Top Senate Democrat says he’s ‘deeply disturbed’ after seeing footage of strikes on suspected drug boats
Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said today that he is “deeply disturbed” by the footage of the 2 September “double-tap” strike on a suspected drug-trafficking boat off the coast of Venezuela.
On Capitol Hill, the Rhode Island lawmaker didn’t respond to questions from reporters after the classified briefing with Adm Frank Bradley and general Dan Caine ended today. However, in a statement Reed said that the Pentagon had “no choice” but to release the unedited video of the strike.
“This briefing confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump Administration’s military activities,” Reed added. “This must and will only be the beginning [sic] of our investigation into this incident.”
Key events
Donald Trump has replaced the architect he chose for his grand ballroom, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Citing three people familiar with the matter, the outlet reported that James McCrery II and his boutique architecture firm had been chosen to design Trump’s ballroom until late October. It remains unclear whether McCrery stepped back voluntarily. However, he and Trump departed on good terms, according to one of the sources.
The Washington Post reported:
“Trump and McCrery had clashed over the president’s desire to keep increasing the size of the building, but it was McCrery’s firm’s small workforce and inability to hit deadlines that became the decisive factor in him leaving, one of the people said.”
Trump’s new pick is architect Shalom Baranes, according to the Washington Post’s sources. In a written statement about Baranes, who has handled previous projects including the main Treasury building near the White House, a White House spokesperson said:
“As we begin to transition into the next stage of development on the White House Ballroom, the Administration is excited to share that the highly talented Shalom Baranes has joined the team of experts to carry out President Trump’s vision on building what will be the greatest addition to the White House since the Oval Office — the White House Ballroom. Shalom is an accomplished architect whose work has shaped the architectural identity of our nation’s capital for decades and his experience will be a great asset to the completion of this project.”
Whitney Bauck
Analysts have estimated that 75% of the commitments that the US made at the Paris climate agreement – which Donald Trump pulled the nation out of as soon as he took office – can be reached entirely without federal support.
It’s this conviction in the power of local governance that animates Climate Cabinet, an organization focused on supporting pro-climate candidates in under-the-radar races at the state or city level. Climate Cabinet uses data science to comb through the more than 500,000 public offices that US citizens have the opportunity to vote on every cycle, identifies candidates who could make a real impact on the climate, and offers them financial and policy support.
The organization was founded by Caroline Spears, who was inspired while working for one of the country’s largest solar companies. As an analyst, it was her job to look at all the markets in which her company wanted to build, and make sense of why they were able to make progress in some states and not others. She watched as the company built dozens of projects in Massachusetts and zero in the far sunnier state of Arizona.
“This was during Trump’s [first term] – so these two states had the same federal backdrop – but their ability to actually build clean energy was vastly different,” Spears said. “That was solely because of state and local policymaking in those two states.”
For the full story, click here:
Here’s a recap of the day so far
-
Adm Frank “Mitch” Bradley arrived on Capitol Hill earlier today to discuss the “double-tap” boat strike on suspected drug boats off the coast of Venezuela with the House and Sentate armed services committees. The top Navy official spoke at a classified briefing alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Cain. Responses from lawmakers have generally been along party lines. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said today that he is “deeply disturbed” by the footage of the 2 September strike. While Republican Tom Cotton, the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said the follow-up strike was “entirely lawful and needful”. According to the members of Congress who were briefed, Bradley received no “kill them all order, and that there was not an order to grant no quarter”.
-
The Department of Defense’s inspector general released the much-anticipated unclassified report on Thursday about Pete Hegseth’s disclosure of plans for military airstrikes in Yemen in a Signal group chat earlier this year. It found that Hegseth violated departmental policies when he shared information in the chat, and that if a foreign enemy force intercepted that information it could have endangered the lives of US troops, as the Guardian reported on Wednesday.
-
After a contentious meeting, vaccine advisers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted to delay a vote on restricting hepatitis B vaccination for infants. The meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) turned confrontational at times before one member introduced a motion to delay the vote, which passed by 6 to 3, to give advisers time to examine the wording before taking a vote.
-
A man was arrested for planting pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic party headquarters on the eve of the January 6 insurrection. At a justice department press conference today, attorney general Pam Bondi confirmed that Brian Cole Jr was in custody, but side-stepped questions about possible political motivations.
Top Senate Republican says follow-up strikes on suspected drug boats were ‘entirely lawful and needful’
Republican Tom Cotton, the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, spoke to reporters after the classified briefing from Adm Frank Bradley and general Dan Caine.
“The first strike, the second strike, and the third and the fourth strike on 2 September were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we’d expect our military commanders to do,” Cotton said.
When asked about the survivors who were killed in a follow-up strike, the Arkansas senator said that he saw two people “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs” and “didn’t see anything disturbing about it”.
Cotton confirmed that Adm Bradley said that he received no “kill all order”.
“He was given an order that, of course, was written down in great detail, as our military always does,” he said. “There was no vocal order either.”
