U.S. to lead on training Ukrainian F-16 pilots

"American leadership matters," says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

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Tim Scott knocks DeSantis, Ramaswamy on foreign policy amid violence in Israel

Tim Scott ripped into Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday for foreign policy positions he said project American weakness abroad, amid ongoing violence stemming from Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“Vivek Ramaswamy has said that the definition of success is reducing America’s support for Israel,” Scott, the South Carolina senator and longshot presidential contender, said at a Hudson Institute event. “And he’s proposed that we surrender Taiwan to the Chinese Communist Party as long as we’ve relocated some factories.”

“Governor [Ron] DeSantis once dismissed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as just some ‘territorial dispute,’” he added. “The last thing we need is a Joe Biden wing of the Republican Party on foreign policy.”

Scott’s remarks follow former Vice President Mike Pence’sscathing rebuke over the weekend of “voices of appeasement” in the GOP, serving to widen the rift in the Republican presidential primary between the party’s more isolationist and engagement-oriented wings.

“American courage and American values are not in decline,” Scott said, as he endorsed a whole-of-government response to supporting Israel.

Currently at issue in Scott’s day job at the Capitol is continued military assistance funding for Ukraine, which a considerable number of conservative Republicans in the House have firmly opposed.

Scott leveled several attacks at progressive Democrats and Biden over the violence in the Middle East, claiming that the president has “blood on his hands,” and that his weakness “invited the attack.”

But Scott’s direct criticism of his GOP rivals represents a change of tactics for the senator, who has for months generally refrained from directly criticizing his opponents. It is also a shift for a senator who has spent his Senate tenure on committees with a mostly domestic focus.

In a statement to POLITICO, Ramaswamy’s campaign said he would defend Taiwan and criticized the status quo “One China” policy, in which the U.S. recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China while retaining unofficial ties with Taiwan.

“We understand Tim Scott is attempting to gain some semblance of relevance in this race, but lying in the face of these barbaric atrocities isn’t an effective way to do so,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. “Vivek has offered a clear, rational response that supports Israel while avoiding another U.S.-led disaster in the Middle East.”

The DeSantis campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scott has largely failed to gain traction in a race dominated by former President Donald Trump.

Since Hamas attacked Israel over the weekend, Scott has repeatedly criticized Biden for being too weak and called for unstinting American support to Israel. He has joined calls for thepresident to refreeze a $6 billion funds package that his administration greenlit in a deal involving the release of Iranian prisoners. Hemet with Michael Herzog, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., shortly before his remarks.

Notably missing from his jabs were Trump — who has repeatedly mentioned that he supports withholding Ukraine aid in many circumstances — and his home-state competitor, Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador who has been ticking up in recent polls.

Scott, unlike Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy and Haley, has yet to qualify for the third primary debate, scheduled for the beginning of November,according to POLITICO analysis. Trump has already said he will skip the event, as he did for the first two.

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Alex Jones to fight Georgia prosecutors’ bid to call him as witness in trial of Trump co-defendants

Alex Jones intends to resist efforts by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to compel him to testify in this month’s trial of two Donald Trump co-defendants, his attorney said Tuesday.

Norm Pattis, an attorney for the far-right broadcaster, said Jones has nothing to offer in the trial — and that even if a court were to order him to testify, he would simply plead the Fifth, as he did when subpoenaed to testify to the House Jan. 6 select committee last year.

“We’re not going to help Fani’s fantasy life come true any more than we did that of the J6 committee,” Pattis said.

Willis indicated her intent to compel Jones’ testimony in a court filing posted publicly Tuesday. The filing indicated that Jones had contacts with Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who helped craft Trump’s last-ditch strategy to upend Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election and keep Trump in power. Chesebro and attorney Sidney Powell are slated to go on trial Oct. 23, the first batch of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in an alleged racketeering conspiracy to face jurors.

