Trump calls it a 'hoax,' Congress wants answers
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1. Did he just...forget?
That's what Sen. John Cornyn is claiming about President Trump's apparent memory lapse regarding intelligence he received about a Russian military operation that paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. Two officials say the intelligence was included in Trump’s President’s Daily Brief document in late February—a compilation of the government’s latest secrets and insights about foreign policy and national security that is prepared for him to read. "The president can't single-handedly remember everything...that he's briefed on," Cornyn said. This one seems like one you'd recall, however—and hopefully act on. —The New York Times
— Follow the money. American officials intercepted electronic data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account, which was among the evidence that supported their conclusion that Russia was covertly offering the bounties. —The New York Times
— "Confirmation of something we've long suspected." Some current and former intelligence officials say the bounty program is part of a long-suspected pattern of clandestine Russian aid to the militant group. "We always said, we believe Russia is supporting the Taliban. It was very hard to prove," said one former senior intelligence official, who recently served in the region. —Defense One
— Sure, it looks bad, but what about the leaks? Some intelligence officials, including CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, released statements yesterday strongly criticizing the leaks made to the media as detrimental to intelligence investigations. —The Hill
— Republican and Democratic lawmakers unite. Congress is demanding that the Trump Administration detail the intelligence and explain why Trump apparently wasn't briefed on the threat to U.S. troops, as the White House claims. Senior Republicans in Congress, who often are supportive of Trump, said that even if the intelligence isn't yet fully verified, it should be taken seriously and the president should have been made aware of it. —The Wall Street Journal
More: Republicans have been skipping House Intelligence meetings for months (Politico)
2. Rubin: Trump is out of excuses
"The administration's reported failure to respond to intelligence indicating Russia was paying bounties to militants to kill Americans is yet another issue on which there is no good answer. If Trump was not told, his advisers are utterly incompetent and should never have been appointed. If he was told (the White House has denied that the president was 'briefed,' contrary to reporting by The New York Times), then he has betrayed the troops.
Whatever the explanation, Trump still has not expressed outrage over the bounty on U.S. troops. Trump's lack of response is one more act of supplication to Russian President Vladimir Putin (along with pulling troops out of Germany, trying to extort Ukraine by withholding military aid, attempting to let Russia back into the Group of Seven, bugging out of Syria, and denying Russia manipulated the 2016 election)." —The Washington Post
More: Bernstein: From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials (CNN)
3. 'Recipe for disaster'
The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to bring it under control, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said yesterday. The U.S. has set records for daily new infections in recent days, outpacing daily infections in April, when public officials thought the outbreak was hitting its peak. Testifying today before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Dr. Anthony Fauci concurred with Schuchat. "I think it is important to tell you and the American public that I'm very concerned, because it could get very bad," he said. —CNBC
— Arizona scrambles to get a handle on outbreak. Faced with a skyrocketing coronavirus caseload in the state, Gov. Doug Ducey yesterday ordered bars, movie theaters, gyms, and water parks to shut down for at least 30 days, effective immediately. Ducey also ordered public schools to delay the start of classes until at least Aug. 17. —The Guardian
— Following Miami's lead. Calling Fourth of July gatherings a potential "recipe for increased transmission of COVID-19," Los Angeles Co. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the county will close its beaches on Friday and ban fireworks displays in anticipation of the holiday, due to a recent surge in coronavirus cases in the region. —Los Angeles Times
— Americans see exaggeration, conspiracy theories, and partisanship. A Pew Research Center survey reveals that increasing shares of Americans, led by Republicans, believe the coronavirus pandemic has been overblown, and roughly a third of Americans believe to some degree that the outbreak was intentionally planned by people in power. On the positive side, nearly two-thirds say the CDC and other public health organizations get the facts right "almost all" or "most" of the time. —Pew Research Center
More: Putin tells Russia coronavirus is in retreat. Critics face crackdowns for saying it's far from over (The Washington Post)
4. Ahmad: Populism may be another COVID-19 victim
"[P]opulist leaders have been severely tested and found seriously wanting. But, despite their obvious incompetence and the death and destruction that surrounds them, their core support-base remains intact. Trump will be judged fairly quickly at the polls, but an economic recovery could perhaps see him through. [O]ther[s] have a few years before them to redeem themselves at the next general elections.
They will use all the tricks in their arsenal—rhetoric, slogans, scapegoats, intimidation—to affirm their fitness to shape their nations’ identity and destiny. This will take some effort: what the pandemic has conclusively revealed is that the very qualities that bring populists to power are those that make them the worst possible leaders of their nation." —The Wire
Ed. Note: Talmiz Ahmad is a former diplomat and holds the Ram Sathe Chair for International Studies at Symbiosis International University.
More: Rachman: Coronavirus could kill off populism (Financial Times)
5. Crackdown on online hate speech
Social media companies Reddit, Twitch, and YouTube took action yesterday against prominent pro-Trump and far-right accounts and groups, as well as President Trump himself, in an attempt to crack down on hate speech on their platforms. The actions come amid a flurry of announcements by major brands that they are pausing advertising on social media giant Facebook, citing inaction around hate speech.
— Reddit banned more than 2,000 subreddits that regularly broke its rules about harassment, hate speech, and targeting, including r/The_Donald, a pro-Trump forum with more than 790,000 users.
— Amazon subsidiary Twitch temporarily suspended Trump's official account for violating its hateful-conduct rules. Twitch cited two examples of "offending content" from Trump's account, one from a campaign rally in 2016 and another from Trump's recent campaign event in Tulsa, Okla.
