Trump Says Generals Feel Beirut Blast was Likely an ‘Attack’

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Trump Says Generals Feel Beirut Blast was Likely an ‘Attack’

(Associated Press) President Donald Trump said U.S. military generals have told him that they “seem to feel” the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people, was a “terrible attack” likely caused by a bomb.

Trump was asked why he called it an attack and not an accident, especially since Lebanese officials say they have not determined the cause of the explosion.

He told reporters at the White House: “It would seem like it based on the explosion. I met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not a — some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of a event. … They seem to think it was a attack. It was a bomb of some kind, yes.”

Trump offered condolences to the victims and said the United States stood ready to assist Lebanon.

“It looks like a terrible attack,” he said.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the matter Tuesday night, referring questions back to the White House.

The explosion flattened much of a port and damaged buildings across the capital, sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky.

In addition to those who died, more than 3,000 other people were injured, with bodies buried in the rubble, officials said.

The cause of the blast was not immediately known, but initial reports suggested a fire had detonated a warehouse at the port.

Abbas Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, said it might have been caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated from a ship some time ago and stored at the port.

Local television channel LBC said the material was ammonium nitrate.

Witnesses reported seeing a strange, orange cloud like that which appears when toxic nitrogen dioxide gas is released after an explosion involving nitrates.

Potential ‘Squad’ Member Defeats Decades-Long Incumbent Rep. in Mo. Primary

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Potential ‘Squad’ Member Defeats Decades-Long Incumbent Rep. in Mo. Primary

(Associated Press) Cori Bush, a onetime homeless woman who led protests following a white police officer’s fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old in Ferguson, ousted longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay Tuesday in Missouri‘s Democratic primary, ending a political dynasty that has spanned more than a half-century.

Bush’s victory came in a rematch of 2018, when she failed to capitalize on a national Democratic wave that favored political newcomers such as Bush’s friend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But this time around, Bush’s supporters said protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis and outrage over racial injustice finally pushed her over the edge.

An emotional Bush, speaking to supporters while wearing a mask, said few people expected her to win.

“They counted us out,” she said. “They called me — I’m just the protester, I’m just the activist with no name, no title and no real money. That’s all they said that I was. But St. Louis showed up today.”

Bush’s campaign spokeswoman, Keenan Korth, said voters in the district were “galvanized.”

“They’re ready to turn the page on decades of failed leadership,” Korth said.

Bush, 44, also had backing from political action committee Justice Democrats and Fight Corporate Monopolies this election. She campaigned for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his presidential bid.

Bush’s primary win essentially guarantees her a seat in Congress representing the heavily Democratic St. Louis area. Missouri’s 1st Congressional District has been represented by Clay or his father for a half-century. Bill Clay served 32 years before retiring in 2000. William Lacy Clay, 64, was elected that year.

Clay didn’t face a serious challenger until Bush. This year, he ran on his decades-long record in Congress.

“This election is a simple choice,” Clay said in a Monday statement. “Cori Bush’s Empty Rhetoric, or my record of real results and real reforms for the people.”

Both Clay and Bush are Black, and Black residents slightly outnumber whites in the district that includes St. Louis and north St. Louis County.

Bush became ill while pregnant with her second child in 2001 and had to quit her job at a preschool. When she and her then-husband were evicted from a rental home, the couple, their newborn and 14-month-old son lived out of a Ford Explorer for several months.

Eventually, the couple divorced. Bush earned a nursing degree. She also became a pastor.

Michael Brown’s death in 2014 in Ferguson vaulted her into another role: activist. She became a leader of some of the many protests that followed his fatal shooting by a police officer that was shrouded in media falsehoods. She was back on the streets in 2017 after a white St. Louis officer was acquitted in the shooting death of a black suspect.

She continues to lead protests.

“She’s being buoyed by this movement, and the movement’s origin is in Ferguson,” Justice Democrats spokesman Waleed Shahid said.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Kansas Republicans Pick Rep. Marshall for Senate Seat over Kobach

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Kansas Republicans Pick Rep. Marshall for Senate Seat over Kobach

(Associated Press) Kansas Republicans on Tuesday nominated Rep. Roger Marshall for the Senate over polarizing conservative Kris Kobach, heeding the party establishment’s advice as it tries to keep a normally safe seat out of play in what could be a difficult year for the GOP.

Marshall prevailed comfortably in a crowded primary field with the backing of major farm, business and anti-abortion groups but without a pre-election endorsement from President Donald Trump sought by Senate Majority Mitch McConnell and others for the two-term congressman for western and central Kansas. Marshall overcame Kobach’s reputation as a conservative firebrand and informal adviser to Trump.

