Earlier today President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence together with their spouses, participated in a presentation ceremony with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.  The Dutch delegation delivered a U.S flag from D-Day to be displayed at the Smithsonian.
During the event President Trump announced a U.S. military defensive action that resulted in the destroying of a hostile Iranian drone. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you. Before I begin, I want to apprise everyone of an incident in the Strait of Hormuz today involving USS Boxer, a Navy amphibious assault ship. The Boxer took defensive action against an Iranian drone, which had closed into a very, very near distance, approximately 1,000 yards, ignoring multiple calls to stand down and was threatening the safety of the ship and the ship’s crew. The drone was immediately destroyed.
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Earlier today President Trump and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte held a press availability prior to bilateral discussions.  [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. It’s a great honor to be with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. We’ve become friends over the last couple of years.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE: Absolutely. Yeah.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ve had a lot of good conversations. We’re dealing on trade, we’re dealing on military, we’re dealing on intelligence. And the relationship has never been better.
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Yes, this is today’s media event where remarks by President Trump are grabbing all the media headlines and attention.

President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence celebrate the 2019 Special Olympics Team USA in the Oval Office [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to thank you all for being here. This is special for me and special for the First Lady because this is the Special Olympics.
And, I have to say, Vice President Pence and Karen Pence have been so involved. And because she does such a job with so many things, I’ve asked Karen Pence to represent our government and our country on Special Olympics. And we have a lot of the great champions here. We have some of the winners. They won, and they came in a couple of seconds and a couple of thirds, but a lot of first places. And we did fantastically well in the Special Olympics.
And I’d like to have Karen Pence say a few words. You have done a fantastic job, and we appreciate it.
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The launch of a “republican” political challenger in NY-14 to challenge Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sherie Murray, follows a very familiar political ploy…. A fake candidate intended to protect AOC in 2020.   In June of 2018 Sherie Murray was an avid AOC supporter.
In the last 36 hours you may have seen “republican” candidate Sherie Murray promoted, seemingly out of nowhere, by a variety of media platforms (social media and traditional). However, when there is an obviously coordinated effort to push a rapid high visibility roll-out; and that effort is for a singular congressional district; it is always worth doing some background research.

(Twitter Link)

BEWARE – Having watched this type of political scheme for several years; and accepting people for what they do, not what they claim to be; in my opinion Murray is likely in place to protect AOC in the 2020 race.  This perspective is bolstered by how the launch/roll-out was also timed and scheduled by Fox News.
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics has presented the data for second quarter (Q2) year-over-year wage growth.  Average weekly wage growth is 3.7% year-over-year.

[Source, BLS release Q2 – Table 2]

With inflation (CPI) averaging 1.8% over the same period this means wages are strongly outpacing inflation and increasing the disposable income of U.S. workers.  This data-set, combined with positive consumer sentiment on job and economic security, bolsters the recent report showing “unanticipated” strength in retail sales.
The data is a reflection of Main Street strength. The job market is hot; wages are rising (3.7%) much faster than inflation (1.8%); the middle class has more disposable income. Hence, retail sales growth is strong at 3.8 percent.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears on Fox Business News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss President Trump, the Democratic Party’s shift to the left, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comments, the budget battle, China trade tensions and issues with Iran.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Stephanie Grisham Twitter @StephGrisham45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova discuss how an FBI spreadsheet was used to validate M16 agent Christopher Steele’s claims about President Trump’s possible collusion with Russia; and the upcoming possibility of Robert Mueller’s coached testimony.

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For the first official time since taking control over the House of Representatives, today the Democrats in the House had their first official opportunity to vote on a resolution to impeach President Donald J Trump.
This impeachment vote is what all of the most vocal political opponents have been asking for.  This impeachment vote is what CNN, MSNBC and MSM panelists have been advocating for since November 2018.  This is what every democrat presidential candidate has supported.  This was the put-up or shut-up moment the far-left has been diligently working toward.  Yes, it finally came; this was their moment.
So what happened:

137 Democrats and 194 Republicans voted the kill the resolution.

HERE’S The VOTE

Resist we much?

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