The U.S. is sending the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in order "to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime," National Security Adviser John Bolton announced Sunday night. Bolton
said the deployment was in response to "a number of troubling and
escalatory indications and warnings" on the part of Tehran, but did not
elaborate. Such deployments are rarely announced in advance. "[A]ny
attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met
with unrelenting force," Bolton said. "The United States is not seeking
war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to
any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or
regular Iranian forces."
Aircraft parked on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in this 2012 photo.
(AP, File)
The strike group, which
includes the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the guided missile
cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and destroyers from Destroyer Squadron 2,
departed Naval Station Norfolk on April 1 for what the Navy described as
a "regularly scheduled deployment." The strike force is under the
command of Rear Adm. John Wade. The USS John Stennis aircraft
carrier strike group was in the Persian Gulf as recently as late March.
The Stennis and USS Abraham Lincoln joined forces in the Mediterranean
Sea in recent days. The deployment comes less than a month after
the Trump administration designated Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization. In late March, the Air
Force pulled its bombers from Qatar, one of the rare times since 2001 no
bombers were deployed to the Middle East. Last
month, the Air Force deployed a task force of F-35 stealth fighter jets
for the first time to the Middle East. Last week, some of the advanced
jets carried out their first air strikes against ISIS, the Air Force
said. Earlier Sunday, Axios reported
that the Trump administration was preparing to announce a new set of
sanctions against Iran on Wednesday, one year after the U.S. pulled
out from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The Wall Street Journal reported
last week that the White House was considering sanctions targeting
petrochemical and consumer goods sales by Iran, but Axios reported
Sunday that the sanctions to be announced this week would target a
different sector of the rogue nation's economy. The
U.S. Navy says there have been zero cases of “unsafe” interactions
between its warships and aircraft and Iranian forces this year as well
as last year. The deployment also comes amid the bloodiest fighting in five years between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Last
Friday, two Israeli soldiers were wounded by snipers from the
Iran-backed militant group Islamic Jihad. Late Saturday, the Israeli
military announced that an airstrike had killed Hamas commander Hamed
al-Khoudary, a money changer whom Israel said was a key player in
transferring Iranian funds to the militant group. Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson, Kelly Phares and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in
Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP
Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Trump said he’s looking for a bipartisan plan to address infrastructure in the U.S. In a tweet Saturday, the president said there’s “nothing easy about making an infrastructure plan.” He added, its especially hard to get the funds when the country is spending trillions of dollars in the Middle East. Republicans are currently looking for a way to fund the plan, which is expected to cost between $1 and $2 trillion. Senator Rand Paul has suggested withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and other combat zones to pay for the move.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders expressed disbelief on Saturday at the fact that Democrats pushed "socialism" while living under President Trump's growing economy. "It's
truly mind-boggling. I don't know why anyone would vote for a system
that they are literally watching crumble before their very eyes,"
Sanders said while appearing Saturday on "Watters' World." Her comment was an apparent reference to the developing political crisis and looming regime change in Venezuela, which has met with sky-high inflation, deteriorating humanitarian conditions and a political uprising. She
told host Jesse Watters that favoring socialism was particularly odd
given that this nation's capitalist system has worked "so well." "Under
this president, [the] American economy is booming, we're thriving, and
we're doing better than we've done in a long time," she added. She made those remarks just after the administration celebrated a positive jobs report which included 263,000 added jobs and the lowest unemployment rate since 1969.
President Trump’s post-Mueller-report victory lap includes new merchandise such as $30 “Collusion Delusion” T-shirts and “Witch Hunt!” mugs. Buyers are also snatching up white tees that reproduce Trump’s March
24, 1:42 p.m. tweet following Attorney General William Barr’s
announcement of his summary of Mueller’s findings: “Complete and
Total EXONERATION.” The “Witch Hunt!” and “No collusion” taglines also
come in decals ($9) and beverage coolers ($8). The shop.donaldjtrump.com site is authorized by Trump For President Inc. and the Republican National Committee. Sales surged on April 18, the day the redacted Mueller report was released, said campaign officials. “Our
Mueller-related merchandise has been doing exceptionally well. Our
supporters are even more energized,” said First Daughter-in-law Lara
Trump. Campaign
spokeswoman Erin Perrine said, “President Trump is a branding master
and all of the best ideas come from his messaging and tweets.” The
store’s best seller, by far, remains the $25 “Make America Great Again”
caps, which are closing in on their 1 millionth sale.
Tickets to the latest stop on Bill and Hillary Clinton’s speaking tour were going for as little as $20 on the secondary market as their 13-city adventure continued to struggle to find an audience. The
best seats in the house at Seattle’s WaMu Theater on Friday could be
had for $829, a steep 54% drop from the $1,785 that the former first
couple fetched when the tour was announced in early November. But organizers soon had to slash listed prices and even offer discount ducats through Groupon to boost sales. The official prices for Friday’s appearance ranged from $66.50 to $519, the Seattle Times reported. “I
really believe that we are in a crisis, a constitutional crisis,”
Hillary Clinton opined during the 90-minute performance, presented as an
interview of her and her husband by actor Bradley Whitford. “This is a
test for our country.”
The White House is taking issue with political statements made in the
special counsel’s report, which have been used by the left to smear the
president and his associates. White House lawyer Emmet Flood outlined his concerns in a letter to
Attorney General William Barr last month, which was made public on
Thursday. The letter zeroes in on a line found in Volume II of the
report in which Mueller’s teams said the evidence prevented them from
“conclusively determining no criminal conduct occurred.” Flood argued this was not the job of the special counsel, which is a
concern echoed by the president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. “It also does not exonerate him, prosecutors never say that, that’s kind of close to an improper statement,” said Giuliani.
The Mueller report is pictured. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Flood said prosecutors are not in “the business of establishing
innocence” or of “exonerating investigated persons” because the American
justice system already presumes innocence. Flood explained the danger of applying this standard nationwide,
which would force any accused person to prove beyond a shadow of doubt
their own innocence. He said the job of prosecutors is to fully
investigate a situation then decide if it merits recommending charges. To this end, Flood believes the special counsel fell short because it
did not reach a conclusive decision on obstruction. He questioned
whether this was deliberately done to give Congress a sort of “road map”
to take action against the president as they openly discuss
impeachment. Despite the unfairness with which Democrats have treated President
Trump over the last two-years, Flood explained how he has remained as
transparent as possible. That’s because much of the information
Mueller’s team got their hands on is classified as “privileged
material,” meaning it could have been withheld with an executive order. After laying out his case to Barr, Flood explained the purpose of his
letter is to make sure this investigation does not set a precedent for
future proceedings.
Aircraft parked on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in this 2012 photo.
(AP, File)
