A summary of today's drama
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Flush with campaign cash and facing down a possible Senate impeachment trial, President Trump headlined his first major rally of the election year Thursday in Ohio -- and almost immediately, the president capitalized on his order to take out Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani after the military...
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archived 11 Jan 2020 05:17:45 UTC
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Flush with campaign cash and facing down a possible Senate impeachment trial, President Trump headlined his first major rally of the election year Thursday in Ohio -- and almost immediately, the president capitalized on his order to take out Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani after the military leader was said to have orchestrated an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.
In unequivocal terms, Trump slammed House Democrats' nonbinding War Powers Resolution, which passed earlier in the day in a rebuke to the Soleimani strike. Trump went on to suggest that Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and "Liddle' pencil-neck" House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., would have tipped off the media about the operation had they known about it.
"They're saying, 'You should get permission from Congress, you should come in and tell us what you want to do -- you should come in and tell us, so that we can call up the fake news that's back there, and we can leak it,'" Trump said. "Lot of corruption back there."
The president added that it would have been impractical to alert Congress, given the "split-second" nature of the decision to kill Soleimani. He also revealed for the first time that U.S. intelligence indicated Soleimani was actively plotting attacks on other U.S. embassies.
"Soleimani was actively planning new attacks, and he was looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad," Trump said.
Separately, Trump said he hoped former Vice President Joe Biden would become the Democrats' presidential nominee, and pledged he would highlight what he called the Bidens' corruption all throughout the campaign.
"He will hear, 'Where's Hunter?',' every single debate nine times at the podium," Trump vowed, in reference to Biden's son, who largely has stayed out of public view after it emerged that he held lucrative overseas board roles while his father was vice president.
Republicans have accused Hunter Biden, who recently was determined to have fathered a child with an Arkansas ex-stripper, of selling access to his father.
Trump was speaking before a packed crowd in Toledo after apparently pulling back from the brink of war with Iran earlier this week, and just hours after officials announced that Iran likely shot down a civilian airliner carrying dozens of Canadians, apparently by mistake. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested the U.S. might bear responsibility, and he declined to condemn Iran for taking down the commercial plane.
For the most part, the rally focused on the Iran strike and the response to it from the political left.
"The radical left Democrats have expressed outrage over the termination of this horrible terrorist," Trump said. "Instead, they should be outraged by Soleimani's savage crimes and the fact that his countless victims were denied justice for so long."
Trump said he had acted swiftly after the earlier attack at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and essentially overruled a commander who said the military response would not arrive until the next day. The situation, Trump said, easily could have become "another Benghazi" -- a reference to the deadly 2012 attack at the U.S. consulate in Libya.
"I said, 'nope, get in the planes right now, have them there immediately!'" Trump said. "And, they got there immediately. ... If you dare threaten our citizens, you do so at your own grave peril."
Former President Obama, Trump added, had erred by giving billions to Iran as part of the mostly defunct Iran nuclear deal, including a massive cash payout loaded onto U.S. aircraft.
"By subsidizing Iran's maligned conduct, the last administration was leading the world down the path of war," Trump said. "We are restoring our world to the path of peace, peace through strength."
The campaign event offered Trump an opportunity to spotlight before a friendly crowd his decision to order the deadly drone strike against Soleimani, while keeping the U.S. -- at least for the moment -- out of a wider military conflict.
Trump also emphasized the booming economy, including a strong stock market and historically low unemployment rates.
"Unemployment has reached the lowest level in over 51 years," Trump said. "African-American, Hispanic American and Asian American unemployment have all reached the lowest rates ever, ever, ever recorded. Wages are rising fast, and the biggest percentage increase -- makes me happy -- are for blue-collar workers. Forty million American families are now benefiting from the Republican child-tax credit, each receiving an average of over $2,200 a year."
Trump added that getting rid of "job-killing regulations" had helped spur the industrial sector. He later invoked the destructive and widespread "yellow vest" protests in France, which had started out of frustration with high taxes on gas.
"America lost 60,000 factories under the previous administration ... They're all coming back," Trump said. "And, right now, just in a very short period of time, we've added 12,000 brand new factories and many more are coming in."
The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement [USMCA], Trump said, would improve the economy further and make the U.S. automobile industry in particular more competitive.
The Democrats' policies, Trump argued, have produced chaos and poverty. Trump specifically ripped Pelosi, D-Calif., for living in a mansion in San Francisco, even as her "disgusting" district filled with homeless people defecating on the streets.