Marshall will face Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier, a former lifelong moderate Republican who received national attention at the end of 2018 by switching parties. GOP leaders have worried for months about Bollier’s ability so far to raise more in contributions than the top GOP candidates combined.

Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, is nationally known for advocating restrictive immigration policies and alienated independent and moderate GOP voters in losing the Kansas governor’s race in 2018. Marshall and his allies made that loss a key issue as he and Kobach battled atop the GOP field.

Bob and Debbie Rosenberger said Kobach’s loss in 2018 was on their minds as they cast their Republican primary ballots for Marshall at a southwest Topeka church. The retired 62-year-old postal worker and his wife, a retired, 63-year-old nursing home supervisor, said they are Trump supporters and believe Marshall will help him in the Senate.

As for Kobach, Bob Rosenberger said, “Bottom line, I just don’t trust him as much as Roger Marshall.”

The race for retiring four-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts’s seat had national implications even though the GOP hasn’t lost a Senate contest in Kansas since 1932. Republicans are trying to keep their 53-47 Senate majority with competitive races in other states, including Arizona, Colorado and Maine.

Marshall immediately called for party unity at a watch party at a winery southwest of his central Kansas hometown of Great Bend. He told his supporters that the GOP’s Senate majority is at stake in his race and said he was strengthened by the contentious primary.

“I’ve always believed in this iron sharpening iron,” Marshall said in his livestreamed remarks. “After this primary, our swords are sharp and our shields are thick.”

Kobach said in his concession speech that he had faced a “very steep, uphill struggle” after telling reporters earlier in the day that the GOP establishment had a recent history of crushing conservatives like him. But he urged Republicans to get behind Marshall.

“We will hold this seat, and I will do everything I can to make sure that happens for the Republican Party,” Kobach said, speaking from Leavenworth, where he kicked off his campaign more than a year ago.

Even with Marshall as the nominee, the GOP faces a potentially competitive Senate race. Bollier had raised more than $8 million through July — and her campaign said Tuesday night that the total is now $9 million — a big sum in a low-cost media state like Kansas, with donations flooding in from outside the state.

Bollier said in an online primary victory speech each of the Republican candidates demonstrated that he would be a “yes man” for the party, calling it “the last thing we need right now.” Bollier has positioned herself as a “commonsense” political moderate, but the GOP is likely to try to paint her as too liberal for the state.

Bollier is a retired Kansas City-area anesthesiologist, while Marshall is an obstetrician.

Marshall raised about $2.9 million and Kobach, a little more than $1 million. Bob Hamilton, the founder of a Kansas City-area plumbing company, largely self-funded a campaign heavy on television ads with $3.5 million in personal loans. Those figures were all dwarfed by PAC spending in the primary, which totaled about $11 million.

ANDY NGO: Antifa ‘Not a Myth,’ Has ‘Made Rioting an Art Form’

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ANDY NGO: Antifa ‘Not a Myth,’ Has ‘Made Rioting an Art Form’

In chilling testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the Constitution, undercover journalist Andy Ngo confirmed the nightmares of many and cast new light on the mechanisms of domestic terrorism group Antifa.

Many on the Left, including its mainstream media allies, have downplayed the group’s organized activity, likely driven by talking points that originated within Antifa itself, during its role in recent race riots.

In fact, Ngo, a Portland resident, began his testimony by directly refuting a shocking claim made by Rep. Jerrold Nadler that the violence in the Oregon city was merely a fiction being circulated by Capitol Hill politicos.

“Antifa is not a myth,” Ngo said.

“I have been reporting on its activities since 2016. It’s threats to my family and me have proved all too real,” he continued. “As any good journalist knows, the most important stories are often those not being told. This story is not being told.”

Ngo, who is gay and the son of Vietnamese refugees, said that the group ironically had tried to discredit him as a “white supremacist.”

However, the humor of the situation quickly dissipated as they targeted him in a violent attack last year that left him injured and shaken.

“I still suffer from the after-effects of that injury,” he said.

“I’m apprehensive about speaking to congress today given that I’m a target,” he continued. “But I’m more afraid of the consequences of remaining silent. Unless we take action, what is happening in Portland today will soon be happening in cities across the country.”

Ngo warned senators on both sides of the aisle that the group’s goal was not simply to undermine criminal justice and defund law enforcement, but rather to bring down the entire republic.

“Portland is the canary in the coal mine for America,” he said.

Ngo outlined in his opening statement and testimony some of the specific methods used by the group for achieving its terrifying ends.

“Antifa has mastered the art of making its violence appear innocuous,” he said, by weaponizing household items like water balloons filled with chemicals, slingshots that use broken glass and ball-bearings, umbrellas that conceal knives and high-powered lasers.

More than that, however, the group was far better organized and funded than many in the media and on the Left have represented it to be.

