Tag Archives : Build House

GOP report knocks Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal, eyes post-midterm scrutiny

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are using an interim report examining President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan to telegraph their plans to exercise intense scrutiny, and possible subpoenas, if the GOP clinches the majority in Congress in 2022. 

The strategy, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), is expected to be published this week in a 118-page, interim report called “‘A Strategic Failure’:  Assessing the Administration’s Afghanistan Withdrawal.” 

Included in the report are Republicans’ intentions, if they take the majority, to use subpoena power to compel officials to sit for transcribed interviews, naming 34 current and former officials that they say the State Department has blocked from appearing before the committee.  

They also intend to subpoena documents that they say the State Department has failed to provide, including “documents, messages, reports, legal opinions, meeting readouts, and other materials related to the withdrawal from Afghanistan.” 

“The Biden administration’s, and specifically the State Department’s, refusal to provide Congress with the necessary information regarding America’s unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan has hampered the Minority Committee’s ability to complete a thorough investigation,” the report, shared with The Hill, states.  

The report doesn’t deliver any smoking guns, instead offering a detailed look at an event that many Americans watched unfold on TV, horrified by scenes of chaos outside the airport and Afghans inside chasing after planes. 

It spends ample time analyzing Biden’s decision to continue to comply with timelines set forth in a deal first brokered by his predecessor, former President Trump. 

But Republicans primarily focus on a lack of planning leading up to the withdrawal and analyze a series of missteps and errors that complicated what was ultimately a deadly evacuation. 

“The Biden administration had largely wasted the four months since the president announced the full withdrawal, failing to adequately plan for the anticipated Taliban takeover,” the committee wrote.  

The report criticizes the lack of staffing at Afghanistan’s largest airport — both to manage crowds and to process the throngs of people desperate to leave. 

“The failure to anticipate a surge of refugees at the Kabul airport, often referred to as Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), despite the military assessing Kabul to be at risk of falling to the Taliban, combined with an inadequate number of U.S. personnel initially deployed, created the powder keg that exploded with the chaotic scenes that reverberated around the world, including images of Afghans falling to their deaths,” the lawmakers wrote.  

They also cited internal State Department memos showing that the number of consular officers in Kabul never surpassed 36 personnel, “roughly one consular officer for every 3,444 evacuees.” 

An initial draft report shared with reporters brought up a national security concern over the fate of 3,000 Afghan security forces that fled to Iran. However, the draft report failed to mention that most of these security forces reportedly returned to Afghanistan under a general amnesty, information that was included in a May 12 report from the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction and cited by the GOP. 

The report was updated after the exclusion was raised by The Hill and edited to reflect GOP concerns that the Biden administration had yet to deliver a strategy on addressing the threat of U.S.-trained Afghan military being recruited by adversaries.   

The GOP requests, in their report, that Biden officials appear for open hearings or risk being subpoenaed. The officials include: Secretary of State Antony Blinken; Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon; USAID Administrator Samantha Power; Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. 

Blinken last testified in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in September 2021, shortly after the withdrawal was completed. McKeon led a closed-door briefing for the committee in June that contained classified and unclassified portions. 

McCaul later appealed to the State Department that McKeon and other briefers release their unclassified remarks.  

“I would also like to once again ask that the State Department participate in more open/unclassified briefings and hearings before the full House Foreign Affairs Committee so that the American people can gain a better and more transparent understanding of what took place in Afghanistan during the final days of America’s presence there and the current realities on the ground,” McCaul wrote in June.  

Another strategy McCaul is exercising includes filing a Resolution of Interest (ROI), text that states his request for interviews and documents that the minority staff say the State Department has failed to produce.  

The resolutions were filed last month and are expected to “ripen” in September, compelling a vote to take place on the Foreign Affairs Committee. 

The vote would put members on record over whether they agree or disagree that the requests in the resolution be fulfilled.  

“Requesting the President, and directing the Secretary of State, to transmit to the House of Representatives copies of all documents in their possession referring or relating to certain aspects of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan,” the resolution states.  

An aide in McCaul’s office said the expectation and hope is that the ROI will be put to a vote during a committee markup in September. If that fails to happen, the ROI could go to the House floor for a full vote.  

A committee aide described the report as a “living document” that is continuously updated as the staff receive more information. The publication of the interim report is an attempt to raise awareness of unanswered questions, and alleges that the State Department, in particular, has stonewalled the lawmakers’ requests for information.  

