Searchable News & Info From Reliable Online Sources.
- NBC’s Welker Straight-Up Asks Trump Energy Honcho ‘If You Were Prepared’ W...
NBC News anchor Kristen Welker straight-up asked Secretary of Energy Chris Wright why the Strait of Hormuz is “effectively closed” if the Trump administration was “prepared,” and got a puzzling response. As the Iran war enters its third week, 13 U.S. servicemembers have been killed, a preliminary military investigation has determined the US is responsible for the strike on an elementary school that killed at least 160 children, and attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have exacerbated surging prices and roiled the stock market. But Trump and his administration have kept up a steady drumbeat of attacks on the media for reporting on the full effect of the war. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth complained last week that reporting on troop deaths is intended to “make the president look bad,” and this week loudly demanded positive coverage from a “patriotic press corps.” Trump has been especially sensitive about the attacks on oil tankers, which reporters like Maggie Haberman and others have noted do not appear to have been successfully prepared for. On Sunday morning’s edition of NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, Welker confronted Wright over the vulnerability of the waterway, and Wright responded by pointing out something that should have been obvious before the war started: KRISTEN WELKER: Very quickly, Mr. Secretary. There’s a big debate over whether you all were prepared for what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz. If you were prepared, why is the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed right now? SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Because it’s right near the Iranian shoreline. The world is abundantly supplied with oil and energy. We knew there would be a short-term disruption in energy flows. And to hear Chuck Schumer say that we didn’t, is just so — he knows how foolish that is. And to say stuff to try to undermine the United States in the midst of a world-changing conflict just boggles my mind. But this mission was carefully planned out. It’s been superbly executed. On the other side, we’ll be in a much better place. KRISTEN WELKER: Okay. SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: The greatest driver of terrorism in the world, the greatest threat to global energy supplies will be defanged. Yes, we have disruption to get there. But we’re going to be in a much, much better place in the not-too-distant future. Watch above via NBC’s Meet the Press.The post NBC’s Welker Straight-Up Asks Trump Energy Honcho ‘If You Were Prepared’ Why Is Strait Closed? first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - NYT Columnist Thomas Friedman Fawns Over How Minnesota ‘Beat’ Trump’s ICE ...Thomas Friedman applauded his home state of Minnesota for fighting back against President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration on Sunday, both in his latest column in The New York Times and during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press. Friedman told moderator Kristen Welker that he was awestruck by Minnesotans who clashed with and protested against ICE. “It was actually the most remarkable act of civic courage by men and women not in uniform that I’ve ever seen in this country,” Friedman said. He made a similar claim in his NYT column, which celebrated how Minnesotans “beat” Trump and those running his immigration enforcement operation. Friedman explained he went back to Minnesota and saw how the locals were “propelled” by the act of “neighboring” — or alerting “the good people next door” that ICE was coming. Friedman explained: Not because I favor illegal immigration, but because I oppose the fundamental indecency of President Trump and Stephen Miller and the blessedly now departed Kristi Noem trying to fulfill their daily quota for evicting illegal immigrants by arresting my neighbors, most of whom work hard, pay taxes, go to church or mosque and help me dig out my car from the snow in winter. His column and MTP appearance come after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by immigration agents in Minnesota earlier this year — which sparked a number of anti-ICE rallies from coast-to-coast. It also led to some Democratic lawmakers calling for ICE to be abolished. Friedman on Meet the Press said his view of “America First” is different than Trump’s version because it is not “selfish.” Instead, it is focused on protecting the “radically diverse” people who live in the USA, whether they are legal or illegally in the country. He said that is vital because everyone is facing the same issues, whether it is the fear of nuclear weapons or the rise of artificial intelligence. “We’re going to rise together, baby, or we’re going to fall together, baby,” Friedman said. “But baby, whatever we’re doin’, we’re doin’ it together.” Welker said they had to end the interview on that “very powerful note.” Watch above.The post NYT Columnist Thomas Friedman Fawns Over How Minnesota ‘Beat’ Trump’s ICE Crackdown: ‘The Most Remarkable Act of Civic Courage’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago
