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Sunday 16 July 2023

Report: UK defense chief to step down

Ben Wallace won't stand in the next general election, he tells The Times newspaper.

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Saturday 15 July 2023

Ramaswamy: ‘Pervasive’ censorship caused Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol


Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy blamed censorship for motivating rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, rejecting the idea that former President Donald Trump’s false rhetoric about a stolen election caused the violence.

In conversation with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson at the Family Leadership Summit on Friday afternoon, Ramaswamy reasoned that big tech platforms’ moderation of news about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 and perceived government overreach around vaccines and stay-at-home mandates during the pandemic prevented people from accessing truth.

“What caused January 6 is pervasive censorship in this country in the lead up to January 6,” Ramaswamy said, repudiating the idea that Trump motivated the riot. “You tell people in this country they cannot speak. That is when they scream. You tell people they cannot scream. That is when they tear things down.”

“Until we look ourselves in the mirror and admit truth on that, we will not move forward as a country,” Ramaswamy added.

Ramaswamy’s comments appear to cater toward the wing of the Republican party that has sought to displace blame around the Jan. 6 riot from Trump’s continued falsehoods that election fraud tipped the vote toward Joe Biden. They also fall in line with popular conservative sentiments that the government has overstepped on First Amendment issues in its relationship with big tech.

Throughout his run, Ramaswamy has not been afraid to break from the mainstream with his positions. In particular, his foreign policy plan includes giving Russia the land it has sought to take from Ukraine during the war in exchange for it giving up its partnership with Beijing. Such a deal would not fly with European allies and stands in stark contrast with the Biden administration’s current approach.

“I would negotiate a deal that ends the Ukraine war, freeze the current lines of control. Yes, that means giving part of the Donbas region to Russia,” Ramaswamy said, referring to a region that Russia has sought to take from Ukraine. “I would make a hard commitment that NATO never admits Ukraine to NATO. And those seem like unspeakable words, certainly in the Republican donor class, but we get something greater in return.”

His eyebrow-raising positions may partly explain his relative success in the GOP primary thus far. A millionaire and successful entrepreneur, Ramaswamy’s rise to fame in conservative circles was due in part to his business ideology that rejected the increasingly commonplace practices of corporate responsibility, specifically around environmental, social and corporate governance.

Despite his relatively low name recognition and dearth of political experience compared to the field, Ramaswamy has increasingly fared well in polls since announcing his presidential run in February. In a Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday — which counts as a poll to qualify for the first GOP debate — the businessman placed third with 8 percent support, surpassing big names including Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Ramaswamy still has to meet a donor requirement to make the debate stage in August, having rolled out a money solicitation program that would give back supporters a cut of the money they help raise.



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Biden’s top legislative director to step down


Louisa Terrell, a top aide to President Joe Biden and his director of legislative affairs, plans to step down from her position.

The White House announced the departure, which POLITICO was first to report, in a statement Friday from the president.

“Over the past two and a half years, Louisa has been instrumental in the historic, monumental, and life-changing legislation we have delivered to the American people,” Biden said.

Terrell, who has been with Biden since the start of his presidency, played a key role in getting his key legislative priorities passed, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill and last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

As the president gears up for reelection, and the opportunities for pushing additional legislation through the House dwindles after Republicans regained control of the chamber, speculation about Terrell’s departure had grown for months. She stayed in the job well into Biden’s third year largely to deal with the high-stakes negotiations with Republicans over spending and the debt ceiling increase.

“Louisa’s steady hand and perseverance have consistently helped get key priorities over the finish line,” said Biden, who also credited Terrell for working to secure the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Terrell plans to depart at the end of July.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his caucus members are "tremendously grateful" to Terrell for her partnership over the last two years.

"From the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to the Inflation Reduction Act to averting a catastrophic default on our debt, Louisa has been there with us every step of the way," he said in a statement. "She is a dedicated public servant and trusted friend of House Democrats and we wish her the best as she embarks on this next chapter.”

A Delaware native, Terrell first met Biden when she was 5 years old. She also attended kindergarten with the president’s son, Beau, who died of a brain tumor in 2015. Terrell started working for Biden when he was a senator as a counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. She also served as his deputy chief of staff in his personal Senate office.