“We have the military’s perspective fairly well laid out because they did transcribed interviews and they point to points of failure, they point to not enough consular officers being deployed to the evacuation,” the aide said.   

“The NEO [Non-combatant Evacuation Operation] is an operation launched and initiated by the ambassador, by the senior ranking diplomat, the timing of the NEO, that is something that would fall in their lane of responsibility … we need to do more digging to identify and assign specific blame,” the aide added.  

“We don’t have enough evidence to call out specific people for these things and we want to get more evidence, that’s the next phase of this.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

What’s more unsettled than US Senate? American higher education

One of the few institutions in America as unsettled as the United States Senate is higher education.

Enrollment is falling, public support is slipping, costs are rising, student debt is astronomical, political tensions and interference are omnipresent, university presidents are being driven out and mental health concerns are rising, especially after the traumas of the pandemic.

Most of this is gleaned from the Chronicle of Higher Education. I subscribed, as I have a peripheral role with my alma mater — a “lifetime trustee,” a pleasant euphemism for “gone out to pasture” — and chiefly due to the respect I have for the publication’s editor-in-chief and president, Mike Riley, a former colleague.

The reporting is terrific, the picture depressing.

The number of Americans who believe college has a positive effect on the country, what used to be a motherhood and apple pie question, has fallen to a bare majority.

Colleges have become a favorite whipping boy of Republican legislatures. Boise State, under constant haranguing by right-wing legislators, cancelled a convocation speech about Native Americans; the College of the Ozarks in Arkansas pulled back social media celebrating its diversity. “If I make a public statement that I like cats better than dogs, that creates unhappiness with the institution,” Margaret H. Venable, president of Georgia’s Dalton State College told the Chronicle.

Two of America’s most renowned public universities, Wisconsin and North Carolina, are under assault from Republican legislatures.

At Madison, a bipartisan committee, appointed by a Democratic governor and a Republican governor, unanimously chose Jennifer Mnookin, Dean of the UCLA Law School, as its new chancellor. Sight unseen, she is under attack from conservative legislators like state assembly speaker Robin Vos. The main charge: The UCLA law school taught a course on critical race theory.

At Chapel Hill, criticism from a wealthy alumnus and politicians forced Nikole Hannah-Jones, an accomplished journalist and author of the controversial 1619 project, to reject an offer to be a professor. The American Association of University Professors Association charged that the North Carolina legislature is “inappropriately seeking to expand its purview” over UNC.

In this environment, the tenure of college presidents is short-lived. Tulsa University fired its president after only 74 days. The president of the University of Wyoming was gone after six months; Oregon State, nine months.

Admiral William McRaven was brought in to head the University of Texas system and to smooth over relations with the state’s political establishment. He resigned after three and a half years, declaring that leading a university is the “toughest job” in the country. McRaven led the special operations team that killed Osama Bin Laden.

I have long felt that accomplished politicians are ideal university presidents: Both jobs place a premium on raising money and satisfying diverse constituencies that have little in common; examples include Terry Sanford at Duke two generations ago, John Brademas at NYU a generation later and currently Mitch Daniels at Purdue.

Today it’d be challenging even for those superb leaders.

The pandemic has compounded the problems. Virtual learning is inferior to in-person teaching. Millions of students have dropped out since 2020. There are disturbing mental health concerns and a rise in suicides. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe brings new issues. The Chronicle cited a very real hypothetical: Suppose a college student gets pregnant in a state that bans abortion and a college employee gets her an abortion pill. Are there criminal charges?

Conundrums abound. College tuitions keep soaring; many states have cut back on support for public schools, and 45 million Americans already have incurred $1.6 trillion of federal student debt.

There is a clash of fringe ideologies. The woke political left can be an intimidating force at elite schools; there are students and professors who avoid email and texts, fearing woke attacks. The political right plays the race card in trying to outlaw the teaching of the critical race theory, which most can’t define.

(As an aside, I’m amused by tirades of right-wing politicians against “elite” colleges; most of the top Republican politicians are Ivy League graduates: Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Elise Stefanik, and five of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices — all have “elite” Ivy League degrees.)

