NEW,
@JenGriffinFNC
confirms former Trump admin official confirms details in The Atlantic story, including quotes about veterans. When the President spoke about the Vietnam War he said, “It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker.”
🚨NEW, thread: Pentagon confirms to me the Department of Defense is preparing to house thousands of Afghan refugees on American military installations, immediately including Fort McCoy in Wisconsin and Fort Bliss in Texas.
🚨BREAKING, thread:
The State Department has been hit by a cyber attack, and notifications of a possible serious breach were made by the Department of Defense Cyber Command.
Ukrainian MP Alexey Goncharenko on Fox News: Ukraine is the only nation in the human history which gave up the nuclear arsenal, the third biggest in the world in 1994, with guarantees of the US, UK and Russian Federation.
Where are these guarantees? Now we are bombed and killed
MANCHIN: a lot of Americans don't realize we're buying over 600k barrels a day of crude from Russia.. we have to step up to the plate, reverse some of the decisions have been made with no leasing, not drilling. We need energy independence more now than ever before
POTUS: “I know vaccination requirements aren’t popular… but my administration didn’t put them in place to control your life, they put them in place to save your life.”
Ukrainian PM Alexey Goncharenko live on Fox News: I want to address the American people now, I want you to push your government to enact toughest sanctions now, remove Russia from SWIFT, target energy sector.
Timely reminder that on debate night, members of Trump family and Trump administration did not wear masks, which were required by the Cleveland Clinic. A doctor approached the Trump guests, offering masks and reminding them to put one on – but nobody did.
Bracing for impact: Even if Thursday's GDP report shows a second consecutive quarter of negative growth, you won't hear the Biden admin using the R-word.
The Council of Economic Advisers is redefining what a recession is...🤔
Audible scoffs from some in the press pool as the President once again delivers remarks, but takes no questions.
Biden has not taken any reporter questions since the Taliban took Afghanistan.
House GOP members are seeking to quickly expel Gaetz if the ethics report comes back with findings of guilt.
Following threats to vacate McCarthy, one tells me “No one can stand him at this point. A smart guy without morals.”
I completed searching all of Tony Bobulinski’s emails. They establish:
•the “Chairman” is China.
• NO ROLE for Joe Biden in emails/docs
• Tony Bobulinski states himself there are NO OTHER MEMBERS besides Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, Rob Walker, James Gillar, and Bobulinski
Per
@JenGriffinFNC
: This former official heard the President say about American veterans: “’What’s in it for them? They don’t make any money?’ It was a character flaw of the President: he could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it.”
Also from
@JenGriffinFNC
: re John McCain, “the President just hated John McCain. He always asked, ‘Why do you see him as a hero?” Source confirmed POTUS did not want flags lowered but others in the White House ordered them at half mast. There was a stand off, President relented.
🚨NEW, thread: from our Justice Dept producer Bill Mears:
A lawyer for Donald Trump had certified two months ago that no classified material remained at former president Donald Trump’s Florida, two sources with knowledge of the investigation tell Fox News.
MORE from
@JenGriffinFNC
Regarding the President’s July 4th military parade planning, during a planning at White House after seeing the Bastille Day parade in 2017, the President said regarding the inclusion of “wounded guys” “that’s not a good look” “Americans don’t like that.”
🚨NEW, thread: my colleague
@RichEdsonDC
confirms WSJ reporting, that about two dozen State Dept officials in Kabul sent a memo to Blinken, other top officials July 13th, warning of potential Kabul collapse soon after withdrawal deadline, offering recs on mitigation & speedy evac
🧵Thread: the IRS is NOT hiring an army of gun-toting tax collectors using new Inflation Reduction Act funding.
A treasury official tells me a tiny fraction of the agency’s new hires, ~1%, would be for IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agents.
Second GOP source sees below tweet, texts me “Knives are out for Kevin McCarthy, if he is under 225, expect Scalise to make a move quickly for speaker”
DC Mayor Bower: "We're not a border town. We don't have an infrastructure to handle this this type of a level of immigration to our city... We're not Texas."
Per
@JenGriffinFNC
, this is all acccording to a former senior Trump administration official who was in France travelling with the President in Nov 2018.
AND, per
@JenGriffinFNC
former official said re: the French trip to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I: “The President was not in a good mood. Macron had said something that made him mad about American reliability and the need perhaps for a European army...
