National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett appears on Meet the Press with the competitor for most dramatic political pundit, Kristen Welker.
The first question surrounds President Trump firing Bureau of Labor and Statistics Commissioner Dr. Erika McEntarfer.
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The part about Canada is very interesting.
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by United States Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer. Ambassador, good to have you here.
JAMIESON GREER: Great to be here. Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So the President signed this executive order on Thursday, raises tariff rates on about 70 countries. Should we expect those to be negotiated down in the coming days?
JAMIESON GREER: I don’t, I don’t think they will be in the coming days. I think a lot of these, well I know a lot of these, are set rates pursuant to deals. Some of these deals are announced, some are not, others depend on the level of the trade deficit or surplus we may have with the country. So, so these, these tariff rates are pretty much set. I expect I do have my phone blowing up. There are trade ministers who, who want to talk more and see how they can work in a different way with the United States, but I think that we have, we’re seeing truly the contours of the President’s tariff plan right now with these rates.
First things first. It might not be the popular thing to accept, but it is increasingly clear there is no way to get to any form of accountability or legal exposure for Russiagate or the manufacturing of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, anywhere near former President Barack Obama. The concentric circles of plausible deniability are just too extensive.
Essentially, despite the evidence of the FBI participating in a manufactured investigation predicted on false pretenses, all now supported with hindsight evidence, the fact that key IC officials, namely CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, presented the illusion of credible concern, inoculates President Obama from scrutiny.
As the Supreme Court noted, the President is protected from liability for “official acts” of his office. Yes, we all know these officials knew it was a ruse; however, in 2016 the CIA and FBI were presenting the information to Obama and saying the investigative value was potentially plausible. As such, Obama would have been within his official duty to tell the IC officials to chase down the information (continue investigating it).
Then, the January 5th, 2017, meeting documented by the infamous “by the book” Susan Rice memo, further inoculates President Obama for telling the IC officials to follow careful procedures as they continued investigating whether or not the Trump-Russia collusion was a factual concern. All of these elements lead to various tentacles of plausible deniability. No court is going to find criminal action within the decision-making, regardless of how ridiculous it may look in granular hindsight.
Are all the characters guilty of perpetrating a fraud for the expressed intent of a political narrative, yes. Are they criminally liable for it, extremely unlikely.
♦ Five days ago, President Trump reduced the 50-day ultimatum to 10-12 days for Russia to stop bombing Ukraine and come to the negotiation table.
♦ Four days ago, Dmitry Medvedev (July 28) issued a statement that Trump’s “ultimatum game” with Moscow amounts to a threat to Russia and pushes the United States itself closer to war. “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war,” said Medvedev, currently deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council. “Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.”
♦ President Trump responded today – “Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that. Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
I have long said, the FISA Application that was released to the public (by Mueller/Weissman in 2018) is NOT the same as the FISA Application that sits at the DOJ-NSD/FISC.
I told John Durham in August 2020 I suspected the publicly released FISA was *NOT* the same as the one with the court.
[*Initial and first renewal had FISC stamps (March 17, 2017). The second and third renewals did not have FISC stamps at all when released.]
Former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein said during Senate hearing (Ted Cruz question), he did not release the FISA; the special counsel team did. They held authority over DOJ/FBI on all things Russiagate.
When Mueller/Weissmann released the FISA application, July 2018 (it was part of a set of timed releases including the Warner texts) under the ridiculous auspices of releasing a Top Secret TSCI document to fulfill a FOIA request…. the first ever in history of the IC… few people stopped to ask why was this ok’d to release?
They had to release the FISA because it was already public (Warner/Wolfe illegal leak), and the underpinning of several outcomes of evidence for the Mueller indictments (fruit of the poisonous tree). But there were some aspects Mueller/Weissmann could not risk in the release.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard breaks down how the recently declassified documents outlines the story of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
As noted last night, the declassified annex to the John Durham report showcases intelligence intercepts where hackers infiltrated the George Soros network and subsequently located a discussion of the Clinton campaign working with the FBI in 2016 to manufacture the Trump-Russia narrative.