In, “After the Ivory Tower Falls,” journalist Will Bunch writes that Higher Education has become a “rigged meritocracy,” largely serving the well-to-do. The American dream, starting with the GI bill, that a college education would enable each generation to do better than their parents is unavailable to too many working-class families.

This divide, Bunch argues, has been a major factor in political polarization. Democrats now are the party of most college graduates, and Republicans of non-college education whites. This breeds resentments.

These are big challenges.

As an amateur observer, there are several takeaways; for all its imperfections, American higher education remains the envy of much of the world; colleges must contain costs; we need less — not more — interference from politicians … and take a look at the Chronicle of Higher Education, which has some uplifting stories too.

Al Hunt is the former executive editor of Bloomberg News. He previously served as reporter, bureau chief and Washington editor for The Wall Street Journal. For almost a quarter century he wrote a column on politics for The Wall Street Journal, then The International New York Times and Bloomberg View. He hosts Politics War Room with James Carville. Follow him on Twitter @AlHuntDC.

Source: TEST FEED1

Why Trump's effort to oust Murkowski could hit hurdles

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will face off against Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate on Tuesday, a long-awaited showdown that comes more than a year after she voted to convict the former president over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.  

The primary comes as Trump racks up wins across the country in his quest to rid Congress of Republicans who have crossed him. And polls have showed his pick in the race, Kelly Tshibaka, leading the primary pack.  

But observers say Murkowski shouldn’t be overly worried yet. Alaska’s new electoral system that features an all-party primary followed by a ranked-choice vote in the general election means the moderate senator is all but guaranteed to advance on Tuesday, even if she isn’t the top vote-getter. And the system could work to her advantage in November as well.  

“She can’t lose anything and we think the electorate is going to skew more Trumpy than the general and we think the electorate is going to be more partisan across the board,” John-Henry Heckendorn, an Alaska-based political consultant, said, referring to next week’s primary.   

That will likely change in November, he said.  

“The bar is low for Murkowski in the primary because she’s likely to be favored, one would imagine, by a larger and less partisan electorate in the general.”  

Still, the race will likely be seen as another test of Trump’s clout, and Murkowski, who is the only one of the seven senators who voted to convict the former president up for reelection this year, is not favored to come in first on Tuesday.  

Trump traveled to Alaska last month to hold a rally for Tshibaka, former governor and congressional candidate Sarah Palin, and current Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R). The former president took the opportunity to blast Murkowski over her vote during his impeachment trial last year.   

“She voted to impeach me. And I did more for this state than any president in history. And that piece of,” he said, before mouthing the word “garbage” to the crowd, “voted to impeach me!”  

Trump’s backing of Tshibaka appears to be felt among the state’s grassroots conservatives as well. The conservative women’s group Maggie’s List endorsed Tshibaka over the incumbent GOP senator late last year, citing recommendations from the state party chairs.   

“A lot of the reasoning for that had to do with Kelly’s strong, conservative values and how she reflected the values of Maggie’s List as an organization,” said Tina Ramirez, national spokesperson for Maggie’s List.   

But Murkowski only needs to finish in the top four on Tuesday to advance to a general election. And other Republicans are less convinced that Tshibaka will be able to oust Murkowski, who has a large footprint in the state.   

“I don’t think Tshibaka would be part of the conversation if it weren’t for Trump’s endorsement,” said one national Republican strategist. “It’s a state that Trump won by a pretty wide margin.”  

But, the strategist added, “I wouldn’t say he’s as popular there as he is other places.”  

The strategist noted Murkowski’s robust campaign operation as a plus for her going into November. She’s well-known in the state and has a significant fundraising advantage. Murkowski raised $1.7 million in the second quarter of the year to Tshibaka’s $587,000.  

Murkowski has also defied odds in the political arena before, overcoming a primary loss in 2010 with a write-in campaign.   

“There’s no better politician in Alaska than Murkowski,” the strategist said. “She’s going to do everything she needs to do to win.”  

Additionally, Murkowski holds a relatively solid approval rate in her home state. According to data released by Morning Consult, 46 percent of Alaska voters say they approve of Murkowski’s job performance while 39 percent say they disapprove.   

Alaska’s new ranked choice voting system could also benefit Murkowski, a frequent swing vote in the Senate who has had crossover appeal.  

A candidate needs more than 50 percent of the vote to be declared the winner outright. If the front-runner doesn’t have that percent of the vote, the candidate with the fewest votes that round drops off the ballot, and those who ranked that candidate first will have their votes go to their second choice. The process continues until a candidate has more than 50 percent.  