“Antifa and its allies have made rioting an art form,” Ngo said.

The group uses social media to organize through loosely affiliated cells like the Youth Liberation Front.

Ngo mentioned that they had called for a national day of action on July 25 that resulted in mass protests nationwide and at least one homicide.

They also use encrypted apps like Signal to message one another in groups and one-on-one chats while preventing authorities from intercepting the communications.

And they use payment apps such as Venmo and GoFundMe to instantly pool and transfer money from their well-heeled backers as bail money for those who, on rare occasion, do get arrested.

Ngo said that the group seemed to operate using guerilla tactics also—such as the deploying nonviolent protestors as human shields while they moved undetected within the crowd.

Obama Declines to Endorse Radical ‘Squad’ Members

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Obama Declines to Endorse Radical ‘Squad’ Members

Former President Barack Obama released a lengthy list of endorsements over the weekend, but the name of one of the most prominent Democrats in Congress was excluded: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y.

Obama endorsed more than 100 congressional candidates running for federal, statewide, and state legislative offices in 17 states—including New York, New Jersey, California, Texas, Illinois, and more—this November.

Some of his endorsements include:

  • former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper for U.S. Senate
  • former Obama aide and incumbent Rep. Andy Kim
  • several incumbent members of Congress, including Katie Porter, Max Rose, Antonio Delgado, and Joe Cunningham

He even endorsed progressive candidate Jamaal Bowman, who ousted longtime Rep. Eliot Engle in New York’s Democratic primary in June.

Bowman has also received Ocasio–Cortez’s endorsement, but Obama did not offer her his formal support. 

“I’m proud to endorse this diverse and hopeful collection of thoughtful, empathetic and highly qualified Democrats,” Obama said in a statement.

“Together, these candidates will help us redeem our country’s promise by sticking up for working people, restoring fairness and opportunity to our system, and fighting for the good of all Americans—not just those at the top.”

Also missing from Obama’s list of endorsements are Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., both of whom face tough primary challengers.

It’s possible he could endorse each of these “Squad” members at a later date, like he did in 2018 right before the midterm elections.

Obama refused to endorse Ocasio-Cortez after she ousted her district’s Democratic incumbent, but ended up doing so at the last minute.

Facing contentious primary battles, however, Omar and Tlaib need party support if they hope to keep their seats.

Omar’s primary opponent has raised three times as much money as Omar’s campaign, and is already receiving support from the Democratic establishment.

Similarly, Tlaib faces a serious challenge from former Rep. Brenda Jones, D-Mich., a well-known leader in Detroit who currently serves as the president of Detroit’s City Council.

ESPN Host Admits ‘Mistake’ Mocking Injury of NBA Player Who Refused to Kneel

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ESPN Host Admits ‘Mistake’ Mocking Injury of NBA Player Who Refused to Kneel

ESPN radio host Dan Le Batard apologized on Monday for posting a Twitter poll asking followers if they thought it was funny that Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac’s knee injury was funny.

Isaac, who is also an ordained minister, was the first player in the NBA not to kneel for the national anthem last week, citing his religious beliefs as the reason why he cannot support the social justice frenzy that seems to have taken over his sport.

Isaac tore the ACL in his left knee just two days after, to which Le Batard said: “Is it funny the guy who refused to kneel immediately blew out his knee?”

Le Batard has a long-running history of using his show to bash conservatism, President Donald Trump, and anything that doesn’t fit his liberal agenda—even though ESPN has a policy forbidding political commentary unless it has direct relation to sports.

ESPN suspended Le Batard at one point, but caved and allowed him to return to the air shortly thereafter.

Isaac’s injury will more than likely end his season, as many users pointed out.

Le Batard finally apologized for making light of the incident, calling it “a mistake.”

Le Batard did not, however, apologize for singling out Isaac, whose only fault was adhering to his religious beliefs, as several critics noted: 

Dems Want to Cancel Presidential Debates to Shield Biden From Trump

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Dems Want to Cancel Presidential Debates to Shield Biden From Trump

With only a few months to go before the presidential election, Democrats are now frantically pushing presidential candidate Joe Biden to skip the presidential debates.

While Biden’s allies in the leftist mainstream media have claimed a litany of reasons,the prime concern appears to be what the American public might think of Biden’s mental fitness if put on a stage next to the president.

Joe Lockhart, the former White House press secretary, claimed in an op-ed for CNN that Biden should avoid debating Trump because Trump would make “misleading or false statements” to make Biden look bad.

Citing the Washington Post, Lockhart claimed Trump had made more than 20,000 misleading or false statements.

“It’s a fool’s errand to enter the ring with someone who can’t follow the rules or the truth,” he wrote.

