Congressman Files Articles of Impeachment Against Secretary of Defense

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Congressman Files Articles of Impeachment Against Secretary of Defense

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, R-Florida, made good on his promise earlier this year to file articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. On Friday, he filed one article of impeachment against Austin alleging high crimes and misdemeanors.

Mills appears to be the first to file an article of impeachment against a Defense secretary in U.S. history.

“High-level officials in this administration blatantly ignored intel that Americans and our allied partners in Kabul would be left behind in harm’s way unless the U.S. corrected course in our withdrawal” from Afghanistan, Mills, a veteran of the U.S. Army, said. “As a result, nearly 200 people, including 13 American service members, were murdered at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan two years ago.

“Because of this clear dereliction of duty, today I am introducing articles of impeachment for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. It’s not enough for Congress to hold committee hearings. We must start taking real action to address the complete failure of this administration.”

He filed a House resolution on Friday citing the article, one day before August 26, which “marks two years to the day that we lost 13 of our brave service members. The fact that it has been two entire years without any member of this administration being held accountable is unfathomable. That changes today.”

Article One states “Dereliction of duty resulting in abandonment of Americans in Afghanistan. In his role as Secretary of Defense, and in violation of his constitutional oath to defend and secure our country and uphold the Constitution, taken on January 22, 2021, Lloyd James Austin III engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors through his dereliction of his duties and intentional abandonment of Americans in Afghanistan.”

The impeachment resolution cites events that occurred on July 1, 2021, at Bagram Air Base under Austin’s direction, including freeing from prison a Taliban and ISIS terrorist who detonated a bomb outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 American service members.

Because of Austin’s conduct, the resolution states, he’s “forsaken his sworn duties to the United States of America, its national security, and its people and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with the Constitution” warranting “impeachment and trial and removal from office.”

Mills previously told Austin he’d drafted articles of impeachment against him at a House Armed Services Committee hearing in March.

Austin replied by saying, “The congressman is certainly entitled to his opinion.” He then looked at Mills and said, “We all thank you for your service. I don’t take a back bench when it comes to patriotism, devotion to our cause here, protection to our troops.”

Austin told Mills he “commanded Bagram Airforce Base so I know a little bit about Bagram Airforce Base. But again, you’re welcome to your opinion and so I’ll leave it at that.”

The White House and the DOD have yet to issue a response.

Mills is the second Republican congressman from Florida to file articles of impeachment this month. Two weeks ago, US Rep. Greg Steube, R-Florida, filed four articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden.

Most Voters Dissatisfied with Public Schools

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Most Voters Dissatisfied with Public Schools

(Brendan Clarey, The Center Square) At the Republican primary debate last week, presidential hopefuls disparaged the state of education in the nation, with some candidates advocating for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education and the promotion of school choice options.

It’s an issue that seems sure to reappear as voters signal strong concerns with the quality of traditional public education. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, found that more Americans are dissatisfied than satisfied with the quality of education at their local public school.

The poll of 2,500 voters found that 39% were satisfied with the quality of their local public school’s education, and 41% were dissatisfied. The poll asked 1,000 Republicans, 1,000 Democrats and 500 independent voters about their views.

TCS-VVP - Story 9 - Satisfaction with the Public Education System
Illustration by Kate Guenther | The Center Square

Moderates who lean Republican had the highest dissatisfaction rate, 52%, followed by voters who identified as strong Republicans with a 51% dissatisfaction rate. Of all Republican respondents, 47% said they were dissatisfied. Of Democratic voters, 33% were dissatisfied.

According to Mike Noble, founder and CEO of Noble Predictive Insights, such a polarized issue can lead to Republicans and Democrats changing their perception of satisfaction on an issue based on who is in the White House.

“The big thing on education, you got to look at the tie-breaker, which is the independents,” Noble said. “Independents are seven points in the dissatisfied realm, so independents are leaning a little bit towards Republicans on this issue.”

Of those who approve of President Joe Biden’s performance, 52% said they were satisfied with public education. Of those who disapprove of Biden, just 31% said public schools were satisfactory.

Satisfaction with the performance of their local public school districts also varied depending on the region voters lived in.

Noble said that voters in the southern region of the United States were more dissatisfied with the quality of education, with 45% expressing dissatisfaction. Those in the country’s northeast region were most satisfied, with 47% expressing satisfaction with the education system.

