasn't

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/22/politics/trump-us-attorney-fired/index.html

 The White House on Monday admitted that President Donald Trump was involved in the removal of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman after Trump had claimed he was "not involved" in the process this weekend.

Speaking at the White House Monday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was "involved in the sign-off capacity" as she sought to explain the removal of Berman as a simple swap that would allow Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to take the post.

 

How Donald Trump's Mistakes Became Joe Biden's Big Breaks

https://time.com/5858837/donald-trump-joe-biden-luck/

It’s unusual for the challenger to be a clear favorite for the presidency at this stage in the election. Only three candidates have beaten an incumbent President since Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover in 1932, and the last time any candidate had such a large lead at this phase in the race was Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign almost 25 years ago. The only thing more remarkable than Biden’s advantage is how little he’s had to do to get it.

“Trump is just constantly serving up wins for him,” says Democratic strategist Jess Morales Rocketto. “All he has to do is nothing.”

 

Trump's brother fails in bid to block niece's tell-all book

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/25/trump-brother-robert-niece-mary-memoir-book

 An attempt to block publication of a book claiming to tell the inside story of the Trump family by the US president’s niece has been dismissed by a court in New York.

 

Queens county surrogate court judge Peter Kelly said on Thursday “several improprieties” in the filing by Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, meant the bid to stop the book was “fatally defective”.

Ted Boutros, an attorney for Mary Trump, said in a statement: “The court has promptly and correctly held that it lacks jurisdiction to grant the Trump family’s baseless request to suppress a book of utmost public importance and concern.

Michael Flynn: Former US national security adviser

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38025057

 

Mr Flynn earlier this year requested immunity from the congressional committees investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, in exchange for his testimony.

"As a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia, Turkey or anybody else," said Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz.

"And it appears as if he did take that money. It was inappropriate, and there are repercussions for a violation of law."

Lawmakers want answers from Trump Administration on reports Russia paid Taliban to attack US troops

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawmakers-want-answers-on-russia-paying-taliban-to-attack-us-troops

Lawmakers on both sides the aisle in Washington want answers on new explosive reporting that a Russian spy unit paid the Taliban to attack U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.

The New York Times first reported that American intelligence officials have determined a Russian military unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces, including targeting American troops. The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post also reported on the Kremlin's effort to orchestrate attacks on Western troops.

 

Cabinet to weigh reimposing restrictions amid rise in coronavirus infections

https://www.timesofisrael.com/cabinet-to-weigh-reimposing-restrictions-amid-rise-in-coronavirus-infections/

Israel’s “coronavirus cabinet,” tasked with leading the government’s response to the virus outbreak, is set to convene on Sunday to weigh reimposing some restrictions, as the infection rate in Israel continues to climb.

In an interview with Channel 12 news on Saturday, Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch said possible measures proposed by the Health Ministry would include limiting youth programs over the summer break, limiting the size of gatherings, and requiring “capsules” at educational institutions and at workplaces, with set groups of employees working the same shifts.

 

Afghanistan war: Russia denies paying militants to kill US troops

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53204747

Russia has rejected as "baseless" accusations that it offered Taliban-linked militants rewards to kill US and other Nato troops in Afghanistan.

The New York Times and Washington Post cited US officials as saying a Russian military intelligence unit linked to assassination attempts in Europe had offered the alleged bounties last year.

The Russian embassy in the US said the claims had led to threats to diplomats.

The Taliban also denied there was any such deal with Russian intelligence.

 

New U.S. COVID-19 Infections Top 43,000 In A Single Fay, Far Outstripping Previous Peaks | MSNBC

Former U.S. Attorney Says DOJ Has Become A 'Tool' For Trump To use | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Neal Katyal On Barr Testimony: 'I'll Believe It When I See It' | MTP Daily | MSNBC

Chuck Rosenberg On Bill Barr: ‘What I See Is Incredibly Repugnant’ | Deadline | MSNBC

Trump wasn't briefed on report Russia paid Taliban to kill coalition forces in Afghanistan, White House says

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/27/afghanistan-white-house-denies-trump-briefed-russia-bounty-report/3272352001/

The White House denied Saturday that President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had been briefed on an intelligence finding that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American troops and other coalition forces in Afghanistan.

“The United States receives thousands of intelligence reports a day, and they are subject to strict scrutiny,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.

While the White House does not routinely comment on intelligence or internal deliberations, “the CIA Director, National Security Advisor, and the Chief of Staff can all confirm that neither the President nor the Vice President were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence,” McEnany said.

