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Senate Republicans just rebuked Trump on foreign policy; he should listen – Washington Examiner
Senate Republicans just rebuked Trump on foreign policy; he should listen – Washington Examiner

On Thursday, the Senate gave President Trump a bipartisan slap on the wrist over his calls to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan.

With bipartisan support, lawmakers approved an amendment to a broader Middle East policy bill that warned that “the precipitous withdrawal of United States forces from either country could put at risk hard-won gains and United States national security.”

The amendment, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refrained from directly attacking the president by name but clearly targeted his isolationist foreign policy approach: “it is incumbent upon the United States to lead, to continue to maintain a global coalition against terror and to stand by our local partners.”

Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, McConnell further criticized Trump for his statements about defeating the Islamic State. He explained, “ISIS and al Qaeda have yet to be defeated, and American national security interests require continued commitment to our mission there.”

Those comments come after Trump declared that ISIS had been defeated and that he would be pulling troops from Syria and considering drawing down U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

Although Trump has walked back some of those comments and both acknowledged that ISIS remains a threat and slowed the timetable for troop withdrawals, the Senate vote signals continued concern about the president’s foreign policy missteps.

McConnell’s amendment, which does not have any enforcement bite, should be a warning for Trump: Even staunch Senate allies are wary of Trump’s potentially dangerous foreign policy moves. He should take those considerations to heart.

The United States, as clearly explained by intelligence leaders earlier this week, faces new and dynamic threats. To meet them, the president must base his policy positions off clear-eyed assessments and considerations of long-term impact. Senate leaders know this and, on Syria and Afghanistan, they did not see the leadership that they hoped for from Trump.

This time, the rebuke was a slap on the wrist. Next time, lawmakers might move to reclaim more power, signaling a much clearer break with the White House and further isolating the president from key allies on the Hill.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/senate-republicans-just-rebuked-trump-on-foreign-policy-he-should-listen

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Ralph Northam and Democrats reveal their disgusting distaste for any fetus with ‘abnormalities’ – Washington Examiner
Ralph Northam and Democrats reveal their disgusting distaste for any fetus with ‘abnormalities’ – Washington Examiner

Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday described third-trimester abortions as something done “in cases where there may be severe deformities or there may be a fetus that’s not viable.” Later that day, Northam’s Communications Director Ofirah Yheskel tried to clarify that Northam was referring to the fact that women seek third-trimester abortions only “except in the case of tragic or difficult circumstances, such as a nonviable pregnancy or in the event of severe fetal abnormalities.”

Northam’s clarification isn’t much of an improvement, it’s more of a double-down: Rather than just choosing to end the life of any baby, he would advocate or support women who play God and only choose to give birth to healthy babies. This is wrong. Yet he’s not alone in proposing to eradicate from society those who seem like they would pose problems for parents and society alike. The humane, moral thing to do is encourage parents and society to value life in all its forms and try to help parents raising children with special needs.

Northam’s comments do not represent a new concept. From ancient Sparta to the Holocaust, people with abnormalities, deformities, and diseases have been targeted and eradicated. When men give their moral compass over to the need to become like God (truly the oldest, darkest lie of all time) they lose their sense of justice, humanity, equality, and humility. In mankind’s quest to control the human population through power or or greed, dispelling of people who are deformed or “less than,” he pulls society downward through a maze of moral quagmires, bringing destruction — and with it, the spirit of humanity.

For people born with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, or any other myriad of diseases and problems, simple tasks life presents do pose tremendous challenges, to say nothing of the things that overwhelm other members of society. However, people with special needs also bring a unique kind of joy, peace, and light to many people. Watch this quick clip to get a glimpse of what I mean.

Occasionally, some people shine a light on these incredible people. When Gerber chose a Down syndrome boy in Feb. 2018 to be its “Gerber baby” poster boy that year, how could you not help but cheer? Who among us really would look at his smiling face and say abortion would have been better?

Still, the convenience of abortion perpetuates the myth that society is better off without people who might struggle — whether from autism, Down syndrome, or something else. New York offers, and perhaps Virginia will offer, abortion on demand: dangling the carrot of last-minute infanticide in front of parents who would undoubtedly be aware of the struggles raising a baby with special needs will present and choose to balk.

While political officials might tout abortion as some kind of “final solution,” many parents are tempted to choose, or do choose, abortion because they truly do fear the challenge of raising a child with needs. They worry they will be unable to withstand the emotional, physical, financial, and marital pressures. In this video on Upworthy, Christine Grounds and Jonathan Mir describe how difficult it has been to raise their son Nicholas, who was born with microcephaly. “We had no idea that, in utero, there was anything wrong with Nicholas,” Grounds recalled. “I’m pretty sure no one would have been able to say conclusively that he has microcephaly,” she said. “But I would have terminated the pregnancy.”

While it’s tempting to lash out or point fingers at parents like this, that too is a reactive solution full of the kind of righteous indignation the Left hates. We must rise up to help these parents. We must connect them with nonprofit organizations, religious organizations, pregnancy resource centers, healthcare providers, and any physical or emotional support we can offer. ( Here’s one such list to start with.) Conservatives cannot continually advocate for a culture of life without also tangibly stepping alongside those same parents who choose life, and who then must endeavor to raise a child under difficult circumstances. We must continue to call out people like Northam for advocating such a selfish, heinous “solution” to children with special needs and help parents who choose life instead.

Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/ralph-northam-and-democrats-reveal-their-disgusting-distaste-for-any-fetus-with-abnormalities

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U.S. Announces It Will Withdraw From Nuclear Arms Control Treaty With Russia – NPR
U.S. Announces It Will Withdraw From Nuclear Arms Control Treaty With Russia – NPR

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells reporters Friday that the United States will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.

Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images


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Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells reporters Friday that the United States will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.

Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images

The Trump administration announced Friday that the United States will formally begin the process of withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the Cold War-era arms control accord with Russia.

The declaration by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been expected for months. He said the U.S. will suspend its obligations under the 1987 INF treaty as of Saturday and pull out in six months if Russia isn’t deemed to be in compliance.

“For years, Russia has violated the terms of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty without remorse,” Pompeo said in Washington.

“To this day,” he added, “Russia remains in material breach of its treaty obligations not to produce, possess or flight test a ground-launched intermediate range cruise missile system with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers [about 300 to 3,400 miles].”

President Trump said in a statement Friday that the U.S. “cannot be the only country in the world unilaterally bound by this treaty, or any other. We will move forward with developing our own military response options and will work with NATO and our other allies and partners to deny Russia any military advantage from its unlawful conduct.”

Pompeo said the U.S. has spent the past six years trying to preserve the treaty. “We have raised Russia’s noncompliance with Russian officials, including at the highest levels of government more than 30 times, yet Russia continues to deny that its missile system is noncompliant and violates the treaty.”

Russia has said it will not tolerate ultimatums and that the U.S. decided long ago to exit the treaty.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of being “unwilling to hold any substantial talks” on the treaty with Moscow, according to the Associated Press.

Peskov acknowledged last year that “there are bottlenecks” but said withdrawal from the treaty would result in an escalation that would “make the world more dangerous.”

When asked if he was concerned about an arms race with Russia, Pompeo said: “The very risk that you identify is the one that we are suffering from today. The Russians are in violation of the agreement. … They have begun to move towards what it is, the risk you have just identified.”

A senior U.S. administration official said in a background briefing Friday that if there is an arms race, Russia started it by deploying cruise missiles in breach of the treaty.