“You can read into that all you want,” Noble said. “It’s interesting, the big disparity.”

Perhaps some of that comes from debates over what is appropriate for students. An April report from the free speech organization PEN America found that southern states like Florida and Texas saw the highest number of removals of controversial books.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll also found that parents with children under the age of 18 were more likely to say their local public school was doing a good job than those with grown children or without children.

Voters who live in the suburbs indicated they were more pleased than voters who lived in rural or urban areas. Rural voters were the most likely to say they were dissatisfied with the quality of education offered.

Voters with a higher household income were also more likely to say they were pleased with their public schools, with 44% of those earning more than $100,000 a year signaling approval compared with 40% of voters bringing in between $50,000-$100,000, and 35% of those making less than $50,000 a year.

As debates continue into election season, it’s clear that education will be a talking point, especially for the GOP, according to Noble.

“Education has become a kind of battleground, and you see, obviously, it’s become a political football – Republicans have a bit of an edge over Democrats currently on this wedge issue,” Noble said.

Earlier poll results in The Center Square Voters’ Voices Poll indicate that two of every three voters don’t want biological males who identify as female playing female sports; the GOP frontrunners, former President Donald Trump and DeSantis, would be locked in tight races with Biden; that Biden is largely under water with voters in a number of key descriptors; that inflation, crime and the economy/jobs are the top issues for voters; and voters are concerned about excessive government spending but it’s not their top concern.

The poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from July 31 to Aug. 3. Unlike traditional national polls, with limited respondent count of about 1,000, Noble Predictive surveyed 1,000 registered Republicans, 1,000 registered Democrats, and 500 independents, culminating in a sample size of 2,500. The margin of error for the aggregate sample was ±2.4%, with each political group independently weighted. For information about the methodology, visit www.noblepredictiveinsights.com.

3 Marines Dead in Training Accident in Australia

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3 Marines Dead in Training Accident in Australia

(Headline USA) A United States Marine Corps aircraft with 23 Marines aboard crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, killing at least three and critically injuring at least five during a multinational training exercise, officials said.

Three had been confirmed dead on Melville Island and five were flown in serious condition 50 miles to the mainland city of Darwin for hospital treatment after the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey aircraft crashed around 9:30 a.m., a statement from the Marines said.

“Recovery efforts are ongoing,” the statement said, adding the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Aircraft had been sent from Darwin to retrieve more survivors from the remote location but no further details on the fate of the other 15 Marines on board had been released hours later.

A U.S. military official reported to Australian air traffic controllers a “significant fire in the vicinity of the crash site,” according to an audio recording of the conversation broadcast by Nine News television.

Melville resident Shane Murphy was fishing from a beach when the Osprey crashed and told Australian Broadcasting Corp. he saw a “big mushroom of black smoke” rise from the wreckage.

Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said no one on board had escaped injury.

One of the injured was undergoing surgery at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said around six hours after the crash.

“We acknowledge that this is a terrible incident,” Fyles said. “The Northern Territory government stands by to offer whatever assistance is required.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said only Americans were injured in the crash during Exercise Predators Run, which involves the militaries of the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the three U.S. service personnel who lost their lives, those who have been injured, the rest of the crew and indeed the entire United States armed forces,” Albanese said in a statement.

“Australia will continue to provide assistance to our friends for as long as is required,” he added.

Around 150 U.S. Marines are currently based in Darwin and up to 2,500 rotate through the city every year. They’re part of a realignment of forces in the Asia-Pacific that’s broadly meant to face an increasingly assertive China.

The 12-day exercise is scheduled to end Sept. 7. It involves troops on land, in the sea and in the air. The exercise has been paused since the crash.

The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but during flight can rotate its propellers forward and cruise much faster like an airplane. Versions of the aircraft are flown by the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.

Before Sunday, there had been five fatal crashes of Marine Ospreys since 2012, causing a total of 16 deaths.

The latest was in June 2022, when five Marines died in a fiery crash in a remote part of California east of San Diego. A crash investigation report last month found that the tragedy was caused by a mechanical failure related to a clutch.

There had been 16 similar clutch problems with the Marine Ospreys in flight since 2012, the report found. But no problems have arisen since February when the Marine Corps began replacing a piece of equipment on the aircraft, the report said.

