Ex-Bolton chief of staff says Trump 'responded with restraint' after Iran downed US drone

President Trump acted responsibly after Iran shot down a U.S. Navy drone over a key strait in the Middle East, a former top National Security Council official told Fox News Thursday.
Former NSC chief of staff Fred Fleitz told "Tucker Carlson Tonight." that the president does not want war with Iran but is not afraid to defend American interests,
"I don't want a war with Iran," Fleitz said. "I know that this president was elected to get us out of wars and not to start new wars. The president was right to pull us out of the fraudulent nuclear deal with Iran.
"But the use of force is on the table if Iran threatens our interests."
Fleitz, who also served as chief of staff to current National Security Adviser John Bolton, claimed some observers believe they can fault Trump if Iran uses violence in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord.
"There's people saying right now [that] the president is responsible if Iran responds with violence because we withdrew from that deal," he said.
"That is a fraudulent argument. We don't stay in an agreement because the other party threatens to respond with violence. The president has responded with restraint. He has given [Iran] an opportunity to deescalate the situation, and I think he handled it right today."
The former CIA analyst added that the Trump administration beefed up American forces in the Middle East because he wants to defend American interests, not go on the offensive.
"It doesn't mean that the president's going to do this, but the president can't ignore clear intelligence that Iran is planning to respond with violence to his policies," Fleitz said. "This president is not going to give in to blackmail but he does not want to use force if he doesn't have to."
The downing of the drone by a surface-to-air missile is only the most recent Iranian provocation in the region. Thursday's incident comes on the heels of a disputed attack on a pair of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. U.S. officials say Iran was behind the tanker attacks, however, Tehran has not claimed responsibility and even suggested American involvement in the incident.
Similarly, Iran claimed the U.S. drone shot down Thursday was over Iranian airspace, but American officials stated unequivocally the incident occurred in international airspace. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance ISR aircraft, known as a BAMS-D, was shot down at approximately 7:35 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Fox News' Edmund DeMarche and Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.

CNN Fake News Cartoons

NBC’s Chuck Todd calls out AOC over 'concentration camps' comment: 'Some things are bigger than partisanship’

NBC "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd called out U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for doing migrants “a tremendous disservice” by comparing U.S. detention camps at the U.S.-Mexico border to Nazi concentration camps.
Todd said Wednesday that Nazi death and concentration camps are “not comparable in the slightest” to what’s going on at the border.
“You can call our government’s detention of migrants at our southern border many things depending on how you see it. It’s a stain on our nation, maybe. A necessary evil to others,” Todd said. “But do you know what you can’t call it?” he asked, before airing a clip of Ocasio-Cortez’s controversial remarks.
Todd said the New York Democrat's use of the term “concentration camps” only distracts from the debate on how to resolve the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.
Todd also criticized other Democrats, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York, who were reluctant to condemn Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks.
“One of the lessons of the Holocaust is ‘Never Again,’ Nadler tweeted Tuesday. “We fail to learn that lesson when we don’t callout such inhumanity right in front of us.”
“Why are we so sheepish calling out people we agree with politically these days?” Todd asked viewers. He claimed the issue exists on both sides of the aisle — among both Republicans and Democrats.
"Are we really so ensconced in our political bubbles, liberal versus conservative, that we cannot talk about right versus wrong anymore? Some things are bigger than partisanship, or at least they used to be."

