Earlier today President Trump presented the Medal of Honor to Master Chief Britt Slabinski, U.S. Navy.

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[Transcript] 2:38 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Chaplain. That’s beautiful. And thank you to Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan. Thank you, Patrick. Undersecretary of the Navy Thomas Modly — thank you. Thank you, Thomas. VA Secretary nominee — will do a fantastic job for us — Robert Wilkie. And Congressmen Scott Taylor and Brian Mast. Thank you, fellas, very much. Thank you.

Members of the Armed Forces and distinguished guests, please sit down. That actually worked out very nicely. (Laughter.) And join me in officially welcoming Master Chief Britt Slabinski to the White House. A special man. A truly brave person.

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There is a particular coordination of events that has been visible since December 2017 when the first evidence of the FBI and DOJ operations against the Trump campaign surfaced.  In the past six months a great deal of granular timing relates to this coordination.  In January 2017 the DOJ IG began investigating FBI and DOJ conduct during the Clinton investigation in 2015 and 2016.

Toward the end of 2017 a joint House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight Committee venture was established to look into the FBI/DOJ handling of the Clinton investigation, and the Trump counterintelligence investigation.  Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte and Oversight Chairman Gowdy established the joint-oversight venture and then little happened as they awaited the completion of the OIG internal review.

Between the Fall of 2017 and May 2018 the final stages of the DOJ-OIG investigative inquires took place. In this period DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz was joined with federal prosecutor John Huber. Horowitz focused on the ongoing internal investigation, while Huber received evidence carved out that holds value for criminal prosecutions.

During the period of January through May 2018 all congressional witness testimony from the FBI and DOJ participants to oversight committees was filtered through the need for U.S. Attorney John Huber to retain the integrity of criminal evidence.  Toward that end, testimony from multiple witnesses, sought by congress upon members of the DOJ and FBI, was cancelled.  Some of that testimony was cancelled at the last minute as the DOJ negotiated with congress and likely explained the reasoning therein.  Example:

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President Trump has made the decision to withdraw from the scheduled June 12th summit with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un.  [Copy of letter below]

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Ultimately the decision to withdraw is an outcome of changes in posture initiated strategically by China and Chairman Xi Jinping.  China hoping to leverage a U.S. trade outcome by playing the strings on DPRK Chairman Kim Jong-un.

The timing of the meetings between China and DPRK, mirrors the changes in posture by the DPRK and reflects a transparency.  Communist Beijing is engaging with the Trump administration in traditional dragon-mode their zero-sum outlook.  In response, President Trump drops the Panda approach and confronts the manipulation directly.

Likely President Trump will immediately increase sanction enforcement and reposition again for a pending naval blockade.

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A historic set of meetings within the deepest parts of the DC Swamp is on the schedule for this afternoon with a rather unusual set of alliances, conflicts and competing interests amid both parties and all three branches of government.

After much debate, scheduling, positioning, narrative selling, re-scheduling and changes in attendees, the legislative branch and executive branch are set hold a meeting to discuss oversight, document production and investigative authority over prior intelligence and justice department abuses.  It’s a very odd day indeed.

2017/2018 Intelligence Oversight “Gang of Eight”

♦At high-noon House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R), and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R), are meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. (link) and (link)

In this first meeting the legislative branch will be asking the executive branch, yet again, for unredacted documents relating to their oversight over the Intelligence Community and Department of Justice.  The concerns are prior IC, DOJ and FBI conduct in spy operations against the former campaign of current President Donald Trump. ie. “SpyGate”.

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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

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

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 †

Tucker Carlson led off his broadcast on Tuesday night with a discussion of the latest developments in “Spygate”.   An illegal operation by intelligence leadership within President Obama’s cabinet.

FBI Director James Comey, DOJ Attorney General Loretta Lynch, DNI James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan are all identified within the Spygate operation conducting and facilitating surveillance against their political opposition.

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Big picture move by President Trump today that has massive, and generally misinterpreted, ramifications for any trade deal with China, EU and most importantly NAFTA.

China is using U.S. nuclear negotiations with North Korea as leverage for more beneficial trade outcomes; the communist regime is in full manipulative dragon-mode. President Trump can see through the economic play and is dropping the Panda outreach.  Eagle-one now hits back at Chairman Xi for deploying such dangerous tactics.

If you have been following trade nuance, the Automobile Sector is one of the biggest points of contention within varying trade negotiations. In the NAFTA discussion the auto-sector, via rules of origin, runs at the heart of NAFTA’s fatal flaw.

The fatal flaw is the use of Asian, mostly Chinese, auto components within auto manufacturing. Mexico and Canada arguing to allow more Chinese auto parts in North American manufacturing; and President Trump demanding more North American parts for North American auto manufacturing.

Many U.S. Auto manufacturers have moved to Mexico to exploit the NAFTA loophole (fatal flaw). Vehicles assembled in Mexico use cheaper Chinese parts and are shipped into the U.S. without any tariff under NAFTA rules.

It didn’t take long before EU auto-manufacturers, mostly German, to begin taking the same approach. Albeit to a lesser extent, German auto companies also invested in building vehicles in Mexico/Canada for tariff-free transfer into the U.S. This works out great for Canada and Mexico auto-workers, but not for the U.S.

In essence, the auto-sector is representative of much of the manufacturing exploitation by multinational corporations beyond vehicle production. China has supported this approach because they produce the components for multiple sectors (furniture, appliances etc).

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This is an interesting development.  Until now, for some mysterious reason, no-one in congress has ever asked for the redactions of the Peter Strzok and Lisa Page text messages to be removed.  Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is the first politician to ask for all of the text messages without redactions.

In a letter today to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (full pdf below), Chairman Grassley cites examples of unnecessary redactions that are in place simply to avoid the embarrassment upon the DOJ and FBI.  Accordingly this is not an acceptable reason for hiding information from congress and the American people.

Based on the details within the approximately 400 pages of text messages, there is a tremendous amount of evidence that points directly to the motives and intents of the DOJ and FBI group who were conducting the operation to exonerate Hillary Clinton; and the group who was working on the surveillance operation against the Trump campaign.

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Prior to departing for New York to attend an immigration roundtable President Trump held an impromptu press conference on the South Lawn.  The primary topic was the congressional leadership meeting tomorrow with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and DOJ Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O’Callaghan (formerly from DOJ-NSD).

During the impromptu remarks the term “spygate” was coined.

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