Melville is part of the Tiwi Islands, which along with Darwin are the focus of the exercise that involves 2,500 troops. It’s Indigenous-owned land and is mostly covered by tropical woodland. Its population is around 1,000 mostly Indigenous people.

The Osprey that crashed was one of two that had flown from Darwin to Melville on Sunday, Murphy, the police commissioner, said.

Darwin is a large city by the standards of Australia’s sparsely populated tropical north with a population of 150,000. But multiple casualty events can test its major hospital’s resources. The hospital has been put on its highest possible emergency alert, which means treatment of less urgent medical cases could be affected, Fyles said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Lincoln Project Quislings Flop Trying to Sponge Off Trump’s $7M Mugshot Juggernaut

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Lincoln Project Quislings Flop Trying to Sponge Off Trump’s $7M Mugshot Juggernaut

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) A reported $7.1-million geyser of cash for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign erupted after his historic and immediately iconic Fulton County mugshot was released, leaving his GOP primary competition in the dust and Democrats fuming in bewilderment and growing concern over the backlash from what was supposed to be a humiliating arrest and booking.

They weren’t alone. The notoriously establishment and increasingly irrelevant Never-Trump jackals at the Lincoln Project floated a fundraising gimmick that backfired with a spectacularly ironic gut punch. The TDS hucksters hawked chintzy shot glasses for $15 a pop, featuring Trump’s mugshot on one side and the letters FAFO on the other.

The Lincoln Project’s faux tough-guy sales pitch for the merch boasted, “Here’s to f**king around and finding out, Donald. Celebrate Trump’s newest criminal indictment with your very own mug-shot. Cheers! *Reusable with any future indictments*”

The Lincoln Project found out that their shot glasses could be used to drown their sorrows after Trump’s record fundraising.

The campaign’s haul in the 24 hours after his mugshot was released far outpaced the combined cash bump of his two closet primary competitors who participated in Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate, which was similarly overshadowed by Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson.

Trump shot glass
Trump shot glass / screenshot: gear.lincolnproject.us

Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis were seen by most as the top performers emerging from the primary pageant, a status reflected in day-after fundraising totals.

Ramaswamy was lauded for the $460,000 his campaign reportedly raised 24-hours after the debate, with another $600,000 added Thursday, while DeSantis crowed over his post-debate take topping $1 million.

The post-debate fundraising bump from the combined campaigns of Ramaswamy and DeSantis fell $5 million short of the total Trump raised in 24 hours after Fulton County DA Fani Willis got what was supposed to be her mugshot scalp of Trump.

Trump’s booking didn’t just pack a financial punch; it also injected a renewed boost of energy into his 2024 campaign. 

The bounce started as Trump arrived Thursday with a presidentially imposing motorcade that was greeted by throngs of supporters lining Atlanta streets and thousands more watching events unfold live on TV.

“Flew in, rolled through the city deep, I’m talking gang gang,” offered a classic narration of Trump’s arrival to be booked, a process Democrats orchestrated in an attempt to cower the former president.

“Donald say you want me here, I’m in Georgia, what’s up? Say something,” the narration of Trump’s arrival continued. “He done pulled up on ’em. He said let me pop out real quick. This man came to Georgia squad deep. Y’all talking about gang gang, you don’t know nothing about gang gang. Donald say this ain’t nothing but a little pit stop.”

Within 24 hours the pit stop had yielded $7.1 million, including the campaign’s largest single-day take of nearly $4.2 million on Friday alone, according to Trump adviser Steven Cheung.

“Close to $20m raised in the last 3 weeks, coinciding with indictment in DC and the Atlanta mugshot,” Cheung tweeted. “Organic money has skyrocketed, especially after @realDonaldTrump tweeted out the picture along with the website URL.”

Trump made a triumphant return to Twitter with a post of his mugshot and the battlecry message, “ELECTION INTERFERENCE. NEVER SURRENDER!”

Establishment media tried belittling Trump’s fundraising, with ABC News reporting that a message found on the campaign’s website “ends with a plea for a contribution.”

Trump’s purported desperate plea for cash: “If you are doing poorly due to the sinister people in control of our country right now, don’t even think about donating! But if you can, please make a contribution to evict Crooked Joe Biden from the White House and SAVE AMERICA during this dark chapter in our nation’s history.”

