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Today's News (2020/6/29): Fascism Flailing edition
It's been a bad couple of days for Donkeyballs Donald.
----- 1 -----
Russian operation targeted coalition troops in Afghanistan, intelligence finds
By Ellen Nakashima, Missy Ryan, John Hudson and Shane Harris
June 27, 2020 at 1:25 p.m. PDT
Add to list
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russian-operation-targeted-coalition-troops-in-afghanistan-intelligence-finds/2020/06/26/ac710092-b80f-11ea-9b0f-c797548c1154_story.html
A Russian military spy unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan, including U.S. and British troops, in a striking escalation of the Kremlin’s hostility toward the United States, American intelligence has found.
The Russian operation, first reported by the New York Times, has generated an intense debate within the Trump administration about how best to respond to a troubling new tactic by a nation that most U.S. officials regard as a potential foe but that President Trump has frequently embraced as a friend, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive intelligence matter.
The officials said administration leaders learned of reported bounties in recent months from U.S. intelligence agencies, prompting internal discussions, including a large interagency meeting in late March. According to one person familiar with the matter, the responses discussed at that meeting included sending a diplomatic communication to relay disapproval and authorizing new sanctions.
Spokesmen for the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment.
In a statement late Saturday Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said he had “confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence” related to a Russian bounty, and that all news reports “about an alleged briefing are inaccurate.”
Ratcliffe’s statement, and an earlier statement by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, did not address the accuracy of the reported intelligence information.
Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on Saturday said he was “outraged” by the reported intelligence and by what appeared to be inaction from the administration. Trump’s “entire presidency has been a gift to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said. “But this is beyond the pale.”
----- 2 -----
Video retweeted by Trump shows supporter yelling "white power"
28 June 2020
https://www.axios.com/trump-tweet-white-power-ff76fd0a-06d9-4495-82af-ea811ed9abf9.html
President Trump tweeted, "Thank you to the great people of The Villages" on Sunday morning in response to a video of protesters verbally clashing with Trump supporters — including one man who yelled "white power" while passing in a golf cart.
The latest: Trump appeared to have deleted the tweet around 11am ET Sunday, about three hours after posting it. White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement: “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”
Why it matters: Trump has already been accused of inflaming racial tensions in the U.S. at a time of nationwide backlash over the killing of George Floyd. The White House did not respond when asked whether Trump condemned the supporter’s comment.
Details: The first clip in the montage shows protesters chanting "racist" at a white couple driving by in a golf cart bearing "Trump 2020" and "America First" signs. The man driving the cart gives a thumbs up and yells back, "White power!"
----- 3 -----
Trump’s attacks seen undercutting confidence in 2020 vote
By JILL COLVIN
June 28, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/trumps-attacks-seen-undercutting-confidence-in-2020-vote/
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a startling declaration about one of the pillars of American democracy, all the more so given its source.
The president of the United States last week publicly predicted without evidence that the 2020 presidential election would be “the most corrupt election in the history of our country.”
“We cannot let this happen,” Donald Trump told an audience of young supporters at a Phoenix megachurch. “They want it to happen so badly.”
Just over four months before Election Day, the president is escalating his efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote.
It’s a well-worn tactic for Trump, who in 2016 went after the very process that ultimately put him in the White House. He first attacked the Republican primaries (“rigged and boss controlled”) and then the general election, when he accused the media and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign of conspiring against him to undermine a free and fair election.
“The process is rigged. This whole election is being rigged,” he said that October when polls showed him trailing Clinton by double digits as he faced a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations.
Then, as now, election experts have repeatedly discredited his claims about widespread fraud in the voting process.
In a country with a history of peaceful political transition, a major-party candidate’s efforts to delegitimize an election amounted to a striking rupture of faith in American democracy. But to do the same as president, historians say, is unprecedented.
“Never,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley when asked whether any past U.S. president had ever used such language. “What you’re seeing is someone who’s an autocrat or a dictator in action.”
