From The Hill
A fake polling controversy is causing a bipartisan uproar as the midterms reach the homestretch. Plus, a look at the tightening Minnesota Senate race, the latest developments in Texas and South Carolina and President Trump’s broader red-state tour. Join The Hill’s senior vice president of editorial content, Bill Sammon, and Decision Desk HQ’s chief elections analyst,…
From The Hill
Candidates for Senate seats in Michigan and Kansas made their closing arguments to voters in debates on Wednesday night. While the debate between former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Abdul El-Sayed (D) was less fiery than their last tussle, each tried to land blows. Rogers dogged El-Sayed over allegations of links to the Muslim Brotherhood,…
Some cities including Lyon and Nice have banned all protests, and the French president said only authorised demos would be allowed.
Source: BBC.
Some cities including Lyon and Nice have banned all protests, and the French president said only authorised demos would be allowed.
Source: BBC.
Over the past decade or so, Donald Trump hasn’t exactly been subtle about his support for Vladimir Putin, but in recent weeks, the American president has gone to almost cartoonish lengths to reward his Russian counterpart.
The list includes instances in which the Republican offered sanctions relief for Russian diesel fuel, echoed Kremlin talking points, pumped billions of dollars into the Russian economy, peddled false accusations against Ukraine, ignored existing U.S. laws that ban Russian oil imports, looked the other way on Russia aiding Iran during the ongoing U.S. war, and delivered diplomatic victories for Moscow — all in exchange for nothing except more deadly attacks.
On Wednesday morning, however, Trump finally claimed to have secured a concession of sorts from the Russian leader. In a statement published to his social media platform, the American president said Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher who had been imprisoned by the Putin government, had been released from detention and was headed home.
After some pointless and gratuitous whining about the Biden administration, Trump wrote that Putin agreed to free Hubbard “out of respect” for the American president, adding that the United States “was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia.”
Just 12 minutes later, the Republican published a follow-up item, which read, “Numerous people, who requested that sanctions be immediately imposed on Russia, have called to apologize to President Trump in that they didn’t know that he was negotiating the release of Stephen Hubbard, a truly big and important deal for the U.S. If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.”
Putting aside the fact that those calls of apology almost certainly didn’t happen in reality, the second message clearly contradicted the first. After saying his administration didn’t have to give Russia anything to secure Hubbard’s release, Trump effectively conceded that he had to waive sanctions on Russia in order to secure Hubbard’s release.
Hours later, at an unrelated White House event, he did it again.
TRUMP: We gave nothing in exchange for Stephen. We never give anything in exchange for hostages.TRUMP LITERALLY MOMENTS LATER: If I implemented sanctions on Russia, Steven wouldn’t be coming out right now.
“We gave nothing in exchange, which is very rare,” the American president boasted. “We never give anything in exchange.” Moments later, he added that if he had implemented sanctions on Russia, as required by the U.S. law he recently signed, Hubbard “wouldn’t be coming out right now, he’d be in there for another 20 years.”
Trump seemed entirely oblivious to the obvious tension between claiming that he made no concessions, except for the concessions he made.
During a Wednesday afternoon Q&A with reporters, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed him on this point, subtly trying to explain to Trump that, based on his own explanation, he obviously did give Putin something in return for Hubbard’s release.
Apparently frustrated by the cognitive dissonance, Trump decided to resolve the dispute by telling Collins, “You’re a low-IQ person. You’re a dummy.”
Hours later, Russia launched a new round of attacks on Ukraine’s capital, killing one person and wounding 22, as part of an assault that targeted civilians. A day earlier, Russia also unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine, killing at least four people.
As recently as Monday, Trump told reporters, “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine, they haven’t been doing much.” The White House has not yet explained why the Republican routinely sounds like he’s reading from a script written by the Kremlin.
The post Trump struggles to keep his story straight on prisoner release from Russia appeared first on MS NOW.
From MS Now.
Over the past decade or so, Donald Trump hasn’t exactly been subtle about his support for Vladimir Putin, but in recent weeks, the American president has gone to almost cartoonish lengths to reward his Russian counterpart.