Battle lines are drawn as two cable networks skip Trump kickoff

When President Trump kicked off his reelection campaign in Orlando, two of the three cable news networks chose to blow it off.
MSNBC didn't air any of the speech, and CNN dumped out of it after a few brief minutes (just as Trump started bashing the press and the crowd chanted "CNN sucks"). Instead, they had their own pundits and prognosticators talk throughout the event and spent yesterday critiquing the speech that they decided not to share with viewers.
This is an important moment.
In passing up the speech (which was carried in its entirety by Fox), the networks were, intentionally or otherwise, making a statement. They were saying that what we have to say is more important than letting you hear from the leader of the free world as he makes his case for a second term.
That, in my view, plays into the old Steve Bannon charge about the media acting as the opposition party.
I'm not saying that the cable news channels need to air every Trump rally, even though Fox carries many of them. And the Orlando speech did turn out to be highly partisan, with the president ripping not just the media but the Mueller "witch hunt," "18 angry Democrats," "Crooked Hillary," and "radical" Democrats "driven by hatred, prejudice and rage." That's how he chose to frame his launch, with little about what he'd do in a second term.
So run the speech and then your anchors, reporters, commentators, and analysts can rip it any way they want. If it's important enough to cover on program after program, why isn't it important enough to air?
Can anyone imagine CNN and MSNBC not carrying Barack Obama's reelection launch? When he held his first official 2012 campaign rally in Columbus, they covered it, along with Fox.
When Hillary Clinton gave her 2015 kickoff speech on New York's Roosevelt Island — I was there and part of the coverage — Fox carried it live along with the other news channels.
(In a mirror-image move, South Carolina Democrats have barred CNN, Fox and even C-SPAN from covering this weekend's party convention, giving exclusive rights to MSNBC. This is a dumb move that will limit the exposure of the 21 presidential candidates who are slated to speak.)
The whole question of air time and balance is going to be a tricky one for television networks and the press as this campaign unfolds. That's because Trump's mighty media megaphone is such a powerful force — and a dilemma for the Democrats.
The Washington Post has just documented Trump's dominance:
"Through the first five months of the year, Trump has received about three times as much Google search interest in the United States, on average, as all his Democratic rivals put together.
"He has been having about 75 percent more social media interactions on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram than his rivals combined since February.
"And when it comes to CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel, Trump was mentioned nearly twice as often as the 23 Democrats last month."
The Democrats, the paper says, are trying to figure out how to get higher ratings, even if they're not at Trumpian levels.
The highest-rated town hall — Bernie Sanders on Fox — drew over 2.5 million viewers. But that pales next to the 24 million who tuned into the first debate between Trump and other Republicans, also on Fox, back in August 2015.
During that campaign, according to a Harvard study cited by the Post, Trump drew 63 percent of the primary coverage in a field of 17 candidates, and 15 percent more than Hillary Clinton that fall. I said over and over during that campaign that even negative coverage benefits Trump because it means he's dominating the agenda.
Guy Cecil, chairman of an anti-Trump super PAC, is quoted as saying: "We have a culture that rewards the clown show at the expense of real issues." But that's been true for decades, and successful politicians adapt to the culture.
The current crop of 2020 Dems is doing plenty of interviews, but these are diluted by the sheer size of the field.
They will have one advantage in the coming months: the Democrats will be engaged in a race, with no contest on the GOP side. But they'll still be competing for ink and air time with an incumbent president who can make news at will.
Footnote: Donald Trump has called much of the media fake, dishonest and treasonous, but he was outdone in Orlando by his "spiritual adviser."
Paula White said, during an opening prayer no less: "Let every demonic network that has aligned itself against the purpose, against the calling of President Trump, let it be broken, let it be torn down in the name of Jesus."
Do we really need this kind of demonizing, literally, in the name of religion?

Hannity to CNN boss: 'You should be ashamed of yourself' for letting Don Lemon make Hitler comparison

Fox News' Sean Hannity unloaded on the mainstream media Wednesday night for their coverage of President Trump's Florida campaign rally warning them that they are underestimating the concerns of the president's supporters.
"The Americans who showed up last night in flip-flops and cargo shorts, they will be the people who choose the next president, they are the ones who were right in 2016 and all of you were wrong," Hannity said.
He was reacting to a montage of media clips from CNN and MSNBC that showed hosts and their guests mocking those who attended the Orlando rally.
Hannity accused the media of ignoring the impact of the Obama administration's policies and noted that the president's supporters did not "buy into" the Russia investigation.
"The forgotten men and women in this country, the one that suffered the most under Biden-Obama, the people who make this country great every day. They didn't buy into your lies, your conspiracy theories," Hannity said.
Hannity also blasted CNN's Don Lemon for comparing Trump and Adolf Hitler Tuesday night while arguing that such "bad people" shouldn't be given a platform.
"You let your 'journalist' Don Lemon say this on your network last night? You should be ashamed of yourself," Hannity told CNN boss Jeff Zucker.
The Fox News' host accused CNN of being unable to take the criticism responding to Lemon's comments.
"What really happened was this. When the president was 6 minutes into the speech last night, said all of those fake news people in the back and the crowd started... telling the truth about fake news CNN, that CNN sucks, CNN couldn't take the criticism and they turned it off," Hannity said.

