Director of National Intelligence Resigns, Trump Announces Replacement

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President Trump on Sunday announced that Texas GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe, a staunch White House ally, will replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence (DNI), following months of speculation and public spats between the president and the intelligence community.

The move prompted immediate outrage from many top Democrats who accused the president of seeking to appoint a blindly loyal yes-man to the key post.

A source close to the matter told Fox News that Coats never saw his 2017 appointment as a long-term proposition. Ratcliffe has been well-versed in the intelligence community after driving key sections of ongoing Republican-led probes into apparent Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses by the FBI and Justice Department, Fox News is told.

Coats submitted his letter of resignation to President Trump on Sunday. Part of it read: “The Intelligence Community is stronger than ever, and increasingly well prepared to meet new challenges and opportunities. As we have previously discussed, I believe it is time for me to move on to the next chapter of my life.” . . .

Coats frequently appeared out of step with Trump during his two-year tenure, and their frayed relationship reflected broader divisions between the president and the government’s intelligence agencies. (Read more from “Director of National Intelligence Resigns, Trump Announces Replacement” HERE)

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Trump Is Ready to Label Antifa a Terrorist Organization

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President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday night to say he supports labeling Antifa a terrorist organization.

. . .

The declaration appears to come after conservative journalist Andy Ngo appeared on Fox News to discuss the Antifa attack he sustained last month. Ngo was beaten, had “milkshakes” filled with cement mixers thrown at him and his GoPro camera was stolen. He suffered a brain injury as a result of the beating.

Earlier this month, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced legislation that would label Antifa a terrorist organization. Cruz and Cassidy’s resolution was in direct response to Antifa’s attacks on Ngo in Portland last month.

(Read more from “Trump Is Ready to Label Antifa a Terrorist Organization” HERE)

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Watch: Sen. Bernie Sanders Trashed ‘Third World’ Baltimore Years Before Trump Did

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. . .Before diving into issues like Sanders’ Medicare-for-all plan, [CNN’s Jake] Tapper asked the senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate about President Trump’s recent remarks regarding Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and the city of Baltimore:

TAPPER: I know you want to talk about issues, but I do also want to talk about what President Trump said about your former colleague in the House Elijah Cummings and his district being “a disgusting rat and rodent infested mess that no human being would want to live in.” What’s your response?

SANDERS: Jake, it’s unbelievable that we have a president of the United States who attacks American cities, who attacks Americans, who attacks somebody who’s a friend of mine. Elijah Cummings is one of the most decent and outstanding members of the House of Representatives. He fights every day to improve life in his community.

. . .

Also on Sunday, the official “Trump War Room” Twitter account released a video from 2015 in which Sen. Sanders disparages West Baltimore:

But anyone who took the walk that we took around this neighborhood would not think you’re in a wealthy nation; you would think that you were in a Third World country. … But today, what we’re talking about is a community in which half of the people don’t have jobs. We’re talking about a community in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable. We’re talking about a community where kids are unable to go to schools that are decent.

(Read more from “Watch: Sen. Bernie Sanders Trashed ‘Third World’ Baltimore Years Before Trump Did” HERE)

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Trump Campaign Selling out of Straws, Expects to Raise $500k From Them by Next Week

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Last week, President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign began selling red plastic straws with his name on them.

My former colleague Philip Wegmann reported at RealClearPolitics that the campaign had originally ordered 200,000 straws but sold out of them quickly and had to order more. A campaign official told Real Clear that sales are expected to exceed $500,000 as early as next week. Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s communications director, told Real Clear that the “paper straw is universally hated.” . . .

Murtaugh also told the outlet that the campaign intended to sell the straws as “a proxy” for conservatives’ annoyance with Big Government and political correctness.

“It is a great marketing stroke which coincides very much with the president’s disdain for political correctness and dictating how people live their daily lives,” he said. “These straws are a perfect marriage of the Trump approach to things and of Trump-marketing. It just works.” . . .