Observers say it’s likely Murkowski would be the one to pick up independent, Democratic and centrist Republican votes in subsequent rounds.  

An Alaska Survey Research poll laid out a hypothetical general election between Murkowski, Tshibaka, Democrat Patricia Chesboro, and Alaskan Independence Party candidate Dustin Darden. It showed Tshibaka leading in the first two rounds of voting, but Murkowski leading Tshibaka by 4 points in the third and final round.   

The Morning Consult poll showed 62 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of independents saying they approve of Murkowski’s performance.  

“For Murkowski, I’m not going to say it’s a done deal and nobody is obviously taking it for granted, but without a serious Democrat in that race, she has all the room that she needs to her left to pick up the votes that she needs in the second or third round,” the national GOP strategist said.   

Still, ranked-choice voting is a new concept in Alaska and experts aren’t quite sure how it will play out.  

“We know that some people will decline that opportunity, but we don’t know at what rate,” Heckendorn said. “Those are the questions that are going to be really impactful when it comes to how Lisa Murkowski’s election shakes out.”   

One hint could be a special election held on Tuesday to fill the state’s at-large House seat, which was previously held by the late Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). It will be held using ranked-choice voting.  

The Republican candidates for Young’s seat include former vice presidential candidate and former Gov. Sarah Palin and Nicholas, while the Democrats include former Senate candidate Al Gross and Mary Peltola.   

Palin has trailed Begich and Peltola in a number of recent polls, despite getting Trump’s official backing. And ranked choice could benefit a candidate like Begich, given that a traditional primary would have brought out a more conservative base who would likely rally around Palin.   

“This is the first time in Alaska history that we will actually understand how the electorate behaves in a ranked-choice voting environment,” Heckendorn said. “What we are going to learn about Murkowski’s race is what we can glean from the congressional special election.”   

–Updated at 11:09 a.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

What budget reconciliation could have been and what Congress must do next

Over the past few months, Congress has checked several important legislative boxes, including new gun safety measures, an expansion of healthcare for veterans and investments in the manufacturing sector. This has culminated with the final passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the budget reconciliation bill that will make significant investments in addressing healthcare and climate change needs.   

The recent productivity is notable and welcome. The budget bill maintains subsidies to lower healthcare premiums that have helped drive the uninsured rate to its lowest mark on record and will prevent more than 3 million people from losing health insurance coverage next year. Moreover, experts have hailed the legislation as “the most significant action the U.S. has ever taken to combat climate change.” 

But this bill, historic as it is, will only take us so far toward an America in which all people truly have the opportunity for health and wellbeing. Closing the divide between the policies necessary to put health within reach and the political viability of those policies has never been more critical.  

For a nation where policymaking tends to lurch from crisis to crisis and long-term goals are scant, the Inflation Reduction Act is a welcome change. People who receive healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act will be protected from potentially debilitating increases in their premium costs over the next three years. Tens of millions of seniors on Medicare will benefit from lower out-of-pocket costs and prescription drug prices, a cap on the price of insulin, and more vaccines available for free; higher subsidies for beneficiaries with low incomes will help those most in need. And with climate change looming as an existential threat and the health and economic effects associated with severe weather events impacting more Americans personally, the new law will help cut high energy costs for consumers in the short term while laying the groundwork for major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade.  

Yet even with these provisions becoming law, we must be upfront about what this bill could have been and what still needs to be done. As the nation’s largest health philanthropy, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation hoped for a far broader and more equitable effort to help create an America in which race, ethnicity, income level, neighborhood, disability, occupation and immigration status no longer determine how long and how well people live. Sadly, this law does not reach that mark, and the barriers to better health and economic opportunity have become more entrenched since the original, more expansive bill was introduced more than a year ago. 