US Navy drone shot down by Iranian missile over Strait of Hormuz: source

A U.S. high-altitude drone was shot down Thursday by an Iranian surface-to-air missile over the Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions in the region after last week’s attacks on two oil tankers, a source told Fox News.
A commander for Iran's Revolutionary Guard said the shooting sends `a clear message' to the U.S. He said while Iran has no intention of war with anyone, it's "ready for war."
The U.S. Navy’s MQ-4C drone, , which has the same wingspan as a Boeing 737, was over international airspace at the time and about 17 miles from Iran, the source said.
Capt. Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, declined to comment on the reported attack when reached by the AP, but he said no drone was over Iranian territory.
IRNA news agency, the country’s state-run news arm, identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard confirmed the shooting and said it occurred when the drone entered into its airspace in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province.
The U.S. said Iran fired a missile at another drone last week that responded to the attack on two oil tankers near the Gulf.
Another senior U.S. official told Fox News last week that an MQ9 Reaper drone was fired on by the Iranians shortly after it arrived at the scene where the MV Altair tanker sent out a distress signal.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the "blatant assault" on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
After the tanker incident, Pompeo said his assessment was based on "intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.”
Fox News' Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report

2019 Crying Democrat Cartoons

Trump launches re-election bid before jam-packed arena, vows to 'Keep America Great'

President Trump formally launched his 2020 re-election campaign Tuesday night before a jam-packed crowd in Orlando's Amway Center arena, and quickly unloaded on the media organizations and government actors he said tried their hardest with "everything they had" to bring down both his candidacy and presidency.
To chants of "USA," Trump took the stage after brief remarks by Vice President Mike Pence and first lady Melania Trump, and recalled his unlikely rise to power.
"We stared down the unholy alliance of lobbyists and donors and special interests who made a living bleeding our country dry," Trump said. "The swamp is fighting back so viciously and violently. For the last two and a half years, we have been under siege.”
And after polling the boisterous crowd, Trump appeared to settle on a new campaign slogan: "Keep America Great."
He went on to tout the economy and the planned Space Force, celebrate the "obliteration" of ISIS, and declare that "Republicans believe that every life is a sacred gift from God" amid a newly energized national pro-life movement.
Just over four years ago, Trump descended through the pink marble and brass atrium of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president, the first step on a journey few analysts believed would take him all the way to the White House.
This time, thousands of Trump supporters arrived more than 40 hours in advance to secure a spot in the Amway Center, despite sweltering heat. Some had been camped in chairs for several nights.
Trump told attendees he had begun not only a "great political campaign but a great movement" committed to the idea that a government must "care for its own citizens first."
He called his election that year as a "defining moment in American history" -- and then directed the crowd to "ask them, right there," referring to the media assembled in the back, which many in the crowd jeered.
In one of the most dramatic moments of the rally, Trump charged that Democrats want a "do-over" of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report -- and then, his voice approaching a shout, Trump blasted Democrats' apparent lack of interest in misconduct within their party.

Supporters of President Trump waiting in line hours before the arena doors opened Tuesday in Orlando. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

"Our patriotic movement has been under assault from the very first day," Trump said. He specifically called out the "phony" dossier used by the FBI to secure a secret surveillance warrant to surveil one of his former aides, Carter Page.
After Trump noted that the dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee (DNC), the crowd again broke into a chant, this time cheering, "Lock her up."
"If you want to know how the system is rigged, just look at how they came at us for three years with everything they had, versus the free pass they gave to Hillary and her aides after they set up an illegal server, destroyed evidence, deleted and acid-washed 33,000 emails, exposed classified information, and turned the State Department into a pay-for-play cash machine," Trump said, his voice rising with the crowd's.
"Lock her up," the crowd responded again.
"33,000 emails deleted, think of it!" Trump said. "You know, there was a lot of corruption on the other side. But, you know, they get a subpoena from the United States Congress, and they decide they're not gonna give it, so, Lindsey Graham, they delete and they acid wash -- which is very expensive, nobody does it -- those emails, never to be seen again!
"But we may find them again somewhere deep in the State Department," Trump mused. "Can you imagine if I got a subpoena? Think of this -- if I deleted one email, like a love note to Melania, it's the electric chair for Trump."
For the most part, the rally focused on Trump's policy successes, on a range of matters including criminal justice reform and the economy.
"Our country is soaring to incredible new heights," Trump asserted, to loud applause. "Our economy is the envy of the world, perhaps the greatest economy we've had in the history of our country, and as long as you keep this team in place -- we have a tremendous way to go -- our future has never, ever looked brighter or sharper."
Trump continued: "The fact is, the American Dream is back. It's bigger, and better, and stronger than ever before."
The president emphasized his success in appointing federal judges, and lamented Democrats' treatment of now-Justice Brett Kavanuagh, telling the crowd, "They didnt just try to win, they tried to destroy him with false and malicious accusations" in the name of "political dominance and control."
Trump called Kavanaugh a "great gentleman" who is "highly respected" throughout the judiciary, and said Democrats also targeted his family. Kavanuagh, speaking to Fox News last year, said his wife had received numerous death threats.
"Just imagine what this angry left-wing mob would do if they were in charge of this country," Trump said.
"We just finished [confirming judge] number 107, already approved, sitting on the bench -- how about that?" Trump then asked. "By the time we're finished with the rest, we will have record percentages [of judges appointed] -- our percentage will be a record, except for one person. One person has a higher percentage ... George Washington."
At one point, outgoing Press Secretary Sarah Sanders took the stage, bringing the crowd to its feet.
"We want people to come into our country based on merit," Trump said, after praising Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials as underappreciated heroes securing the border.
He went on to condemn "crazy" Bernie Sanders, and vowed again that America would "never" become a socialist country.
The festive and lively environment was evident both outside and inside the arena. Caps and shirts and mugs and ponchos were being hawked in corners far and wide in Orlando, with slogans ranging from "God, Guns and Trump" to "Trump’s Deplorables" to "Working to Defeat Liberals since 1854."