Moscow denies that its missiles are in violation and has accused the U.S. of breaking the treaty terms “because it has batteries of missile defense systems in Europe that they say could be used against Russia,” as NPR’s David Welna has reported.

NATO expressed its support for the U.S. announcement on Friday. “Allies regret that Russia, as part of its broader pattern of behaviour, continues to deny its INF Treaty violation, refuses to provide any credible response, and has taken no demonstrable steps toward returning to full and verifiable compliance,” NATO said in a statement.

The organization urged Russia to use the remaining six months before the U.S. withdrawal takes effect. Unless it verifiably destroys all of its 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile systems, “Russia will bear sole responsibility for the end of the Treaty,” NATO said.

When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sat down with President Ronald Reagan in the White House East Room to sign the 1987 treaty, it was hailed as a harbinger of reconciliation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

In 2014, officials in the Obama administration said Russia had illegally deployed land-based cruise missiles capable of striking targets in Eastern Europe but did not seek to end the treaty.

Trump signaled in October that the accord was on shaky ground, saying that “Russia has not, unfortunately, honored the agreement. So we’re going to terminate the agreement. We’re gonna pull out.”

Then in December, Pompeo said the U.S. would give Russia 60 days to come into compliance before formally withdrawing from the INF in six months.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/01/690632548/u-s-announces-it-will-withdraw-from-nuclear-arms-control-treaty-with-russia

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The state of the union is fractured – Washington Examiner
The state of the union is fractured – Washington Examiner

If President Trump tells the truth before a joint session of Congress, he will not say that what his predecessors have always said, that “the state of the union is strong.”

The state of our union is fractured. And that makes us weak.

There are plenty of positive indicators. Unemployment is still below 4 percent. Economic growth has averaged 3 percent over the past year and a half. Median wages are finally rising in real terms.

These things matter, as many others do, but they sit on the surface. The health of the republic does not begin and end with the economy. The health is not identical to wealth. What lies beneath is rotting, and good surface conditions cannot persist for long around a rotting core.

At the core of our country right now is far too much discord amounting to hatred. We have lost the ability to debate civilly. We are losing shared customs and shared culture. Our values are diverging so dramatically that we increasingly believe opposing views are not merely incorrect but intolerable and can be held only by those who are fools or are evil. Recent weeks bear this out.

The Super Bowl was traditionally a shared cultural event, something of a national holiday. This year, it became cursed ground to many cultural elites. Musicians who played at the halftime show were cursed as culture-war traitors and enemies of the people. That’s because Trump criticized NFL players who kneel during the national anthem.

A recent commercial for razor blades caused a kerfuffle for days. The seemingly banal message — don’t bully kids or harass women — was taken by thousands as a politically charged attack on the very notion of masculinity. That’s part the fault of those who made the ad, which was deliberately political, invoking the confirmation hearing of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, an event that drove wedges deep into our society. Most of those following either unblinkingly believed allegations that were never corroborated or assumed that his accuser was a blatant and opportunistic liar.

Then there was the Covington Catholic affair. It was actually a very ordinary occurrence. For decades, student groups visiting Washington, D.C., have encountered groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites, whose purpose in life is provocation and heckling. But this encounter happened in the age of social media and of Trump.

So for days, teenagers were slandered for an imperfect, but nevertheless mostly admirable, reaction to adult hecklers and provocateurs. Politicians piled on. Even Catholic bishops and scholars attacked the boys, all without adequate knowledge of the events.

It is an unimpressive and broken society that turns such an incident into a partisan winner-take-all culture war. And ours is now such a society.

Even the State of the Union’s existence was fiercely fought over. The House speaker’s invitation to the president, typically a formality, was revoked on flimsy security concerns as a power play in hostilities over the government shutdown. When formalities become real points of contention, the well is poisoned.

Trump’s election spurred hundreds of thousands of #Resisters to take to the streets and to behave as though their ends, vague as they have always been, nevertheless justified almost any means. The advent of the Trump presidency has ended friendships, fractured conservatism, scrambled the Republican Party, and driven the Left and the Democratic Party to foam-flecked extremes.

Trump affects his critics greatly, often to their detriment. But he is also a provocateur. When former President Barack Obama weighed in on the story of Cambridge police questioning Harvard professor Skip Gates for “breaking in” to his own house, it was an extraordinary breach of protocol — a president inserting himself into an issue where he had no place. Trump inserts himself thus unnecessarily all the time.

A society where every cultural occurrence is a culture-war battlefield is not a healthy one. The state of this union is not strong.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/the-state-of-the-union-is-fractured

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As promised, Trump to withdraw from landmark Cold War-era arms treaty with Russia – Washington Examiner
As promised, Trump to withdraw from landmark Cold War-era arms treaty with Russia – Washington Examiner

SO LONG INF: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, is heading to the proverbial scrapheap of history. The Trump administration believes the landmark Cold War-era treaty has outlived its usefulness, considering Russia is violating it and China is not a party to it. An announcement that the U.S. is withdrawing from the treaty is expected from the White House today.

For three decades the INF treaty has been a cornerstone of European security, the first arms control measure to ban an entire class of weapons: land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range between 310 miles and 3,100 miles.

Tomorrow is the deadline for Moscow to return to compliance, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is adamant that his newest ground-launched cruise missile does not violate the treaty. Once the U.S. formally withdraws tomorrow, the INF will technically remain in effect for six more months, until it dies Aug. 2, 2019.

“Russia has violated the INF treaty for at least ten years. In that time, presidents of both parties have urged them to return to compliance, Congress has admonished them, the United States has imposed sanctions against them, and the president has threatened to withdraw from the treaty,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry R-Texas, ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, in a statement yesterday. “None of these actions has convinced Russia to return to compliance. Instead, they have spent a decade developing a capability to which we cannot respond. Other adversaries, like China, are developing similar weapons to capitalize on America’s one-sided disadvantage.”

ARMS CONTROL ADVOCATES LAMENT IT PASSING: “The only ones applauding the decision to tear up the INF Treaty are the nuclear weapons manufacturers, eagerly anticipating the kickoff of Cold War II,” said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. “Trump last week began building new nuclear missiles, and Putin has said he will do the same, so we now have a six-month window before the treaty officially dies.”

“If this administration doesn’t want Russia to build INF-banned weapons, it’s hard to imagine a worse approach than suspending the agreement. At best, the White House has let Russia off the hook and shifted blame for the diplomatic breakdown to the United States; at worst, they’re running headlong into an avoidable arms race that nobody wants or can afford,” said Derek Johnson, executive director of Global Zero, another group working to eliminate nuclear weapons.

“Negotiations should continue and any reasonable solution that eliminates Russia’s alleged violations should be acceptable. The alternative is untenable,” Johnson argued. “One round of failed talks is not enough: our diplomats need to get back in the room and exhaust every opportunity to resolve this dispute.”

NOT SO FAST: In what appears to be a rebuke to President Trump’s plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, the Senate voted 68-to-23 to back Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s amendment that declares al-Qaeda and ISIS a global threat and warns against the withdrawal of forces in the ongoing fight.

“I believe the threats remain. ISIS and al-Qaeda have yet to be defeated, and American national security interests require continued commitment to our mission there,” McConnell, R-Ky., said before the vote. A majority of Republicans voted for the measure, which does not have the force of law but puts the Senate on record as opposing Trump’s pullout plans.

IT’S ALL GOOD, MAN: After excoriating his intelligence chiefs for their unvarnished testimony before the Senate Tuesday, President Trump tweeted out a photo of Director of National Security Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel in his office. The president insisted after confronting them face to face it was all a misunderstanding based on misreporting and “fake news.”