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Appeals court temporarily blocks order that restricted feds’ contact with social media firms


A federal appeals court has put a temporary hold on a district court judge’s unusual order restricting a wide swath of federal officials and agencies from communicating with social media companies about content on their platforms.

A three-judge panel considering emergency matters for the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday granted the Biden administration’s request to put the far-reaching preliminary injunction on hold for now while the case is referred to another appeals panel that will consider a longer-term stay of U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty’s Independence Day order.

That second panel will be the one to rule on the merits of Doughty’s ruling, issued in connection with a lawsuit filed by the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana claiming that Biden administration officials violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to remove or edit user posts that contained alleged disinformation about Covid-19, elections and the content of Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Justice Department officials and the White House complained that Doughty’s broadly worded injunction prohibiting various officials and agencies from discouraging social media firms from hosting First Amendment-protected content was difficult to implement and could cause cautious federal officials to refuse to deal with companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Doughty’s order included exceptions for various categories of content including criminal activity, signs of malicious cyber activity and threats to public safety or security, but DOJ lawyers said those categories were ill-defined.

The stay — while temporary — underscores that Doughty’s ruling is unlikely to be the last word on an issue that has animated the political right. Conservatives in the House grilled FBI Director Chris Wray about the ruling during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

In addition, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has set a hearing for Thursday to discuss the lawsuit that led to Doughty’s order. Among the scheduled witnesses is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longshot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The appeals court’s order did not explain the rationale for granting what the court called a “temporary administrative stay” of Doughty’s injunction. The order Friday was issued by Judge Carl Stewart, an appointee of President Bill Clinton; Judge James Graves, an appointee of President Barack Obama; and Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of President Donald Trump.

Doughty, based in Monroe, La., is also a Trump appointee.



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Asa Hutchinson clashes with Tucker Carlson on vaccination status


Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson sparred with Asa Hutchinson after inquiring about the former Arkansas governor’s vaccination status on Friday.

Carlson, interviewing Hutchinson on stage at the conservative Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, asked the 2024 Republican presidential candidate how many Covid-19 vaccinations he had received and how he felt about his decision to do so in retrospect. Hutchinson confirmed that he had been vaccinated against Covid-19 and defended his choice as the “right decision of taking the vaccine for me,” but noted that others can “make a different decision.”

But before Hutchinson gave his answer, he lobbed the question back to Carlson.

“How many Covid shots did you take?” Hutchinson asked.

“Zero,” Carlson responded to a round of applause from the audience.

“I can see that you recoiled when I asked you that question,” said Carlson, a former Fox News anchor and longtime vaccine skeptic. “And I don’t think, honestly, you should be asking people about their medical care. But that became a matter of public policy, and I do think the whole country ought to pause and assess, ‘What did we just go through, and how do we feel about it now?’” So it’s a very straightforward question.”

Before confirming he had been vaccinated, Hutchinson touted his opposition to vaccine mandates as the governor of Arkansas, pointing to a law he signed that prohibited vaccination mandates among government employees. In 2021, Hutchinson also OK’d a law allowing employees to opt out of vaccination requirements from businesses — although he called the debate on the opt-out bill “harmful to our goal of increasing vaccination rates in Arkansas.”

Hutchinson did not address Carlson’s claim that there were “an awful lot of people injured” by vaccine mandates, instead going on to discuss his efforts to keep schools and small businesses open and avoid shelter-in-place orders during his term as governor.



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Friday 14 July 2023

Trump loses Iowa endorser days after attacking the state’s governor


An Iowa state senator who’d previously endorsed Donald Trump is flipping his support toRon DeSantis just days after the former president attacked Iowa’s popular Republican governor, Kim Reynolds.

Jeff Reichman, who is serving his first term in the state Senate, announced on Thursday that he is defecting to the Florida governor’s presidential campaign. In a statement, Reichman singled out praise for Reynolds, who Trump has targeted for her warmness toward DeSantis, his main rival for the GOP nomination.