Trump additionally touted the recent appellate court ruling that green-lit funding for his border wall, slammed "late-term abortion and ripping babies right from the mother's womb right up until the mother's womb," and highlighted Obama's broken promise to ensure Americans could keep their doctors under his health-care plan.
"We will protect patients with preexisting conditions, and we will protect your preexisting physician," Trump vowed.
The president's reelection campaign already had used Facebook ads to highlight Trump’s decision to strike Soleimani, regarded as Iran’s second-most-powerful official.
"We caught a total monster, and we took him out, and that should have happened a long time ago,” Trump said before departing Washington earlier in the day.
Last week’s killing of Soleimani brought long-simmering tensions between the U.S. and Iran to a boil. Iran, in retaliation, fired a barrage of missiles this week at two military bases in neighboring Iraq that have housed hundreds of U.S. troops. But, with no reported injuries to U.S. or Iraqi troops, Trump said he had no plans to take further military action against Iran and instead would enact more sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The Iran crisis, which momentarily overshadowed Trump's looming impeachment trial, also has opened a new front in the 2020 presidential campaign for Trump, who in 2016 campaigned in part on a promise to end American involvement in "endless wars."
Trump entered the election year flush with over $100 million in campaign cash, a low unemployment rate and an unsettled field of Democrats seeking to challenge him. Yet, polling showed he remained vulnerable.
Back in December, an AP-NORC poll showed Trump's approval rating at 40 percent. No more recent major polls have emerged to gauge support for the president in the wake of the targeted killing of Soleimani, though opinions of Trump have changed little over the course of his presidency.
Trump has never fallen into historic lows for a president’s approval ratings, but Gallup polling showed his December rating registered lower than that of most recent presidents at the same point in their first terms. Notably, approval of Trump and Obama in the Decembers before their reelection bids was roughly the same.
For Trump to win reelection, securing Ohio's 18 electoral votes will be critical. He won Ohio by eight points in 2016, after Obama held the state in 2008 and 2012. The visit to Toledo marked Trump's 15th appearance in Ohio as president.
Trump has anchored his reelection messaging around a solid national economy with an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent. But, people in parts of the industrial Midwest have said they've been left behind, especially as the manufacturing sector has struggled over the past year in response to slower worldwide economic growth and trade tensions with China.
Labor Department figures showed construction and factory jobs slumping in Ohio. In nearby Michigan, manufacturers were shedding workers as well, but so were that state’s employers in the health care, education and social assistance sectors.
But the Toledo area pointed at an even more alarming trend in an otherwise healthy economy. The Glass City has shedded over 6 percent of its white-collar jobs in the professional and business services sector over the past year, causing the total number of jobs to slump slightly from a year ago.
As an incumbent, Trump has been able to use his position to build a massive campaign cash reserve at a time when Democrats have been raising and spending theirs in a competitive primary. Although many White House hopefuls, most notably Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, have pulled in massive sums, there has been no clear front-runner, and many party officials have been girding for a protracted contest that could further bleed the eventual nominee of resources.
Trump, meanwhile, raised $46 million in the final quarter of 2019 and had over $102 million cash on hand at the end of the year. The Republican National Committee [RNC], which hasn’t faced as strict a set of contribution limits as the candidate, raised even more. Under the current rules, the RNC won’t have to release its December fundraising numbers until the end of the month.
Asked how much he was willing to spend on his reelection, Trump said, "I literally haven't even thought about it." He added: "I will say this: Because of the impeachment hoax, we're taking in numbers that nobody ever expected. You saw the kind of numbers we're reporting. We're blowing everybody away."
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The Atlantic senior editor David Frum is holding President Trump directly responsible for the deaths of the 176 passengers on the Ukrainian airplane that was struck by one of Iran's missiles, declaring the victims "paid a price" for his decision to order for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem...
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archived 11 Jan 2020 05:17:09 UTC
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The Atlantic senior editor David Frum is holding President Trump directly responsible for the deaths of the 176 passengers on the Ukrainian airplane that was struck by one of Iran's missiles, declaring the victims "paid a price" for his decision to order for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
"No American paid a price for President Donald Trump’s decision to kill Iran’s Qassem Soleimani. But it looks like 176 other people did, including 63 Canadian citizens and many more Iranian nationals en route to Canada," Frum began his column on Thursday.
In his piece titled "We're Just Discovering the Price of Killing Soleimani," Frum wrote that the "accusatory finger" is first pointed at the Iranian government and acknowledged how Iranian authorities "set in motion the cycle of attack and response" in recent weeks.
