President Trump travels to Dallas, Texas, today to participates in a roundtable at the Gateway Church Dallas camput. The topic is the Transition to Greatness: Restoring, Rebuilding, and Renewing. Anticipated start time 4:00pm ET.
UPDATE: Video Added
Earlier today President Trump signed an executive order targeting members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who have engaged in corrupt activity. The XO bars entry into the U.S. and seizes property belonging to the targets. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Attorney General Bill Barr and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien explain why these measures are needed.
[White House] As part of President Donald J. Trump’s steadfast commitment to protecting American service members and defending our national sovereignty, the President has authorized economic sanctions against International Criminal Court officials directly engaged with any effort to investigate or prosecute United States personnel without the consent of the United States. The President has also authorized the expansion of visa restrictions against International Criminal Court officials and their family members.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard “Ric” Grenell appears for a discussion with Lou Dobbs about the echo-chamber within Washington DC and the internecine relationship to the intelligence apparatus.
Ric Grenell makes a really good point when he connects how the DC political resistance would not attend the Trump inauguration, and how that same attitude just continued throughout. President Trump’s outsider status made him a risk to the interests of the administrative state. The DC system will not accept a ‘people’s president’, they demand approval authority permitting only one of their UniParty tribe.
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Notice a pattern?
Earlier this afternoon President Trump held a roundtable discussion on the topic of race relations with black leadership. Participating administration members included Ja’Ron Smith, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the Office of American Innovation and Secretary Ben Carson, Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Joining the administration team was: Wayne Dupree, Host, The Wayne Dupree Show; Raynard Jackson, President and CEO, Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC; Sonnie Johnson, Host, Sirius XM’s Sonnies Corner; Lawrence Jones, Host and Contributor, Fox News; Pastor Darrell Scott, Chairman, Urban Revitalization Coalition, Inc; and Kareem Lanier, Co-Chairman, Urban Revitalization Coalition, Inc. [Video Below]
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It’s an excellent conversation.
[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. We’re with friends of mine and members of the African American community, and we’re going to be talking about law enforcement, education, business, health, and various other things.
As you know, tomorrow, we’re going to Dallas. We’re going to start our rallies back up now. We’ve had a tremendous run at rallies. I don’t think there’s been an empty seat in — since we came down in the escalator with the First Lady. That was with the future First Lady, at that point. It’s been an amazing thing to behold.
The COVID shutdown was an exceptional event. The consequences from the shutdown do have ripple effects; however, the strength of the underlying economic foundation is now coming back into focus as the rebound starts taking shape.
Last week most economic analysts were stunned by the 2.5 million jobs added to the economy in May. As we shared earlier, the result wasn’t so surprising when you consider the framework of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) worked exactly like President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuching planned. The incentives within the PPP program did what they were intended to do; small and mid-sized businesses retained or rehired their employees.
Inside the foundation of the Trump Main Street economy, the cement that binds the America-First policy, are a series of pre-established economic policies that specifically targets middle-class workers. The foundation is made strong by net wage gains and earnings amid mid-tier workers; those wage gains are made more important by policies that keep inflation in check.
Blue-collar workers, on average, were fortunately positioned to ride-out the COVID shutdown. With the shutdown over; Main Street now quickly fires back into action.
The demand for mortgage applications rose five percent last week, resulting in year-over-year growth over 13 percent. Again, this result stuns the experts. Demand for home purchases remains high and people are confident in their income security to make big decisions on home financing. The visible strength of Main Street cuts against the naysayers and doomsayers who thought the COVID shutdown would collapse the economy. It didn’t.
It did not, because (a) the shutdown was an exceptional event; and (b) the underlying foundation is stronger than the blow it took from the COVID sledgehammer.
(Via CNBC) “The recovery in the purchase market continues to gain steam, with the seasonally adjusted index rising to its highest level since January,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist. “Purchase activity increased for the eighth straight week.”
The DC circuit court of appeals has oral arguments scheduled for this coming Friday as the DOJ and Flynn defense both request intervention. In the interim the underlying case continues in Judge Emett Sullivan’s court. Part of that underlying case activity was a request by Sullivan for an Amicus briefing by court appointed lawyer John Gleeson.
John Gleeson is essentially filling an assignment by the judge to assume the role of prosecutor and inform the court through an amicus briefing. That brief was filed today [pdf available here and below]. Within the brief, and counter to the position of the DOJ with new information, Gleeson claims the predicate for the investigation of Flynn was valid and sets out to launch his argument from that foundation.
In essence Gleeson is defending the origin of Spygate/Obamagate and all the downstream consequences from that originating decision; one of those origination issues was an investigation of Michael Flynn; and one downstream consequence was an interview of Flynn under the guise of the dubious originating investigation authority.
Assuming the role of “Spygate” defender is an interesting effort by John Gleeson; considering that Gleeson should have little knowledge about new discoveries into the DOJ and FBI predication activity in 2016. The discoveries by USAO John Durham (Spygate in total) and USAO Jeff Jensen (Flynn case specific) should be unknown to Gleeson as he attempts to frame his argument.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds a press briefing in the Brady room. Anticipated start time 2:00pm EDT. [Livestream Links Below]
UPDATE: Video Added
Fox News with Bret Baier broadcasts the second segment of their interview with U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr. The interview begins with a discussion of recent rioting and the activist groups who participated in looting, arson and attacks against police.
AG Barr notes the ‘spygate’ investigation into DOJ and FBI conduct so far indicates that for the first time in American history, the police and national security apparatus was used to spy on the Trump campaign. Additionally, the AG cautions people not to read into the lack of indictments as the investigation remains ongoing.
President Donald Trump has noted the unusual behavior of the Buffalo protester who was captured on a now-viral video last week:
Coincidentally, as we noted at the time of the incident something does indeed seem sketchy with the behavior of Mr. Martin Gugino both before and during the encounter.
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Mr. Martin Gugino is a 75-year-old professional activist, agitator and Antifa provocateur who brags on his blog about the number of times he can get arrested and escape prosecution. Also, according to Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown remarking on the incident: “here has been vandalism, there have been fires set, there have been stores broken into & looted. According to what was reported to me, that individual was a key major instigator of people engaging in those activities.”
A remarkable admission by former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe during a campaign strategy call to DNC officials outlines the 2020 strategy for Joe Biden. McAuliffe is one of the key professional Democrats dialed-in to the overall plan.
In a video-conference with Virginia democrats what McAuliffe outlines is what we are already seeing with the purposeful use of the George Floyd narrative and the pre-scripted video from the Biden/Clyburn campaign. Key excerpts:
WASHINGTON – […] Democratic officials are broadly “preferring” that Biden stay out of the limelight.
[…] “People say all the time, ‘Oh, we got to get the vice president out of the basement,'” McAuliffe told the “monthly breakfast” of the Norfolk City Democratic Committee. “He’s fine in the basement. Two people see him a day: his two body people. That’s it. Let Trump keep doing what Trump’s doing.”