During a visit to Israel on Monday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had a full-scale meltdown when a reporter from right-wing network Newsmax asked him a question about Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
At a press conference, Newsmax’s Daniel Cohen began by thanking Graham for his support of Israel, but then asked, “And I’d like to ask any Democrat senator here that would like to speak to Rashida Tlaib. She still has a tweet up condemning Israel for a hospital attack.”
Graham replied, “We are here together, not to talk about the problems at home, which are many.”
Cohen pressed: “It’s a question.”
That’s when Graham grew angry.
“You’re not going to screw this up!” Graham shouted.
Cohen: “I’m not trying to screw it up.”
That only made Graham angrier, leading him to suggest Cohen should be removed.
“Get this guy out of here!”
Graham then pounded the podium and declared:
“I’m an American. And I believe in free speech. I don’t believe what the squad has to say at all. But I came here with Democrats and Republicans to let everybody in the world know.”
“Don’t judge every Democrat by the squad, and don’t judge every Republican by some of the things you hear.”
A few minutes later, Graham offered an apology to the reporter: “And I’m sorry, my friend. I probably shouldn’t have said it, but my nerves are raw right now.”
A 2017 meeting failed former president Donald Trump held in the Oval Office with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, is once again in the spotlight as questions about how Israel could have been so unprepared for the Hamas terror attack are being raised, with some suggesting that intelligence data Trump shared with the two Russians may have found its way into the hands of Iran, which passed it along to Hamas to aid their planning of the deadly assault launched from the Gaza Strip.
Israel, we later learned, was the source of that intelligence, as NBC noted in May 2017:
The link to Israel was first reported by the New York Times a day after it was disclosed that Trump gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intelligence about a laptop bomb threat and revealed the Syrian city where the information was collected.
And now Senior White House Communications Adviser Andrew Bates is hinting that Trump may have been partially responsible for the Hamas attack that has left over 1,000 Israelis dead.
According to Mediaite, Bates made the claim in response to a Twitter post from former Trump administration official Stephen Miller.
Stephen just made news by apparently telling on what the definition of “lid” meant during the “executive time” administration.
Soon there was a deluge of discussion and accusation on Twitter.
I’m guessing, but:
– Trump sharing Israeli intel with Russia – Photos of intel in the MAL shitter – Trump’s general disregard for intel – Trump’s efforts to discredit intel agencies,
probably cooled intel sharing with the US from Israel and the Five Eyes. https://t.co/uj2Lcs45Ej
Does anyone one think that Trump showing Classified Israeli Intelligence to Lavrov in the Oval Office played any part in the Intelligence failure that led to the horrors were now witnessing?
It’s important to note that at the moment there is no direct evidence the information Trump shared with the two Russians was used to plan the Hamas attack on Israel, but shouldn’t there at least be congressional investigations into the matter? And if a link can be proven, what additional crimes should Donald Trump be charged with?
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley got a heavy dose of fact-checking Sunday when she began spouting lies during an appearance on “Meet the Press.”
Host Kristen Welker asked Haley if she thought it was irresponsible of Republicans to blame President Joe Biden for attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists that have left at least 600 Israelis dead.
“Do you think it was irresponsible of your rivals to level that allegation without any evidence or proof?”
Instead, Haley decided she’d attack Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, suggesting that the $6 billion which is scheduled to be returned to Iran played a role in the attacks.
“They go and spread terrorism every time they get a dollar; it doesn’t go to the Iranian people; it does go to terrorist attacks, and Secretary Blinken is just wrong to imply that this money is not being moved around as we speak and yet, and that’s it.”
Welker pushed back:
“And yet, ambassador, there’s just no proof of that. Yet this is just the hours after that immediate attack. Is it irresponsible to level that charge when you really don’t have any evidence of that at this point in time?”
Rather than directly respond, Haley tried to change the parameters of the discussion.
“The evidence is look at what the Iranian people have done to freedom-loving people around the world look at what the Iranian people the Iranian regime has done to threaten Israel over the years.”
Once more, Welker corrected the former UN ambassador for the Trump administration.
“Ambassador Haley, just to be clear again, the secretary of state said categorically they have not seen a link.”