EU to reopen borders to 14 countries starting July 1, Israel, US left out

https://www.jpost.com/international/eu-to-re-open-borders-to-14-countries-starting-july-1-israel-us-left-out-632984

 European Union members agreed to reopen their borders to citizens of 14 countries, with Israel excluded from the list as its situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic is more serious than in Europe, according to a report published by Le Monde.

Among other nations also excluded by the EU include the United States, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

 

Russia Paid Bounties To Kill US Troops, US Intel Says; Trump Mum: NYT | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Bounty

The Trump Referendum

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trump-referendum-11593127700

He still has no second term message beyond his own grievances.

President Trump may soon need a new nickname for “Sleepy Joe” Biden. How does President-elect sound? On present trend that’s exactly what Mr. Biden will be on Nov. 4, as Mr. Trump heads for what could be an historic repudiation that would take the Republican Senate down with him.

 

NYT Reports Putin Put Bounty on US Troops. Trump's Silence is Deafening

Grassley chides Trump, Fox News for answer on second term agenda

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/27/chuck-grassley-fox-news-trump-second-term-342088

Sen. Chuck Grassley laid blame on Fox News — and President Donald Trump — on Saturday over failing to articulate what his administration’s second term priorities would be during a recent interview with the news organization.

The Iowa Republican tweeted that Trump got “off point” when asked by Fox’s Sean Hannity what his goals would be if re-elected, but appeared vexed at Hannity for helping the president “digress” instead of helping Trump form a more intelligible answer.

The criticism from Grassley comes a day after he encouraged Trump to heed the advice of a scathing Wall Street Journal editorial that warned Trump could only serve one term.

“Will somebody w access to the Oval Office read the WSJ editorial ‘The Trump Referendum’ to President Trump,” Grassley wrote in a tweet on Friday. “We won’t hv more good scotus justices or the best economy in 50 years like we hv had if he doesn’t follow that advice.”

In Someone Else’s Court

https://mishpacha.com/in-someone-elses-court/

This past week, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that was nothing short of a legal earthquake. In a speech on the floor of the US Senate, Republican senator Joshua Hawley of Missouri called it “truly a seismic decision… a historic decision.”

In Bostock v. Clayton County, a 6-3 majority held that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects against discrimination on the basis of gender, also protects against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and orientation. The biggest shock of the decision is that the majority opinion, which Chief Justice John Roberts joined, was written by Trump-nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Do you see? “That’s what, when we nominated him and confirmed him, we wanted him to do.” So where does a religious person go to take back the vote he cast, holding his nose, for a party that has betrayed so many of his values?

Appeals court: Trump wrongly diverted $2.5 billion for border wall

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/26/court-trump-wrongly-diverted-billions-border-wall-341862

  A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the Trump administration in its transfer of $2.5 billion from military construction projects to build sections of the U.S. border wall with Mexico, ruling it illegally sidestepped Congress, which gets to decide how to use the funds.

In two opinions, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a coalition of border states and environmental groups that contended the money transfer was unlawful and that building the wall would pose environmental threats.

 

Trump move to take US troops out of Germany 'a dangerous game'

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/08/trump-move-to-take-us-troops-out-of-germany-a-dangerous-game

British politicians and European military experts have warned that Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw 9,500 troops from Germany risks handing a strategic advantage to the Kremlin and undermining the postwar western military alliance.

It would also affect the United States’s ability to operate in the Middle East and Africa – although there is scepticism as to whether the notoriously fickle president will be able to carry out the threat before November’s election.

 

Does The President Have A Second-Term Strategy? | Morning Joe | MSNBC

What is Trump's agenda for a second term? He can't say

See The Moment Tucker Carlson Realized Trump Could Lose 2020 | MSNBC

rav shlomo miller against Tamar's remarriage without Get

Governors Who Quickly Reopened Their States Are Backpedaling as Coronavirus Surges

https://time.com/5860146/coronavirus-record-restrictions-governors-reopening/

The escalating crisis is testing governors — many of them Republicans who aggressively reopened before most of the U.S. — as pressure mounts from their biggest cities, health experts and even friendly business groups. Any move backward could land them at odds with President Donald Trump, who has sought to move on from the virus and return to the campaign stage, all while refusing to wear a mask in public.

 

Trump entrenched in failed strategy as virus surges and polling drops

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/25/politics/donald-trump-campaign-coronavirus-strategy/index.html

 While advisers say Trump is aware of his weakened standing, he has rejected public surveys showing him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by double digits, claiming they are flawed attempts to suppress the vote. And while advisers and allies have privately -- and, this week, publicly -- begun to encourage Trump to moderate his tone and change behaviors they fear are alienating wide swaths of the electorate, he has shown almost no willingness to change course.

"He didn't think he would win in 2016, he doesn't think he can lose in 2020," one senior White House official said.