“Just concluded a great meeting with my Intel team in the Oval Office who told me that what they said on Tuesday at the Senate Hearing was mischaracterized by the media – and we are very much in agreement on Iran, ISIS, North Korea, etc. Their testimony was distorted press… Trump tweeted. “I would suggest you read the COMPLETE testimony from Tuesday. A false narrative is so bad for our Country. I value our intelligence community. Happily, we had a very good meeting, and we are all on the same page!”

With no sense of irony, Trump admitted to reporters yesterday that he hadn’t actually read the report on worldwide threats, produced by the intelligence community. “I didn’t see the report from the intelligence,” Trump said before his Oval Office meeting. “When you read it, it’s a lot different than it was, covered on — in the news.”

After the meeting, Trump said Coats and Haspel told him he had the wrong idea from watching the media coverage. “They said that they were totally misquoted and they were totally — it was taken out of context,” Trump said. “They said it was fake news, so — which, frankly, didn’t surprise me.”

ONE SENATOR’S REBUTTAL: “This reminds me of the old country song,” said Sen. Angus King I-Maine, on MSNBC. “Who you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?”

“I mean, the testimony is there. I was there. I asked Gina Haspel very directly, is Iran in compliance with the nuclear agreement and she hemmed around a little bit but then she said, ‘Yes it is,’” King said. “As far as North Korea,” King added “You don’t have to read the transcript. They filed a 42-page report as part of their testimony, and it says, ‘We continue to assess that North Korea is unlikely to give up all of its nuclear weapons and production capabilities.’”

King added, “And what bothered me, was the president coming after them and today he says, ‘Well, they didn’t say that.’ Well, maybe he should have figured that out before he issued a tweet telling him the whole intelligence community should go back to school.”

BAD AT MATH: President Trump continues to add a year to America’s longest war. Yesterday he did it again, saying “We’re going into close to 19 years in being in Afghanistan.”

For the record, the U.S. entered Afghanistan in October 2001, less than a month after the September 11 attacks. Last October was the 17-year mark, and next October, if U.S troops are still there it will be 18 years, with the beginning of the 19th.

Good Friday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by David Mark (@DavidMarkDC). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/as-promised-trump-to-withdraw-from-landmark-cold-war-era-arms-treaty-with-russia

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David Axelrod states obvious: Cory Booker is painfully corny – Washington Examiner
David Axelrod states obvious: Cory Booker is painfully corny – Washington Examiner

It must sting to be compared so frequently to Barack Obama but then have the former president’s top strategist say, “Yeah, except for the ‘great speaker’ part.”

That’s what David Axelrod did Friday on CNN, shortly after Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., announced that he’s running for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

“[B]ooker is a very inspirational guy but sometimes he can get carried away and we saw that with his ‘Spartacus’ moment on the Judiciary Committee during the Kavanaugh hearings,” said Axelrod, referring to the embarrassing scene Booker put on last year, wherein he claimed he had released confidential congressional documents as an act of valor, even though the papers had already been cleared for release and didn’t contain the bombshell he’d promised.

Axelrod continued, “He can sort of move from being an inspirational figure to kind of a motivational speaker and sometimes it comes off a little tinny, so that’s a discipline that he’s going to have to deal with.”

This is a very polite way of saying Booker lays the theatrics on a little too thick.

A recent Rolling Stone profile on then-Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., featured a perfect example of Booker’s tendency to ham it up.

Recounting Heitkamp’s ultimate decision to vote no on the confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Booker shared this sticky-sweet anecdote:

“There must have been 12 of us, maybe 14 of us, down in that SCIF, trading this piece of paper around … We’re reading, and she looks up and says to all of us, ‘I just can’t vote for this person,’” Booker recalls. “To me, it was a Martin Luther moment, where Martin Luther, after pounding his defiant words on a church door … Martin Luther, he writes, ‘Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me god.’ I felt that was what I was witnessing.”

Booker also described Heitkamp as “one of those people who stitches together the gaping wounds that often exist in this place.”

You can imagine the wheels grinding under great resistance in Booker’s head as he delivers the most overwrought answers to basic questions:

Senator, what can I get you?

Booker: “All I ask is that you give every boy and girl a chance to rise up to the heavens and fulfill their god given potential in this beautiful country we call America. A country we call home.”

Uh, s enator, this is Arby’s, did you want to place an order?

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/david-axelrod-states-obvious-cory-booker-is-painfully-corny

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Donald Trump Jr. calls out Schiff after reports say that blocked phone calls weren’t to father – Fox News
Donald Trump Jr. calls out Schiff after reports say that blocked phone calls weren’t to father – Fox News
Video

Report: Donald Trump Jr. didn’t call father about Trump Tower meeting with Russians

Donald Trump Jr. late Thursday laid into House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., after reports appeared to vindicate the younger Trump of Democratic suspicions that he made phone calls to President Trump around the time of the Trump Tower meeting with Russians in June 2016.

Senate investigators obtained phone records which appeared to show that Trump Jr. had actually spoken to two longtime Trump family friends – Brian France, the chief executive of Nascar, and the investor Howard Lorber, the New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the matter.

TRUMP AND THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: WHAT TO KNOW

Trump Jr. responded to the reports on Twitter, knocking Schiff.

“Has anyone heard from Adam Schiff?” Trump Jr. tweeted. “I imagine he’s busy leaking other confidential info from the House Intelligence Committee to change the subject?!?”

Democrats have long suspected the calls were between Trump Jr. and his then-candidate father regarding a meeting with Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

Video

Schiff appeared on MSNBC Thursday night and said that Democrats were unable to confirm the reporting “because the Republicans wouldn’t let us get the phone records.”

SCHIFF PREVIEWS NEW LINE OF ATTACK AGAINST TRUMP: DEUTSCHE BANK ‘LAUNDERED RUSSIAN MONEY’

Trump Jr. said in a statement to the Times that, “After a year of hearing about this one ad nauseam, yet another left-wing narrative officially bites the dust.”

Sources told the paper that the report was seen by the White House as a victory. The findings marked an important development for Trump allies who’ve seen a challenging week that culminated with the arrest of longtime ally Roger Stone.

President Trump responded to the reports late Thursday, appearing to call out Democrats and the media.

“Just out: The big deal, very mysterious Don Jr telephone calls, after the innocent Trump Tower meeting, that the media & Dems said were made to his father (me), were just conclusively found NOT to be made to me,” Trump wrote. “They were made to friends & business associates of Don. Really sad!”

He followed up later Thursday with a second tweet, saying “This witch hunt must end!”

Video

Trump Jr. has maintained that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer he met with at Trump Tower, did not have any information to share and instead wanted to discuss the Magnitsky Act and other sanctions.

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The Trump Tower meeting has been under intense scrutiny from investigators seeking whether Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election. Investigators are also looking at the financial ties between some Trump associates and the Kremlin.

A special counsel, led by Robert Mueller, was appointed to investigate potential wrongdoing more than one year ago, and the team has already brought multiple charges against people associated with the presidential campaign.

Fox News’ Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/don-jr-calls-out-schiff-following-reports-that-mysterious-blocked-phone-calls-werent-to-trump

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Pelosi suggests Normandy fence for the border, but not a wall – Washington Examiner
Pelosi suggests Normandy fence for the border, but not a wall – Washington Examiner

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she could support a border security deal that adds new Normandy fencing along about 30 miles of open border.

But she won’t bring a bill to the floor that includes Trump’s vision for a wall or steel-slat barrier, she said.

