'We’re going to fight your lawlessness. And we're going to continue to remind the people of this country of your corruption'
Rain or shine, thousands of fighting fans were pumped to celebrate America during the UFC Freedom 250 event on June 14, where cage fighters duked it out in a stunning display on the White House South Lawn. But one fighter, who wasn’t invited to the controversial event, appeared to cause a commotion at a Fan...
Free press advocate Craig Aaron explains the stakes of billionaire-owned Paramount potentially acquiring Warner Bros.
Since it was announced on Sunday that the U.S. and Iran had struck a peace deal, experts have found no shortage of shortcomings in the agreement. Now, reporters and Republican lawmakers are pointing out that confusing aspects of the deal may not only provide Iran with a major gift, but represent a major betrayal of President Donald Trump’s own much-vaunted policies regarding the adversary. This is according to Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio in response to an assertion by Politico senior foreign affairs correspondent Nahl Toosi. After listening in on Trump officials’ call regarding the Iran deal, Toosi declared he was “in some ways more confused now than before.” He went on to list several aspects of the call that didn’t add up, but one point stood out in particular. As he explained, “They do not seem to have a good grasp of U.S. sanctions law. They laid out the possibility of a $300 billion investment fund for Iran. And one said at one point that ‘the sanctions relief is not tied specifically to any particular conduct. It's tied generally to them behaving more appropriately, and obviously the thing that we care the most about is the nuclear program.’ But sanctions are specific to particular conduct.”In other words, Trump officials claim that, in order to pay Iran $300 billion — the legality of which depends on the reduction of sanctions — it is going to relieve sanctions based on the vague concept of good behavior rather than specific actions. This is a problem, however, because the sanctions — which were set in place by Congress — are tied to specific actions. So the White House’s claims in this regard are either illegal or nonsensical. And according to Desiderio, it gets even more muddled as “many Republicans have pointed out to me that this type of sanctions relief likely requires the IRGC to be de-listed as a terrorist organization under U.S. law. As someone who covered the Rob Malley-led Senate briefings in 2022, not even the [former President Joe] Biden admin was willing to do this.”This refers to the Islamic Republican Guard Corps, the nation’s top military body, which has been listed as a terror group since Trump deemed it so in 2019. Such a designation raises restrictions on what kind of resources can be provided to it. For Trump to backtrack on this policy — a move his administration bragged about vocally at the time — not only suggests the failure of his foreign policy, but opens the Iranian regime to trade and support it’s been denied for nearly a decade while lending it greater political legitimacy. The harms raised by de-listing the IRGC as a terror group are so widely understood that, as Desiderio noted, not even Biden — who overturned huge swaths of Trump’s foreign policy — would make the change. Furthermore, this move would not only clash with U.S. allies in the EU — which declared the IRGC a terrorist organization after it massacred somewhere between 6,000 and 35,000 protesters in January — but also contradict one of the administration’s other many suggested justifications for the war: protecting the Iranian people from its government. And as Toosi noted, there were several other contradictions revealed in the White House call. As he explained, “They seemed to act as if the US had won this confrontation, whereas the Iranians seem to think they have the upper hand.” Officials asserted that troops would remain in the region en masse even though the deal calls for reductions. And they suggested that the new Iranian leadership was eager to give up nuclear capabilities, claiming that it was the previous Supreme Leader who had held up such a plan, which is the opposite of what most analysts believe. Then there was their seeming total ignorance regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, which Obama struck, then Trump tanked. “They said ‘one of the really cool things and interesting things about this entire process is that we actually have a direct relationship with a number of people at the highest levels of the Iranian government. That really hasn't happened in 47 years of our relationship with Iran,'” posted Toosi. “This is not a huge thing, but it suggests they haven't really done their research on US-Iran relations. (See: JCPOA talks.)...Why do I suspect they haven't really studied the JCPOA and Iran-US history? Because of statements like this: ‘If you go back to the JCPOA, the Supreme Leader just doesn't sign these agreements.’ But nobody signed the JCPOA. It was a political arrangement, not a signed accord.”
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President Donald Trump's Justice Department gave the green light last week to a controversial mega-acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CNN, by Paramount Skydance, a media giant with a Trump-friendly CEO. But reports suggest they may have rushed the process and ignored the opinions of career officials.According to the Wall Street Journal, "A team of career lawyers who had spent months scrutinizing the deal was leaning toward recommending a lawsuit challenging it on the grounds that the combination of the two movie studios would be anticompetitive and violate antitrust law, the people said."However, ultimately the DOJ told this team they were closing the investigation before they had formally made a decision, and announced publicly it was their opinion the merger wouldn't pose a threat to competition.Senior leaders at the DOJ, according to the report, "believed that Paramount Chief Executive Officer David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison, persuasively addressed many of the staff’s questions," including "how the combined company could meet its commitment to make 30 theatrical releases a year, given its increased debt load."The DOJ denies any aspect of the investigation was rushed, putting out a statement in response to the reporting that said, “The Antitrust Division conducted a thorough investigation to assess whether the proposed transaction would harm competition. The investigatory record indicated that the transaction will increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, benefiting American consumers and workers.”Some strategists have warned that the merger will lead to a "shakeup" of talent at CNN similar to that which reshaped CBS under Paramount, including the possible reassignment or removal of figures like Kaitlan Collins who have heavily scrutinized Trump.
President Donald Trump is already planning his next “focus” after his administration formalizes its peace deal with Iran later this week, revisiting one of his most aggravating goals. The president, who is expected to finalize his memorandum of understanding with Tehran on Friday, said Monday that ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be his […]
New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is expected to hold interest rates steady this week, but President Donald Trump’s trust gives him room to pursue longer-term changes.
Former Trump administration White House attorney Ty Cobb was not at all shocked on Monday to hear reports that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is under federal investigation — but was saddened at the state of the Justice Department."I'm not surprised that [Newsom] would announce it," Cobb told MS NOW's Katy Tur, responding to the official video announcement from his office. "I think that's a smart move. There's no reason to hide it."Cobb added that the fact that the investigation exists at all is predictable, too, noting that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth opened a probe into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) — also frequently discussed as a presidential candidate — over his participation in a video reminding troops they can refuse illegal orders. "Newsom's a potential presidential candidate. I think most presidential candidates, just like most presidential candidates, should expect that they will be met with abuses of this sort."Tur soon followed up by asking Cobb how acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has achieved such a political stranglehold over the rank and file in federal law enforcement. "Why do they go along with what appeared to be political, the political retribution that Donald Trump desires?""That's an excellent question," said Cobb. "I think it's sad, obviously."The issue, he argued, happened with Blanche's predecessor, Pam Bondi, who "made it clear early on in the Great Hall of Justice that she was dedicating her role and her office and her entire department to serving Trump, not the Constitution." And Blanche has continued this on, said Cobb, from his prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey to his involvement in the $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization" slush fund to pay out Trump's allies who were criminally charged in the past."I think this is really a tragedy that we have such a lack of character among public servants these days," Cobb added. "And hopefully some will come forward with courage and with integrity." - YouTube youtu.be