The background protestations, grumbles and sounds of the insufferable Chuck Todd while his ‘Share Blue’ talking points are being deconstructed is actually a little funny.
In this interview Senator Rand Paul explains the pragmatic policy of withdrawing 50 U.S. troops from Northern Syria to avoid them becoming victims to a cross-border incursion by a NATO ally, Turkey, while the ridiculously pontificating European collective does nothing except criticize the U.S. for not defending their interests.  Chuck Todd is flummoxed.
Additionally, Senator Paul creates a ‘splodey head when the conversation turns to the Ukraine and Rand Paul points out the hypocrisy of Democrats trying to impeach President Trump for political foreign policy the Democrats initiated.  Quite Funny:

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On the Saudi troop support, Rand Paul misses the bigger picture of a simple policy that President Trump is maintaining. Remember during the 2017 Trump visit to the 50 nation Arab-American Summit, President Trump asked them to “drive out” the extremists within political Islam and said the U.S. would support their efforts.
The Arab coalition has been doing exactly what President Trump requested; the GCC confrontation with Qatar was a specific outcome of that request. The U.S. troops to support the ongoing “drive out” is simply President Trump keeping his word with Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). [Big Picture Here]
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Eight years ago Zurich Mike penned an analogy of the ‘Islamist Spring’ that still rings true today, when he said: President Obama helped kill the zookeepers and unleashed the big cats…. The Turkish movement into Syria is all part of this continuum.
When President Obama ignited the “Islamist Spring” with his speech in Cairo Egypt, what he really articulated was a shift in U.S. foreign policy to support The Muslim Brotherhood.

Political Islam, writ large, is represented by The Brotherhood.  Turkish President Recep Erdogan sees himself as the modern leader of political Islam using the Brotherhood to recreate the Ottoman Empire.
Ben Ali (Tunis), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) and Khadaffi (Libya), were the first zookeepers removed.  Obama’s U.S. foreign policy supported Muslim Brotherhood replacements like Mohamed Morsi in Egypt.  However, Obama failed in the effort to remove Bashir Assad in Syria; as a result all extremist factions of the Brotherhood gathered to form ISIS.
Factions like al-Qaeda, al-Nusra and ISIS all fall under the umbrella of The Muslim Brotherhood.  The exiled Brotherhood leaders initially fled Egypt to Qatar until they were further driven-out by the Gulf Cooperation Council and ultimately given safe-harbor in Turkey, by Recep Erdogan.
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Defense Secretary Mark Esper discusses and defends President Trump’s smart decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Northern Syria in advance of Turkish forces launching an assault into Syria against Kurdish forces and the SDF.
The background here goes back to Turkish President Recep Ergodan, a gatekeeper between the middle-east and Europe; and his intention to use his ideological alignment with political Islam, via the Muslim Brotherhood, to recreate the Ottoman Empire.

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Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) employee Henry Kyle Frese was arrested yesterday and charged with leaking multiple classified intelligence reports to media. (Full pdf below).

According to the indictment Mr. Frese was caught leaking classified intelligence information to two journalists, one of which he was romantically involved.
Mr. Kyle Frese has a twitter account HERE. Cross-referencing information from within the indictment, research by Matthew Keys has indicated journalist #1 is Courtney Kube from NBC, and journalist #2 is Amanda Macias from CNBC.  The intelligence leaked by Mr. Frese to Ms. Macias likely revolves around North Korean defense systems. [DOJ Announcement Here]

WASHINGTON – A U.S. counterterrorism analyst was arrested at the Defense Intelligence Agency where he worked on charges related to alleged leaks of information to two journalists, the Justice Department said.

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Earlier this evening President Trump held a meeting with senior military leadership prior to a dinner with spouses at the White House. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, everybody. This is a group gathering of very talented people. And somebody was saying before, I think Mark Esper, our new Secretary of Defense — and, by the way, congratulations.
SECRETARY ESPER: Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Congratulations on really having done already a really great job. But you were saying this is the first group where just about everybody — they’re appointed by Trump. And that’s good. That’s good. Just about everybody. So we have the people that we want. We’re very happy with them.
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Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks to honor the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript, POTUS remarks @5:32] –  THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Mike. And I have to start off by saying that all of my life I’ve heard that if it rains on a big occasion, it brings luck. So, Mark, I think you’re going to be the luckiest general in history. (Laughter.)
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Chopper pressers are the best pressers; even when they are from the tarmac at LAX in California.  Moments ago President Donald Trump talked to the press pool with his newly named national security adviser, Robert O’Brien.  [Video below Transcript ADDED]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. We’re with Robert O’Brien, who, as you know, is the new National Security Advisor. He’s worked with me for quite a while now on hostages, and we’ve had a tremendous track record with respect to hostages. Robert can tell you about it.
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Robert C O’Brien (pictured left) is currently the State Department’s special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.  A founding partner of the Los Angeles-based law firm Larson O’Brien.

NYT – Mr. O’Brien served with Mr. Bolton when he was President George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations and has advised Republican candidates like Mitt Romney, Scott Walker and Ted Cruz. In both the Bush and Obama administrations, Mr. O’Brien worked on an initiative to train lawyers and judges in Afghanistan.  (link)

People describe O’Brien as similar to his friend John Bolton without the virulent twitchy trigger finger. In his capacity as special envoy for hostage affairs, O’Brien wrote a letter to Swedish prosecutors urging them to release A$AP Rocky.  According to CBS O’Brien’s work “on Rocky’s case endeared him to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and one of his top advisers.”
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Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks during a Pentagon 911 observance ceremony. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, Secretary Esper. Today, our nation honors and mourns the nearly 3,000 lives that were stolen from us on September 11th, 2001. On these grounds, 184 people were murdered when al Qaeda terrorists overtook American Airlines Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon.
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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were greeted at the Pentagon by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and his wife and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dunford and his wife.  The Defense Secretary of Joint Chief Chairman joined with the President and First Lady as they placed a wreath to remember the fallen. The wreath is red, white and blue.

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