Trump Says He Gave Iran Permission to Bomb U.S. Base in Qatar and…Properly, Principally Crickets?

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Alarming Verbal Diarrhea From the President When political scientist Seth Masket shared this story on Bluesky yesterday, I couldn’t imagine it was actual. The precise-wing Washington Instances reported that at a press convention on the NATO Summit within the Netherlands on Wednesday, Trump revealed that he had given Iran permission to bomb the U.S.’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the American bombing of their nuclear websites.

“They stated, ‘We’re going to shoot them. Is one o’clock OK?’ I stated it’s tremendous,” Trump stated. “And all people was emptied off the bottom in order that they couldn’t get harm, aside from the gunners.”

I poked round for different main protection of this extraordinary admission, and landed solely on a transcript of the press convention. And sure, amid a characteristically meandering monologue, Trump really stated that he let a international adversary bomb an American navy set up. However this story has just about come and gone with nearly no consideration and definitely not one of the outrage commensurate with what Trump stated.

Let’s contemplate what Trump’s verbal diarrhea right here might imply. Suppose he's (for as soon as) telling the reality. Wouldn’t that symbolize essentially the most surprising dereliction of responsibility one might think about for the commander-in-chief? (A excessive crime or misdemeanor, maybe?) Is he saying he let Iran get its retaliation out of its system with what he referred to as “a really weak response” to carry an finish to hostilities? Maybe Trump merely was rambling incoherently as he basked in his new “daddy” glow at NATO.

What would have occurred if a Democratic president, significantly one named Joe Biden, had stated he let a international adversary fireplace on an American navy set up? As you contemplate that hypothetical, needless to say Home Republicans are at present spending their treasured oversight time investigating the previous president’s psychological acuity.

Flailing Administration Assaults Press for “Lies” About Iran Nuclear Intel Trump loyalists are taking on his cost to assault any journalist who reported on intelligence contradicting Trump’s declare to have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear websites in final weekend’s strikes. The tenor of this authoritarian marketing campaign is that reporters are usually not permitted to contradict the president.

Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth got here out swinging in opposition to his former Fox Information colleague, nationwide safety correspondent Jennifer Griffin, in an early morning press convention yesterday. In response to a question from Griffin about whether or not the Pentagon was sure that Tehran had not moved extremely enriched uranium from the Fordow web site previous to the American strike, Hegseth lashed out, “Jennifer, you’ve been in regards to the worst, the one who misrepresents essentially the most deliberately what the president says.”

Later within the day, White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went after CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, after Trump had demanded she be “thrown out like a canine.” Leavitt claimed Bertrand is “getting used to push a faux narrative to attempt to undermine the President of the US and extra importantly the courageous fighter pilots who carried out probably the most profitable operations in United States historical past.” CNN issued a press release standing by Bertrand’s reporting.

In the meantime Senate Democrats remain unconvinced of Trump’s obliteration claims following a labeled intelligence briefing yesterday. Trump ally Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who additionally attended the briefing, struggled to avoid wasting face for the president, telling reporters afterwards, “The true query is, have we obliterated their want to have a nuclear weapon.” Graham went on to tread calmly round Trump’s emotions. “I don’t need folks to suppose that the location wasn’t severely broken or obliterated,” he stated. “It was. However having stated that, I don’t need folks to suppose the issue is over, as a result of it’s not.”

Republicans Incite Hostility on the Senate Parliamentarian Following a sample of harmful social media assaults on perceived political enemies, some Senate Republicans have begun to assail Elizabeth MacDonough, the nonpartisan Senate Parliamentarian who has struck quite a few provisions out of the GOP’s One Massive Stunning Invoice. NBC reports :

“The WOKE Senate Parliamentarian, who was appointed by Harry Reid and suggested Al Gore, simply STRUCK DOWN a provision BANNING illegals from stealing Medicaid from Americans,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., wrote on X. “This can be a excellent instance of why Individuals hate THE SWAMP.”

“THE SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN SHOULD BE FIRED ASAP,” he stated.