“There is not going to be any wall money in the legislation,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday. Pelosi controls the House floor, and her approval of a border security deal is required for legislation to make it to the president’s desk by a Feb. 15 deadline.

Pelosi said she’d back Normandy fencing used to finish approximately 700 miles authorized by the 2006 Secure Fence Act. A 2017 government report determined about 50 miles of that authorized fencing are incomplete, although Republicans have put forward higher estimates. Pelosi said only 30 miles are incomplete.

[Related: ‘A WALL is a WALL’: Trump mocks Congress for talking about fences, barriers]

Normandy fencing includes movable barriers that allow vehicles to pass through and the barriers are low enough to climb over. Pelosi said that’s as far as she’ll go on a barrier.

“If the president wants to call that a wall, he can call it a wall,” Pelosi said. “Are there places where enhanced fencing, Normandy fencing, will work? Let them have that discussion.”

A fence is pictured in the El Paso Sector.

Pelosi said hundreds of miles of border don’t require barriers because of cliffs and rivers.

A border security deal hinges on a bipartisan group of 17 House and Senate lawmakers who met for the first time Wednesday to try to hammer out an agreement. The group has until Feb. 15, when a short-term funding measure expires and a quarter of the federal government would be partially shuttered for a second time this year.

Senate Republican and Democrat appropriators agreed last summer to provide $1.6 billion for 65 miles of pedestrian fencing in the Rio Grande Valley, which the GOP said could be used as a starting point in the negotiations.

House Democrats on Wednesday pitched their own border security plan, and it did not include money for any wall of barrier. President Trump has indicated that he won’t sign legislation without wall funding.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/pelosi-suggests-normandy-fence-for-the-border-but-not-a-wall

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Trump touts report Don Jr. did not call him about Trump Tower meeting – POLITICO
Trump touts report Don Jr. did not call him about Trump Tower meeting – POLITICO

Both President Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. praised a CNN report that seemed to put to rest a possible line of inquiry in the ongoing investigations into Russian interfence in the 2016 election. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images

White House

President Donald Trump welcomed a report Thursday that said his son, Donald Trump Jr., did not talk with him on a blocked phone number before and after a meeting at Trump Tower between top campaign officials and Russians linked to the Kremlin.

“Just out: The big deal, very mysterious Don jr telephone calls, after the innocent Trump Tower meeting, that the media & Dems said were made to his father (me), were just conclusively found NOT to be made to me,” the president wrote on Twitter. “They were made to friends & business associates of Don. Really sad!”

Story Continued Below

CNN reported Thursday that three sources “with knowledge of the matter” told the network that records provided to the Senate Intelligence Community show the calls were between Trump Jr. and business associates.

Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who both sit on committees investigating the meeting, have pressed for more information om Trump’s Jr.’s repeated phone exchanges with a blocked number. Others have surmised that the calls could have been with his father, then the Republican frontrunner and future president.

The June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower — between Trump Jr., adviser Jared Kushner, then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russians including a lawyer linked to the Kremlin — has long been the source of both speculation and investigation in the various probes into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump’s initial insistence that the meeting was to discuss adoptions and not to gather dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had fueled claims that the gathering could have been an example of the campaign’s collusion in Russia’s efforts to meddle in the election.

Whether Trump knew of the meeting beforehand, or was informed after the fact, is seen by many commentators as key to the collusion question.

Trump Jr. also touted the report on Twitter and taunted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who previously said House Republicans, then in the majority, were not doing enough to investigate the phone records.

“Has anyone heard from Adam Schiff?” Trump Jr. said. “I imagine he’s busy leaking other confidential info from the House Intelligence Committee to change the subject?!? #FullOfSchiff”

Trump and his son are frequent critics of CNN reporting, often calling the network’s coverage of the White House and Russia investigation “fake news.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/31/trump-donald-trump-jr-trump-tower-calls-1140930

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The US arrests ‘birth tourism’ operators linked to China for the first time – CNN
The US arrests ‘birth tourism’ operators linked to China for the first time – CNN

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By Cheri Mossberg and Caitlin Hu, CNN

Updated 12:58 AM ET, Fri February 1, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

(CNN)Three people were arrested on charges of running “birth tourism” companies that catered to Chinese clients in Southern California Thursday. It is the first time that criminal charges have been filed in a US federal court over the practice, according to Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/31/asia/chinese-birth-tourism-arrest/index.html

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Graham is right to put FBI between a Stone and a hard place – Washington Examiner
Graham is right to put FBI between a Stone and a hard place – Washington Examiner

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has acted wisely in telling FBI Director Christopher Wray that he has some explaining to do, but the chairman should slightly broaden his inquiry.

Graham sent a Jan. 30 letter to Wray demanding a “briefing” to the committee about why the Bureau used such apparently disproportionate force in its pre-dawn raid on longtime political consultant Roger Stone, who stands accused of perjury by special counsel Robert Mueller. Graham’s specific questions of Wray are good, but they seem focused too heavily on the Stone arrest alone. The bigger questions should be about FBI arrest methods more broadly.

Some of us thought the Stone arrest methods were abusive, but they weren’t unique. The FBI used similar tactics on Stone’s former business partner, Paul Manafort, and they and their Drug Enforcement Agency brethren use such raids dozens of times each year not just on people thought to be violent but on low-level offenders and on doctors suspected of overprescribing painkillers.

When such heavily armed force is used, innocents get terrorized and hurt. Wives of suspects, in their nightgowns, awake to find semiautomatic weapons in their faces; an elderly orchard hobbyist watches his furniture smashed while agents look for evidence of flower “smuggling”; doors at wrong addresses get chain-sawed open; children get injured by flash grenades or even killed by clumsy agents.

No matter what some FBI defenders might say, most people suspected of low-level crimes such as perjury are not likely to try to shoot their way out of an arrest. Four or six agents with holstered pistols, not 29 heavily armed agents in full riot gear, should be perfectly able to take Roger Stone into custody.

Graham is surely right to question Wray about the raid on Stone’s house, but question 2 in his letter to the FBI chief is the one that is the most relevant, and that should be expanded: “Was the manner of Stone’s arrest consistent with the arrests of, and procedures for the arrests of, similarly charged individuals?”

The further questions should be: What factors determine how many agents are used? What determines how heavily armed they should be? What criteria govern how much time should be allotted before doors are broken down? Or how rough the agents are to the suspect once inside? Or how careful they are to use the least disruptive means of searching the house for evidence?

What data, if any, supports the use of riot gear for suspects never known to be violent? How many times have suspects or, worse, innocent bystanders or people subject to mistaken identity, been injured or killed in heavily armed raids? And how often, conversely, have FBI agents been injured or killed, and under what circumstances? Have agents been badly injured or killed by white-collar suspects with no record of violence, and did any neutral analysis determine that the agent’s injury or death would have been avoided if the Bureau had made a greater show of force?

In other words, if there is objective justification for heavy use of force — real evidence that it does more good than the downside risks it carries, rather than just a macho sense that efficacy and safety are bolstered by “overwhelming presence” — then let’s see it. Maybe there is. If so, it should not be difficult for Wray to produce.

Despite what some might say, these concerns amount to substantially more than mere “pearl clutching.” We live in a nation founded on the idea of maximum liberty under law, of limited government, and of protections against state overuse of force. We wisely exclude the military from domestic law enforcement, and we at least look with suspicion at turning domestic law enforcement into a quasi-military function.

