House minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Mike McCaul, Rankimg Member of House Committee on Homeland Security, hold a press conference with the media pool immediately following the bipartisan White House briefing on Syria.
Apparently once Nancy Pelosi finished her political meltdown and stomped out of the briefing, the remaining democrats and republicans engaged in a healthy discussion with U.S. military leadership and President Trump about the purpose of the U.S. draw-down.
The level of political nonsense today from the House of Representatives is off-the-charts. Speaker Pelosi calls a resolution to the House floor to denounce President Trump for removing 28 troops from a foreign war never authorized by the same House.
If Pelosi wants to have a war with Syria, then declare one. Or, Pelosi could call a resolution to the House floor to condemn Turkish President Erdogan for invading Syria. Instead, the House votes to denounce President Trump for getting our military out of the way. The Democrats are the party of war, and a whole bunch of republicans are supporting them. Why? Simply, because war is a big business from K-Street.
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Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Steny Hoyer walk out of a meeting with President Trump because, according to them, the president called the speaker a “third-rate politician”. Speaker Pelosi replied “I wish you were a politician”…. How typical is that? (more…)
Following their bilateral meeting, U.S. President Trump and Italian President Mattarella held a joint press conference. President Trump disassembled the U.S. media preferred narrative on Syria. [Video and Transcript Below]
Pay close attention to the remarks about trade and the WTO, big stuff is about to happen as the Brexit plans of Trump/Johnson kick in soon. Canadian election Oct 21st. Watch the international trade moves over the next 45 days. Things will shake out quickly. Bigly.
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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Today, it is my honor to welcome President Sergio Mattarella of Italy to the White House. We’ve known each other for a while. We’ve dealt with each other for a while. And we’ve had some really great conversations. We’ve had a very productive discussion throughout the day with our staffs and representatives. And I look forward to hosting the President and his daughter, Laura, at a reception for Italian-Americans this evening. I look forward to that very much. (more…)
Earlier today President Trump met with Italian President Matarella and held a press availability in the oval office prior to bilateral discussions. [Video and Transcript below]
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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. It’s a great honor to have the President of Italy with us. He is a man of great distinction. He’s highly respected in this country. And it’s nice to have you at the White House. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
We’ve had a great relationship with Italy for a long time. I don’t think it’s ever been closer than it is now. We have won a $7.5 billion award from, as you know — I guess it’s been pretty big news. And I know that this is against the European Union and World Trade — good ole World Trade. For a long time, they’ve been taking advantage of the United States. And I know Turkey is going to talk to us about their share of it because they feel they shouldn’t have to pay so much.
Commerce Secretary delivered a speech to the Federalist Society today as he explained U.S. trade policy under President Trump and the long-term goals and objectives.
There are times during research when searching for details leaves the obviously immediate questions unanswered. This is one of those examples. Judicial Watch is hot on the trail of a State Department effort to monitor domestic political opposition. Specifically former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, initiated a request for State Dept. officials to conduct surveillance on: Jack Posobiec, Donald Trump Jr., Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Michael McFaul (Obama’s ambassador to Russia), Dan Bongino, Ryan Saavedra, Rudy Giuliani, Sebastian Gorka, John Solomon, Lou Dobbs, Pamella Geller and Sara Carter.
More details:
(Via JW) Judicial Watch has obtained information indicating Yovanovitch may have violated laws and government regulations by ordering subordinates to target certain U.S. persons using State Department resources.
Yovanovitch reportedly ordered monitoring keyed to the following search terms: Biden, Giuliani, Soros and Yovanovitch. Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the State Department and will continue gathering facts from government sources.
President Trump has played this out perfectly. By isolating Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and effectively leaving him naked to an alliance of his enemies, Erdogan is now urgently asking for the U.S. to mediate peace negotiations with Kurdish forces.
This request happens immediately after President Trump signed an executive order [See Here] triggering the sanction authority of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Erdogan called the White House requesting an urgent phone call with President Trump.
After President Trump talked to Kurdish General Mazloum Kobani Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, President Trump then discussed the options available to President Erdogan. As a result of that conversation, Erdogan requested the U.S. mediate negotiations. Vice-President Mike Pence announces he will be traveling to the region with National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien to lead that effort. WATCH:
President Trump prefers to use targeted economic weapons instead of the U.S. military forces against foreign adversaries. In keeping with this strategy President Trump is announcing a set of economic sanctions and tariffs against Turkey for their decision to cross into Syria and create a crisis amid all regional interests. (Source) (more…)
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] (more…)
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. (more…)