----- 4 -----
House Dems propose strengthening Congress’ contempt power to break administration stonewalls
“We've seen unprecedented and illegal obstruction by the Trump administration to Congress,” Ted Lieu said.
By KYLE CHENEY
06/29/2020 10:00 AM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/house-democrats-propose-strengthening-congress-contempt-power-344208
House Democrats increasingly frustrated by the Trump administration for defying subpoenas are proposing legislation that would ratchet up their power to punish executive branch officials who reject their requests.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), and five other members of the House Judiciary Committee, unveiled a rule change Monday to formalize and expand Congress' power of "inherent contempt" — its authority to unilaterally punish anyone who defies a subpoena for testimony or documents.
Though Congress has long had inherent contempt power, it has been in disuse since before World War II. This power, upheld by courts, has included the ability to levy fines and even jail witnesses who refuse to cooperate with congressional demands.
But such extreme measures have fallen out of favor over the years, as Congress has relied instead primarily on litigation to enforce its subpoenas and officials across government have acknowledged the unappetizing prospect of using force to impose its will. It's even trickier when applied to a coequal branch of government, which may have its own privileges and protections to assert.
----- 5 -----
YouTube bans Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, Richard Spencer, and more for hate speech
Bans come after YouTube’s 2019 policy update
By Julia Alexander Jun 29, 2020
YouTube has banned several prominent white supremacist channels, including those belonging to Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer.
Other channels banned include American Renaissance (with its associated channel AmRen Podcasts) and the channel for Spencer’s National Policy Institute. The channels repeatedly violated YouTube’s policies, a YouTube spokesperson said, by alleging that members of protected groups were inferior. These come alongside other violations that led to YouTube taking action.
“We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Verge. “After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies.”
YouTube began cracking down on supremacist channels in June 2019. The company issued updated rules prohibiting “videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status.” Channels that repeatedly brush up against this type of content but don’t cross the line will receive other penalties, including losing access to YouTube’s Partner Program and not being able to monetize their videos.
A number of the creators affected have already started tweeting about their bans. Spencer tweeted that he will “appeal the suspension” and called the ban a “systemic, coordinated effort.” Molyneux tweeted that YouTube “just suspended the largest philosophy conversation the world has ever known.”
----- 6 -----
Reddit Finally Bans Hate Speech, Removes 2,000 Racist and Violent Forums Including The_Donald
by Todd Spangler
Published 10:00 am PDT, Monday, June 29, 2020
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/reddit-bans-hate-speech-groups-removes-2000-subreddits-donald-trump-1234692898/
Reddit first launched as an online discussion site in June 2005. Now, 15 years later, it has finally taken action to officially ban hate speech and groups that promote it.
A revised Reddit content policy, announced Monday, explicitly states that groups or users that “incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability” are prohibited. “Everyone has a right to use Reddit free of harassment, bullying and threats of violence,” it says.
With the updated content policy, Reddit is initially banning about 2,000 subreddits, most of which are inactive, the company said. Included in the purge is The_Donald, a pro-Donald Trump forum notorious for users posting racist, misogynistic, anti-Islam and anti-Semitic content. At one point, The_Donald had nearly 800,000 active users.
In 2015, Reddit adopted a new content policy and banned several blatantly racist subreddits. But until today, the official rules still did not explicitly forbid hate or racist forums.
Reddit CEO/co-founder Steve Huffman, in an post about the new policy, said “I admit we have fallen short” in supporting the site’s communities and moderators with respect to adopting a comprehensive anti-hate policy.
----- 7 -----
Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
29 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1277646067690078211
Facebook and Twitter say this video does not violate their rules. Pelosi’s office had asked them to remove it.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
29 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1277609490196594690
This Trump video, posted on Twitter and Facebook, is egregiously deceptive. It takes quotes from Biden (about Covid response), Pelosi (about fam separation) and AOC (about her politics) far out of context to wrongly make it seem they endorsed violence.
Full fact check coming.