Yet not only with the Stone arrest, but all too often, we see federal agents who are overarmed and for no good reason, and who act abusively toward citizens they are supposed to protect. The difference this time was that the raid was televised for all the world to see. It led several conservative, pro-law-enforcement people I know — including those who dislike Stone, Manafort, and Trump — to use expressions like “jackboots” and “thugs” in conversations when they offered their impressions of the Stone raid.

One can fully support Mueller’s investigation and think the Trumpist effusions about a “deep state” are overblown nonsense and yet still see that the FBI’s conduct with regard to Trump and Hillary Clinton has been unprofessional and tawdry enough to suggest the bureau needs a thorough housecleaning. The housecleaning should begin with the examination of rules concerning use of force, in the “briefing” Graham is holding with such appropriate dispatch.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/lindsey-graham-is-right-to-put-fbi-between-a-stone-and-a-hard-place

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Trump applauds Kamala Harris’ 2020 campaign launch, calls it the ‘best opening so far’ – Business Insider
Trump applauds Kamala Harris’ 2020 campaign launch, calls it the ‘best opening so far’ – Business Insider

President Donald Trump applauded Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign launch, describing it as “the best opening so far” in the 2020 primary race.

Trump made the remarks during an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday night, saying Harris has “a better crowd, better enthusiasm.”

The president, who spent the latter part of his career in show businesses before landing at the White House, homed in particularly on Harris’ ability to draw a crowd, The Times indicated.

The president has frequently pointed to the size of his own campaign rallies as a measure of his likability and success.

Trump claimed that some Democratic candidates had “really drifted far left,” and took another jab at Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who launched an exploratory committee in late December.

“I do think Elizabeth Warren’s been hurt very badly with the Pocahontas trap,” Trump reportedly said, referring to a racist slur he frequently uses to insult her claim of having Native American heritage. “I think she’s been hurt badly. I may be wrong, but I think that was a big part of her credibility and now all of a sudden it’s gone.”

Harris declared her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 21, and followed it with a campaign rally in her hometown of Oakland, California, where roughly 20,000 people attended.

Harris also appeared at a CNN town hall event this week, where she became “the most-watched cable news single-candidate election town hall” among the age 25-to-54 news demographic, according to CNN’s internal metrics.

Despite an otherwise energetic launch, Harris’ campaign encountered some headwinds over her record as a California prosecutor. She previously served as San Francisco’s district attorney and has faced criticism over her tough stance on crime, including defending the death penalty in California.

Neither White House officials nor Harris’ campaign immediately responded to INSIDER’s request for comment on Thursday night.

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-applauds-kamala-harris-2020-campaign-2019-1

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Here’s how much Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett could pay under Bernie Sanders’ tax plan – CNBC
Here’s how much Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett could pay under Bernie Sanders’ tax plan – CNBC

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As the adage goes, there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. And if Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ new tax plan were to go into effect, death would trigger much higher taxes for the billionaire set.

Under Sanders’ new tax plan announced Thursday, billionaires would be subject to a 77 percent estate tax, which is the tax levied on the cash, property, real estate and other assets (“everything you own or have certain interests in,” according to the Internal Revenue Service) of a deceased person when it is transferred to another person. In 2018, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act put the estate tax at 40 percent after the first $11.18 million, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

“Our bill only applies to the richest 0.2% of Americans,” Sanders tweeted earlier on Thursday.

According to estimates made by Sanders’ office, here’s what the new bill would establish for the wealthiest five billionaires in the United States:

(For the calculations, Sanders’ office used the net worth list from Forbes, as of Monday, “and then applied our proposed rates” to determine what each billionaire would pay if the new tax plan were implemented, Sanders’ spokesperson Josh Miller-Lewis tells CNBC Make It. To determine a baseline of what each billionaire would have to pay in estate tax under current law, Sanders’ office applied the 40 percent estate tax rate on the Forbes net worth of the given person as of Monday.)

  • Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos, 55, is currently set to pay $53 billion in estate taxes, and would have to pay $101 billion under Sanders’ plan.
  • Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, 63, is currently set to pay $38 billion in estate taxes, and would have to pay $74 billion under Sanders’ plan.
  • Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, 88, is currently set to pay $33 billion in estate taxes, and would have to pay $64 billion under Sanders’ plan.
  • Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, 74, is currently set to pay $24 billion in estate taxes, and would have to pay $46 billion under Sanders’ plan.
  • Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 34, is currently set to pay $22 billion in estate taxes, and would have to pay $41 billion under Sanders’ new plan.

The proposed estate tax rates under Sanders’ new plan are tiered and impact the top 0.2 percent of Americans: from $3.5 million up to $10 million in assets owned upon time of death, the tax rate would be 45 percent; from $10 million to $50 million, the tax rate would be 50 percent; and from greater than $50 million to $1 billion, the tax rate would be 55 percent tax.

Changing the estate tax is not unheard of: Indeed, the estate tax has fluctuated from year to year for most of the last 20 years “creating uncertainty for taxpayers and their advisors,” the Joint Committee on Taxation says in a primer on the U.S. Federal Wealth Transfer Tax System published in 2015.

The Sanders’ tax plan could make $2.2 trillion from 588 billionaires in the United States, according to a written statement from Sanders’ office published Thursday. (The precise date as to when this $2.2 trillion could be reaped is “hard to say,” Miller-Lewis tells CNBC Make It, because it’s impossible to know when an estate tax will be levied since a person’s time of death is unknown.)

The goal, which is a common theme for the progressive Senator from Vermont, is to stem the tide of wealth inequality.

“At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when the three richest Americans own more wealth than 160 million Americans, it is literally beyond belief that the Republican leadership wants to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the top 0.2 percent,” Sanders says in the written statement. “Our bill does what the American people want by substantially increasing the estate tax on the wealthiest families in this country and dramatically reducing wealth inequality. From a moral, economic, and political perspective our nation will not thrive when so few have so much and so many have so little.”

Indeed, Gates, Bezos and Buffett own more wealth than the bottom half of the American population combined, or 160 million people, according to November 2017 report published by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Representatives for Buffett, Ellison, Zuckerberg, Gates and Bezos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, Buffett addressed Republicans’ idea to eliminate the estate tax in an interview with Becky Quick on CNBC’s Squawk Box in October 2017.

“I don’t think I need a tax cut,” Buffett said. “[I]f they passed the bill that they’re talking about, I could leave $75 billion to a bunch of children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, and if I left it to 35 of them, they would each have a couple of billion dollars. They could put it out at 5 percent and have $100 million.

“Is that a great way to allocate resources in the United States?” Buffett continued. “That’s what you are doing through the tax code is you are affecting the allocation of resources.”

Still, some are fierce critics of the estate tax, even at current levels. “You work your whole life to build up a nest egg or a family-owned business or family farm. Then you pass away… Uncle Sam can swoop in and take over 40% of everything you’ve earned over a certain amount. It’s just wrong,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in August 2017, when the estate tax was being considered then, according to CNN.

See also:



Billionaire Warren Buffett: ‘I don’t need a tax cut’ in a society with so much inequality



Ocasio-Cortez’s 70% tax plan gets fierce response, but even Warren Buffett says rich should pay more



Billionaire Warren Buffett on helping the poor: ‘A rich family does not leave people behind’



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Trump needs intervention on intelligence, Schumer writes in letter to Coats – Fox News
Trump needs intervention on intelligence, Schumer writes in letter to Coats – Fox News
Video

Daniel Coats, director of national intelligence, addresses Senate Intelligence Committee regarding security threates to US&nbsp;

Not long after President Trump said the nation’s intelligence chiefs were “naive” about Iran and perhaps should “go back to school,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested that it was the president who needed tutoring.

Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, to stage an intervention with Trump after the president took the unusual move Wednesday of criticizing Coats, CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray after their Tuesday appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“President Trump’s criticism of the testimony you and other intelligence leaders provided to Congress yesterday was extraordinarily inappropriate,” Schumer wrote to Coats, adding later that “I believe it is incumbent on you, Director Wray and Director Haspel … to impress upon him how critically important it is for him to join you and the leadership of our Intelligence Community in speaking with a unified and accurate voice about national security threats.”

The intelligence chiefs had told the Senate panel that North Korea was unlikely to dismantle its nuclear arsenal and that the Iran nuclear deal was working — assessments that drew responses from the president via Twitter.

Trump insisted that the U.S. relationship with North Korea “is the best it has ever been,” and pointed to a halt in nuclear and missile tests by North Korea, the return of some U.S. service members’ remains and the release of detained Americans as signs of progress. A second Trump-Kim meeting is expected in February.

The U.S. intelligence agencies also said Iran continues to work with other parties to the nuclear deal it reached with the U.S. and other world powers. In doing so, they said, it has at least temporarily lessened the nuclear threat. In May 2018, Trump withdrew the U.S. from that Obama-era accord, which he called a terrible deal that would not stop Iran from going nuclear.

SPY CHIEF SAYS RUSSIA WILL ATTEMPT TO INTERFERE IN 2020, CONTRADUCTS TRUMP ON NORTH kOREA’S DENUCLEARIZATION, ISIS DEFEAT

Schumer’s letter to Coats essentially echoed what many Democrats said in the aftermath of Trump’s tweets.

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Sen. Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate’s intelligence panel, said in a tweet that, “The President has a dangerous habit of undermining the intelligence community to fit his alternate reality. People risk their lives for the intelligence he just tosses aside on Twitter.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/schumer-wants-intelligence-community-to-stage-intervention-with-trump

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Sasse says Virginia Gov. Northam should ‘get the hell out of office’ in wake of abortion comments – Fox News
Sasse says Virginia Gov. Northam should ‘get the hell out of office’ in wake of abortion comments – Fox News
Video

Sen. Sasse: Virginia governor’s late-term abortion comments are morally repugnant

Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse says that if Gov. Ralph Northam can’t say protecting a baby who has survived an abortion is something we all believe in, then he should get the hell out of office.

Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse, in an interview Thursday with Fox News, ramped up his criticism of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam over comments on a controversial late-term abortion bill — saying the governor effectively discussed “infanticide” and should resign if he won’t back down.

Sasse, a pro-life Republican, said Northam’s comments were “morally repugnant” and argued the Democratic governor should “get the hell out of office” if he doesn’t support protecting the life of a child who survived an abortion.

“The comments the governor of Virginia made were about fourth-term abortions,” Sasse said on Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino.” “That’s not abortion, that’s infanticide.”

OUTRAGE AS VIDEO SHOWS VIRGINIA ABORTION BILL SPONSOR SAYING PLAN WOULD ALLOW TERMINATION UP UNTIL BIRTH

Northam’s comments were made during an appearance on a local radio station to discuss The Repeal Act, which seeks to repeal restrictions on third-trimester abortions.

Virginia Democratic Del. Kathy Tran, a sponsor, sparked outrage from conservatives when she was asked at a hearing if a woman about to give birth and dilating could still request an abortion. The bill was tabled in committee this week.

“My bill would allow that, yes,” she said. Existing state law does not put an absolute time limit on abortions and Tran’s legislation does not alter that, but it does loosen restrictions on the need to get additional certification from doctors.

NEW YORK ‘CELEBRATES’ LEGALIZING ABORTION UNTIL BIRTH

Northam, a former pediatric neurologist, had been asked about Tran’s comments and said he couldn’t speak for her, but said that third-trimester abortions are done with “the consent of obviously the mother, with consent of the physician, multiple physicians by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities or there may be a fetus that’s not viable.”

“So in this particular example if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

Northam’s comments quickly led to an outpouring of criticism from Republicans and pro-life activists. Sasse questioned why pro-life Democrats have not spoken out in opposition to the comments made by Northam and Tran. Neither of the two pro-life Democrats in the Senate – Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia – has made public comments about the controversy.

“The Democratic Party has not come out and condemned this, and they really should be,” he said.

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Northam pushed back hard on his critics, tweeting: “I have devoted my life to caring for children and any insinuation otherwise is shameful and disgusting.”

Northam Communications Director Ofirah Yheskel said GOP critics were “trying to play politics with women’s health” — and sought to clarify her boss’ comments:

“No woman seeks a third trimester abortion except in the case of tragic or difficult circumstances, such as a nonviable pregnancy or in the event of severe fetal abnormalities, and the governor’s comments were limited to the actions physicians would take in the event that a woman in those circumstances went into labor. Attempts to extrapolate these comments otherwise is in bad faith and underscores exactly why the governor believes physicians and women, not legislators, should make these difficult and deeply personal medical decisions.”

Video

Tran’s legislation would reduce the number of doctors who would have to certify late-term abortions are needed from three to one. It would also delete the requirement that doctors determine that continuing a pregnancy would “substantially and irremediably” impair a woman’s health. Instead doctors would only have to certify that the woman’s health was impaired.

Supporters said the changes in law would help reduce the bureaucratic burdens women face when dealing with difficult decisions involving late-term abortions, which often involve serious medical complications.

The effort in Virginia follows New York passing a bill last week loosening restrictions on abortion, as New Mexico, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington also pass new laws expanding abortion access or move to strip old laws from the books that limit abortions.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sasse-tells-virginia-gov-northam-to-get-the-hell-of-office-in-wake-of-abortion-comments

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McConnell issues warning over Syria, Afghanistan troop withdrawals – Washington Examiner
McConnell issues warning over Syria, Afghanistan troop withdrawals – Washington Examiner

ISIS DOWN, NOT OUT: While Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan declared ISIS is just weeks away from losing the last bit of territory it controls in Syria, the nation’s top intelligence official told the Senate, “ISIS is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria.”

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testified yesterday at a Select Senate Committee hearing on worldwide threats, “While ISIS is nearing territorial defeat in Iraq and Syria, the group has returned to its guerrilla warfare roots while continuing to plot attacks and direct its supporters worldwide.”

NORTH KOREA NOT DENUCLEARIZING: It wasn’t the only reality check delivered by Coats yesterday. He also cast doubt on whether President Trump will be able to secure a deal to get North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to give up his missiles and nuclear weapons programs.

“We currently assess that North Korea will seek to retain its WMD capabilities. It is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities because its leaders ultimately view nuclear weapons as critical to regime survival,” Coats said in his opening statement. “Our assessment is bolstered by our observations of some activity that is inconsistent with full denuclearization.”

IRAN NOT NUCLEARIZING: “While we do not believe Iran is currently undertaking activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device, Iranian officials have publicly threatened to push the boundaries of [the Iran nuclear deal] restrictions if Iran does not gain the tangible financial benefits is expected from the deal,” Coats said in his annual assessment, noting that Iran maintains the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East.

“The Iranian regime will continue pursuing regional ambitions and improved military capabilities even while its own economy is weakening by the day,” he said.

HAPPENING THIS MORNING, TRUMP WEIGHS IN: “When I became President, ISIS was out of control in Syria & running rampant. Since then tremendous progress made, especially over last 5 weeks. Caliphate will soon be destroyed, unthinkable two years ago. Negotiating are proceeding well in Afghanistan after 18 years of fighting,” President Trump tweeted at 6:30 a.m. “Fighting continues but the people of Afghanistan want peace in this never ending war. We will soon see if talks will be successful? North Korea relationship is best it has ever been with U.S. No testing, getting remains, hostages returned. Decent chance of Denuclearization.”