“Iowa Republicans must be united if we are going to take our country back and reverse Joe Biden’s failures,” Reichman said in a statement. “Gov. DeSantis has achieved the same type of commonsense policy victories in Florida as we have in Iowa under Gov. Kim Reynolds, and he will deliver historic success for the conservative movement as president as well.”

Trump’s attack on Reynolds came on Monday, just after The New York Times published a report detailing the governor’s frequent appearances with the DeSantis campaign. In response, Trump released a statement saying Reynolds, who has pledged she will not officially endorse anyone in the primary, would not be governor if not for him, since he appointed her predecessor, Terry Branstad, to his administration. Trump also noted that he had previously endorsed Reynolds.

"Now, she wants to remain 'NEUTRAL,' Trump said. “I don't invite her to events!"

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung brushed off the Reichman defection, saying in a statement that “there is no room for weak-kneed and lily-livered people on Team Trump.” He also accused the DeSantis campaign of buying off the state senator by offering to fundraise for and endorse him.

“The truth is that those who have been promised financial support are now regretting their deal with the devil because none of them have been able to schedule fundraisers with DeSantis,” Cheung added.

DeSantis is expected to fundraise for Iowa Republicans, including Reichman, who’ve endorsed him, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

But in response to the Trump campaign’s accusation, DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo said the former president is “losing steam in Iowa and his failing campaign is now lashing out at former supporters. Sad!”

In addition to his attack on Reynolds, Trump has also come under criticism from some Iowa Republicans for his decision to skip this week’s Family Leadership Summit in the state. That forum is drawing other GOP presidential candidates, including DeSantis.

Trump also did not attend a recent political event hosted by Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, though he is slated to campaign in the state next week. The former president is also expected to appear at an Iowa GOP dinner later this month.

With Reichman’s endorsement, DeSantis now has the support of 38 Iowa state legislators.



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House GOP plans to hold long-teased UFO hearing


The House Oversight Committee is finally planning to hold a long-teased hearing on UFOs.

A small but vocal contingent of the Republican conference has been pushing for a hearing after the Pentagon and other national security agencies have said in recent months that they are investigating unidentified aircraft and hundreds of new reports of UFOs.

Senior Republicans have now tentatively slated such a hearing for the last week of July, according to two Republicans familiar with the hearing.

“That’s what it is about: aliens. … I think people deserve to know,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), one of the two Republicans, told POLITICO.

Both Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Speaker Kevin McCarthy have signed off on holding a hearing, with Burchett and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) asked to take the lead.

A spokesperson for Comer noted that the hearing is still in its planning stages but it is “looking like it will happen towards the end of this month.” The Kentucky Republican said that it will be a subcommittee hearing.

Despite the early stages, the hearing has already sparked pushback not only within the committee but from the Defense Department, according to Burchett.

Another GOP member of the Oversight Committee, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said they plan to attend, but: “There are some people who want to stop it. There are some people who want to do it.” That lawmaker also said that they had been told the hearing will take place during the final week of July.

“There’s just internal machinations between staff and members … Some don’t want to do it at this time right now, think it is a bad idea,” the member said, adding that there was a concern that “people will run wild with it.”

An Oversight Committee staffer denied that there was pushback on the hearing, but indicated that staff is trying to work out witnesses.

The Defense Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the hearing. Spokespeople for Luna didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The hearing would be this year’s latest example of Congress digging into the UFO space, after alien fever briefly gripped Washington as the United States shot down a series of balloons, at least some of which turned out to be Chinese spy aircraft.

Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this year, telling senators that the Pentagon at the time was tracking roughly 650 incidents involving unidentified aircraft. An unclassified annual report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in January said that they had found 510 cases through Aug. 30, 2022.

Kirkpatrick told senators at the time that he had found no evidence of alien activity. But he also raised eyebrows when he co-wrote a draft academic paper with Harvard professor Avi Loeb, in which they floated that unexampled aerial incursions could be “probes” from an extraterrestrial “parent craft,” while acknowledging that they don't know for sure if there are any functioning extraterrestrial crafts near Earth.

Lara Seligman contributed to this report. 



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