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- Markwayne Mullin Reveals He Found Out Trump Was Tapping Him to Replace Kristi No...
Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) revealed President Donald Trump told him that he’d be replacing Kristi Noem as the head of DHS only just before the news became public. Speaking with reporters on his way into the Capitol on Thursday, the senator said little about his new gig. “The president and I [have] still got to communicate, so we’ll talk about it moving forward,” Mullin said. “The president and I already talked, obviously [before] the statement went out, but we need to talk with the president, and we’re trying to get on the same page.” “When did you find out, sir?” A reporter asked. “A little bit before you guys did,” Mullin replied — before scurrying inside. The comments track with reporting from CNN’s Manu Raju — who said that Mullin claimed he had not spoken with Trump as of 12:30 p.m. ET Thursday, less than 90 minutes before the president announced Noem’s ouster via Truth Social. “It is unclear exactly when it was informed to Mullin that he would be Donald Trump’s pick because he did speak to reporters at about 12:30 this afternoon, he was asked about these rumors about Trump floating his name as a replacement,” Raju said. “At that point, he said he had not spoken to Trump all week. And then he went, he was holed up with the number two Senate Republican, John Barrasso, he was not seen for some time. He left the Capitol without commenting, perhaps taking a call from the president at that point. So [the news was] a surprise to many here, and maybe even to Senator Mullin.” Watch above, via Fox News.The post Markwayne Mullin Reveals He Found Out Trump Was Tapping Him to Replace Kristi Noem Right Before the Public Did first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.1 hour ago - Fox’s Chad Pergram Reminds Viewers of That Time Markwayne Mullin Almost Came t...Fox News’s Chief Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram joined America Reports on Thursday to discuss the breaking news that President Donald Trump had fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and replaced her with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). “Thanks so much for letting you gather some more information. Chad Pergram joining us now from Capitol Hill. He’s got more on the Senator and his qualifications to be Homeland Security Secretary, Chad,” began anchor John Roberts. “Well, you have to think about somebody who would be confirmed in the Senate. And usually the Senate looks at people who are one of their own, somebody who is known, even if you disagree with their policies, as somebody who’s pretty confirmable,” Pergram replied, adding: That we don’t know yet. Chris Coons, the Democratic Senator from Delaware just a couple of moments ago, I said when he was asked about Markwayne Mullin and whether or not he thought he could do the job, he said, “We’ll see,” but he said it would be hard, you know, to do any worse basically than Kristi Noem, at least in the eyes of Chris Coons. This is something where this is going to be a safe seat in Oklahoma where they could appoint somebody. You know, you’re not going to change the vote matrix in the Senate there. It’s going to be a Republican. And they’re not going to have any problems probably getting re-elected in a special election or whatever they would have to do, but they have to get through that process of confirmation. You might remember that really for quite a period during the second part of President Trump’s first administration that they had acting Homeland Security Secretaries. And I think at the end of the day we’ll look back at those two hearings in both the Senate and the House of Representatives the past couple of days on Capitol Hill as not even the—the camel that broke—uh, the straw that broke the camel’s back, but kind of a hammer. I mean, I mean, it was pretty obvious to some people on Capitol Hill that Kristi Noem was probably living on borrowed time. But again, Markwayne Mullin, who is somebody close to the President, he’s somebody who is dialed in closely with the Senate Republican leadership and, you know, it would not be surprising to me to probably have a couple of Democrats who… [TheTopNews] Read More.1 hour ago
- Top Trump Pentagon Official Says He’s ‘Not The Right Person’ to Ask If the...Elbridge Colby, who serves as the under secretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon, demurred when a Democratic congresswoman asked whether the U.S. was “at war” with Iran. The Trump administration has sent mixed signals on whether the military action against Iran is an actual “war” or merely a “conflict,” since Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution permits only Congress to officially declare war, which it has not done in this case. Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) denied that the U.S. is at war. “We’re not at war right now, we’re four days into a very specific, clear mission and operation,” Johnson told reporters at his weekly press conference, even though Iran had declared war on the United States and President Donald Trump has repeatedly called the operation a “war.” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) asked Colby Thursday, “Are we at war with Iran?” “I think we’re in a military action at this point. I’ll leave it to Congress and lawyers, etc., from the administration to determine,” Colby answered. “Okay, so, yesterday, the president said, ‘We are doing very well on the warfront,’ and previously, he said, We should expect American casualties because — quote — ‘that often happens in war,'” Jacobs said. “Is the president wrong when he says we are at war?” “Well, I won’t add or subtract to anything the president — I won’t presume to do so,” Colby answered. “But I know this is a material matter in front of the Congress and between the administration. I’m not the right person to weigh in on exactly the criteria.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also referred to the military action as “war.” “This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said this week. This week, Senate Republicans voted down legislation that could have stopped the U.S. military action in Iran. The war powers resolution brought by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) failed 47-53, mostly along party lines, except for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who voted in favor, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who voted against it.The post Top Trump Pentagon Official Says He’s ‘Not The Right Person’ to Ask If the US Is At War first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