Tulsi gave two recent interviews to give context to the latest release; one with Glenn Beck, another with Benny Johnson.
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The FBI, CIA, ODNI and DOJ declassified the annex to the John Durham investigation of the origin of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. The declassified annex was released today by Senator Chuck Grassley.
First, the basic outline. The John Durham Annex outlines how the CIA received information in mid-2016 from a “credible foreign source,” talking about Hillary Clinton’s campaign working with the FBI to manufacture a Trump-Russia conspiracy, as an October surprise.
Beginning in 2014 and continuing through 2016, Russian hackers gained access to the email accounts and main accounts of the Soros Foundation/Open Societies Foundation who was working with the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.
What the hackers discovered was a trove of information showing how the Clinton Campaign was constructing a smear job against Donald Trump with the manufacturing of a fraudulent Trump-Russia conspiracy. The emails and communication showed the Clinton Campaign was directly working with the FBI to create the smear.
In a series of announcements, the Trump administration has retriggered the suspension of the de minimis exemption which will begin tariffs on imported small shipment foreign goods globally and from Canada, Mexico, China and Hong Kong specifically. {SEE HERE}
The suspension of the de minimis exemption means direct to consumer product shipments valued under $800 will again be subject to tariffs.
Additionally, President Trump has triggered a 50% tariff on imported copper except for those nations who have a free trade agreement in place for their copper component goods. {SEE HERE}
WHITE HOUSE – STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S COPPER INDUSTRY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation to address the effects of copper imports on America’s national security, including by imposing tariffs on several categories of copper imports.
The terms Ukraine and government corruption are synonymous regardless of who is funding the schemes. After Volodymyr Zelenskyy grabbed more power by stripping two key anti-corruption agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP), of their independence, protests erupted.
European leaders immediately noticed the intent of the power move and threatened Zelenskyy with a withdrawal of support. The current dictatorship of Zelensky and his small team then quickly reversed course. However, the damage is done, and once again Ukranian corruption is center stage.
It doesn’t matter how much western intelligence agencies and pro-Ukraine western govt officials try to hide the nature of the duck represented by Zelenskyy by calling him a swan, eventually the quacking returns – the mask drops.
UKRAINE – […] Some also cautioned that the agitation could spark a popular uprising like the one that toppled then-President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. “We are now in the face of the most dangerous development in all the years since Maidan,” wrote Sevgil Musayeva, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. And like others, she hazarded that Zelenskyy’s powerful Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak was behind the move, amid signs that NABU is preparing cases against presidential insiders.
Eventually, with public uproar mounting, Ukraine’s president bowed to the pressure and agreed to restore the independence of the agencies — a new law turning back the clock is meant to be voted on Thursday.
The reality of the U.S-Canada economic relationship and the position of President Donald Trump is not that difficult to understand if you take all the disparate datapoints and quotes from Trump and put them into context.
During a White House meeting with Mark Carney, President Trump essentially told the Canadian Prime Minister why he was in no hurry to get to a deal with Canada.
The 35% tariffs on non-USMCA goods are going to trigger on August 1st, because the main priority of Trump -looking toward Canada- is to dissolve the USMCA.
During the May 6th oval office meeting with Carney, President Trump was discussing the USMCA and said: “As you know it terminates fairly shortly. It gets renegotiated fairly shortly.” … “This was a transitional deal, and we’ll see what happens, we’re going to start renegotiating that” … “I don’t know if it serves a purpose anymore.” …. “And the biggest purpose it served was, we got rid of NAFTA.”
To understand why President Trump wants to dissolve the USMCA {SEE HERE}. To understand the technical value of dissolving the USMCA {SEE HERE}. It’s not a complicated economic analysis; it’s common sense.
Currently, approximately 60% of the traded goods and services between the U.S. and Canada are covered by the USMCA; the remaining 40% will be hit by tariffs on August 1st at a 35% rate.
When the USMCA is renegotiated, predictably dissolved in favor of two bilateral trade agreements – one for Mexico and one for Canada, all of the U.S-Canada trade sectors will be part of the enlarged free trade negotiation. As a result, there is absolutely no motive to engage in trade discussions now.