- House Democrat Who Supported Iran War Wavers: ‘This Should Be the Beginning of...SiriusXM host and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams pressed Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) on whether he continued to support Donald Trump’s military action against Iran. “You are one of the few Democrats that supported striking Iran,” Abrams said on his show Friday. “Have you changed your view based on what this administration has done and said?” Landsman said he hasn’t changed his view on the necessity of the operation, but “the way in which I’ve talked about it has changed.” “[Pete] Hegseth and Trump have been so reckless in their rhetoric, and I think it’s really important for me to continue to say, look, the operation, in terms of destroying what was the beginnings of a missile shield around the enrichment work, needed to go,” the congressman said. “And this is an operation to get rid of the missiles and the rockets and the drones that were making up that missile shield.” Landsman continued: But General [Dan] Caine…he has been very clear about the operation, how it’s targeted, that it should not take but a few weeks, and he’s the one briefing us. And unfortunately, Trump and Hegseth are briefing the American people when they’ve caused so much chaos and frustration and uncertainty. And I probably would have spent more time saying this president needs to do the lock-in on communicating this effectively, because, it’s one thing to make the decision to move forward with the operation — it’s another thing to go in and sell it and really bring people along, which they have failed to do. Abrams said that at the outset of the war, “I was generally supportive of the mission. And certainly I’ve always said I want us to win, I want us to succeed. But my concern was, I didn’t trust this administration to oversee it, in particular with the president and Pete Hegseth in charge. And as a result, because it wasn’t being done legally and properly through Congress, I couldn’t support what was happening. “You went further though,” Abrams told the congressman. “You were supporting it happening the way it did at the outset. And I guess that’s where I’m going to follow up again and say, based on everything we know, do you still support your position?” “Yeah, I still support the strikes,” Landsman said. “I do believe that based on the operation and how successful they’ve been at getting rid of… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago
- Trump Official Proposes Replacing 200-Year Old White House Columns
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) A Trump administration official is proposing an ornate upgrade to the 200-year-old White House columns at the building’s main entrance, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the Trump-appointed head of the Commission of Fine Arts, wants to replace the Ionic columns with fancy Corinthian columns, like those at the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court, the report said. Trump has used Corinthian columns on his properties, and plans to install them in his $400 million White House ballroom, as well, according to The Post. “Corinthian is the highest order [of column], and that’s what our other two branches of government have,” Cook told The Washington Post. “Why the White House didn’t originally use them, at least on the north front, which is considered the front door, is beyond me.” A White House spokesperson said there were “no plans” to change the current columns, and Cook said he has not directly discussed his idea with Trump. “But Cook’s proposal to overhaul the front entrance to the White House, known as the North Portico, reflects a common dynamic in Trump’s Washington, where the president’s deputies and allies often anticipate and implement his desires — and frequently upend decades of tradition and norms in the process,” the report said. The Post asked Steven Semes, a professor and expert in classical architecture, about the proposal. “The Corinthian would be inappropriate for the Executive Residence,” Semes said, warning that it would “harm” the original design. Semes said the Ionic columns evoke “the character of dignity, grace and a kind of intimacy or domesticity,” of the People’s House, while Corinthian columns are “used to express the height of formality and monumentality” for buildings like the Capitol. “Several former federal arts commissioners expressed similar concerns, adding that any changes to the executive mansion should go through a formal review process,” the report said. Trump skipped the formal review process before tearing down the East Wing of the White House to begin construction on his 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Trump administration in December over work that had already begun.The post Trump Official Proposes Replacing 200-Year Old White House Columns first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago - MTG Cries ‘Vicious and Evil’ People Are Attacking Tucker Carlson to Stop Him...