The list includes instances in which the Republican offered sanctions relief for Russian diesel fuel, echoed Kremlin talking points, pumped billions of dollars into the Russian economy, peddled false accusations against Ukraine, ignored existing U.S. laws that ban Russian oil imports, looked the other way on Russia aiding Iran during the ongoing U.S. war, and delivered diplomatic victories for Moscow — all in exchange for nothing except more deadly attacks.
On Wednesday morning, however, Trump finally claimed to have secured a concession of sorts from the Russian leader. In a statement published to his social media platform, the American president said Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher who had been imprisoned by the Putin government, had been released from detention and was headed home.
After some pointless and gratuitous whining about the Biden administration, Trump wrote that Putin agreed to free Hubbard “out of respect” for the American president, adding that the United States “was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia.”
Just 12 minutes later, the Republican published a follow-up item, which read, “Numerous people, who requested that sanctions be immediately imposed on Russia, have called to apologize to President Trump in that they didn’t know that he was negotiating the release of Stephen Hubbard, a truly big and important deal for the U.S. If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.”
Putting aside the fact that those calls of apology almost certainly didn’t happen in reality, the second message clearly contradicted the first. After saying his administration didn’t have to give Russia anything to secure Hubbard’s release, Trump effectively conceded that he had to waive sanctions on Russia in order to secure Hubbard’s release.
Hours later, at an unrelated White House event, he did it again.
TRUMP: We gave nothing in exchange for Stephen. We never give anything in exchange for hostages.TRUMP LITERALLY MOMENTS LATER: If I implemented sanctions on Russia, Steven wouldn’t be coming out right now.
“We gave nothing in exchange, which is very rare,” the American president boasted. “We never give anything in exchange.” Moments later, he added that if he had implemented sanctions on Russia, as required by the U.S. law he recently signed, Hubbard “wouldn’t be coming out right now, he’d be in there for another 20 years.”
Trump seemed entirely oblivious to the obvious tension between claiming that he made no concessions, except for the concessions he made.
During a Wednesday afternoon Q&A with reporters, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed him on this point, subtly trying to explain to Trump that, based on his own explanation, he obviously did give Putin something in return for Hubbard’s release.
Apparently frustrated by the cognitive dissonance, Trump decided to resolve the dispute by telling Collins, “You’re a low-IQ person. You’re a dummy.”
Hours later, Russia launched a new round of attacks on Ukraine’s capital, killing one person and wounding 22, as part of an assault that targeted civilians. A day earlier, Russia also unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine, killing at least four people.
As recently as Monday, Trump told reporters, “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine, they haven’t been doing much.” The White House has not yet explained why the Republican routinely sounds like he’s reading from a script written by the Kremlin.
The post Trump struggles to keep his story straight on prisoner release from Russia appeared first on MS NOW.
From MS Now.
Source BuzzFeed.
From The Hill
Opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration policies should not be opposing every enforcement initiative the administration establishes.
EXCLUSIVE: My Brother’s Killer, the true-crime documentary directed by Circus of Books’ Rachel Mason, has landed at Investigation Discovery. The film, which is exec produced by The Decline of Western Civilization director Penelope Spheeris, will debut on the Skydance-owned cable network on December 3. It comes after the doc premiered at SXSW earlier this year. […]
Source: Deadline.
The boy aquarium has some competition next month as Heated Rivalry fans are treated to a jumbotron-sized event that should hold them over until Season 2. From Nov. 6-30, fans can experience all six episodes of Season 1 on a screen befitting of Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya’s (Connor Storrie) cinematic love story with a […]
Source: Deadline.
EXCLUSIVE: Space 11 Corp. and SK Films are behind Return to the Moon: The Story of Artemis II, a new space film with Duncan Copp and Christopher Riley directing. The producers are targeting a PLF rollout for the film, which they say will combine NASA’s real Artemis II mission imagery with the voices of the […]
Source: Deadline.