"Yet the United States cannot shove all blame on Iran for the human disaster of Flight 752," Frum said. "Nobody intended for civilians to die. That’s the way it is with unintended consequences—and why governments are supposed to weigh carefully the decision to employ deadly force."
Frum, the former speechwriter for President George W. Bush credited with inventing the "Axis of Evil" line describing Iraq, Iran, and North Korea in the 2002 State of the Union address, blasted the Trump administration for telling an "obviously false story" that led to Soleimani's killing, expressing doubt that an attack planned by the Iranian general was actually "imminent."
"Trump, of course, disclaims all responsibility, as he habitually does. He’s always been a credit-grabber and a responsibility-dodger," Frum continued. "The victims of the crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 were not U.S. citizens, and certainly not residents of any state that Trump might win in 2020, so who cares, really? The loss of life had 'nothing to do with us.' It was a 'mistake on the other side.' The gun just went off; let’s not ask too many questions about who put the bullets in the chamber."
He did acknowledge that Soleimani "deserved to die a violent death" and that both the Bush and Obama administrations "flinched from doing justice to Soleimani" because they asked what would happen next.
"Trump did not ask that question. Families across half the world are now grieving a consequence that Trump’s ego forbade him to imagine or ponder," Frum concluded.
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A Russian Navy spy ship nearly collided with a U.S. guided-missile destroyer Thursday after it “aggressively approached” the vessel in the North Arabian Sea despite multiple warning signals, the Navy said Friday.
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archived 11 Jan 2020 05:08:09 UTC
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A Russian Navy spy ship nearly collided with a U.S. guided-missile destroyer Thursday after it “aggressively approached” the vessel in the North Arabian Sea despite multiple warning signals, the Navy said Friday.
The U.S. Naval Forces Central Command issued a statement late Friday morning confirming the incident in which the Russian ship came dangerously close to the USS Farragut as it was conducting “routine operations in the North Arabian Sea.”
In a video accompanying the statement, the Farragut can be heard sounding off five horns, which is the “international maritime signal for danger of collision,” before requesting that the ship alter its course.
“The Russian ship initially refused but ultimately altered course and the two ships opened distance from one another,” the statement read.
U.S. defense officials told Fox News the Russian spy ship made two “dangerous” passes, coming as close as 60 yards to the American destroyer. The entire encounter lasted 10-15 minutes, according to a Navy official.
“While the Russian ship took action, the initial delay in complying with international rules while it was making an aggressive approach increased the risk of collision,” the Navy’s statement continued.
Just last month, the U.S. Coast Guard in Charleston issued a warning after spotting a Russian spy ship, the Victo Leonov, off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia which had since moved toward the Bahamas.
It is the same vessel that made a trip across the Atlantic for the past two years, although it was not immediately clear if it was the one spotted in the North Arabian Sea on Thursday.
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The Associated Press changed a headline Thursday night that implied that the strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani last week resulted in a Ukrainian passenger plane being shot down by mistake by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.
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archived 11 Jan 2020 05:07:12 UTC
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The Associated Press changed a headline Thursday night that implied that the strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani last week resulted in a Ukrainian passenger plane being shot down by mistake by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.
Pentagon officials have told Fox News that U.S. intelligence increasingly points at the airliner being accidentally struck by a Russian-made missile, killing all 176 people on board the flight, just hours after Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles targeting two military bases housing American and coalition troops.
The AP’s story about the situation was widely ridiculed and critics condemned the AP’s initial headline, “An Iranian general dies in U.S. attack, and innocents suffer,” which quickly became a hot topic on social media.
The AP’s White House reporter Zeke Miller eventually tweeted that the earlier link to the story was deleted and it was republished with a different headline: “As Iran and U.S. take step back from the brink, Canada grieves.”
An Associated Press rep attempted to explain the situation when reached by Fox News.
“The headline was updated to more clearly describe what the story is about: Canadians struggling to come to terms with how the killing of an Iranian general in a U.S. drone strike may have led to the deaths of dozens of their citizens in a plane crash,” the spokesperson told Fox News.
“AP stories and headlines are routinely updated, as wire stories are. The original headline on this story when it was published yesterday evening was ‘An Iranian general dies in a U.S. attack, and Canada suffers.’ It became ‘An Iranian general dies in U.S. attack, and innocents suffer,’ when new information was added to the story. Overnight the headline became ‘As Iran and US take step back from the brink, Canada grieves,” the spokesperson continued.
Criticism continued to pour in once the headline was changed.
“Following public reaction to their ridiculous original headline, the Associated Press stealth edited the headline to now read, ‘As Iran and US take step back from the brink, Canada grieves.’ The stealth edits also included additions to the body of the piece that further boosted Iran and lied about President Trump,” Media Research Center analyst Nicholas Fondacaro wrote.