NEW: source familiar tells me Biden transition couldn’t get a meeting with Dept of Defense since 12/18. It follows Biden’s warning the transition is encountering obstruction from political leadership at DOD & OMB, denying incoming admin info in key national security areas
NEWS: 3 sources with knowledge tell me the US has urged Israel to delay its ground operation in Gaza until safe passage for Palestinians can be secured – this is in line with previous messaging from the US, urging Israel to abide by the laws of armed conflict
BREAKING: per law enforcement source prelim info is 22 dead in Lewiston, ME shootings at 3 locations - Walmart distribution center, a bar, plus third location.
FBI supporting and mobilized, Maine State Police taking lead investigative role.
Possible suspect in custody.
We are on lockdown. Loudspeaker announcing in Russell Senate Office external security threat, stay away from windows, do not enter or exit. Can hear sirens.
At Mar-a-Lago, Trump is surrounded by 2 types of people:
1) political loyalists
2) law enforcement officers in the Secret Service
Only the LE officers would have an ethical and/or legal duty to report observations of criminal conduct to fellow law enforcement officers.
“...He questioned why he had to go to two cemeteries. ‘Why do I have to do two?’ His staff explained he could cancel, l but he was warned, ‘They (the press) are going to kill you for this’.” He (The President) was mad as a hornet when they did.” Per
@JenGriffinFNC
reporting
The Twitter Safety account just started tweeting in Ukrainian, giving users instructions on how to: 1) delete or deactivate accounts, 2) disable location services, 3) set up two-factor authentication, 4) and more
NEW: Ukrainian MP Oleksandra Ustinova tells me there have been more than 100,000 volunteers for the draft - but there are not enough rifles, bullet proof vests, and helmets to accommodate.
🚨BREAKING: President Biden pardons all prior federal convictions for simple marijuana possession - including under DC law - also directs states to do the same, and asks HHS & AG to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
🚨NEW, THREAD with reporting from me and
@JenGriffinFNC
: Gen. Austin Miller, former Commander of US forces-Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a classified hearing yesterday he advised against the Afghanistan withdrawal, two sources confirm to me.
Therefore, it would seem more likely than not that the probable cause for the search warrant was based on information provided by the President’s Secret Service security detail.
Another slip at Biden’s fundraisers tonight- via pool
“… at the 2nd and 3rd events today POTUS seemed to say that Helmut Kohl (who died in 2017) was there with him at his first foreign trip as President talking about Jan 6th…Angela Merkel was the German chancellor in 2021.”
Harris Press Sec
@sabrinasingh24
on VP Pence opposing plexiglass on his side: "If the Trump administration’s war on masks has now become a war on safety shields, that tells you everything you need to know about why their COVID response is a failure." No comment from Pence team.
Documents obtained from a source show DoD planning to potentially relocate up to 30,000 Afghan SIV applicants into the United States in the immediate future.
🚨NEW: After POTUS departed Saudi Arabia on AF1, Saudi FM Adel al-Jubeir called my colleague
@AlexHoganTV
back for a 2nd interview - even though Fox interviewed him yday.
He pointedly claimed he “did not hear” Biden tell MBS he believed he was responsible for Khashoggi’s murder
BREAKING: Trump did not order national guard mobilization. VP Pence,
acting Defense Sec Chris Miller, and Army Sec Ryan McCarthy did. Per
@JenGriffinFNC
FROM MY SOURCE
To obtain a criminal search warrant, the government must identify 1) the specific item to be seized; 2) the specific location of that item; and 3) that specific item is at that specific location at that precise moment.
This evidence is typically obtained in one of two ways:
1) a Title 3 wiretap intercepting conversations
and/or
2) a well-placed source giving real-time information to law enforcement.
🚨NEW, thread: Biden stalled bipartisan bill to ban Russian oil.
A source close to the process tells me that the House Ways and Means Committee worked all weekend in a bipartisan manner to develop a bill to ban all Russian oil imports...
Pooled press attempts to ask President Biden a question as he walks to G7 leaders photo op with Japanese PM. White House official swats press away, saying "no no no no no"
3 tweets from POTUS today on the economy/jobs
0 on nine Americans dead in Israel. No statement/comment on it either, as of yet.
You’d think someone would hit pause on the pre-scheduled tweets, if that’s what this is…
NEW: White House Communications Director Alyssa Farrah has been interviewing with TV agents since before the election, is now actively looking for a job in a post-Trump world.
House GOP source: Congressman Byron Donalds, who is running for GOP leadership, is actively telling Republican members he supports DeSantis over Trump in '24.
US Oil and Gas Association:
"OPEC said no. The SPR option is all but gone now. The White House has one option left. It's the one they should have never turned away from in the first place. The US Oil and Gas industry and it's workers.
Life comes at you pretty fast...."
Rep Kevin Brady: Manchin/Schumer reconciliation bill “adds $80 billion to the Internal Revenue Service - nearly six times the agency’s current annual budget – to supercharge the IRS and unleash 87,000 new IRS enforcement agents on taxpayers, including the middle class.”