Trump’s fundraising haul was augmented by online merch sales featuring his mugshot on everything from coffee mugs and beer Koozies to t-shirts, hats, posters and bumperstickers. Trump supporters, in turn, used the merch to amplify the campaign’s message.

“Today, at the notoriously violent jail in Fulton County, Georgia, I was ARRESTED despite having committed NO CRIME,” Trump wrote on his campaign’s website in a message posted Thursday.

“But today, I walked into the lion’s den with one simple message on behalf of our entire movement: I WILL NEVER SURRENDER OUR MISSION TO SAVE AMERICA,” the former president vowed.

Mark Pellin is an editor at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/sabrepaw70.

Gold Star Families Denied Afghan Servicemen’s Items, GOP Rep. Says

Luis Cornelio
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Gold Star Families Denied Afghan Servicemen’s Items, GOP Rep. Says

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., passionately articulated the lingering frustration and resentment among Gold Star families as the somber second anniversary of the loss of 13 soldiers in Afghanistan approaches.  

The Congressman shed light on the families’ enduring pain and their unrelenting pursuit of accountability in an interview with Fox News on Saturday. 

“These families are angry,” Waltz told Fox News host Pete Hegseth during an appearance on Fox and Friends Weekend. “I’ve dealt with the grief of the Gold Star families my entire career sadly with the Green Berets I didn’t bring back, but I’ve never dealt with families that are so angry.” 

The GOP representative highlighted a pressing issue that has exacerbated the families’ anguish: the lack of transparency and honesty from both the Department of Defense and the Biden administration.  

He reported that families have been denied crucial information, concerning the circumstances of their loved ones’ deaths. 

“They feel like they’ve been lied to and misled about exactly how their loved ones died and some of them still don’t have some of the personal effects,” Waltz added. “For example, several were given the phones that their loved ones have back but the sim cards were removed, with showing their last photos and their last moments and then finally they want some accountability.”

Waltz also drew attention to the criticism directed at Biden. Specifically, the Republican said, “As one Gold Star father said: they want the president, they want the secretary of defense, secretary of state to, in his words, ‘Man up,’ admit he made mistakes, say what you’ve learned from them and promise these families it will not happen again to future families down the road.”

Waltz emphasized that the families’ requests are far from unreasonable. “It’s not like we have back in Vietnam where there’s thousands of casualties a week,” Waltz added. “These were 13 and you would think we can get every single one of them exactly right… We should be giving them everything they’re asking for,” he declared. 

He further underscored the unsettling circumstances surrounding the soldiers’ deaths. This included the release of a suicide bomber from prison mere weeks before the attack and apparent miscommunication involving a nearby sniper. 

In the face of alleged obstructions from both the Pentagon and the State Department, Waltz made a steadfast commitment to continue advocating for accountability on behalf of the Gold Star families. “Come hell or high water, we’re going to get accountability for these families,” he vowed.

Waltz’s comments come three weeks after Gold Star families ripped the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghan withdrawal, going as far as demanding resignations from Biden officials.

“I want justice,” Kelly Barnett, the mother of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover said during a heart-wrenching hearing before Congress on August 7. “I want accountability. Why would they just not say, ‘Oh, we made a mistake, our plan was wrong, I’m so sorry.’ You know, that would have been something.”

Victory: Perpetrator of Disturbing Threats Against MTG Sentenced

Luis Cornelio
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Victory: Perpetrator of Disturbing Threats Against MTG Sentenced

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A 51-year-old man was sentenced to three months in prison for making sickening threatening calls to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., federal prosecutors announced on Friday.

Joseph Morelli admitted to issuing disturbing threats earlier this year when questioned by federal prosecutors. Morelli’s disturbing calls on March 3, 2022, contained explicit threats of physical harm, raising concerns about the safety of the targeted representative.

The voicemails included statements such as, “I’m gonna hurt you. Physically, I’m gonna harm you,” and continued with alarming declarations: “I’m gonna show you, right up front, what violence truly is… You’ll get f**king hurt.”  

The third voicemail conveyed the unsettling message, “you’re gonna cause people to get hurt, so I’ll pay them to hurt you.” 

The investigation, jointly led by the FBI and the United States Capitol Police, resulted in Morelli’s guilty plea, announced the U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of New York. 