[EMBEDDED IMAGE: SCREENCAP of Donald Trump tweet with video]
----- 8 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
29 June 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1277604595800440832
Missing from twitter.com/PressSec’s explanation: Why these particular supporters are demonized.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Annie Karni
twitter.com/anniekarni
29 June 2020
"His point in tweeting out that video was to stand with his supporters, who are oftentimes demonized," says twitter.com/PressSec, on Fox, explaining why Trump tweeted out a video of a supporter at The Villages yelling "white power."
----- 9 -----
From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials
By Carl Bernstein, CNN
Updated 7:51 PM ET, Mon June 29, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html
(CNN)In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.
The calls caused former top Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as intelligence officials -- to conclude that the President was often "delusional," as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign leaders. The sources said there was little evidence that the President became more skillful or competent in his telephone conversations with most heads of state over time. Rather, he continued to believe that he could either charm, jawbone or bully almost any foreign leader into capitulating to his will, and often pursued goals more attuned to his own agenda than what many of his senior advisers considered the national interest.
These officials' concerns about the calls, and particularly Trump's deference to Putin, take on new resonance with reports the President may have learned in March that Russia had offered the Taliban bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan -- and yet took no action. CNN's sources said there were calls between Putin and Trump about Trump's desire to end the American military presence in Afghanistan but they mentioned no discussion of the supposed Taliban bounties.
By far the greatest number of Trump's telephone discussions with an individual head of state were with Erdogan, who sometimes phoned the White House at least twice a week and was put through directly to the President on standing orders from Trump, according to the sources. Meanwhile, the President regularly bullied and demeaned the leaders of America's principal allies, especially two women: telling Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom she was weak and lacked courage; and telling German Chancellor Angela Merkel that she was "stupid."
----- 10 -----
AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019
By JAMES LaPORTA
29 June 2020
https://apnews.com/425e43fa0ffdd6e126c5171653ec47d1
Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence.
The assessment was included in at least one of President Donald Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings at the time, according to the officials. Then-national security adviser John Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019.
The White House did not respond to questions about Trump or other officials’ awareness of Russia’s provocations in 2019. The White House has said Trump was not — and still has not been — briefed on the intelligence assessments because they have not been fully verified. However, it is rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of a doubt before it is presented to top officials.
Bolton declined to comment Monday when asked by the AP if he had briefed Trump about the matter in 2019. On Sunday, he suggested to NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump was claiming ignorance of Russia’s provocations to justify his administration’s lack of a response.
“He can disown everything if nobody ever told him about it,” Bolton said.
The revelations cast new doubt on the White House’s efforts to distance Trump from the Russian intelligence assessments. The AP reported Sunday that concerns about Russian bounties were also included in a second written presidential daily briefing earlier this year and that current national security adviser Robert O’Brien had discussed the matter with Trump. O’Brien denies he did so.
----- 11 -----
Trump ‘white power’ tweet set off a scramble inside the White House — but no clear condemnation
By Ashley Parker and Toluse Olorunnipa
June 29, 2020 at 3:39 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-white-power-tweet-set-off-a-scramble-inside-the-white-house--but-no-clear-condemnation/2020/06/29/6fd88c2c-ba21-11ea-8cf5-9c1b8d7f84c6_story.html
President Trump’s tweet landed at 7:39 a.m. Sunday morning, and senior White House advisers say they immediately realized they had a problem.
The president had shared a video on Twitter that included a Trump supporter shouting “white power” at counterprotesters during a demonstration at the Villages, a retirement community in central Florida, and had called his supporters there “great people.”
Senior staffers quickly conferred over the phone and then began trying to reach the president to convey their concerns about the tweet. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, son-in-law Jared Kushner and other senior advisers spoke with president, said several people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of private conversations.
Roughly three hours later, the president gave the go-ahead to delete his incendiary tweet — moved, in large part, by the public calls from Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s only black Republican, to do just that, aides said.
- Russian operation targeted coalition troops in Afghanistan, intelligence finds
- Video retweeted by Trump shows supporter yelling "white power"
- Trump’s attacks seen undercutting confidence in 2020 vote
- House Dems propose strengthening Congress’ contempt power to break administration stonewalls
- YouTube bans Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, Richard Spencer, and more for hate speech
- Reddit Finally Bans Hate Speech, Removes 2,000 Racist and Violent Forums Including The_Donald
- This Trump video, posted on Twitter and Facebook, is egregiously deceptive.