It is unclear when the breach was discovered, but it is believed to have happened a couple weeks ago.
A source familiar tells Fox the State Department’s ongoing mission to evacuate Americans and allied refugees in Afghanistan “have not been affected”.
Source tells FOX the material Turner is asking the Biden admin to declassify deals with a concerning Russian capability – the potential seriousness of the threat is grave, however, the threat is not immediate in nature.
NSA Sullivan today on whether Americans should be worried:…
Matt Gaetz, who has been mired in a federal sex trafficking probe and reportedly sought a preemptive pardon from Trump, has effectively made himself kingmaker for the Speaker’s gavel.
2023, folks
Finally per
@JenGriffinFNC
“When asked if POTUS could have driven to the Aisne-Marne Cemetery, this former official said confidently, no security reason not to drive there-
“The President drives a lot. The other world leaders drove to the cemeteries. He just didn’t want to go.”
Update: WH official tells me POTUS was referring to past removal of skin cancer in his remarks from Massachusetts.
Biden mistakenly stated (present tense) that he has cancer.
NBC: U.S. will send 2 Afghan evacuees to Kosovo over security concerns after arriving at a US airport
Of 30k+ evacuees from Afghanistan to US, 10k needed add'l screening as of Friday & about 100 flagged for possible Taliban/terror ties.
2 of the 100 going back out for review
Modi, called out on human rights record by WSJ’s
@SabrinaSiddiqui
, bizarrely claims there is “no discrimination in India’s democracy”, vehemently defends human rights record
Modi had been asked what he steps he is taking to improve rights of Muslims and uphold free speech
Multiple House lawmakers on the call with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tell me Austin said there are reports Americans HAVE, in fact, been beaten by the Taliban in Kabul - contrary to what POTUS said today.
President Biden calls on a member of Indian press after Modi relayed he would not be calling on a reporter, to meet promise of 1 question to each side.
Biden selected WSJ
@SabrinaSiddiqui
for first set of q’s from the U.S. side - marking the first presser q to Modi since 2014.
🚨NEW, THREAD: In closed door briefings in the House and Senate last week, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley told lawmakers Kiev could fall within 72 hours, at a cost of 4,000 Russian troop deaths and 15,000 Ukrainian troop deaths, multiple congressional sources say.
🚨President Biden ended his speech seeming to call for regime change in Russia: “For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power!”
Immediately after, a WH official walks that back. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
@sparty8607
It’s not about the cost. I fundamentally oppose
@elonmusk
’s refusal to accredit established journalists with a type of verification we previously earned through our work. A blue check now does nothing more than show that I have a credit card and a form of ID 🤷🏼♀️
“The situation in Afghanistan may lead to DoS [Department of State] allowing Afghan SIV applicants to be moved to temporary housing locations while still being vetted for parolee status,” the document reads.
Kirby says American citizens will not be given priority evacuation over Afghan SIV applicants. “Once we get more airlift out of Kabul, we’re going to put as many people on those planes as we can. There will be a mix...
Cocaine update: Secret Service is conducting DNA and fingerprint testing as part of their investigation - they would not estimate how long it will take.
They are also reportedly reviewing visitor logs and surveillance.
Biden wrongly states that core inflation over the last 2 months has "moderated, has gone down"
Core CPI went from .3% in March to .6% in April, then stayed at .6% in May.
NEW: Senator Lankford (R-OK) says Joe Biden, as President-elect, should be receiving the Presidential daily briefing in the interest of national security– and if he is not receiving it by Friday, he will step in his Oversight Committee capacity.
NEW: Source familiar confirms Politico reporting on what caused Manchin to halt BBB talks. WH gave Manchin heads up Thursday that statement would come out and mention him by name - he asked that it be left our or not mentioned alone because of harassment - but WH did it anyway.
POTUS says he didn’t plan to run for office until Charlottesville: “I was teaching and I felt that was the right thing to do.”
(There’s no record of Biden ever teaching a class, & when he was appointed UPenn ‘Professor of Practice’, a spox said Biden wouldn’t be teaching at all)
Manchin slams the White House for breaking with lawmakers (including PELOSI) who support banning Russian oil/gas.
MANCHIN: "I think they are wrong. So wrong."
🚨Pentagon nixes Polish plan to give MiG’s to Ukraine via Ramstein:
“departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance…simply not clear there is substantive rationale.”
Notably, a Senate Homeland Security committee report this month rated State Department’s overall information security a ‘D’, the lowest possible rating in the model, calling it ineffective in 4 of 5 function areas