The man was initially indicted in April 2022 on three counts of transmitting interstate threatening communications, reported the New York Post on Friday. 

A federal judge ordered Morelli to start his prison term on October 2, 2023. Along with prison, he faces a three-year supervised release. Restitution sought by Greene, reportedly $66,000 for security expenses, will be addressed later, federal prosecutors said. 

The sentence comes a week after an unhinged woman directed alarming threats against former President Donald Trump and his teenage son, Barron. 

Federal prosecutors arrested Tracy Fiorenza, 41, after she allegedly called Barron’s school to issue the threats.  

“I will state that I will shoot Donald Trump Sr. AND Barron Trump straight in the face at any opportunity I get!” the woman claimed. 

A study showed that political violence within the political left is on the rise when compared to right and political center. The study, released in June, found that Democrats support violence more than Republicans, with a nine percent increase when compared to January 2023. 

Jordan Rips Mayorkas Scheme to Censor Conservatives Ahead of 2024 Election

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Jordan Rips Mayorkas Scheme to Censor Conservatives Ahead of 2024 Election

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) House Republicans have raised serious concerns over the testimony of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas regarding the alleged interference of President Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

In a letter sent to Mayorkas on Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, highlighted inconsistencies in the Mayorkas’s recent testimony before the Committee on July 26, 2023, related to the federal agency’s censorship of information.

Mayorkas testified that the controversial Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) does not censor speech, a claim that clashes with the findings of a federal court in the case of Missouri v. Biden.

“Your testimony at the hearing contained a number of assertions about the Department’s censorship activities that are inconsistent with the findings of a federal court and information in the Committee’s possession,” Jordan wrote in the letter, also signed by GOP Reps. Mike Johnson, La., Thomas Massie, Ky. and Dan Bishop, N.C.

According to a press release from Republicans, the court’s preliminary injunction motion indicated that CISA engaged in activities pressuring social media platforms to censor content protected by the First Amendment, including both domestic and foreign-sourced disinformation.

Furthermore, the letter references evidence obtained by the committee indicating that CISA officials flagged “misinformation,” including domestically originated political speech, for removal on social media platforms, raising questions about the agency’s true intentions.

Mayorkas’s assertion that the practice of “switchboarding” was no longer employed by CISA is contradicted by communications from February 2021 that show CISA officials flagging alleged disinformation related to domestic elections, House Republicans stated in the letter.

The letter also points out inconsistencies in Mayorkas’s definition of “malinformation.” While he described it during the testimony as “false information that is used for a particular purpose,” CISA’s definition characterizes it as “information based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” This stark difference in definitions is troubling given the potential consequences for Americans’ civil liberties, Republicans warned.

The House Republicans’ letter calls on Mayorkas to correct his testimony. They underscore that the evidence presented raises concerns about the potential misuse of government power to suppress speech and control the narrative, especially during a crucial electoral period.

Biden Officials Met w/ Special Counsel Ahead of Trump Charges: Report

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Biden Officials Met w/ Special Counsel Ahead of Trump Charges: Report

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A Saturday report from the New York Post has ignited debates surrounding the potential political influence of President Joe Biden in the prosecution of former President Donald Trump, his leading opponent for the 2024 election.

The report disclosed that high-ranking officials from the White House counsel’s office engaged in meetings with counterparts from Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s team in the weeks leading up to the DOJ charges against Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

According to the Post‘s report, “Jay Bratt, who joined the special counsel team in November 2022, shortly after it was formed, took a meeting in the White House on March 31, 2023, with Caroline Saba, deputy chief of staff for the White House counsel’s office, White House visitor logs show.”

The report outlined that Trump faced indictment by Smith’s office on June 8, 2023, a mere nine weeks after this meeting transpired.

Bratt also engaged with White House officials in November 2021, a period marked by Trump’s confrontation with the National Archives over their newly-found interest in in protecting alleged classified documents.

“Bratt had a third meeting in the White House in September 2021, this time with Katherine Reily, an advisor to the White House chief of staff’s office,” the Post added.

Critics were quick to voice concerns about the apparent political interference, particularly given the meeting’s timing against the backdrop of the 2024 presidential election and the charges against Trump.