At the justice department’s press conference today, attorney general Pam Bondi said there was “no new tip” or “no new witness” that led to today’s arrest of the suspect in the pipe bomb case. “Just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” she said.
When asked by a reporter about any possible political motivations of the suspect, Bondi side-stepped the question.
“Right now, it’s ongoing,” she said. “We just executed the search warrant early, early this morning.”
Top Senate Democrat says he’s ‘deeply disturbed’ after seeing footage of strikes on suspected drug boats
Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said today that he is “deeply disturbed” by the footage of the 2 September “double-tap” strike on a suspected drug-trafficking boat off the coast of Venezuela.
On Capitol Hill, the Rhode Island lawmaker didn’t respond to questions from reporters after the classified briefing with Adm Frank Bradley and general Dan Caine ended today. However, in a statement Reed said that the Pentagon had “no choice” but to release the unedited video of the strike.
“This briefing confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump Administration’s military activities,” Reed added. “This must and will only be the beginning [sic] of our investigation into this incident.”
Justice department confirms arrest of suspect in pipe bomb case
Attorney general Pam Bondi is holding a presser now, confirming the arrest of a suspect, Brian Cole Jr, for planting pipe bombs at the Republican and Democratic party headquarters on the evening before the January 6 insurrection.
She’s joined by FBI director Kash Patel and US attorney for Washington DC, Jeanine Pirro.
CDC vaccine advisers push back vote on hepatitis B vaccine for babies
Melody Schreiber
After a contentious meeting, vaccine advisers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted to delay a vote on restricting hepatitis B vaccination for infants.
The meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) turned confrontational at times before one member introduced a motion to delay the vote, which passed by 6 to 3, to give advisers time to examine the wording before taking a vote.
Trump delivers remarks at re-named Institute of Peace
The president is now speaking at the recently re-named Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, ahead of the ceremonial signing of a US-brokered peace and economic agreement between Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
While introducing Rwandan president Paul Kagame and the leader of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi, he mispronounces the latter’s name.
Trump went on to tout his administration’s peace-making credentials, and his hopes for the two countries who have been locked in an ongoing conflict for years. “I think they spent a lot of time killing each other, and now they’re going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands, and taking advantage of the United States of America economically, like every other country does,” Trump said.
Sam Levine
A congressional watchdog is opening an investigation into whether Bill Pulte, a top Trump ally, abused his position to obtain sensitive mortgage data on Donald Trump’s political rivals and accuse them of crimes.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed on Thursday it was opening the investigation.
“I can confirm that GAO has accepted this request following our standard process. The first thing GAO does as any work begins is to determine the full scope of what we will cover and the methodology to be used. This can take a few months, and until that is done, we cannot provide any estimates on a completion date,” a GAO spokesperson said.
The inquiry comes after six senate Democrats requested the investigation into how Pulte went about referring New York attorney general Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff, California representative Eric Swalwell, and Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to the justice department for mortgage fraud. All four have denied wrongdoing and only James was indicted, though experts have said the case against her appears thin.
Experts told the Guardian that Pulte’s referrals were extremely unusual. Mortgage fraud investigations are typically handled by the Federal Finance Housing Agency’s Office of inspector general, which is staffed by investigative agents. Pulte appears to have bypassed that office entirely.
Pulte is a top Trump ally who has used his perch atop a little-known federal agency to accuse Trump’s rivals of crimes.
One quick note, after today’s classified briefing from Adm Frank “Mitch” Bradley and general Dan Caine on the “double-tap” strike on a suspected drug-trafficking boat, the top lawmakers on the Senate armed services committee – chair Robert Wicker and ranking member Jack Reed – left the room without responding to questions from reporters.
Suspect named in January 6 pipe bomb case – report
A suspect has been named in the pipe bomb case that targeted the Republican and Democratic party headquarters in Washington DC, on the night before the January 6 insurrection.
The Associated Press is reporting, citing three unnamed sources familiar, that Brian Cole has been identified as the alleged perpetrator. Two of the AP’s sources said that Cole is from suburban Woodbridge, Virginia. No other details were immediately available, including the charges the suspect might face.
Signalgate report concludes Hegseth violated internal defense department instructions by using personal phone
The inspector general concluded that Hegseth had sent “sensitive, nonpublic, operational information” to the Signal chat from his personal cell phone “that he determined did not require classification” before he sent it.
The report acknowledges that Hegseth “holds the authority to determine the required classification level of all DoD information he communicates”. But it does not say whether or not he did so in this instance.
It finds that his actions violated an internal defense department instruction that prohibits “using a personal device for official business and using a non-approved commercially available messaging application to send nonpublic DoD information”.
According to the report, in Hegseth’s statement he acknowledged the email briefing he had received about upcoming war plans on 14 March from the US Central Command.
He also stated that as defense secretary “he has authority to decide whether information should be classified and whether classified materials no longer require protection”.
Hegseth also said that he had taken “‘non-specific general details” that he determined “were either not classified or that he could safely declassify and use to create an ‘unclassified summary’ to provide to the Signal chat participants”.