As lawmakers depart Washington for August recess, they and we should celebrate what has been accomplished while at the same time recommitting to the work that remains:

• In the latter half of 2021, the expanded Child Tax Credit lifted more than 3 million children out of poverty. When the expanded credit lapsed in January, those children fell right back into severe economic distress, yet the expanded credit still has not been renewed — even as rising prices make it harder for families to afford food, rent, utilities and other necessities, and the federal minimum wage has not budged since 2009. 
• More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic that has sickened at least half the country and killed more than 1 million people — and now facing another public health emergency with monkeypox — America remains the only wealthy nation to not guarantee paid family and medical leave, and affordable child care remains out of reach for millions. 
• The Supreme Court’s egregious decision overturning Roe v. Wade will especially impact women of color already facing unconscionably high maternal mortality rates. Unfortunately, Congress did not extend healthcare coverage to more than 2 million people — disproportionately women of color and those with low wages — who are denied government-funded healthcare in 12 states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act. Congress also failed to address critical gaps in maternal health, such as extending Medicaid and CHIP postpartum coverage to one year.   
• For the past 2.5 years, every family had the peace of mind of knowing that their children could receive free school meals, the benefits of which are legion. But as a new school year begins, that portion of the safety net has been removed, even as 25 million Americans suffer from food insecurity and food costs have risen at a level not seen in four decades. 
• States that received unprecedented levels of federal funding for rental relief last year to help Americans stay in their homes have either exhausted the funds or refused to spend them at all. Meanwhile, evictions are increasing amid the lack of affordable housing.  
• For decades, domestic workers have received poverty-level wages. A long-overdue push to raise their pay and expand access to quality home healthcare services for older Americans and people with disabilities was left by the wayside.  

During recess, members of Congress will see these health and economic challenges affecting people in their states and districts, in cities and rural areas alike. At various points over the past few years, Congress has found common ground on many of these issues. But temporary commitments are insufficient. A comprehensive, unified and ultimately bipartisan approach is necessary to confront and solve these challenges over the long term; our nation must recognize that families’ economic health is intrinsically tied to physical and mental health. 

The Inflation Reduction Act marks the end of a spate of legislative action, but it must only be the beginning of our efforts to change our health and economic trajectory. When lawmakers return in September, they should remember what they heard and saw back home and act accordingly. The journey toward health equity in America is far from complete; we are not yet the country we can be or should be. It is incumbent upon our lawmakers, and all of us, to continue the fight.    

Richard E. Besser, a physician, is president and chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Avenel Joseph, Ph.D., is the vice president for Policy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Twitter: @DrRichBesser, @DrAvenelJoseph. 

Source: TEST FEED1

White House press secretary on low Biden approval ratings: 'We get it'

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Sunday responded to recent polling showing record low approval ratings for President Biden, saying, “We get it.” 

“We’ve said this before, it’s like: We get it. We understand what the American people are feeling at this time,” Jean-Pierre told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week.” 

Jean-Pierre on Sunday stressed that inflation and high costs for Americans are the “number one priority” for the White House to address and lauded the new Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the House Friday after a 51-50 vote in the Senate.

The press secretary also pushed back against concerns by some that the multi-billion climate, tax and health care bill will not actually tamp down inflation. 

“There’s more to it. It’s just it was the way that Republicans did that was so that it could make an argument that is false. It is going to fight inflation,” the Jean-Pierre said. “It has been proven, and has been said by economists across the board, on the Republican side and on the Democrat side.”

Biden has faced new polls showing record low approval numbers for his presidency, with particular upset at his handling of the economy.

Jean-Pierre on Sunday emphasized that Biden intends to run for a second presidential term in 2024, despite record low support for a reelection bid — though she said that the administration is currently focusing 2022.

The 79-year-old president has dismissed concerns about his age, insisting that the American people “want me to run.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Klobuchar: FBI investigation of Trump goes beyond politics

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Sunday condemned GOP criticism of the FBI following its search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property as “dangerous to our country,” hailing the agency for not bowing to partisan politics.

“This is beyond politics,” she told NBC “Meet the Press” guest anchor Andrea Mitchell.

“They’re simply doing their jobs,” Klobuchar said. “And we have to let them do their jobs.”

The FBI executed a search warrant of Mar-a-Lago on Monday, an unprecedented move against a former president. 

The warrant, which was unsealed on Friday, indicated agents executed the search after officials suspected Trump violated the Espionage Act and other laws related to the handling of government documents. 

The search resulted in the seizure of 11 sets of classified items, including one set labeled as “various classified/TS/SCI documents,” meaning top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information. Trump has said he unilaterally declassified the documents.

Klobuchar during the NBC interview declined to say if the Department of Justice should indict Trump if it believes he committed a crime, saying she would leave that decision to DOJ.

