CENTCOM Commander Who Oversaw Afghanistan Pullout Blames Biden and Trump

Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, who oversaw the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as commander of U.S. Central Command, placed blame on both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump for how the war ended in an interview Sunday.

McKenzie made the comments in a wide-ranging discussion with defense journalist Jennifer Griffin on Fox News Sunday about the end to the nation’s longest war and the fallout from it. McKenzie, who retired in April after 42 years of service, was asked about Biden and Trump individually. He reiterated that he opposed a complete military exit from the failed state, arguing to Griffin after she asked about the chaotic August withdrawal that the decision to eliminate any troop presence was largely responsible for what went wrong.

“Subsequently, after we made the decision to go to zero, the decision to try to maintain an embassy platform until far too late contributed also to what happened in August,” McKenzie said. “Those are, I think, two of the big decisions that led us to the events that you just described.”

Asked if Trump’s Doha Agreement, the U.S.-Taliban withdrawal deal, was responsible for the collapse of the Afghan government, McKenzie offered his most pointed criticism of both commanders-in-chief. (Read more from “CENTCOM Commander Who Oversaw Afghanistan Pullout Blames Biden and Trump” HERE)

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Judge Might Grant Something ‘Special’ for Trump Following FBI Raid

. . .It seems the core of this raid was to warn the former president not to run again in 2024 and that they want some documents back, papers which Trump quite possibly was allowed to possess.

Spencer wrote that Trump wanted a “special master” to review the seized records, which isn’t an abnormal motion. Trump also wants to prevent federal agents from reviewing the documents until a special master is appointed. A federal judge granted a premilitary motion to do just that on Saturday (via Fox News):

A federal judge on Saturday announced her “preliminary intent to appoint a special master” to review records seized by the FBI during its unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, at the request of former President Trump and his legal team, citing the “exceptional circumstances.”

Trump and his legal team filed a motion Monday evening seeking an independent review of the records seized by the FBI during its raid of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, saying the decision to search his private residence just months before the 2022 midterm elections “involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice in the Republican Party, President Trump.”

(Read more from “Judge Might Grant Something ‘Special’ for Trump Following FBI Raid” HERE)

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DEADLY DISCOVERY: Border Protection Agents Seize Enough Fentanyl to Kill Millions

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized an estimated $4.3 million worth of fentanyl pills on Wednesday evening.

The seizure happened in the Tuscon, Arizona Sector when agents conducted a vehicle stop on a white Chevy Equinox and observed several duffel bags in the car, according to a press release. Agents also noticed that the female driver was “noticeably nervous as she was questioned.” Another female was in the car, and both are U.S. citizens, according to officials.

CBP agents then searched the vehicle with her consent, and found three bags that contained packages wrapped in black tape, in addition to being coated in axle grease, according to the government agency.

It was later determined that the 340 packages of fentanyl pills weighed a total of 187 pounds and was estimated to have been worth $4.3 million.

(Read more from “DEADLY DISCOVERY: Border Protection Agents Seize Enough Fentanyl to Kill Millions” HERE)

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Biden Uses the F-Word to Describe MAGA Republicans

This week, President Joe Biden rolled out a new adjective to describe Republicans in the mold of former President Donald Trump: “semifascist.”

Biden first publicly used the term at a Democratic National Committee reception ahead of an end-of-summer rally for the coming midterm elections.

While exuding confidence that the forces of democracy were defeating the Trump Republicans, on the heels of recent Democratic momentum, Biden warned that “the entire philosophy that underpins” their politics is “almost like semifascism, the way in which it deals.”

Despite the “almost,” “like,” and “semi” qualifiers, it was a major rhetorical escalation from Biden.

Biden has long suggested that Trump’s political movement was anti-democratic, especially following the former president’s 2020 election challenges, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College results, and the enactment of Republican voting laws in several GOP-run states. (Read more from “Biden Uses the F-Word to Describe MAGA Republicans” HERE)

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Here’s What We Still Don’t Know After Release of Redacted FBI Trump Raid Affidavit

Friday’s unsealing of the affidavit tied to the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate has raised more questions than answers.

West Palm Beach US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhardt had ordered the Justice Department earlier in the week to prepare a redacted version of the document in which authorities laid out their reasons for the controversial Aug. 8 search-and-seizure operation at Mar-a-Lago. . .

Reports have said an informant tipped off authorities about official documents that remained in Trump’s possession even though they were supposed to have been turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration when he left office last year. . .

The blacked-out-affidavit doesn’t provide any new details about the 11 sets of classified records seized during the raid, but it alleges that 14 of the 15 boxes of records recovered from Trump’s West Palm Beach mansion earlier this year contained classified documents. . .

The blacked-out affidavit doesn’t reveal the targets or subjects of the Justice Department probe, but anyone who allegedly moved or hid classified records could face prosecution, according to USA Today. (Read more from “Here’s What We Still Don’t Know After Release of Redacted FBI Trump Raid Affidavit” HERE)

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79% Say ‘Truthful’ Coverage of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Would Have Changed 2020 Election

Nearly four of five Americans who’ve been following the Hunter Biden laptop scandal believe that “truthful” coverage would have changed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, according to a new poll.