COATS ON CHINA: “China’s actions reflect a long-term strategy to achieve global superiority,” Coats said. “In its efforts to diminish U.S. influence and extend its own economic, political and military reach, Beijing will seek to tout a distinctly Chinese fusion of strongman autocracy and a form of Western-style capitalism as a development model; an implicit alternative to democratic values and institutions. These efforts will include the use of its intelligence and influence apparatus to shape international views and gain advantages over its competitors, including especially the United States.”

COATS ON RUSSIA: “Even as Russia faces a weakening economy, the Kremlin is stepping up its campaign to divide Western political and security institutions and undermine the post-World War II international order. We expect Russia will continue to wage its information war against democracies and to use social media to attempt to divide our societies. Russia’s attack against Ukrainian naval vessels in November is just the latest example of the Kremlin’s willingness to violate international norms, to coerce its neighbors and accomplish its goals.”

SLOW MOTION WITHDRAWAL: The Pentagon insists it’s in the process of complying with President Trump’s December order to begin withdrawing all U.S. ground troops from Syria. “We are on a deliberate, coordinated, disciplined withdrawal,” Shanahan said yesterday.

But people in Syria don’t see any sign of it. “There has been no change in the situation on the ground,” Ilham Ahmed told the Washington Post. Ahmed, who heads the executive committee of the Syrian Democratic Council said the situation is “just like before” Trump’s announcement.

Shanahan indicated yesterday that the hold-up may be figuring out who is going to fill the vacuum left by the departure of U.S. troops, so that Russia, Iran or Syria regime forces don’t move in, or worse ISIS reconstitutes.

“The phase that this moves to is how do you sustain local security?” Shanahan said. “You know that’s, that’s where the support of the coalition, that’s where these partnerships are so critical,” he said.

5,000 TROOPS TO COLOMBIA: Shanahan punted when asked about the mysterious notation seen on John Bolton’s legal pad Monday with the words, “5,000 troops to Colombia,” scrawled on it, just as Bolton asserted that “all options are on the table.”

“I didn’t bring a notepad today,” Shanahan joked, but when pressed he repeated refused either confirm or deny whether President Trump is seriously considering dispatching American troops to Colombia to turn up the heat on Nicolas Maduro, the embattled president of neighboring Venezuela.

This morning Trump tweeted, “Maduro willing to negotiate with opposition in Venezuela following U.S. sanctions and the cutting off of oil revenues. [Juan] Guaido is being targeted by Venezuelan Supreme Court. Massive protest expected today. Americans should not travel to Venezuela until further notice.”

MORE TROOPS, OR DIFFERENT TROOPS? Shanahan also revealed yesterday a Department of Homeland Security request for more U.S. military support for southern border security through the rest of the fiscal year.

“DHS has asked us to support them in additional concertina wire, and then expanded surveillance capability,” Shanahan said. “And we’ve responded with, you know, ‘Here’s how many people it would take, and this is the timing we’d be able — timing and mix of the people to support that.’” Asked how many people that would require, Shanahan said “Several thousand. I’ll leave it at that number.”

Currently, there are approximately 2,350 active duty troops and about 2,270 national guard troops on the border. What’s unclear is how many of those troops will be rotated out and replaced with new troops, and what that will do to the total number deployed in 2019.

“The numbers fluctuate,” John Rood, undersecretary of defense for policy, told the House Armed Services Committee, yesterday. “One portion of them has been approved to be deployed through January of 2019. There will be additional deployments of active duty troops that will go through the end of this fiscal year, September 30th, in response to the latest request from the Department of Homeland Security.”

WHY ACTIVE DUTY? Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith D-Wash, grilled Rood about why active-duty troops were sent instead of more National Guard units. “It is very, very rare to send troops to the border,” Smith insisted.

Rood said the 5,900 active-duty members of the military were dispatched because they were more readily available since thousands of guardsmen had been deployed in April.

“Active-duty military personnel were selected because the secretary of defense determined them to be the best-suited and most readily available forces from the total force to provide the assistance requested by the DHS,” Rood told the committee.

LOCKHEED MARTIN IN THE BLACK: Lockheed Martin Corporation reports $1.5 billion in profits on fourth quarter 2018 net sales of $14.4 billion. The company expects sales to climb more than 6 percent this year amid a swelling order backlog for the F-35 fighter jet, the most expensive weapons program in U.S. history

The Bethesda, Md.-based defense contractor said Tuesday its targeting $57 billion in revenue this year after sales growth in 2018 fueled by increased U.S. military spending. An F-35 order late in the year added 250 planes to the fighter’s outstanding orders, pushing the total to 400, CEO Marillyn Hewson told investors on an earnings call. That “exceeds the total F-35 deliveries made to date,” she said, “a clear sign of the program’s momentum.”

MORE 4Q RESULTS DUE: Both Boeing and General Dynamics are set to release their fourth quarter results this morning, with Northrop and Raytheon reporting tomorrow.

BOEING: At yesterday’s off-camera press briefing at the Pentagon, Shanahan was asked about reports he was perceived as ‘the man from Boeing,” given his past position with the company, and reports that in private meetings that he trashed Lockheed Martin and boasted that Boing would have done a better job meeting production goals for the F-35.

“I am biased towards performance,” Shanahan said. “I am biased towards giving the taxpayer their money’s worth.  And the F-35 unequivocally I can say has a lot of opportunity for more performance.”

He said the Pentagon’s strong ethics rules prevent him from intervening on behalf of Boeing and dismissed the grumbling about pro-Boeing bias as “just noise.”

THE RUNDOWN

Washington Post: Russia secretly offered North Korea a nuclear power plant, officials say

Bloomberg: Launch-and-Landing Failures Add to $13 Billion Ship’s Troubles

Voice of America: Afghans Worry as US Makes Progress in Taliban Talks

Navy Times: Senator: Chinese Buildup In South China Sea Like ‘Preparing For World War III’

Foreign Policy: U.S. Developing Supply Route Along Dangerous Stretch From Djibouti to Somalia

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The chances of Donald Trump declaring a national emergency at the border just went way up – CNN
The chances of Donald Trump declaring a national emergency at the border just went way up – CNN

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Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 3:28 PM ET, Thu January 31, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

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(15 Videos)

(CNN)Three very important things happened on Thursday in Washington.

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    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/31/politics/donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-government-shutdown/index.html

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    Sasse says Virginia Gov. Northam should ‘get the hell out of office’ in wake of abortion comments – Fox News
    Sasse says Virginia Gov. Northam should ‘get the hell out of office’ in wake of abortion comments – Fox News
    Video

    Sen. Sasse: Virginia governor’s late-term abortion comments are morally repugnant

    Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse says that if Gov. Ralph Northam can’t say protecting a baby who has survived an abortion is something we all believe in, then he should get the hell out of office.

    Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse, in an interview Thursday with Fox News, ramped up his criticism of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam over comments on a controversial late-term abortion bill — saying the governor effectively discussed “infanticide” and should resign if he won’t back down.

    Sasse, a pro-life Republican, said Northam’s comments were “morally repugnant” and argued the Democratic governor should “get the hell out of office” if he doesn’t support protecting the life of a child who survived an abortion.

    “The comments the governor of Virginia made were about fourth-term abortions,” Sasse said on Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino.” “That’s not abortion, that’s infanticide.”