The report also unveiled that Jay Bratt, a DOJ career employee, supported the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City Mayor and Trump’s former attorney, commented on the dubious circumstances surrounding the meeting. Giuliani argued that interactions between the DOJ and the White House should only be warranted if coordinated at the highest levels.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., echoed these concerns on X (formerly known as Twitter), calling for a House Judiciary investigation into potential election interference.

Responding to the allegations, Peter Carr, spokesperson for the special counsel, claimed that the visit was linked to a “case-related interview.” Carr said that the individual interviewed was a career official who had served in the White House during the Trump administration.

President Biden has consistently asserted that he did not exert influence on the DOJ’s decision to prosecute Trump. These claims directly counter a damning April 2022 report from the New York Times, which alleges that the President grew frustrated over Attorney General Merrick Garland’s perceived delay in prosecuting his primary opponent.

Ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor Confirms Biden’s Burisma-Linked Firing

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Ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor Confirms Biden’s Burisma-Linked Firing

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) In a groundbreaking interview with Fox News on Saturday, Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian Prosecutor General, revealed new insights regarding his dismissal from office, which is currently the subject of an alleged bribery scandal involving President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Shokin, who had largely remained quiet amidst the scandals surrounding the Biden White House, conceded that President Biden led his abrupt firing due to his investigation into Burisma Holdings, the notorious gas company employing the younger Biden.

As reported by Fox News on Saturday, Shokin asserted, “I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma,” Shokin said. He emphasized the absence of performance-related concerns precipitating his termination, attributing it instead to political pressure from Biden.

“There were no complaints whatsoever and no problems with how I was performing at my job,” Shokin added. “But because pressure was repeatedly put on [then-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, that is what ended up in him firing me.”

The controversy traces back to 2018 when Biden publicly touted his role in Shokin’s removal. During a Council on Foreign Relations panel, Biden recounted, “I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here,'” Biden alleded. “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”

Biden’s statement has sparked concerns about potential political interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs, allegedly at the request of his son and a Burisma executive. According to a infamous FBI informant file, a Burisma executive allegedly paid both Biden and Hunter a total of $10 million, a transaction described by several Republicans as bribery.

In another segment of the interview, Shokin voiced his belief that both Bidens were influenced by Burisma but warned he doesn’t have the concrete evidence to substantiate the alleged bribery bombshell.

In response to Shokin’s assertions, White House spokesperson Ian Sams dismissed them as false claims. He added, “Fox is giving a platform for these lies to a former Ukrainian prosecutor general whose office his own deputy called ‘a hotbed of corruption,’ drawing demands for reform not only from then-Vice President Biden but also from U.S. diplomats, international partners, and Republican senators like Ron Johnson.”

The White House’s stance directly contradicts Shokin’s revelations in the explosive new interview, where he disclosed that his interest in Burisma stemmed from its attention-catching nature.

“The reason that I was handling it was because it deserved a special mention,” Shokin elaborated before acknowledging the suspicious nature of Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma.

“It was on a list of cases to merit special attention because Hunter Biden was involved with Burisma and of course, his father, the vice president, Biden at the time oversaw Ukraine affairs for the White House. This is why,” the former prosecutor added.

House Republicans have launched several probe into the allegations and are demanding documents from the White House. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., issued a dire threat to the Biden administration, saying that if Biden refuses to comply with the documents requests, he could face impeachment proceedings.

Bob Barker Dead at Age 99

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Bob Barker Dead at Age 99

(Headline USA) Bob Barker, the enduring, dapper game show host who became a household name over a half century of hosting “Truth or Consequences” and “The Price Is Right,” has died. He was 99.

Barker — also a longtime animal rights activist — died Saturday morning at his home in Los Angeles, publicist Roger Neal said.

“I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,” said Nancy Burnet, his longtime friend and co-executor of his estate, in a statement.

Barker retired in June 2007, telling his studio audience: “I thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me into your home for more than 50 years.”

Barker was working in radio in 1956 when producer Ralph Edwards invited him to audition as the new host of “Truth or Consequences,” a game show in which audience members had to do wacky stunts — the “consequence” — if they failed to answer a question — the “truth,” which was always the silly punchline to a riddle no one was ever meant to furnish. (Q: What did one eye say to another? A: Just between us, something smells.)

In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, Barker recalled receiving the news that he had been hired: “I know exactly where I was, I know exactly how I felt: I hung up the phone and said to my wife, ‘Dorothy Jo, I got it!'”