- Missing from twitter.com/PressSec’s explanation: Why these particular supporters are demonized.
- From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials
- AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019
- Trump ‘white power’ tweet set off a scramble inside the White House — but no clear condemnation [EDITOR: It took aides _three hours_ to convince him to delete the "White Power" tweet.]
----- 1 -----
Russian operation targeted coalition troops in Afghanistan, intelligence finds
By Ellen Nakashima, Missy Ryan, John Hudson and Shane Harris
June 27, 2020 at 1:25 p.m. PDT
Add to list
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russian-operation-targeted-coalition-troops-in-afghanistan-intelligence-finds/2020/06/26/ac710092-b80f-11ea-9b0f-c797548c1154_story.html
A Russian military spy unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan, including U.S. and British troops, in a striking escalation of the Kremlin’s hostility toward the United States, American intelligence has found.
The Russian operation, first reported by the New York Times, has generated an intense debate within the Trump administration about how best to respond to a troubling new tactic by a nation that most U.S. officials regard as a potential foe but that President Trump has frequently embraced as a friend, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive intelligence matter.
The officials said administration leaders learned of reported bounties in recent months from U.S. intelligence agencies, prompting internal discussions, including a large interagency meeting in late March. According to one person familiar with the matter, the responses discussed at that meeting included sending a diplomatic communication to relay disapproval and authorizing new sanctions.
Spokesmen for the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment.
In a statement late Saturday Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said he had “confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence” related to a Russian bounty, and that all news reports “about an alleged briefing are inaccurate.”
Ratcliffe’s statement, and an earlier statement by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, did not address the accuracy of the reported intelligence information.
Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on Saturday said he was “outraged” by the reported intelligence and by what appeared to be inaction from the administration. Trump’s “entire presidency has been a gift to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said. “But this is beyond the pale.”
----- 2 -----
Video retweeted by Trump shows supporter yelling "white power"
28 June 2020
https://www.axios.com/trump-tweet-white-power-ff76fd0a-06d9-4495-82af-ea811ed9abf9.html
President Trump tweeted, "Thank you to the great people of The Villages" on Sunday morning in response to a video of protesters verbally clashing with Trump supporters — including one man who yelled "white power" while passing in a golf cart.
The latest: Trump appeared to have deleted the tweet around 11am ET Sunday, about three hours after posting it. White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement: “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”
Why it matters: Trump has already been accused of inflaming racial tensions in the U.S. at a time of nationwide backlash over the killing of George Floyd. The White House did not respond when asked whether Trump condemned the supporter’s comment.
Details: The first clip in the montage shows protesters chanting "racist" at a white couple driving by in a golf cart bearing "Trump 2020" and "America First" signs. The man driving the cart gives a thumbs up and yells back, "White power!"
----- 3 -----
Trump’s attacks seen undercutting confidence in 2020 vote
By JILL COLVIN
June 28, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/trumps-attacks-seen-undercutting-confidence-in-2020-vote/
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a startling declaration about one of the pillars of American democracy, all the more so given its source.
The president of the United States last week publicly predicted without evidence that the 2020 presidential election would be “the most corrupt election in the history of our country.”
“We cannot let this happen,” Donald Trump told an audience of young supporters at a Phoenix megachurch. “They want it to happen so badly.”
Just over four months before Election Day, the president is escalating his efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote.
It’s a well-worn tactic for Trump, who in 2016 went after the very process that ultimately put him in the White House. He first attacked the Republican primaries (“rigged and boss controlled”) and then the general election, when he accused the media and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign of conspiring against him to undermine a free and fair election.
“The process is rigged. This whole election is being rigged,” he said that October when polls showed him trailing Clinton by double digits as he faced a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations.
Then, as now, election experts have repeatedly discredited his claims about widespread fraud in the voting process.