    OUTRAGE AS VIDEO SHOWS VIRGINIA ABORTION BILL SPONSOR SAYING PLAN WOULD ALLOW TERMINATION UP UNTIL BIRTH

    Northam’s comments were made during an appearance on a local radio station to discuss The Repeal Act, which seeks to repeal restrictions on third-trimester abortions.

    Virginia Democratic Del. Kathy Tran, a sponsor, sparked outrage from conservatives when she was asked at a hearing if a woman about to give birth and dilating could still request an abortion. The bill was tabled in committee this week.

    “My bill would allow that, yes,” she said. Existing state law does not put an absolute time limit on abortions and Tran’s legislation does not alter that, but it does loosen restrictions on the need to get additional certification from doctors.

    NEW YORK ‘CELEBRATES’ LEGALIZING ABORTION UNTIL BIRTH

    Northam, a former pediatric neurologist, had been asked about Tran’s comments and said he couldn’t speak for her, but said that third-trimester abortions are done with “the consent of obviously the mother, with consent of the physician, multiple physicians by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities or there may be a fetus that’s not viable.”

    “So in this particular example if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

    Northam’s comments quickly led to an outpouring of criticism from Republicans and pro-life activists. Sasse questioned why pro-life Democrats have not spoken out in opposition to the comments made by Northam and Tran. Neither of the two pro-life Democrats in the Senate – Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia – has made public comments about the controversy.

    “The Democratic Party has not come out and condemned this, and they really should be,” he said.

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    Northam pushed back hard on his critics, tweeting: “I have devoted my life to caring for children and any insinuation otherwise is shameful and disgusting.”

    Northam Communications Director Ofirah Yheskel said GOP critics were “trying to play politics with women’s health” — and sought to clarify her boss’ comments:

    “No woman seeks a third trimester abortion except in the case of tragic or difficult circumstances, such as a nonviable pregnancy or in the event of severe fetal abnormalities, and the governor’s comments were limited to the actions physicians would take in the event that a woman in those circumstances went into labor. Attempts to extrapolate these comments otherwise is in bad faith and underscores exactly why the governor believes physicians and women, not legislators, should make these difficult and deeply personal medical decisions.”

    Video

    Tran’s legislation would reduce the number of doctors who would have to certify late-term abortions are needed from three to one. It would also delete the requirement that doctors determine that continuing a pregnancy would “substantially and irremediably” impair a woman’s health. Instead doctors would only have to certify that the woman’s health was impaired.

    Supporters said the changes in law would help reduce the bureaucratic burdens women face when dealing with difficult decisions involving late-term abortions, which often involve serious medical complications.

    The effort in Virginia follows New York passing a bill last week loosening restrictions on abortion, as New Mexico, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington also pass new laws expanding abortion access or move to strip old laws from the books that limit abortions.

    Fox News’ Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sasse-tells-virginia-gov-northam-to-get-the-hell-of-office-in-wake-of-abortion-comments

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    White House names 3 nominees for 9th Circuit after conservative attacks – CNN
    White House names 3 nominees for 9th Circuit after conservative attacks – CNN

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    By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter

    Updated 5:28 AM ET, Thu January 31, 2019

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    (CNN)After a day of attacks from commentators on the right, the White House announced Wednesday night that it planned to nominate three judges for the California seats on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/30/politics/9th-circuit-court-appeals-nominees-white-house-judges/index.html

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    Mitch McConnell said the 115th Congress was ‘the best,’ but it’s more dysfunctional than ever – Washington Examiner
    Mitch McConnell said the 115th Congress was ‘the best,’ but it’s more dysfunctional than ever – Washington Examiner

    A top spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., summed up the legislative achievements of the Republican-controlled 115th Congress as such: “The most accomplished Congress in decades.” McConnell declared that it was “the best … in my time in the Senate.”

    The public, however, disagreed. According to a Gallup survey conducted immediately after the 2018 midterm elections, only 21 percent approved of Congress and 74 percent disapproved. The number of Americans who liked what “the most accomplished Congress in decades” was accomplishing hovered around 18 percent throughout 2017 and 2018. While Congress’s approval is usually low (31 percent of Americans have approved of the institution, on average, since Gallup first began tracking such sentiment in 1974), 18 percent is a lot lower than 31 percent.

    This raises two questions. Was the 115th Congress really “the most accomplished” in decades given that so few people approved of its accomplishments? Was the Senate’s legislative record really the best it has been in more than 30 years, as McConnell claimed? A closer inspection of what senators did over the last two years suggests that the answer to both questions is “no.”

    The Senate’s overall legislative productivity appears, at first, to affirm McConnell’s favorable assessment. The institution has actually been on a lawmaking streak, passing more bills in every two years since 2013. After approving only 364 bills in the 112th Congress (2011-2012), the Senate passed 378 in the 113th (2013-2014), 427 in the 114th (2015-2016), and 585 in the 115th. The Senate appears to have been especially productive in the 115th Congress. It passed more bills in 2017 and 2018 than it has in any two years going back to 2005-2006, when the 109th Congress passed 684 bills.

    Yet, appearances can be deceiving. On closer inspection, the Senate’s recent record appears productive only when juxtaposed with the nadir hit by the institution in the 112th Congress. The total number of bills passed by the Senate in the 115th Congress is nevertheless quite low, remaining well below the 1,043 bills that it has passed, on average, going back to the 83rd Congress (1953-1954).

    A review of the substantive content of the bills passed by the Senate during the “most accomplished Congress in decades” suggests that its limited productivity gains are based mostly on minor legislation.

    For example, of the 585 bills that the Senate passed over the last two years, 106 renamed post offices or other federal buildings. One bill renamed a piece of legislation that was enacted into law in 2012 in honor of the late Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. Twenty-five bills temporarily extended existing programs or delayed pending deadlines. On six occasions, senators made routine technical corrections to legislation that they previously had passed. The Senate also approved 33 bills that were commemorative in nature. Among these were such “historic” bills as the Smithsonian National Zoological Park Central Parking Facility Authorization Act (HR 4009; Public Law 115-178) and a bill to designate the Nordic Museum in Seattle, Wash., as the National Nordic Museum (S. 2857).

    Looking at how the Senate passed legislation over the last two years is also helpful. It is a useful way to determine if a bill is significant, or otherwise considered controversial by senators, given that senators typically approve minor bills by voice vote and unanimous consent whereas they usually require a recorded vote to pass major bills. In the 115th Congress, a recorded vote was needed to pass legislation on only 52 occasions. On the 533 other times when the Senate passed legislation, a voice vote or unanimous consent was sufficient.

    To be fair, today’s Senate may be more productive. However, its members have struggled to debate, much less pass, major legislation on a regular basis. Unlike the period before 2013, today’s senators neither deliberate nor legislate when it comes to significant issues of concern to the public like border security, immigration, and healthcare. This was on display throughout the government shutdown, when senators worked hard to avoid taking action in it. It was also on display during the early days of the 115th Congress when President Trump and Republican majorities in the House and Senate should have been especially productive. Instead, Republicans struggled to approve their agenda, mostly because of the Senate’s inability to function. Unlike their House colleagues, Republicans in the Senate failed to pass a single major bill during the first eleven months of the 115th Congress.

    Far from being “the best,” today’s Senate looks more dysfunctional than ever.

    James Wallner (@jiwallner) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a senior fellow at the R Street Institute. Previously, he was a Senate aide and a former group vice president for research at the Heritage Foundation.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/mitch-mcconnell-said-the-115th-congress-was-the-best-but-its-more-dysfunctional-than-ever

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