MacDonough was appointed by then-Senate Majority Chief Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2012, and is well-respected by leaders on each side of the aisle. However Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, additionally stated MacDonough must go and referred to as for time period limits for parliamentarians.

“She’s been right here since 2012; she has numerous energy,” Marshall informed reporters. “I don’t suppose anybody ought to keep right here that lengthy and have energy the place she doesn’t reply to anyone.”

Whereas different Senate Republicans seem less eager for such a combat, their failure to firmly and publicly tamp down these inflammatory statements within the present local weather is disheartening, to say the least.

Trump Has Minimize Funding for Political Violence and Terrorism Prevention At Mom Jones, Mark Follman reports on the hazards of Trump’s dismantling of the Middle for Prevention Applications and Partnerships (CP3), a Division of Homeland Safety initiative tasked with growing evidence-based neighborhood applications to stop political violence and terrorism. The administration has diverted sources from this and different applications to fund Trump’s brutal deportation agenda.

“We’re at actual danger of normalizing political violence as part of our democracy,” CP3’s former director William Braniff informed Follman. “[W]hen these norms are accepted at a societal stage and inspired at a political stage, they develop into entrenched and actually troublesome to reverse.”

The Trump Administration Continues to Flip Civil Rights Upside Down The Republican objective of eliminating range, fairness, and inclusion and “gender ideology” is aimed squarely at rolling again hard-won civil rights protections for individuals who aren’t white, straight, or cisgender. The Trump administration is finishing up this agenda, partially, via investigations and strain campaigns in opposition to instructional establishments, threatening to chop their federal funding.

Yesterday, the Workplace of Civil Rights on the Division of Well being and Human Providers announced it's investigating the Minnesota Division of Schooling and the Minnesota State Excessive College League over trans women enjoying sports activities, a part of what it says is a “bigger initiative to defend ladies and restore organic reality to the Federal authorities.”

In one other enviornment, the New York Instances reports the Justice Division is pressuring the College of Virginia to fireplace its president, James Ryan, “over what the division says is the college’s disregard for civil rights regulation over its range practices.” In different phrases, the Division of Justice, which traditionally has enforced civil rights legal guidelines defending in opposition to race discrimination, is now strong-arming instructional establishments it claims have discriminated in opposition to white folks.

The Robust-on-Crime President Needs Extra Weapons on the Road The Washington Submit reports this morning that staffers from Elon Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) are organising store on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with a “objective of revising or eliminating dozens of guidelines and gun restrictions by July 4.” DOGE would possibly wish to run roughshod over it, however there’s a authorized course of for amending or ending federal laws. You may depend on litigation over any such efforts, to not point out public outcry.

Put a Pin in This In line with the Related Press, in a listening to earlier than the Senate Appropriations Committee, Workplace of Administration and Price range Director Russell Vought committed to restoring funding for international support and public broadcasting if the Senate votes down a Home-passed “rescissions” bundle to make billions of {dollars} in DOGE-led cuts everlasting.

Really, Massive Balls By no means Left Earlier this week I linked to a bit in Wired, reporting that Edward Coristine, the 19 year-old Division of Authorities Effectivity staffer also referred to as Massive Balls, not labored for the federal authorities. The New York Instances had matched Wired’s reporting, after which, yesterday, issued a correction . Coristine, who earlier than becoming a member of DOGE had been fired from a job at an information safety agency for leaking firm data, is now a “particular worker” on the Social Safety Administration.

GOP’s New Pink Scare Is About Muslims, Significantly Zohran Mamdani Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) sent a letter to Lawyer Common Pam Bondi, asking her to “denaturalize” and deport New York Metropolis mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, falsely claiming he didn't disclose materials assist for terrorism previous to turning into a U.S. citizen.

Spiritual Freedom Is Just for Trump’s Supporters The Home Homeland Safety Committee has launched an investigation into tons of of spiritual organizations and even total denominations, claiming they have been “concerned in offering companies or assist to inadmissible aliens through the Biden-Harris administration’s historic border disaster.” Ominously, the letter the committee is sending spiritual organizations contains questions on their federal authorities funding via grants or contracts, their provision of companies to immigrants, and whether or not they have ever sued the federal government.