Barker stayed with “Truth or Consequences” for 18 years — including several years in a syndicated version.

Meanwhile, he began hosting a resurrected version of “The Price Is Right” on CBS in 1972. (The original host in the 1950s and ’60s was Bill Cullen.) It would become TV’s longest-running game show and the last on a broadcast network of what in TV’s early days had numbered dozens.

“I have grown old in your service,” the silver-haired, perennially tanned Barker joked on a prime-time television retrospective in the mid-’90s.

CBS said in a statement that daytime television has lost one of its “most iconic stars.

“We lost a beloved member of the CBS family today with the passing of Bob Barker,” the network said, noting that he had “made countless people’s dreams come true and everyone feel like a winner when they were called to ‘come on down.’”

In all, he taped more than 5,000 shows in his career. He said he was retiring because “I’m just reaching the age where the constant effort to be there and do the show physically is a lot for me. … Better (to leave) a year too soon than a year too late.” Comedian Drew Carey was chosen to replace him.

Barker was back with Carey for one show broadcast in April 2009. He was there to promote the publication of his memoir, “Priceless Memories,” in which he summed up his joy from hosting the show as the opportunity “to watch people reveal themselves and to watch the excitement and humor unfold.”

“There hasn’t been a day on set that I didn’t think of Bob Barker and thank him. I will carry his memory in my heart forever,” Carey wrote in a post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

Barker well understood the attraction of “The Price Is Right,” in which audience members — invited to “Come on down!” to the stage — competed for prizes by trying to guess their retail value.

“Everyone can identify with prices, even the president of the United States. Viewers at home become involved because they all have an opinion on the bids,” Barker once said. His own appeal was clear: Barker played it straight — warm, gracious and witty — refusing to mock the game show format or his contestants.

“I want the contestants to feel as though they’re guests in my home,” he said in 1996. “Perhaps my feeling of respect for them comes across to viewers, and that may be one of the reasons why I’ve lasted.”

As a TV personality, Barker retained a touch of the old school — for instance, no wireless microphone for him. Like the mic itself, the mic cord served him well as a prop, insouciantly flicked and finessed.

His career longevity, he said, was the result of being content. “I had the opportunity to do this type of show and I discovered I enjoyed it … People who do something that they thoroughly enjoy and they started doing it when they’re very young, I don’t think they want to stop.”

Barker also spent 20 years as host of the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Universe Pageant. A longtime animal rights activist who daily urged his viewers to “have your pets spayed or neutered” and successfully lobbied to ban fur coats as prizes on “The Price Is Right,” he quit the Miss USA Pageant in 1987 in protest over the presentation of fur coats to the winners.

Among his activities on behalf of animals was a $250,000 donation to Save the Chimps, the Fort Pierce, Florida-based organization said in an emailed statement Saturday.

“Bob Barker’s kind spirit lives on at Save the Chimps, where we walk every day on the road named for him after his game-changing contribution,” said Save the Chimps’ CEO Ana Paula Tavares. At the time of the donation, Barker said that he hoped chimpanzees tortured “physically and mentally” for years when being used for research experiments would find “the first peace, contentment and love they have ever known at Save the Chimps.”

In 1997, Barker declined to be a presenter at the Daytime Emmy awards ceremony because he said it snubbed game shows by not airing awards in the category. He called game shows “the pillars of daytime TV.”

He had a memorable cameo appearance on the big screen in 1996, sparring with Adam Sandler in the movie “Happy Gilmore.” “I did `The Price Is Right’ for 35 years, and they’re asking me how it was to beat up Adam Sandler,” Barker later joked.

Sandler paid tribute to Barker on Instagram Saturday with a series of images of them together. “The man. The myth. The best. Such a sweet funny guy to hang out with.” Sandler captioned the post. “Loved talking to him. Loved laughing with him. Loved him kicking the crap out of me.”

Born in Darrington, Washington, in 1923, Barker spent part of his childhood on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where his widowed mother had taken a teaching job. The family later moved to Springfield, Mo., where he attended high school. He served in the Navy in World War II.

He married Dorothy Jo Gideon, his high school sweetheart; she died in 1981 after 37 years of marriage. They had no children.

Barker was given a lifetime achievement award at the 26th annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 1999. He closed his acceptance remarks with the signoff: “Have your pets spayed or neutered.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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