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- ‘That Was a Misspoke’: GOP Senator Tussles With Reporters Over Whether Or No...
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) walked back his characterization of the Trump administration’s ongoing military operation against Iran on Tuesday when reporters pushed him on calling it a “war.” Mullin took questions from reporters on Capitol Hill and was asked about who might next lead Iran, “Are there measures being taken not to eliminate other possible alternatives to leadership?” “This is war, and we’re taking out the threat. And if you’re part of the threat, then you’re a target. What we call not all the arrows, but going after the archers,” Mullin replied. “You will concede this is war,” pressed CNN’s Manu Raju. “We haven’t declared war. They declared war on us, but we haven’t,” Mullin shot back. “The president called it war, and Secretary Hegseth,” Raju pressed as Mulling repeated, “We haven’t declared it.” “Just now you said, ‘This is war.’ You called it war,” pressed another reporter. “They’ve called it war,” Mullin repeated as a reporter added, “You just said—” “Okay, well, that was a misspoke,” Mullin replied, adding, “But I was saying that they’ve declared war on us. But war is ugly. It always has been ugly. But we’re, you know, we’ve taken out a regime that’s been trying to attack us for quite some time.” “You’re not conceding this is war,” Raju pressed again. “We haven’t declared war. So if we haven’t declared war, then I don’t see that. The president hasn’t asked us to declare war yet, but they have declared war on us. We’re simply fighting the threat that’s been at our door for 47 years,” Mullin replied. Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.The post ‘That Was a Misspoke’: GOP Senator Tussles With Reporters Over Whether Or Not US Is at ‘War’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - Fox’s Dana Perino Defends Hillary Clinton and Blasts Republicans Over Epstein ...Fox News’ Dana Perino came to the defense of Hillary Clinton and warned Republicans they need to do better picking their “battles” following closed-door testimony by Clinton on convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. On Tuesday’s The Five, Perino said she understood why Clinton became irritated and stormed out of her recent hearing. Clinton became angry 80 minutes into the deposition after a photo of her in the room was leaked by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). “I’m done with this! If you guys are doing that, I am done! You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home,” Clinton said at the time, before storming out and later returning to finish the deposition. Perino argued Clinton had every right to be upset by the photo, and she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, were rightfully upset that they were not granted a public hearing, which they requested. While Bill Clinton had a relationship with Epstein, though he says he was never aware of his crimes, Hillary Clinton denied a direct relationship. She told reporters after her deposition that she’d been asked about everything from UFOs to conspiracy theories. Perino said: I don’t blame her for getting mad. The Clintons asks for a public hearing and they were denied a public hearing because [Republicans] wanted to do it behind closed doors because they were gonna get all of this great information. You can look at the tape, is there great information that came out? But if you leak a photo to social media because that’s more important to you than adhering to the rules, then yeah, you are going to get slapped down like that. She also advised Republicans to put a little more thought into which “battles” they take on. “For the Republicans, I would say there are a lot of problems in this country, pick your battles,” Perino said. “This isn’t one of them.” Watch above via Fox News.The post Fox’s Dana Perino Defends Hillary Clinton and Blasts Republicans Over Epstein Hearing: ‘I Don’t Blame Her For Getting Mad’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
- Senator Says Trump Officials ‘Told Us’ In Iran Briefing There Will Be ‘Mor...Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) sounded the alarm on Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s military actions in Iran, claiming that administration officials told lawmakers “that there are gonna be more Americans that are gonna die.” Murphy spoke to the press after a closed door breifing surrounding the administration’s ongoing campaign in Iran. The senator said that Trump officials told lawmakers directly that they expected further American casualties due to the conflict. “This is as serious as it gets. This is war and peace,” he said. “They told us in that room that there are gonna be more Americans that are gonna die, that they’re not gonna be able to stop these drones.” Trump made a similar prediction on Sunday in a six-minute video message on Truth Social, praising U.S. soldiers who had already lost their lives in the conflict before claiming that there would be more to come. “We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen,” he said. “And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is, likely be more.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who also attended Tuesday’s Iran briefing, told the press that he, too, was fearful about further American casualties, claiming that after speaking to Trump officials, the possibility of American troops being sent to Iran seemed much more likely. “I just want to say that I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have,” he said. Trump has refused to rule out putting American troops on the ground in Iran, leading many in Congress to seek ways to restrict the president’s power to wage a longer-term conflict. In his remarks to the press on Tuesday, Murphy urged a vote on a resolution to invoke the War Powers Act, which would require the administration to make a case for continued military action in Iran and face a vote in Congress after 60 days. “We have to have a debate in the US Senate on an authorization of military force,” he said, adding that the vote “will likely fail.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced on Tuesday that the Senate would likely vote on the War Powers Act the… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
- Hasan Piker Sparks Fury on the Right With Comments on How to Make Explosive Dron...