“[Jones] possesses unique knowledge concerning communications between himself and Kenneth Chesebro and other known and unknown individuals involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 3, 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” Willis wrote.

Recently unearthed videos show Chesebro walking alongside Jones’ entourage on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, in the restricted area of the Capitol grounds, but it’s unclear if the two had any previous communications.

Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist with a massive following on InfoWars, was a prominent booster of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and he attended Trump’s speech on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021. He helped lead a massive crowd from the speech to the Capitol, which had been breached by the time he arrived. Jones has not been charged for his actions that day but a close associate, Owen Shroyer, who accompanied him on Capitol grounds, was recently sentenced to 60 days in jail for his actions.

To obtain Jones’ testimony — along with dozens of other potential witnesses who reside outside of Georgia — Willis must seek permission from both a judge in her district and in the courts where the witnesses reside. Jones, she noted, lives in Travis County, Texas. His resistance to Willis’ effort to compel his testimony portends a potential wide array of legal fights that could result from Willis’ effort to put on a massive case against all of the alleged co-conspirators.

For example, Willis also signaled on Tuesday that she intends to seek testimony from Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. And last week, she indicated plans to call Trump legal adviser Boris Epshteyn, several Republicans who falsely posed as presidential electors in 2020 and attorney Lin Wood.

Willis fought similar battles to obtain testimony during her year-long special grand jury investigation into the matter, initiating legal processes that helped make public the witnesses she was targeting across the country. Some of those witnesses — including Trump allies Mike Flynn, Lindsey Graham, Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani and Chesebro himself — resisted those efforts. But all ultimately lost local and federal court battles on the matter.

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Dems file lawsuit challenging just-enacted, Republican-crafted North Carolina voting law

Two top Democratic organizations filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Republican-backed North Carolina election law moments after it went into effect.

The lawsuit, filed by Democratic National Committee and North Carolina Democratic Party, tackles multiple aspects of Senate Bill 747.

But the plaintiffs are specifically seeking preliminary relief on the bill’s provisions on same-day registration, which require additional photo ID and address verification requirements. Under those provisions, if voters opt to do same-day registration but do not have their submitted information verified on time, the ballot could be withdrawn under the new laws.

The lawsuit was filed immediately after the GOP-dominated legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill, according to Biden campaign officials who have been working closely with the DNC and North Carolina Democrats to craft the lawsuit in anticipation of the bill’s movement.

“Defending Americans’ fundamental right to cast their ballots against efforts to undermine their freedom to vote is an urgent priority for President Biden and Vice President Harris. SB 747 is not about protecting election security. It’s about making it harder for North Carolinians to vote and adding new burdens for voters to cast their ballot safely and, ultimately, have their vote counted,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

Senate Bill 747 overhauls the state’s election laws, adding new restrictions and deadlines, while also empowering partisan poll watchers, becoming the latest GOP-led effort to impose new voting restrictions in state legislatures across the country. In North Carolina, Republicans have deemed the law necessary to improve election security, while Cooper on Tuesday blasted it as a means for “manipulating elections to entrench their power” and North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton condemned it as an “all out attack on democracy itself.”

Tuesday’s legal challenge foreshadows the DNC and Biden campaign’s strategy going into 2024, drawing lessons from efforts to counter voting restrictions in 2020, campaign officials told POLITICO. During the last cycle, DNC officials found greater success in targeted challenges.

The goal with the design of Tuesday’s lawsuit, campaign officials said, is to successfully overturn some provisions before voters cast ballots in 2024. On the preliminary injunction on this case, the expectation is that a judge will issue a ruling in the next few months.

“In the wake of the GOP’s continuous assault on democracy, we’re using every tool in our arsenal to put an end to Republicans’ voter suppression,” DNC chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement.

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Biden condemns ‘sheer evil’ of Hamas attack, urges Congress on aid for Israel

President Joe Biden on Tuesday decried the brutal Hamas attack that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians as an act of “sheer evil,” and confirmed American hostages were among those taken in the assault.