In a country with a history of peaceful political transition, a major-party candidate’s efforts to delegitimize an election amounted to a striking rupture of faith in American democracy. But to do the same as president, historians say, is unprecedented.
“Never,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley when asked whether any past U.S. president had ever used such language. “What you’re seeing is someone who’s an autocrat or a dictator in action.”
----- 4 -----
House Dems propose strengthening Congress’ contempt power to break administration stonewalls
“We've seen unprecedented and illegal obstruction by the Trump administration to Congress,” Ted Lieu said.
By KYLE CHENEY
06/29/2020 10:00 AM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/house-democrats-propose-strengthening-congress-contempt-power-344208
House Democrats increasingly frustrated by the Trump administration for defying subpoenas are proposing legislation that would ratchet up their power to punish executive branch officials who reject their requests.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), and five other members of the House Judiciary Committee, unveiled a rule change Monday to formalize and expand Congress' power of "inherent contempt" — its authority to unilaterally punish anyone who defies a subpoena for testimony or documents.
Though Congress has long had inherent contempt power, it has been in disuse since before World War II. This power, upheld by courts, has included the ability to levy fines and even jail witnesses who refuse to cooperate with congressional demands.
But such extreme measures have fallen out of favor over the years, as Congress has relied instead primarily on litigation to enforce its subpoenas and officials across government have acknowledged the unappetizing prospect of using force to impose its will. It's even trickier when applied to a coequal branch of government, which may have its own privileges and protections to assert.
----- 5 -----
YouTube bans Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, Richard Spencer, and more for hate speech
Bans come after YouTube’s 2019 policy update
By Julia Alexander Jun 29, 2020
YouTube has banned several prominent white supremacist channels, including those belonging to Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer.
Other channels banned include American Renaissance (with its associated channel AmRen Podcasts) and the channel for Spencer’s National Policy Institute. The channels repeatedly violated YouTube’s policies, a YouTube spokesperson said, by alleging that members of protected groups were inferior. These come alongside other violations that led to YouTube taking action.
“We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Verge. “After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies.”
YouTube began cracking down on supremacist channels in June 2019. The company issued updated rules prohibiting “videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status.” Channels that repeatedly brush up against this type of content but don’t cross the line will receive other penalties, including losing access to YouTube’s Partner Program and not being able to monetize their videos.
A number of the creators affected have already started tweeting about their bans. Spencer tweeted that he will “appeal the suspension” and called the ban a “systemic, coordinated effort.” Molyneux tweeted that YouTube “just suspended the largest philosophy conversation the world has ever known.”
----- 6 -----
Reddit Finally Bans Hate Speech, Removes 2,000 Racist and Violent Forums Including The_Donald
by Todd Spangler
Published 10:00 am PDT, Monday, June 29, 2020
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/reddit-bans-hate-speech-groups-removes-2000-subreddits-donald-trump-1234692898/
Reddit first launched as an online discussion site in June 2005. Now, 15 years later, it has finally taken action to officially ban hate speech and groups that promote it.
A revised Reddit content policy, announced Monday, explicitly states that groups or users that “incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability” are prohibited. “Everyone has a right to use Reddit free of harassment, bullying and threats of violence,” it says.
With the updated content policy, Reddit is initially banning about 2,000 subreddits, most of which are inactive, the company said. Included in the purge is The_Donald, a pro-Donald Trump forum notorious for users posting racist, misogynistic, anti-Islam and anti-Semitic content. At one point, The_Donald had nearly 800,000 active users.
In 2015, Reddit adopted a new content policy and banned several blatantly racist subreddits. But until today, the official rules still did not explicitly forbid hate or racist forums.
Reddit CEO/co-founder Steve Huffman, in an post about the new policy, said “I admit we have fallen short” in supporting the site’s communities and moderators with respect to adopting a comprehensive anti-hate policy.
----- 7 -----
Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
29 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1277646067690078211
Facebook and Twitter say this video does not violate their rules. Pelosi’s office had asked them to remove it.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
29 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1277609490196594690
This Trump video, posted on Twitter and Facebook, is egregiously deceptive. It takes quotes from Biden (about Covid response), Pelosi (about fam separation) and AOC (about her politics) far out of context to wrongly make it seem they endorsed violence.