"Think of this -- if I deleted one email, like a love note to Melania, it's the electric chair for Trump."
— President Trump

"Bikers For Trump" volunteer security members managed traffic in and out of the rally areas as jubilant Trump devotees partied to a band while in line, occasionally breaking into "USA, USA" chants.
Others wandered the blocks around the venue urging people to sign a petition to "prevent voter fraud."
"Only U.S. citizens should be able to vote," explained Donny, a Jacksonville native. "That’s what we want in Florida."
Joe Biden, the frontrunner among Democrats in both polling and fundraising, sought to blunt the momentum from the Tuesday launch shortly before Trump took the stage.
"Donald Trump is launching his campaign for re-election tonight and the American people face a choice -- we can make Trump an aberration or let him fundamentally and forever alter the character of this nation," Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.

Hats and other merchandise were flying off the racks Tuesday afternoon in Orlando, ahead of Trump's rally. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

"Our country cannot afford four more years of Trump diminishing America's role on the world stage, cutting access to health care, ignoring the climate emergency that is an unprecedented threat to our national security, tearing children from their parents at the border, giving enormous new tax breaks to big corporations and the wealthy at the expense of working families, and dividing our country by embracing toxic bigotry and racism that's antithetical to who we are," Bedingfield added.
Sanders, meanwhile, hosted an "Ask Me Anything" open forum on Reddit on Tuesday. The self-described democratic socialist condemned what he called Trump's "rejection of science," and lamented the "incredible attacks against working families that have taken place under unfettered capitalism."
Sanders, in a video response to Trump's address later in the day, issued a series of personal insults. He called Trump a "racist" and "sexist," among other attacks.
"The working class of this country has been decimated for decades by a coordinated attack from corporate America," Sanders told one Reddit user. "Bad trade deals have allowed corporations to ship millions of jobs abroad, companies have bitterly resisted unionization and the minimum wage has not been raised for almost 10 years."
Not all of the participants in Sanders' Reddit event gave him a warm welcome, however, with some pointing out Sanders' recent, dramatic rise to wealth.
"People like you have destroyed the working class by taking more of their taxes to fund a corporate-run utopia that never can exist," one user replied. "Wealth is decided by the rarity of your skill set, not how hard you work, Mr. 3 mansions and an Audi R8."
Trump is ahead of his Democrat rivals in key battleground states and "voters overall" support re-electing him, a Republican National Committee (RNC) memo obtained by Fox News claimed.  The memo came amid reports of the president struggling in polls putting him up against potential 2020 opponents, including Biden. A Fox News poll showed similar numbers.
But, according to the RNC, its own massive data operation told a different story. According to the committee's numbers, Trump has a higher approval than disapproval rating in the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania while a majority of Florida voters (53 percent) supported re-electing him.
Trump has an unprecedented $40.8 million in cash-on-hand, as of the start of the second quarter of fundraising on April 1. While that would be a massive war chest on its own, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their joint fundraising committees had a combined $82 million cash-on-hand going into the second quarter.
Fox News' Mike Emanuel, Hollie McKay, Sam Dorman, Paul Steinhauser, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.