Real Clear reported that the campaign has already sold $428,145 worth of straws, filling 28,543 orders. Murtaugh told the outlet that 40% of the purchases were from first-time donors. (Read more from “Trump Campaign Selling out of Straws, Expects to Raise $500k From Them by Next Week” HERE)

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Palestinians Are Greater Threat to Israel Than Iran, Expert Says

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The Palestinians pose a “greater threat to Israel than Iran and Syria,” the director of a Philadelphia-based think tank told Breitbart in a wide-ranging interview on the heels of a new poll that shows the overwhelming majority of Israelis (78%) do not see an end to the conflict in sight.

Gregg Roman, director of the Middle East Forum (MEF), cited demography, politicized violence and proximity as the reasons why the intransigent Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more dangerous to the future of the Jewish state than even Iran.

“The crux of the conflict is the Palestinian rejection of the right for Jews to have self-determination and live in their ancestral homeland,” Roman said.

“The Palestinians are rewarded for rejecting, Israelis are punished for accepting,” he said, and added that the problem was compounded by the fact that the Palestinians believe “time is on their side.” . . .

Roman pointed to recent statements made by President Donald Trump’s Special Mideast peace envoy Jason Greenblatt that put into question some of the thorniest issues in the conflict and core tenets on the Palestinian side, including the Palestinian refugee misnomer and the Palestinian “right” to a capital in east Jerusalem. (Read more from “Palestinians Are Greater Threat to Israel Than Iran, Expert Says” HERE)

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De Blasio Staffers Allegedly Call Bid for Presidency a ‘Joke’

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s staffers are reportedly not taking his bid for the White House very seriously.

“It’s a joke,” one of de Blasio’s long-time aides allegedly said.

“I think that he knows that he can’t win. It’s just a lot of eye-rolling . . . He’s doing it because he’s got a big ego and needs to prove something, and I don’t think he’s going to quietly go away and become an adjunct professor at Hunter,” the staffer told the New York Post, referencing a college in Manhattan. . .

In May, Breitbart News reported that President Trump had ridiculed de Blasio on Twitter regarding his decision to run for president in 2020.

“The Dems are getting another beauty to join their group. Bill de Blasio of NYC, considered the worst mayor in the U.S., will supposedly be making an announcement for president today,” he wrote. “He is a JOKE, but if you like high taxes & crime, he’s your man. NYC HATES HIM!” (Read more from “De Blasio Staffers Allegedly Call Bid for Presidency a ‘Joke’” HERE)

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State’s Assisted Suicide Law to Allow Terminally Ill Patients ‘Right to Die’

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New Jersey’s assisted suicide law goes into effect Thursday, allowing terminally ill patients to request a prescription from their doctors that would aid in ending their lives.

The law, which took eight years to pass in the state until Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy signed it in April, allows New Jersey residents with a terminal, incurable diagnosis that would end the person’s life in six months to request a prescription medication that would end their lives.

Patients would be required to ask their doctor twice in 15 days and submit a written request witnessed by two people stating that they are “fully informed” of alternatives, including palliative care and pain control. . .

The law is gaining momentum in several states— including Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont, Hawaii, and Colorado— and state health department records show that 3,478 people have died using assisted suicide methods since the law was passed. . .

“Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks,” the American Medical Association (AMA) wrote in May. (Read more from “State’s Assisted Suicide Law to Allow Terminally Ill Patients ‘Right to Die’” HERE)

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State Senator Threatened Repeatedly After Calling for Epstein Investigation, Calls Capitol Police

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By Tampa Bay Times. Florida Sen. Lauren Book has reached out to Capitol police after receiving an anonymous warning connected to her demand for a state inquiry into Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s handling of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s lenient work release program, the Miami Herald has learned.

Book, a vocal advocate for child sexual assault survivors, said she also received more than a dozen calls from Bradshaw’s political supporters asking her to back off on her call for an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into Bradshaw.

On Monday, Book, a Democrat, wrote a letter to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to authorize a probe into how Epstein, accused of molesting dozens of underage girls and a registered sex offender, was permitted to leave the Palm Beach County Jail and spend much of his 2008-2009 incarceration in an office in West Palm Beach. . .

“I’ve received countless phone calls saying ‘Little girl you don’t know what you’re getting into,’ and telling me that I should just stop,’’ said Book, a child sexual abuse survivor herself who has worked to pass strict sex offender laws in Florida. . .