Screenshot via Twitch Popular progressive streamer Hasan Piker sparked fury on the right this week with commentary on how easy it is to build an explosive drone and arguing that kamikaze drone attacks should replace suicide bombing. Piker was live-streaming on Twitch, where he is one of the platform’s most-popular hosts, and was showing clips of Iranian drones hitting targets around the Gulf in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. “Again, that’s a Shahed drone. Like, that’s crazy. Bro. You really actually don’t need, like… I was thinking about this with, like, the Afghanistan Taliban-Pakistan fight that was taking place. And I was really thinking about this—you really don’t need suicide bombing anymore, you know?” Piker told his audience, adding: Cause, like, the Taliban guy was like, “Oh, you have nuclear arms, but we have suicide bombers. Like, we’ll just blow up your country with suicide bombers.” And it’s like, you really don’t need that anymore in drone warfare, right? You don’t need that at all. Just make f*cking drones. You can purchase them from, you know, you can buy them in the online marketplace. Like, China literally sells explosive ordnance delivery mechanisms that you can put on a DJI drone that you purchase, like, at virtually no significant cost in comparison to, like, the sophisticated equipment that you need to put together. So… um, I guess, like, at that point, you’re doing that for the love of the game, right? Like, you’re doing suicide bombing just for the love of the game because, like, you want to keep it old school? Is that what it is? Why is bro saying that? I’m just saying it’s, like, insane that—I mean, this is basically functionally what you could get away with if you facilitated, like, a somewhat good, difficult-to-pull-off suicide bombing strike, right? And instead, you’re just using a Shahed drone that’s, like, $10,000? Piker’s commentary was clipped by the anti-Semitism watchdog Canary Mission and quickly went viral on social media, with many from the right pushing the FBI to get involved. Piker has stoked controversy in the past for his positive takes on Hezbollah and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen — both dubbed terrorist organizations by governments around the world. National Republican Congressional Committee Deputy Executive Director Jack Pandol shared the clip and wrote, “The ‘Joe Rogan of the left’ who said America deserved 9/11 tells his… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - ‘We May Be Putting Boots on the Ground’: Senator Alarmed by Iran Briefing Wi...Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said he is worried that the U.S. may deploy soldiers in Iran amid its ongoing bombing campaign against the country. The U.S. and Israel began striking targets across Iran on Saturday. Dozens of high-ranking officials were killed, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Hundreds of civilians have also died in the bombings, one of which hit a school in southern Iran, killing more than 165 people, most of them young girls. Six U.S. service members in Kuwait were killed in an Iranian retaliatory strike. President Donald Trump has said the campaign could last a month or longer. On Tuesday, senators attended a closed-door briefing with Trump administration officials, who apparently did nothing to ease Democratic senators’ concerns. Addressing reporters on Capitol Hill after the briefing, Blumenthal said he believes the deployment of soldiers to Iran is a real possibility: I just want to say that I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have. But I also have no more clear on what the priorities are going to be of the administration going forward, whether it is destroying the nuclear capacity of Iran or simply the missiles or regime change or stopping terrorist activities. And I think the administration owes it to the American people to have briefings not just for members of Congress, but for the American public. Nothing here should have been classified. It should be available to the American people. CNN’s Manu Raju then asked the senator about a claim by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said Iran was planning to attack imminently before the U.S. and Israel started bombing the country. “Is that the way they described it in here?” Raju inquired. “I will give you my impression, which is that there is still no evidence, none, of an imminent threat that would justify an attack on Iran,” Blumenthal responded. “No imminent threat to the United States has been set forth to me, but more important, the American people.” Watch above via C-SPAN.The post ‘We May Be Putting Boots on the Ground’: Senator Alarmed by Iran Briefing With Trump Officials first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
- A Dire Warning From the Tech World
Dean Ball helped devise much of the Trump administration’s AI policy. Now he cannot believe what the Department of Defense has done to one of its major technology partners, the AI firm Anthropic.After weeks of negotiations, the Pentagon was unable to force Anthropic to accede to terms that, in Anthropic’s telling, could involve using AI for autonomous weapons and the mass surveillance of Americans, as my colleague Ross Andersen reported over the weekend. So the government has labeled the company a supply-chain risk, effectively plastering it with a scarlet letter. The Pentagon says that this means Anthropic will be unable to work with any company that contracts with the administration. That could include major technology companies that provide infrastructure for Anthropic’s AI models, such as Amazon. The supply-chain-risk designation is normally reserved for companies run by foreign adversaries, and if the order holds up legally, it could be a death blow for Anthropic.[Read: Inside Anthropic’s killer-robot dispute with the Pentagon]Ball, now a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, was traveling in Europe as all of this was unfolding last week, staying up as late as 2 a.m. to urge people in the administration to take a less severe approach: simply canceling the contract with Anthropic, without the supply-chain-risk designation. When his efforts failed, Ball told me in an interview yesterday, “my reaction was shock, and sadness, and anger.”In the aftermath of the decision, Ball published an essay on his Substack casting the conflict in civilizational terms; the Pentagon’s ultimatum, in his reckoning, is “a kind of death rattle of the old republic, the outward expression of a body that has thrown in the towel.” The action, he wrote, is a repudiation of private property and freedom of speech, two of the most fundamental principles of the United States. In today’s America, Ball argued, the executive branch has become so unstoppable—and passing laws has become so challenging—that the president and his officials can do whatever they want. (When reached for comment, a White House spokesperson told me in a statement that “no company has the right to interfere in key national security decision-making.”)Yesterday, I called Ball to discuss his essay and why the standoff with Anthropic feels, to him, like such a dire sign for America. Ball is far from a likely source of such harsh criticism: He’s a Republican with close ties to the Trump administration who departed… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
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