After the headline change, the story still featured a paragraph that many critics have found issues with, as it implies that the conflict with Iran “had begun” when Trump ordered a strike on Soleimani.
The U.S. took out Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Forces, early last Friday in Baghdad, days after Iranian-backed militia supporters stormed the U.S. embassy. Administration officials have said that the strike was conducted to deter imminent attacks on U.S. interests — but that's not how it was framed by the AP.
“What had begun with a drone attack on Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s motorcade at the Baghdad airport had suddenly rippled outward until dozens of Iranian-Canadians, dozens of Iranian students studying in Canada, were dead,” the AP reported.
“The Associated Press made it abundantly clear who they blamed for the deaths of 176 people in the skies over Tehran,” Fondacaro wrote. “Hint, it wasn’t the country that shot two surface-to-air missiles at a passenger jet.”
Earlier Thursday, CNN national security and legal analyst Susan Hennessey was similarly criticized for claiming "crossfire of reckless escalation" resulted in Iran taking down the plane.
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Republican Rep. Doug Collins apologized for claiming that Democrats were “in love with terrorists,” saying Friday that he does not actually believe that.
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archived 11 Jan 2020 05:06:35 UTC
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Republican Rep. Doug Collins apologized for claiming that Democrats were “in love with terrorists” amid heightened tensions with Iran, saying Friday he does not actually believe that.
“Let me be clear: I do not believe Democrats are in love with terrorists, and I apologize for what I said earlier this week,” Collins, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted Friday.
Collins, R-Ga., was referring to comments he made Wednesday night after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., scheduled a vote to limit President Trump’s military action toward Iran.
“They are in love with terrorists,” Collins said Wednesday on Fox Business Network’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” “We see that they mourn [Gen. Qassem] Soleimani more than they mourn our Gold Star families who are the ones who suffered under Soleimani. That’s a problem.”
But after harsh criticism, Collins sent a series of tweets walking back his remark.
“The comment I made on Wednesday evening was in response to a question about the War Powers Resolution being introduced in the House and House Democrats’ attempt to limit the president’s authority,” he explained.
“As someone who served in Iraq in 2008, I witnessed firsthand the brutal death of countless soldiers who were torn to shreds by this vicious terrorist,” he continued. “Soleimani was nothing less than an evil mastermind who viciously killed and wounded thousands of Americans.”
“These images will live with me for the rest of my life, but that does not excuse my response on Wednesday evening,” he said. “I remain committed to working with my colleagues in Congress and with my fellow citizens to keep all Americans safe.”
The House voted this week to approve a War Powers Resolution, mostly along party lines, to limit Trump's military action amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
The resolution is non-binding but is meant to reassert congressional authority and rebuke Trump’s decision to take out Soleimani in a drone strike last Friday while he traveled to an airport in Baghdad, Iraq. Trump did not consult with congressional leaders ahead of the attack that killed the Iranian military leader and afterward sent Congress a notification explaining the rationale but kept it classified.
The resolution “requires the president to consult with Congress 'in every possible instance' before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities."
The measure also aimed to handcuff Trump when it comes to future strikes.
The resolution was widely panned by Republican lawmakers in the House, who called the measure a political move against the president and accused Democrats of empowering Iran by condemning the White House’s airstrike.
“For the party that claims they care about the Constitution, Democrats might want to brush up on their facts,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “If they did, they’d realize their actions today are shameful and are embarrassing even by the low standards they set in their impeachment inquiry.”
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Iran is continuing to deny that an accidental missile strike took down a Ukrainian passenger plane outside of Tehran this week, instead demanding Friday that the U.S. and Canada should “show their findings to the world.”
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archived 11 Jan 2020 05:04:05 UTC
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Iran is continuing to deny that an accidental missile strike took down a Ukrainian passenger plane outside of Tehran this week, and instead is demanding that the U.S. and Canada should “show their findings to the world.”
The defiant stance from the Islamic Republic, which Pentagon and Canadian officials believe mistakenly shot down the jet Wednesday, killing all 176 onboard, comes as Iranian officials have yet to disclose information from the one source that may reveal everything: the aircraft’s black boxes.
“What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane,” Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran's national aviation department, claimed during a press conference Friday.
“If they are really sure, they should come and show their findings to the world" in accordance with international standards, he added, referring to the U.S. and Canada.
Pentagon officials told Fox News on Thursday that the Ukraine International Airlines flight, which plunged from the sky in a ball of fire shortly after takeoff, was downed by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.