“The law is king,” said Klobuchar. “The president isn’t king. And I would add to that the former president isn’t king. Everyone has to follow the laws.”

The Minnesota senator, who is a former county attorney, also raised alarm bells over a recent attack against an FBI building in Cincinnati on Thursday, tying it to recent GOP rhetoric that she said “concerns me so much.”

A man who is believed to have been in Washington, D.C. leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol allegedly tried to breach the building in Cincinnati while armed and wearing body armor, and he was ultimately shot and killed by police after a standoff.

“[These are] the kind of things that result when you’ve got a president that attacks law enforcement and attacks the law,” said Klobuchar on Sunday.

“I thought in the old days the Republican Party used to stand with law enforcement,” she added. “And I hope some of them do today, because this kind of rhetoric is very dangerous to our country. These are career men and women that are simply doing their job.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Man fatally shoots himself after crashing into Capitol barricade, authorities say

An unidentified man fatally shot himself after crashing a vehicle into a barricade near the U.S. Capitol early Sunday morning, authorities said.

The man drove his car into the barricade at East Capitol Street and Second Street around 4 a.m., U.S. Capitol Police said in a press release. The man exited the vehicle, which became engulfed in flames, officials said.

The man then fired several shots in the air, Capitol Police said, alerting officers to the scene. They were approaching the man when he fatally shot himself, authorities added.

No one else was hurt at the scene and Capitol Police noted that it does not appear officers fired their weapons.

Authorities said that the man apparently was not targeting any members of Congress, who are on recess until Sept. 13.

Investigators are currently looking into his background and D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department is handling the death investigation.

The incident follows the attempted breach of the FBI field office in Cincinnati, which led to an hours-long standoff with a suspect, who was later killed by police.

The incident came after the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, sparking heated rhetoric from his supporters. Republicans have decried the raid as a politically motivated stunt, with some calling for the FBI to be defunded.

Source: TEST FEED1

Hogan: 'We still have a lot of unanswered questions' about Mar-a-Lago search

Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Sunday said the Department of Justice (DOJ) was justified to search former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, but noted that there are still “a lot of unanswered questions.”

“I was happy that they did come out and unseal the documents on the search, and I think it was a step in the right direction. But I think we still have a lot of unanswered questions and we’re gonna continue until people understand more,” Hogan told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week.” 

“The one side is gonna say that this is just politically motivated and weaponization of the Justice Department, but … they have probable cause to come after him for things that could be really important,” Hogan said.

The FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last week and, after pressure from both parties, related records were unsealed Friday.

The Maryland governor had been vocal in calling for transparency from the DOJ and FBI surrounding the search, which Trump and a number of other Republicans condemned as politically motivated. 

A Trump critic within the Republican Party, Hogan separated himself Sunday from those who have slammed the FBI over the search, even as he pressed the DOJ to justify its action.

“I was not one of the people that was just reacting, just defending Donald Trump, but I understood that, without anyone understanding what this was about, that it was going to and could lead to even further division and angry rhetoric from both sides.”

Hogan added that this week “was actually a win for Donald Trump.”

“It seemed to motivate his base and people were rushing to his defense and feeling as if he was being picked upon and martyred,” he said. “But I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the story yet.”

Source: TEST FEED1

NASA might cancel mission to massive 'gold mine asteroid' — here's why it shouldn't

NASA had planned to send a probe to the asteroid, 16 Psyche, in 2022. It is sometimes called “the golden asteroid” because many people believe it contains an abundance of valuable metals. Unfortunately, NASA recently announced a launch delay because of the need to review software. The probe may launch in 2023 or 2024 to arrive at 16 Psyche in 2029 or 2030, respectively. The mission may be canceled altogether, since the delay would cause further cost.

Regardless of the extra cost, the mission to 16 Psyche should proceed as soon as possible for two reasons: scientific and commercial.

According to NASA, scientists believe that the asteroid may be “the partial core of a shattered planetesimal — a small world the size of a city or small country that is the first building block of a planet. If it is, asteroid Psyche can offer a close look at the interior of terrestrial planets like Earth that is normally hidden beneath layers of mantle and crust.” In other words, by studying 16 Psyche close up, scientists will be able to uncover insights about other rocky worlds, including Earth.