Tucker Carlson, right, talks with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene during the final round of the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster, N.J., Sunday, July 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Recently-retired congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene jumped to Tucker Carlson’s defense on Sunday, one day after the commentator said the Justice Department was preparing to charge him with being an unregistered foreign agent. Greene said “vicious and evil” people from both the right and the left are attacking Carlson because they are “terrified” he will run for president. That apparently spurred the CIA to recommend the DOJ prosecute Carlson after reading his text messages leading up to the war against Iran, according to Greene. “If you’re noticing Tucker Carlson being attacked from literally every direction of the political machine,” Greene posted, “It’s because they are terrified of him running for president. Because he would win and they know it.” She added: And that’s why I’m deeply concerned for my friend Tucker Carlson and his family. These people are vicious and evil and will attempt to destroy anyone and everyone that reveals the truth. If you’re noticing Tucker Carlson being attacked from literally every direction of the political machine. It’s because they are terrified of him running for president. Because he would win and they know it. And that’s why I’m deeply concerned for my friend Tucker Carlson and… — Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (@FmrRepMTG) March 15, 2026 Her defense came the day after Carlson claimed the DOJ would soon charge him for being an unregistered foreign agent; Carlson said he was being targeted for “talking to people in Iran before the war,” which he said the CIA found out by spying on his text messages. Carlson and MTG have a fair amount in common. For starters, they are both highly critical of Israel — which Carlson suggested may have played a role in the CIA spying on him. He said on Saturday that “some” CIA workers could be targeting him because of his “views about Israel.” And President Donald Trump branded MTG a “traitor” and withdrew his support for her late last year, similar to how he recently threw Carlson out of his Make America Great Again movement. Trump booted Carlson after he criticized the joint U.S. and Israeli strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of other leaders. Carlson called the… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago - Netanyahu Trolls Conspiracy Theorists Duped Into Thinking He Was Dead by AI Vide...Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trolled conspiracy theorists on X Sunday, after AI-generated rumors swirled about his demise. The death hoax allegedly began by Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, “a media outlet linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” that “claimed the prime minister was killed in a missile strike last week, a story then amplified across social media,” i24 News reported. The report added, “An image allegedly showing Netanyahu being pulled from rubble was an AI fabrication,” while “AI-generated videos claiming Tel Aviv has been ‘flattened’ have become one of the war’s most virulent falsehoods.” The scuttlebutt about Netanyahu’s alleged assassination gained steam on social media after conspiracy theorists claimed they counted six fingers on his hand as he gave a speech. Some postulated that the video of Netanyahu’s speech was generated by AI, which meant that the real Netanyahu was dead. The prime minister posted a video to X on Sunday that showed him grabbing a cup of coffee at a local shop. “I love coffee, I love my nation,” a smiling Netanyahu said in Hebrew that was translated into English by The Jerusalem Post. The prime minister then asked the person recording him if they wanted to count his fingers before Netanyahu held up his hands, one after another, to show he only had five fingers on each hand. The translated Jerusalem Post report continued: He followed this by urging the Israeli public to stay near sheltered areas even as they go outside, and that the public’s strength “gives him, the government, the IDF, and the Mossad strength.” “We are doing things that I can’t share at the moment,” he said, adding that the IDF has and will continue striking Iran and Lebanon “very hard.” “You tell me to keep going?” he said. “I’m telling you also. Keep going.” “Keep listening to the Home Front Command’s instructions all the time, the mayors, and to always stay near shelter,” Netanyahu concluded, adding that restrictions will ease when the situation allows. Both Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump have long been considered targets of the Iranian regime, never more so than now as strikes rain down on the Islamic Republic.The post Netanyahu Trolls Conspiracy Theorists Duped Into Thinking He Was Dead by AI Video first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.5 hours ago
The Searchable USWebDaily.com and TheTopNews NewsBank Helps You Be Better Informed, Faster! Spread The Word.