"An absolute tragedy," one U.S. official told Fox News. "They just screwed up and it is tragic."
The U.S. official told Fox News that a Russian-made SA15 missile, which is part of the Tor surface-to-air missile system, was the kind that brought down the aircraft. The crash happened just hours after Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles targeting two military bases housing American and coalition troops.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose country lost at least 63 citizens in the downing, also said Friday that “the evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.”
“We have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence,” he added.
Hassan Rezaeifar, the head of the Iranian team investigating the crash, said recovering data from the black box flight recorders could take more than a month and that the entire investigation could stretch into next year. He also said Iran may request help from international experts if it is not able to extract the flight recordings.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's national security council, said Friday that he doesn't know if the flight data recorders will be handed over to Boeing, the maker of the plane.
"I think rather not than yes, but I think all the countries interested in this situation, all those who suffered, will have access to the black boxes," he said.
Ukraine currently has 45 investigators in Iran examining the plane’s debris. Vadym Prystaiko, the country's foreign minister, said they have been given access to the black boxes and recordings of air-traffic controllers at the Tehran airport. Although investigators have been to the crash site, he said “there are certain pieces that up until this time have not been found or gathered.”
Danilov also noted the collection of DNA samples is almost complete, after which countries can repatriate victims' remains.
Videos examined by The Associated Press appear to show the ill-fated airliner’s final seconds.
In one video, a fast-moving light can be seen through the trees as someone films from the ground. The light appears to be the burning plane, which plummets to the earth as a huge fireball illuminates the landscape.
Someone off-camera says in Farsi: “The plane has caught fire. ... In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful. God, please help us. Call the fire department!”
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi as saying Friday that Iran "has invited both Ukraine and the Boeing company to participate in the investigations.” He later said a 10-member Canadian delegation was heading to Iran to assist victims' families.
Iran had initially said it would not allow Boeing to take part in the probe, going against prevailing international norms on crash investigations. It later invited the U.S. accident-investigating agency – the National Transportation Safety Board -- to take part in the investigation.
The NTSB said late Thursday that it would “evaluate its level of participation," but its role could be limited by U.S. sanctions on Iran. U.S. officials have also expressed concern about sending employees to Iran because of the heightened tensions.
Under rules set by a United Nations aviation organization, the NTSB is entitled to participate because the crash involved a Boeing 737-800 jet that was designed and built in the U.S.
A preliminary Iranian investigative report released Thursday said that the airliner pilots never made a radio call for help and that the burning plane was trying to turn back for the airport when it went down.
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An irate protester interrupted the start of Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s campaign event Friday, angrily accusing the Massachusetts senator of “siding with terrorists” amid the conflict between the United States and Iran.
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archived 11 Jan 2020 05:00:26 UTC
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DOVER, N.H. -- An irate protester interrupted the start of Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s campaign event here Friday, angrily accusing the Massachusetts senator of “siding with terrorists” amid the conflict between the United States and Iran.
As soon as Warren took to the mic at the town hall–style event, the man charged to the front of the room and began yelling.
“You’re siding with Iran,” the protester said to Warren, before being ushered out. “Why are you siding with terrorists?”
He also told her: “Hope you resign.”
Warren responded as the crowd booed at the protester: “This is a man who’s deeply upset. It’s all right. It’s time for you to leave.”
Conservatives in recent days have slammed Warren over her comments criticizing the United States' killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, especially after she held back criticism of Soleimani himself and said it was "reasonable" to ask whether Trump ordered the killing to distract from his pending Senate impeachment trial.
The outburst comes as Republicans have faced pushback over similar language. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., apologized Friday after claiming in a television interview that Democrats are “in love with terrorists.”
Warren talked about the protester when she gaggled with reporters when the town hall was over.
“I think getting into a shouting match with a man who’s so clearly disturbed is not helpful to him, and not helpful to anyone,” Warren said.
Warren also slammed Collins’ initial comments about Democrats: “I think it is disgusting for a congressman to stand up and say that he believes that kind of nonsense.”
After the town hall, Warren spent over an hour taking pictures with supporters. The campaign has gotten widespread attention for that practice and the candidate often talks up her commitment to taking “selfies” with voters.
Social media users, though, often point out the photos are not technically selfies, since Warren staffers usually take them.
Asked about that, Warren defended the terminology: “People get a picture on their own phone. ... I think it goes within the big definition. Everybody has fun and that’s what it’s all about.”
R Libya is a confusing, factional not very stable clusterfuck with lots more exciting internal conflict to come. Thanks, Obama.
