Good Friday Morning!
Here’s what is on the President’s agenda today:
- In the morning, President Donald J. Trump will speak to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
- The President will then welcome President Moon of the Republic of Korea. Later in the morning, the President will meet with President Moon.
- The President will then give joint statements with President Moon.
- In the afternoon, the President and First Lady Melania Trump will depart the White House for Joint Base Andrews, en route to Bedminster, New Jersey.
Travel ban begins
The Trump administration’s temporary travel restrictions took effect yesterday evening.
The Trump administration’s revised ban went into effect at 8:00 p.m. ET Thursday, prohibiting people from from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days, and almost all refugees for 120 days, unless they were issued a valid visa, or they have “credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
Extended-family members like grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins may not claim a “close familial relationship,” and therefore not eligible, according to the State Department’s website. Fiancés were initially excluded and not considered a close familial relationship, but the department changed course when the ban took effect and allowed the exemption for fiancés as well.
Hawaii was ready for the ban and filed an emergency injunction on behalf of the state and an imam less than an hour before the directive was set to go into action.
In an emergency motion filed at 1:07 p.m. local time, lawyers for the state and a Honolulu imam asked a federal judge to decide whether the ban violates terms of a US Supreme Court ruling issued Monday.
Hawaii claims that the administration is improperly interpreting what a “close familial relationship” is.
Legal papers say the Supreme Court ruling “protects any foreign national with a ‘close familial relationship’ with a person in the United States.”
But Trump’s latest ban bars a host of people “with a ‘close familial relationship’ to US persons, including grandparents and grandchildren, brothers- and sisters-in-law, fiancés, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins,” the papers say.
“This Court should clarify as soon as possible that the Supreme Court meant what it said, and that foreign nationals that credibly claim connections with this country cannot be denied entry under the President’s illegal Order,” according to the filing.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International is using another tactic: projecting anti-travel ban messages on the side of the Trump Hotel.
https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/880609192259747841/video/1
Democrats, liberals suddenly care about rhetoric that incites violence
Sufficient time has passed since a lunatic Bernie Bro (who was a Democrat activist) tried to assassinate a group of Republican lawmakers practicing for a charity softball game, and now the left is worried about heated political rhetoric. The NRA and NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch are in their crosshairs.
The Washington Post is concerned about an NRA video featuring Loesch which the paper says sounds “like an excerpt from North Korean state television railing against the evil Americans and their corrupt democracy on the far side of the Pacific.”
The WaPo chronicles some “feedback” on the video, which was released two days before the Bernie Sanders supporter tried to kill the GOP congressmen.
“I hardly think that condemning violence is inciting violence,” she [Loesch] told the New York Times when asked to comment on the video. “I think the ad is very clear — there are excerpts from actual riots that are included in the ad, and that’s exactly what I’m addressing.”
It’s terribly disingenuous to pretend that both sides of the political spectrum are ginning up violence in equal measure and particularly to posture that a video pushing back on the growing violence from the left is itself an incitement to violence. Of course the left is resisting the effort to highlight their increasingly popular tactic of threatening Americans with violence and intimidation on account of political disagreements.
There is an effort to get the NRA video removed from Facebook. A petition reads:
“All we have to do is look at the increase in violence since the election to see how unchecked violent rhetoric has real life consequences. Letting this disturbing video stay on Facebook would be extremely irresponsible and could very well lead to disastrous repercussions.”
It describes Loesch’s narration:
In the ad, Loesch accuses “their” ex-president of endorsing “the resistance,” a movement of demonstrators who “smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports — bully and terrorize the law-abiding.”
The scare quotes are ridiculous. Those things actually happened and will continue to happen. Good luck with you effort, lefties, but the public knows who is really responsible for and encouraging violence.
Trump sends Feds to Chicago to deal with the city’s violence epidemic
President Trump promised he would have the Feds help with the killing zone that Chicago has become and that is exactly what’s is happening.
Months after taking to Twitter to say he would send in “the Feds” to help reduce the Chicago’s murder rate, President Trump’s administration has sent in agents to combat the ongoing violence, according to a local report.
Authorities confirmed Thursday to The Chicago Sun-Times about 20 additional agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been sent to the city.
Federal agents will work with state and local law enforcement.
The new set of agents will work with counterparts from the Chicago Police Department and Illinois State Police on a strike force to solve shootings and arrest gun traffickers, according to the Sun-Times.
Included in the strike force are prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office and Cook County state’s attorney’s office, the Sun-Times reports, who will decided whether suspects in gun crime should be charged in state of federal court.
“The goal is the [sic] prosecute as many of these guys as possible federally where they will serve longer prison terms,” Anthony Riccio, head of the Chicago Police Department’s organized crime unit, told the newspaper.
Liar Susan Rice set to testify behind closed doors
One of the Obama administration’s highest profile liars, Susan Rice, will testify before the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors some time next month.
Former national security adviser Susan Rice has agreed to meet with the House Intelligence Committee sometime next month as it continues to look into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, CNN reported Thursday.
Rice, who served in the Obama administration, has become a target for GOP lawmakers who say she mishandled classified intelligence documents.
Rice denies that she mishandled classified information.
Additionally, CNN reports:
President Donald Trump and Republicans have focused on allegations that Rice revealed the names of Trump’s transition aides in intelligence reports — called “unmasking” — saying that Obama officials were seeking to divulge damaging information about the Trump campaign.
Rice has vehemently denied doing anything wrong. But she has yet to answer questions from lawmakers, including declining a request to appear before a Senate judiciary subcommittee in May. And now, she has agreed to appear in a closed-door session that is expected to take place before the House departs for its August recess.
Prepare for the leaks following her testimony.
Other morsels:
The U.S. fertility rate just hit a historic low.
Trump nominates Kay Bailey Hutchison as next NATO ambassador
Shocking Facebook Live video captures man’s overdose
Kathy Griffin blasts Trump for attacking Mika on Twitter saying, ‘POTUS likes to punch down’
Facing arrest, man hands deputy “Get out of jail free” card
Trump nominates Indiana doctor for surgeon general
Nearly 2 tons of weed disguised as lettuce seized at Texas border
Sinkhole swallows car while owner exercises at a gym in St. Louis
That’s all I’ve got, enjoy your holiday weekend. And go beat back the angry mob!
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