- Trump War Honcho Bristles When Dem Asks Point-Blank ‘Who Won the 2020 Election...Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby bristled when Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) asked him point-blank “Who won the 2020 election?” at a hearing. President Donald Trump has spent years falsely claiming that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him and/or “stolen” from him, despite the fact that former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in an electoral landslide that has been reaffirmed over and over by state officials from Trump’s own party and dozens of court decisions. Colby faced questions at a hearing on “Defense Policy and Strategy” before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, many of which had to do with Trump’s war with Iran. But Rep. Goodlander wrapped up her questioning by putting Colby on the spot about Trump’s claims. While Colby bristled about the relevancy of the question and refused to answer, he did refer to the election results as “a matter of political contention”: REPRESENTATIVE MAGGIE GOODLANDER (D-NH): Mr. Colby, concerns have been raised on a bipartisan basis in this hearing about your commitment to the truth, and I want to give you an opportunity to truthfully answer a very simple question, which is:. Who won the 2020 presidential election? UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY ELBRIDGE COLBY: Uh… Ma’am i’m gonna i’m not going to talk about that issue. It’s not irrelevant to my responsibilities here but i’d– I fully uh… rebut any uh… uh… characterization that I’m not being truthful. REPRESENTATIVE MAGGIE GOODLANDER (D-NH): Do you have any question about who won the 2020 presidential election? UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY ELBRIDGE COLBY: Ma’am that’s not in my– in my topic of responsibility, I’m here to talk about Defense appropriations– REPRESENTATIVE MAGGIE GOODLANDER (D-NH): Mr. Colby, you swore an oath to our Constitution–. UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY ELBRIDGE COLBY: I did, Ma’am. REPRESENTATIVE MAGGIE GOODLANDER (D-NH): You are a citizen, you’re a lawyer. UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY ELBRIDGE COLBY: I’m not a lawyer actually, but I went to law school. REPRESENTATIVE MAGGIE GOODLANDER (D-NH): Okay, well, in any event, you swore an oath to the Constitution. UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY ELBRIDGE COLBY: I did. REPRESENTATIVE MAGGIE GOODLANDER (D-NH): You will not answer this simple question. UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY ELBRIDGE COLBY: I’m not– Ma’am, I’m not going to be drawn out on an issue of political contention. It’s totally irrelevant to my testimony here. I’m here being very… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
- Trump Rages at AI Giant He Fired ‘Like Dogs’ After They Rejected Pentagon De...
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President Donald Trump raged at AI company Anthropic, bragging that he “fired” them “like dogs” after they rejected giving full access to their technology to the Pentagon. In a Thursday interview with Politico’s Dash Burns, Trump addressed the dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic, saying the AI company is now “in trouble.” “Well, I fired Anthropic. Anthropic is in trouble because I fired [them] like dogs, because they shouldn’t have done that,” he said. The president then went on to praise the state of the Pentagon and U.S. military under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. “You see how good Pete’s doing, and you see how good the military. And so we have an amazing military,” he said. “The whole world is seeing that now I built the military in my first term, and I’m using it in my second term.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei released a statement last month on the “discussions” the AI company was having with the Pentagon. He wrote: Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions. We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner. However, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values. Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do. Amodei explained that unfettered access does not work for the company as there are two areas they have no interest in providing technology services for: mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. “To our knowledge, these two exceptions have not been a barrier to accelerating the adoption and use of our models within our armed forces to date,” he wrote, adding they cannot “in conscience” agree to the Pentagon’s request for full access. Trump previously slammed Anthropic as a “radical woke company.” In the same interview with Burns, Trump predicted success from his strikes against Iran and vowed that Cuba’s regime will fall next if they don’t strike a deal soon with Washington, D.C. “How long have you been hearing about Cuba — Cuba, Cuba — for 50 years?” he said. “And that’s one of the small ones for me.”The post Trump Rages at AI Giant He Fired ‘Like Dogs’ After They Rejected Pentagon Demands first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - ‘I’d Be All For It’: Trump Encourages Iranian Kurds to Go On The Offens...President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday that it would be “wonderful” if Iranian Kurdish forces conducted a ground invasion inside of Iran. “I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” Trump told Reuters by phone. Reuters added of their discussion: When asked if the U.S. would provide or had offered air cover, he responded, “I can’t tell you that,” but added that the objective for the Kurds would be “to win.” “If they’re going to do that, that’s good,” Trump added. MS NOW’s Ana Cabrera discussed the possibility of Trump arming Kurdish fighters in Iran with her panel on Thursday morning. “David, you’ve been reporting on the possibility of the U.S. arming Iranian Kurds on the ground. What are you learning?” she asked senior national security reporter David Rohde. “What we’re talking about is possibly these are Iranian Kurds who live just outside of Iran in northern Iraq, and there’s been reporting that there was a CIA effort to begin arming them and possibly sending them over the border into Iraq,” Rohde replied, adding: Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, said yesterday that Donald Trump has not given any order for them to enter Iraq, but I think this is a card that the U.S. could possibly play. Now the reporting is only that it’s small arms, but the idea would be they could go in and possibly draw some Iranian military units away. But I want to caution: a senior U.S. intelligence official said the Kurds—the Iranian Kurds—represent only, you know, 10 to 15 percent of the entire population of Iran. They cannot single-handedly topple the government in Iran. They’re just not big enough. They would need many other groups to join them. So it’s just another possible development that they would cross into Iran. Again, our reporting is that that has not happened yet. “Yet, Colonel, we’ve seen this sort of strategy in Iraq. What are the risks of arming the Kurds?” Cabrera followed up, turning to retired Army Colonel Jack Jacobs. “Well, not much risk to us. We heard that they have small arms and automatic weapons—tactical weapons. And there are two things to think about this. First of all, as we’ve heard, there’s an insufficient number of Kurds to actually take on the Iranian army successfully in any case. They’re not properly armed or trained, and… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
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