A similar percentage also said they’re convinced that information on the computer is real, with just 11% saying they thought it was “created by Russia,” according to the survey conducted by the New Jersey-based Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics.

And an even higher number — 81% — said US Attorney General Merrick Garland should appoint a special counsel to investigate matters related to the first son’s infamous laptop, the existence of which was exclusively revealed by The Post in October 2020.

The poll results, published Wednesday, are based on responses from 437 adults who said they were following the laptop story “very” or “somewhat” closely when they were surveyed online earlier this month, according to the TIPP.

On the subject of the 2020 election, 79% overall said it was “very” or “somewhat” likely that “a truthful interpretation of the laptop” would have resulted in the reelection of former President Donald Trump instead of the election of President Biden. (Read more from “79% Say ‘Truthful’ Coverage of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Would Have Changed 2020 Election” HERE)

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Two More States Follow California’s Ban on New Gas Cars

Washington and Massachusetts are following a policy from California to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

Rules from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) require 35% of new vehicles to produce zero emissions by 2026 before rising to a 68% benchmark by 2030 and a 100% level by 2035. Both Washington and Massachusetts had enacted legislation conforming the states to recommendations from CARB as of 2019, according to the agency.

“If you are low income, you can get your home entirely weatherized through the expansion from the bipartisan infrastructure laws,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said earlier this month on Fox News. “If you are moderate income, today you can get 30% off the price of solar panels. Those solar panels can be financed, so you don’t have to have the big outlay at the front … If you don’t qualify for the weatherization program, you will be able to, starting next year, get rebates on the appliances and equipment that will help you reduce your monthly energy bill by up to 30%. That is all about reducing costs for people.” (Read more from “Two More States Follow California’s Ban on New Gas Cars” HERE)

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Ranked-Choice Voting Is a Nightmare — And It’s on the Ballot in Nevada

The electoral battleground of Nevada could become the next state to adopt a ranked-choice voting system for future primary and general elections.

Set to appear on the ballot for the upcoming midterm elections, the initiative — if successfully passed — would amend the constitution of Nevada by implementing a ranked-choice voting system for both state and federal primary and general elections, in which primaries “would be opened up to all voters regardless of political party.” Under such a system, voters would rank their top five preferred primary candidates, with the top five overall vote-getters advancing to the general contest.

In the general election, if a candidate fails to garner “an outright majority (more than 50 percent),” the candidate who has the “fewest first-preference votes would be eliminated, with their ‘votes’ redistributed based on the second preference of those individual ballots.” Such a process “would continue until the final two candidates, or when one candidate reached a majority.”

While largely ignored by America’s corporate press, the ballot initiative to completely overhaul Nevada’s election system has silently been gaining traction among state voters. During the first quarter of 2022, Nevada Voters First, a political action committee devoted to the expansion of ranked-choice voting in the state, and other supporters of the measure raised approximately $2.2 million to assist in advancing the passage of the initiative. Moreover, a recent survey of nearly 1,000 registered voters conducted by The Nevada Independent and OH Predictive Insights found growing support among Nevadans for ranked-choice voting, with 42 percent of those surveyed supporting the 2022 ballot initiative and 27 percent opposing. (Read more from “Ranked-Choice Voting Is a Nightmare — And It’s on the Ballot in Nevada” HERE)

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GOP Rails Against Biden’s Half a Trillion Dollar Loan Forgiveness Plan

According to an analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, President Biden’s debt cancellation plan will cost between “$440 billion and $600 billion over the next ten years,” and Republicans are continuing to warn that the move is not fiscally responsible or fair.

President Biden on Wednesday announced his plan to forgive a portion of student loan debt for those earning less than $125,000 per year.

According to a graphic shared by Biden, under the plan, those making less than $125,000 will see $20,000 forgiveness if they went to college on a Pell Grant, and $10,000 for those who did not receive Pell Grants:

While some Democrats say the plan does not go far enough, most are celebrating it as a step in the right direction, while conservatives continue to warn that it is yet another irresponsible and unfair fiscal move at the hands of Democrats.

“Why should a machinist in Ohio pay for the student loans of a jobless philosophy major in Los Angeles?” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked on Thursday:

(Read more from “GOP Rails Against Biden’s Half a Trillion Dollar Loan Forgiveness Plan” HERE)

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Donald Trump Trolls FBI With Redacted ‘Make America Great Again’ Statement: ‘They Missed a Page!’

Former President Donald Trump mocked the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) heavily redacted search warrant affidavit that was used as the basis for the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

DOJ released the affidavit on Friday after Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the search warrant, ordered the underlying affidavit to be unsealed on Thursday. However, the released affidavit was heavily redacted after Judge Reinhart found the federal government provided “good cause” to keep portions of the document under seal.

The redactions were put in place “in order to protect the safety of multiple civilian witnesses,” according to a DOJ filing.

Trump mocked the highly redacted document in a statement issued several hours after the affidavit was released.

“They missed a page,” Trump said, along with an edited version of the document that redacted all but four words: Make America Great Again.

(Read more from “Donald Trump Trolls FBI With Redacted ‘Make America Great Again’ Statement: ‘They Missed a Page!’” HERE)

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