In a nod to the lengthy conflict ahead, he also appealed to Congress to support aid for the U.S. ally.

“When Congress returns, we’re going to ask them to take urgent action to fund the national security requirements of our critical partners,” Biden said, acknowledging a demand for aid for both Israel and the ongoing war in Ukraine. “This is not about party or politics. It’s about the security of our world. The security of the United States of America.”

The White House address marked the president’s second public response amid the eruption of violence in Israel, and came shortly after Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the administration’s support for the nation. Since Biden first delivered remarks on Saturday after Hamas’ surprise assault on the country, ghastly images have surfaced from the attacks and Israel’s forceful counterattack, fueling fears the conflict might spiral into a larger war.

The carnage has also directly touched the United States: The president, flanked by Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said at least 14 Americans were among those killed in Israel — an increase from the previously announced toll of 11.

“There are moments in this life … when a pure unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world. People of Israel lived through one such moment this weekend. The bloody hands of the terrorist organization Hamas, a group whose stated purpose for being is to kill Jews. So as an act of sheer evil, more than 1,000 civilians slaughtered in Israel,” Biden said.

“Parents butchered using their bodies to try to protect their children. Stomach-turning reports of babies being killed. Entire families slain. Young people were massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace, to celebrate peace. Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies.”

Biden’s speech comes as the crisis piles on to a growing list of pressures facing the president — posing yet another delicate foreign policy challenge as he seeks reelection, while largely pinning his case on his ability to remain a steady head during times of turmoil.

The president and his top advisers over the weekend held calls with dozens of foreign leaders and allies, pulling together a response while fielding Israel’s requests for aid. The Biden administration surged weapons to Israel on Monday, sending air defenses and munitions.

“So in this moment, we must be crystal clear. We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel. And we will make sure it has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, respond to this attack,” Biden said.

But Biden’s vows of support also come as the administration navigates growing turmoil at home, with the House lacking a speaker and any coherence for how to rapidly deliver the help that may be needed abroad.

The White House and some Senate lawmakers, including Republican leader Mitch McConnell, have suggested the possibility of folding aid to Israel into a pre-existing funding package for Ukraine. But House Republicans skeptical of sending more money to Ukraine have already signaled they’d oppose such an effort, and there is likely little that Congress can accomplish overall until the GOP settles on a new leader.

The White House has kept in close touch with Senate and House leaders and appropriators, though officials said they’ve not yet settled on a specific path forward for passing any aid. The administration does not expect that Israel will need Congress to approve any additional aid for at least the next several days, giving senators time to return to Washington next week and negotiate its next steps.

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DeSantis floats Florida-based sanctions against Iran

MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday pushed new proposals in Florida to rein in Iran, reaffirming his commitment to Israel just days after Hamas terrorists launched one of the worst attacks on the Jewish homeland in decades.

The Florida governor, during a press conference in south Florida, called Iran a “clearinghouse for terrorist funding in the region” and asked the GOP-led Legislature for new Florida sanctions against Iran. He also asked lawmakers to block a broad array of other state or local investments in Iranian businesses in Florida, whether it be financial, construction, manufacturing and other sectors.

"These will be, by far, the strongest Iran sanctions that any state has enacted," DeSantis said at the Shul of Bal Harbour synagogue in Surfside, Fla. Among the speakers at the press conference were Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez and Israel Consul General in Miami Maor Elbaz-Starinsky.

Florida has among the largest Jewish populations in the U.S., behind California and New York, with high concentrations in South Florida. Roughly 60 percent tend to lean Democratic, according to a Brandeis University study. Democratic members of the Florida Legislature from the region united in recent days to introduce a resolution that would affirm the state’s support for Israel and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a prominent Democratic congresswoman who is Jewish, has pledged to support additional federal resources to Israel.