The pressure against Book came on the same day that Epstein, 66, was found injured in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where he is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges brought earlier this month by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. His arrest stemmed from alleged behavior with underage girls dating back more than a decade in New York and Florida. Epstein was taken into custody July 6 after arriving at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport from Paris on his private jet. (Read more from “State Senator Threatened Repeatedly After Calling for Epstein Investigation, Calls Capitol Police” HERE)

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Judge signs protective order over materials feds to turn over to jailed financier Jeffrey Epstein

(Editor’s note: the materials covered by the protective order likely include images of other powerful individuals committing illegal acts)

By ABC News. Federal prosecutors in New York overseeing the case against millionaire Jeffrey Epstein are preparing to hand over highly-sensitive investigative material to the financier’s defense attorneys after a federal judge on Friday granted the government’s request to place a protective order on the documents.

Prosecutors sought the order because, they said in court filings, they intends to produce documents and materials that could … “affect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals…[and that] would impede, if prematurely disclosed, the Government’s ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals.”

When Epstein secured a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in southern Florida in 2008 over a previous investigation, the much-criticized deal also immunized any and all potential co-conspirators, known or unknown, and also included the names of four women who had been suspected by authorities of having facilitated or participated in alleged crimes against children. (Read more from “Judge signs protective order over materials feds to turn over to jailed financier Jeffrey Epstein” HERE)
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Epstein Investigation reveals Pedophile Moved Massive Amounts of Money out of Bank Earlier this Year; Was he Tipped Off?

By Chris Spargo. It was revealed earlier this week that Epstein managed to move money out of the country earlier this year from accounts he had at Deutsche Bank – despite the company severing all ties with the pedophile.

The New York Times reports that even baking officials failed to realize the possible financial crimes being committed by Epstein until after the fact, believing that the company had closed out all his accounts late last year.

Deutsche Bank now wants to make sure that none of the money being moved by Epstein was used to fund or in any way support the sex trafficking of underage females.

Epstein was making transactions as recently as May, and multiple sources said that once executives became aware of this potentially illegal activity it was reported to a federal agency that polices financial crimes. (Read more about the financial revelation from the Epstein investigation HERE)

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Bill de Blasio: Trump ‘Will Not Be Welcome Back in New York City’

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After receiving criticism from President Donald Trump, Democrat presidential hopeful, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio challenged him to a debate in New York and said he “will not be welcome back” after his presidency during a show hosted by BuzzFeed at Webster Hall in the East Village.

“I challenge you, Donald Trump, to come to New York City, and I will debate you about what’s right for New York City and BuzzFeed can host it,” de Blasio stated. “[Trump] doesn’t understand New York City.”

De Blasio then stated that after Trump’s presidency concludes, he will “not be welcome” back in the Big Apple.

“When his presidency is over, really soon, he will not be welcome back,” de Blasio told BuzzFeed Editor in Chief Ben Smith.

Earlier this week, President Trump urged de Blasio to “stand up” for the New York City police officers who were soaked by bucketfulls of water and had objects thrown at them.

(Read more from “Bill de Blasio: Trump ‘Will Not Be Welcome Back in New York City’” HERE)

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U.S. Citizen Was Reportedly Arrested at JFK Airport for Trying to Join the Taliban

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Authorities reportedly arrested a man from the Bronx at John F. Kennedy International Airport for trying to fly to the Middle East to join the Taliban. . .

According to New York’s WNBC-TV, the FBI had been aware of the man and had been monitoring him “for some time” before his arrest. He is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to the New York Post.

WPIX-TV reported the man was a 34-year-old U.S. citizen who had been born in Bangladesh. He had hoped to board Qatar Airlines flight 704, which was bound for Doha, Qatar. He never made it on the plane, which left Friday morning. . .

While the State Department designated the Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2010, it’s hold over large portions of Afghanistan has led the U.S. to seek to negotiate a peace deal between the group and the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

The U.S. attacked the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, after it offered sanctuary to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. At the time, the Taliban controlled the entire country through a brutal and oppressive regime. Currently, the Taliban controls roughly half of all territory in Afghanistan. (Read more from “U.S. Citizen Was Reportedly Arrested at JFK Airport for Trying to Join the Taliban” HERE)

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