The second case for proceeding with the mission is commercial, presuming 16 Psyche is a treasure trove of metals and other resources that would be useful for maintaining technological civilization here on Earth. Here, however, the case is a little more complicated, thanks to recent scientific studies.

Until recently, scientists thought that 16 Psycho was a solid hunk of metal, iron, nickel, gold and platinum. A recent article in Smithsonian suggested that the market price of the asteroid’s metals is $10 quintillion, hence the name “golden asteroid.” Other estimates have gone as high as $700 quintillion.

According to Interesting Engineering, a recent paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research has cast some doubt in the original model of 16 Psyche as a giant hunk of metal. The original model was derived from the amount of light reflected off of the asteroid. However, scientists from Purdue and Brown University suggest, using measurements of the interaction between 16 Psyche and other nearby space objects, that the “golden asteroid” is less dense than previously believed.

The authors of the study suggest that 16 Psych is actually a rocky object covered with a layer of metal that has welled up over billions of years from volcanic activity. Some scientists have therefore marked down the market value of the metal on 16 Psyche to about $11.65 trillion, still a considerable amount but not as eye-popping as previous estimates.

The conflicting evaluations of just what 16 Psyche is further make the case for sending a probe to orbit the asteroid and to characterize its surface and composition. Not only would scientists be able to gain insights into the formation of planets, but potential asteroid miners would be able to evaluate 16 Psyche for future resource extraction.

The probe that NASA has planned to send to 16 Psyche will contain several instruments that can uncover the asteroid’s secrets. These include a multispectral imager, a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, a magnetometer, as well as an x-band gravity science investigation instrument, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

If 16 Psyche is worth mining, when could such operations proceed? Citigroup thinks that space mining, including from the moon and asteroids, will be a $100-billion a year business by 2040. Launch costs will continue to decrease and experience in operating in space will continue to expand until such a business makes economic sense.

How would one mine 16 Psyche? One could imagine a SpaceX Starship being dispatched to the asteroid, going into orbit around it, and then sending mining robots to its surface. The robots would mine valuable minerals and then bring them back to the orbiting Starship. The SpaceX rocket ship would be able to carry as much as 100 metric tons of ore to facilities in low-Earth orbit for processing and to use as raw materials to manufacture products. Alternatively, mining 16 Psyche and other asteroids would supply SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s dreamed-of Mars settlement.

Space mining will be a new, lucrative business for the 21st century. 16 Psyche could be a space equivalent of El Dorado for that enterprise.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of space exploration studies “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Retired Gen. Jack Keane says 'we're right back where we started' in Afghanistan one year after withdrawal

Nearly one year after the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, retired four-star Army Gen. Jack Keane said on Sunday that the country has returned to conditions seen in 2001.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday” guest anchor Gillian Turner, Keane pointed to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s recent presence in Kabul, the country’s capital, as evidence the Taliban is protecting the terrorist group. The United States killed al-Zawahiri in a drone strike last month.

“Afghanistan is a sanctuary for terrorism,” said Keane.

“The very reason we went there, the very reason we stayed there for 20 years, [was] to ensure that terrorists did not rise again, attack the American people,” he added. “And we’re right back where we started.” 

Monday will mark the one-year anniversary of when the Taliban retook control of Kabul and Afghanistan as the United States withdrew its forces in the country.

President Biden’s approval rating dropped after the withdrawal and subsequent Taliban takeover.

The Biden administration has hailed the recent killing of al-Zawahiri, who led al Qaeda following the death of Osama Bin Laden, as proof the U.S. can conduct “over the horizon” strikes against terrorists even without ground forces in the country.

But many, including Keane, have argued al-Zawahiri’s presence in downtown Kabul indicates the Taliban is once again harboring al Qaeda, which in 2001 led the United States to invade Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.

Keane, who works as a Fox News analyst, retired from the military in 2003 and had been known as an outside adviser to former President Trump, who presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Keane on Sunday called the current state of Afghanistan a “tragic” and “preventable” situation.

“What did this decision get us?” Keane asked of the U.S. withdrawal. 

“It got us the Taliban in charge, again, providing sanctuary to the al Qaeda, and so al-Zawahiri’s killing resurrected the fact that he’s living in a Taliban house, in a neighborhood that I’ve been to many times where senior Taliban leaders are in residence,” said Keane. “And obviously, they are protecting the al Qaeda leader, as well as his organization.”

Source: TEST FEED1