Tuesday’s proposal is the first DeSantis is rolling out for the Legislature ahead of the 2024 session that starts in January. He asked lawmakers to approve and keep the sanctions in place “until both the president and the U.S. Congress certify that Iran has stopped supporting international terrorism and seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”

The governor’s plan is intended to draw attention to foreign policy, an area where DeSantis has received backlash from fellow Republicans after initially characterizing Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute.” In the wake of the attack on Israel, former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also running for the 2024 GOP nomination, criticized DeSantis in Iowa, saying that candidates who’ve backed isolationism have signaled American “retreat on the world stage.”

But DeSantis has promoted certain more aggressive foreign policy stances. As a presidential candidate, DeSantis has elevated anti-China policy ahead of that of Ukraine, including by calling for the U.S. to become less economically dependent on China. DeSantis as a presidential candidate also suggested using the U.S. military against cartels in Mexico.

DeSantis hasn’t specifically addressed whether he thinks the U.S. should use military force in Gaza but has said that Israel should respond in full force and that the U.S. should “use all available avenues to choke off money going to the Iranian regime.”

DeSantis and other 2024 Republican presidential candidates have been generally unified in their support of Israel and highlighted the international crisis to criticize President Joe Biden over the conflict, though the president has said the U.S. stands with Israel.

As part of his pro-Israel actions on Tuesday, DeSantis instructed law enforcement and highway patrol to issue a memo reminding officers about Florida’s laws punishing antisemitism.

His latest proposal follows other anti-Iran measures he has signed into law, including prohibiting individual Iranians, affiliated businesses or government entities, from buying agricultural land in the state or land near a military base. Under another Florida law, universities must report donations or gifts in excess of $50,000 from “countries of concern,” including Iran, and companies affiliated with Iran that want to do more than $100,000-worth of business must report those connections to the state.

DeSantis traveled to Israel in April during an international trade mission, when he signed a proclamation to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Israel’s independence and delivered a keynote speech at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem.

The governor also pushed to increase funding for Jewish day schools, museums and memorials in Florida — a portion of which was specifically allocated to security — and moved topunish companies that boycott Israel.

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Biden interviewed in classified documents probe

President Joe Biden has been interviewed by the special counsel team investigating how classified documents from his time as vice president ended up at his office and home, the White House said Monday night.

The interview was conducted at the White House on Sunday and Monday and was done voluntarily, the administration added.

“As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation,” Ian Sams, spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement.

Interviews of this magnitude with the focus of the investigation would typically signal the inquiry is close to the end. The investigation began last year after documents were found by the president’s attorneys in an office he used after he’d left the Obama administration and before he ran for president.

Biden’s lawyers say they notified the National Archives and Records Administration immediately and handed the documents over.

More documents were later found in the president’s home in Delaware, prompting Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint Robert Hur as special counsel in January to look into the matter. The probe into Biden has taken place almost completely in secret — a stark contrast from the investigation into documents kept by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, which has played out with very public spats over executive privilege. And unlike Biden, Trump declined to be interviewed by special counsel Jack Smith, a decision that preceded the former president’s indictment on charges stemming from his bid to subvert the 2020 election.

The FBI also conducted searches of the Biden vacation home in Rehoboth, Del., where “some materials and handwritten notes,” were found that appeared to also date back to Biden’s time as vice president, the president’s lawyer Bob Bauer said at the time.

A spokesperson for Hur declined to comment on Biden’s questioning.

While it's rare for criminal investigators to interview sitting presidents, many other recent leaders have sat down with prosecutors conducting sensitive inquiries.

In 2008, then President-elect Barack Obama was interviewed by federal prosecutors and the FBI as part of a probe into efforts by Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to sell the Senate seat Obama was vacating.

Former President George W. Bush was interviewed in 2004 as part of an investigation into the leaked identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

And Bill Clinton was also questioned in several inquiries, most famously in contentious videotaped testimony to a grand jury investigating his statements about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.

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