— Google's YouTube banned the accounts of many popular white supremacists, including longtime Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, Richard Spencer, and Stefan Molyneux, citing their violations of YouTube's hate speech guidelines. —Business Insider
More: Primed by Trump, militias gear up for 'stolen' US election (The Sunday Times)
6. Foreign influence gains an American foothold
While the Constitution and federal laws prohibit foreign powers from spending money to influence American elections or give anything of value to elected officials, there's nothing stopping those same interests from spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence American policies by hiring well-connected lobbyists. And some of the biggest names in American politics, from both sides of the aisle, have taken advantage of lucrative lobbying opportunities on behalf of countries like Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia.
— The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires lobbyists to disclose any work for a foreign country. Among those nabbed for alleged FARA violations were former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, whose undisclosed work on behalf of Ukraine interests led to a conviction, and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, whose undisclosed lobbying on behalf of Turkey was not ultimately prosecuted once he pled guilty to other charges.
— However, a 2016 Department of Justice audit revealed both poor compliance and lax enforcement of FARA. And while the White House and Department of Justice push foreign agents to comply with its transparency mandates—particularly after the Mueller Investigation shined a spotlight on secretive foreign influence—they've done little to pressure Congress to change a culture that allows lawmakers to sometimes prioritize foreign interests over America’s.
— Reforming the system would require members of Congress to take action that could impact their post-congressional financial futures—something that neither Democrats nor Republicans in Washington are in a hurry to tackle. "This is bad. It erodes the trust that people deserve to have," former Rep. Zach Wamp said. "The government only works where we can have confidence in our elected leaders." —NBCLX
7. Hasen: The case for a new voting amendment
"In a democratic system, we expect our elected officials to be responsive to the views and interests of the voters. If the universe of voters—and, of course, campaign donors—is skewed toward older, wealthier, better educated, whiter voters, political decisions will be as well. We need equality in voting rights and turnout to assure responsive representation and social policy that reflects everyone's needs, not just those most likely to turn out with their votes and dollars." —The New York Times
Ed. Note: Richard Hasen is a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of "Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy."
More: Appeals court reverses Wisconsin voting restrictions rulings (ABC News)
8. Global roundup: China signs HK national security law
Chinese President Xi Jinping has signed a landmark national security law for Hong Kong, a sweeping attempt to crush dissent that has already drawn global condemnation and could endanger the city's appeal as a financial hub. The legislation, which took effect immediately, includes sentences as long as life in prison for the most serious category of crimes, including "subversion of state power" and "collusion with foreign forces." British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "deeply concerned" about the move, while the Trump Administration has vowed "strong actions" if Beijing doesn’t reverse course. —Bloomberg
— Russia. President Vladimir Putin has declared a premature victory over the coronavirus and mobilized huge resources to make sure a nationwide vote on constitutional amendments that would enable him to stay in power until 2036 moves forward. Voting officially kicked off last Thursday, and tomorrow has been declared a national holiday in the hope that more people will vote. —The New York Times
— Israel. Plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to begin annexing parts of the West Bank as early as tomorrow may be postponed. The country’s alternate prime minister, Benny Gantz, suggested that the July 1 deadline isn't "sacred," and annexation will have to wait until the country has dealt with its coronavirus crisis. —The Guardian
— Iran. In a move U.S. Iran envoy Brian Hook described as a "propaganda stunt," Iran has issued an arrest warrant and asked Interpol for help in detaining President Trump and dozens of others it believes carried out the drone strike that killed Iranian Gen Qassem Soleimani in January. —Al Jazeera
More: US ends defense exports to Hong Kong over China's national security law (The Hill)
9. Oppenheimer & Edwards: Democracy is less broken than we think
"America relies on a system of government that is capable of incorporating a variety of adverse viewpoints, biases, and even tragedies, and melding them into a functioning society. In autocracies, conflict and change are bad because they risk the power of those in charge. In a democracy, conflict and change are good because they allow for citizens to evolve our country without destroying it. We can post videos about the most horrific aspects of our society and then protest about it in the streets, and democracy is better off for it." —The MIT Press Reader
Ed. Note: Danny Oppenheimer is a professor of psychology and social and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. Mike Edwards holds degrees in political science, history, and teaching, and has written extensively on politics and the media. They are the authors of "Democracy Despite Itself."
10. An American Story: Alegba and Friends
Alegba Jahyile, frontman of Alegba and Friends, took to the boathouse at Brooklyn's Prospect Park as a way to get out of the house during the pandemic. This quickly turned into nightly concerts, and fans are clamoring for them to play three to four hours a night, seven nights a week.
— Alegba and Friends usually play Haitian roots and jazz music in bars and restaurants in New York City, but with coronavirus, they had to find new ways to entertain.
— They decided to hold concerts every night after a woman approached Jahyile and told him it had been a terrible week for her and her family and listening to them play brought her joy.
— "When people come here, they come to have a little good time, to have a picnic with their family, their friends, their lovers. And then the music takes them to another level. So, it becomes a daily thing," said Jahyile. —Associated Press
Ed. Note: We are spotlighting ways that Americans are helping each other through the coronavirus crisis and recent unrest, and promoting American values. Would you like to suggest an "American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to editor@topline.com. Thank you!
I have no doubt, after all I've read and seen of how he behaves around Putin & Crew, that Trump is a Russian sympathizer. Look at the jets. We've been playing avionic chicken with Russian jets over Alaska for the past two months. If either of the two Presidents Bush were in office, if Putin tried that once, he would have received an immediate phone call. There wouldn't have been a second occurrence. How about the secret meeting in Trump's office? No Americans allowed! I would like to think that the CIA became involved before that meeting took place. I don't like Bolton, never did, but he did say something this week worth mentioning. If, and I do mean IF, Pinocchio gets in again, he will be unstoppable. —Brendan P., Georgia
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