Full fact check coming.
[EMBEDDED IMAGE: SCREENCAP of Donald Trump tweet with video]
----- 8 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
29 June 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1277604595800440832
Missing from twitter.com/PressSec’s explanation: Why these particular supporters are demonized.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Annie Karni
twitter.com/anniekarni
29 June 2020
"His point in tweeting out that video was to stand with his supporters, who are oftentimes demonized," says twitter.com/PressSec, on Fox, explaining why Trump tweeted out a video of a supporter at The Villages yelling "white power."
----- 9 -----
From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials
By Carl Bernstein, CNN
Updated 7:51 PM ET, Mon June 29, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html
(CNN)In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.
The calls caused former top Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as intelligence officials -- to conclude that the President was often "delusional," as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign leaders. The sources said there was little evidence that the President became more skillful or competent in his telephone conversations with most heads of state over time. Rather, he continued to believe that he could either charm, jawbone or bully almost any foreign leader into capitulating to his will, and often pursued goals more attuned to his own agenda than what many of his senior advisers considered the national interest.
These officials' concerns about the calls, and particularly Trump's deference to Putin, take on new resonance with reports the President may have learned in March that Russia had offered the Taliban bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan -- and yet took no action. CNN's sources said there were calls between Putin and Trump about Trump's desire to end the American military presence in Afghanistan but they mentioned no discussion of the supposed Taliban bounties.
By far the greatest number of Trump's telephone discussions with an individual head of state were with Erdogan, who sometimes phoned the White House at least twice a week and was put through directly to the President on standing orders from Trump, according to the sources. Meanwhile, the President regularly bullied and demeaned the leaders of America's principal allies, especially two women: telling Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom she was weak and lacked courage; and telling German Chancellor Angela Merkel that she was "stupid."
----- 10 -----
AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019
By JAMES LaPORTA
29 June 2020
https://apnews.com/425e43fa0ffdd6e126c5171653ec47d1
Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence.
The assessment was included in at least one of President Donald Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings at the time, according to the officials. Then-national security adviser John Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019.
The White House did not respond to questions about Trump or other officials’ awareness of Russia’s provocations in 2019. The White House has said Trump was not — and still has not been — briefed on the intelligence assessments because they have not been fully verified. However, it is rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of a doubt before it is presented to top officials.
Bolton declined to comment Monday when asked by the AP if he had briefed Trump about the matter in 2019. On Sunday, he suggested to NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump was claiming ignorance of Russia’s provocations to justify his administration’s lack of a response.
“He can disown everything if nobody ever told him about it,” Bolton said.
The revelations cast new doubt on the White House’s efforts to distance Trump from the Russian intelligence assessments. The AP reported Sunday that concerns about Russian bounties were also included in a second written presidential daily briefing earlier this year and that current national security adviser Robert O’Brien had discussed the matter with Trump. O’Brien denies he did so.
----- 11 -----
Trump ‘white power’ tweet set off a scramble inside the White House — but no clear condemnation
By Ashley Parker and Toluse Olorunnipa
June 29, 2020 at 3:39 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-white-power-tweet-set-off-a-scramble-inside-the-white-house--but-no-clear-condemnation/2020/06/29/6fd88c2c-ba21-11ea-8cf5-9c1b8d7f84c6_story.html
President Trump’s tweet landed at 7:39 a.m. Sunday morning, and senior White House advisers say they immediately realized they had a problem.
The president had shared a video on Twitter that included a Trump supporter shouting “white power” at counterprotesters during a demonstration at the Villages, a retirement community in central Florida, and had called his supporters there “great people.”
Senior staffers quickly conferred over the phone and then began trying to reach the president to convey their concerns about the tweet. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, son-in-law Jared Kushner and other senior advisers spoke with president, said several people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of private conversations.
Roughly three hours later, the president gave the go-ahead to delete his incendiary tweet — moved, in large part, by the public calls from Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s only black Republican, to do just that, aides said.