In many regards the transfer of the CIA Director to the Position of Secretary of State is a natural continuum.  Most career foreign office CIA operatives work under the auspices of being State Department personnel.  The CIA and State Department are inherently connected.

[A familiar reference would be, the synergy of Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton during their Libya and Syria operations in 2010, 2011, 2012.]

Today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at Foggy Bottom (State HQ) in Washington DC to meet the diplomatic corps.  He delivered introductory remarks:

.

[Transcript] DEPUTY SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for being here. It’s a great honor to be here to introduce our new Secretary of State. Before I do so, I wanted to thank all of you, each and every one of you, for your hard work over the last six weeks. The pace of world events doesn’t pause to allow the United States Government to change from one secretary of state to another, but it’s because of your dedication and professionalism that this department has continued to meet its mission for the American people. So thank you to all of you for all you’ve done the last six weeks. (Applause.)

(more…)

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte sends a letter (full pdf below) to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting an investigative review of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and the potential interference/influence by Principal Asst. Deputy Attorney General (PADAG) Matthew Axelrod.

In the letter Chairman Goodlatte references the previous Inspector General report which outlined an October 26th, 2016, conversation between Main Justice and the FBI about the investigation of the Clinton Foundation. The concern is undue influence by the DOJ over the investigation; potentially leading to a compromise of the investigation itself.

[scribd id=377934362 key=key-Bl2u4G6GhgPG2EtFR1NR mode=scroll]

(more…)

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested another delay in the sentencing of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, citing the status of the special counsel’s investigation.

WASHINGTON DC – Lawyers for both special counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump’s former national security adviser want two more months until Michael Flynn is sentenced.

In a court filing in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, Mueller’s office asks for a postponement “due to the status of the special counsel’s investigation.”

(more…)

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross discusses the ongoing trade initiatives with China ahead of the U.S. delegation departing later tonight.  Secretary Ross, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative/Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow and White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro are all heading to Beijing to meet with their Chinese counterparts.

Secretary Ross is like the Babe Ruth of trade-baseball. Wilburine has a way of taking complex issues pitched to him, and knocking them out of the ballpark with an extremely fast common sense bat.  He makes it look effortless.  Watch:

.

Two quick thoughts. First, I think this is the first time every member of Team America (Ross, Mnuchin, Lighthizer, Kudlow, Navarro) has unified into one specific set of trade negotiations. That helps understand the scale of importance of the China trade relationship.

Second, there’s no traveling parallel contingent consisting of outside government members/advisers from of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This is a significant change from the past 30 years of Wall Street policy manipulation by the CoC. Many people may not be aware but until President Trump the U.S. government didn’t actually write the trade agreements.

For all prior administrations the actual negotiations and agreements were willingly sub-contracted out to U.S. Chamber of Commerce delegations. This is how the multinationals took control of trade policy and eventually the U.S. economy. CoC President Tom Donohue must be apoplectic now that he is facing an administration actually writing the trade agreements.

(more…)

Sarah Huckabee Sanders conducts the White House press briefing for May 1st, 2018. Anticipated start time 2:30pm EST.

UPDATE: Video Added

(more…)

This is the hidden story that could lead to a criminal probe of Loretta Lynch and James Comey

Tonight on his TV show, Lou Dobbs highlighted the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton that never took place.  WATCH:

.

CTH decided to go back through two years of documents, releases, reports, testimony, media interviews; including interviews with fired FBI Director James Comey; question all prior assumptions; re-examine the entire framework within all the known granular DOJ and FBI activity; and finally contrast it all against the full scope of released messaging between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

Within this project some breakout discoveries needed to be highlighted. One of those discoveries pertains to the Fox News interview with James Comey and Bret Baier.

(more…)

Mr. Joe diGenova discusses the ongoing revelations within the former administration’s use of the intelligence apparatus to target their political opposition:

(more…)

President Trump’s MAGAnomic team have announced a 30-day extension for the Steel (25%) and Aluminum (10%) tariffs for the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

Also, after a prior agreement with South-Korea, the “KORUS” deal, team U.S.A. has also reached an agreement in principle with Australia, Argentina and Brazil which will be finalized in next 30 days.

Via Wall Street Journal – President Donald Trump has decided to postpone decisions about imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union and other U.S. allies until June 1, a senior administration official said.

In addition to announcing the delay, the White House is expected to say Monday evening that it has finalized a deal to exempt South Korea from the tariffs, mirroring details that have been previously released by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.

(more…)

In an interesting survey of over 16,000 millennial respondents (graphic here) via  Reuters-IPSOS the narrative of a midterm ‘blue wave” evaporates.

According to the large-sample polling, support for Democrats has dropped from 55% in 2016 to 46% now.  That’s a significant decline over 9% from prior surveys, and could be a strong indication the current favored narrative amid DNC media is entirely false.

(Reuters) MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) – Enthusiasm for the Democratic Party is waning among millennials as its candidates head into the crucial midterm congressional elections, according to the Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll.

The online survey of more than 16,000 registered voters ages 18 to 34 shows their support for Democrats over Republicans for Congress slipped by about 9 percentage points over the past two years, to 46 percent overall. And they increasingly say the Republican Party is a better steward of the economy.

(more…)

‘Splodey Head Alert !!…

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean President Moon Jae-in said U.S. President Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, a South Korean official said on Monday.

“President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. What we need is only peace,” Moon told a meeting of senior secretaries, according to a presidential Blue House official who briefed media.

(more…)