As is so often the case, a member of the GOP (especially one running for president) is only too happy to disseminate lies and conspiracy theories because they have no actual answers or policies of their own. And yet they wonder why the majority of Americans don’t believe a word they say.
Failed former president Donald Trump is once again proving that he’ll never be anything more than a puppet for Russian president Vladimir Putin, bragging that he was the “apple” of Putin’s eye when he was still in the White House.
During an interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, Trump remarked:
“Putin would have never gone into Ukraine, but that was just on my relationship with him. My personality over his. [He] would have never gone in. I used to speak to him. I was the apple of his eye, but I said ‘Don’t ever do it.’ It was tough stuff there, but he would have never done it.”
Trump says Putin "would have never gone into Ukraine" if he was still president, citing "my relationship with him" and because "I was the apple of his eye." pic.twitter.com/W8rPR8iPVp
Trump’s comment was met with immediate criticism across the political spectrum, with some calling Trump a “useful American idiot” for Putin.
Imagine, just imagine, if Barack Obama in any of his 8 years in office had proudly and publicly referred to himself as ‘the apple of [Putin’s] eye”. The right would have had an immediate and nonstop meltdown. Fox would have demanded impeachment and indictment 24/7. https://t.co/B15PKG0Yd4
Reminder: Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014. His army was fighting there every minute Trump was president. Not only did Trump never do anything to stop it, he curried favor with Putin, he spouted Kremlin propaganda & he withheld aid to Ukraine while trying to blackmail its president. https://t.co/oDUQ1gEL11
A perverse truth here. Helping Trump into the US presidency was Putin's supreme accomplishment as dictator. A Trump 2nd term would have wrecked NATO from within. With no one to help it, Ukraine would have been easy pickings for Putin. https://t.co/LFH94h09Sz
According to some pundits, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is the most likely candidate to win the 2024 GOP presidential nominiation.
And yet, DeSantis continues to prove that he’s not exactly ready for primetime and isn’t the kind of person who is easily embraced by voters.
For example, consider what he recently said about his constant harping on the issue of what he labels “woke” ideology:
It’s no wonder then that a reporter from the Times of London recently sat down and spoke with DeSantis, though he came away wondering why anyone would ever vote for the man.
The Times of London, it should be noted, is owned by Rupert Murdoch, which may explain why DeSantis sat for the interview in the first place.
The reporter, David Charter, who also serves as US editor for the Times, asked DeSantis about the reputation he has for being awkward, cold, and unlikeable, to which the governor responded:
“You’ll sometimes read stuff, like DC public gossip, they’re like, oh, you know, he’s not social. Because honestly, when I was in Congress, I wasn’t there to party. I didn’t want to be part of that scene. My job was to represent the people. So I would do my job and I would go to my office, sleep on the couch, wake up, do it the next day, and I didn’t really have time for any of the other stuff. I just wanted to focus on the task at hand. And now it’s, like, I’m not out dealing with political people unless I have to. If I’m going to be out, doing different stuff, I’d rather my wife be with me, or kids be with me. So that’s just the decision that you make.”
Fair enough, but then Charter mentioned that DeSantis had recently criticized President Joe Biden for his policy on Ukraine, which he slammed as “blank check” diplomacy that reeks of “weakness.”
How would a President DeSantis differ from Biden on Ukraine? Charter tried to find out, but hit a brick wall.
I ask about Ukraine and he says that “there’s a critique of Biden, and I think I’m sympathetic to it in the sense that, is our policy just do whatever Zelensky wants? Or do we have a concrete idea of what we’re trying to achieve exactly?”
When I ask him how it should be handled differently, he refers to Biden being “weak on the world stage” and failing at deterrence, but as that is not answering how it should be handled now, I ask again. DeSantis does not have anything to add: “Perhaps you should cover some other ground? I think I’ve said enough.”
Said enough? You didn’t say a damn thing! All you did was hem and haw, then clam up when asked for specifics.
Ron DeSantis is not ready for primetime. He’s a cold fish and a devious wannabe fascist who needs to stay in the Sunshine State and then disappear from the public scene as soon as his term in office is over.