“Biden will undoubtedly take heat from Republicans and the media for skipping the debates,” he continued. “But it’s worth the risk as trying to debate someone incapable of telling the truth is an impossible contest to win.”

A liberal writer went even further in an op-ed for the New York Times and claimed that the presidential debates are outdated, lacked seriousness, and should thus be done away with for good. 

“The debates took us nowhere nearer the realities about arguably the most disastrous president in our history,” Elizabeth Drew said of Trump. “They became simply another tool in his arsenal.”

Of course, Drew wasn’t at all concerned about the presidential debates when former President Barack Obama was running for president, or even when Hillary Clinton was supposed to beat Trump.

But now that Biden, whose constant blunders have become highlights for the Trump campaign, is set to face Trump, the message has changed completely.

Other Democrats have countered that Biden needs to debate Trump because the public deserves “to see the candidates in action.”

“I know that Joe Biden will show who he is, a man of both empathy and competence, and I’d like the American people to have a chance to see that,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is reportedly on Biden’s VP shortlist.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., agreed: “This is a big race, and the answer is yes, I think he should,” she said when asked if Biden should debate Trump.

Biden’s campaign has already committed in writing to facing Trump during the debates, and clarified this week that he will still do so.

“Joe Biden said in June that he looks forward to debating Donald Trump on the dates and in the locations chosen by the Presidential Commission on Debates,” Andrew Bates, Biden’s rapid response director, said in a statement.

Dems Attack GOP Senator to Stop Probes of Obama-Gate, Hunter Biden

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Dems Attack GOP Senator to Stop Probes of Obama-Gate, Hunter Biden

Democrats are stepping up their attacks against Senate GOP investigations into presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as other Obama administration officials involved in the Obama-Gate hoax to entrap Trump advisers with claims of Russia collusion.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., authorized a series of subpoenas in June to investigate whether Joe Biden used his position as vice president to get rid of a corruption investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial dealings, and whether key Obama administration officials deliberately targeted members of the Trump administration in an effort to derail his presidency.

To stop Johnson, the Biden campaign, joined by Democratic operatives, has begun attacking Johnson’s credibility.

“He’s spending his time on partisan investigations instead of actually doing the people’s business. … This type of conduct is unacceptable and needs to be called out,” Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, told reporters on Monday, according to The Hill.

Johnson, however, said he will not back down and defended himself against the accusation that this is a partisan investigation. 

“Other people talk about this being centered on Joe and Hunter Biden. It’s not. We’re taking a look at the corruption of the transition process, and we’re taking a look at those conflicts of interest and how that might have affected, for example, policies coming out of the State Department,” Johnson told WISN, a Wisconsin TV station, on Sunday.

But congressional Democrats vowed to prevent Johnson from seeing this investigation through, accusing him of deliberately spreading Russian disinformation that could sway the 2020 presidential election.

“We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November,” they wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray last month.

Johnson dismissed the Democrats’ accusation and stressed that any information his committee receives is thoroughly and properly vetted.

“Before we ever use it, we verify and make sure that it’s accurate and true before we’d ever publish anything,” he said.

Johnson said he plans to submit another round of subpoenas and release an interim report by mid-September.

WATCH: Ted Cruz Exposes Left’s Riot Lies in Senate Free-Speech Hearing

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WATCH: Ted Cruz Exposes Left’s Riot Lies in Senate Free-Speech Hearing

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, opened up a star-studded subcommittee hearing with another video montage of recent race-riot violence, echoing that used by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, during a House Judiciary hearing last week.

Cruz, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, was hosting a panel titled “The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence.”

Cruz, who recently sponsored the RECLAIM Act, which would allow people to sue jurisdictions that fail to protect them during riots, said recent violence in several blue-run cities and states did not fall under First Amendment protections.

Allowing the violence to pass as “free speech” posed an even greater threat to one of U.S. democracy’s most paramount civil liberties.

“The First Amendment is first for a reason,” Cruz said.

“It guarantees not only free speech but the right of the people to peaceably assemble,” he continued. “Peaceably matters a great deal in that protection.”

Likewise, under subsequent amendments such as the Equal Protection Clause established by the post-Civil War 14th Amendment, allowing such violence to continue for partisan political points was itself a violation, Cruz noted.

“Denying fair protection of law enforcement is a civil rights violation for any American who is denied,” he said, before queuing up a powerful video that featured scenes of violence and the victims of it.

That included former St. Louis police officer David Dorn, who was killed while working as a security guard shortly after he had retired with 38 years in law-enforcement.

Others, it suggested, were targeted killings of police officers.

The committee’s ranking minority member, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, again denied the violence was a problem when reacting to the video immediately afterward.

“Nobody is condoning any violence against anyone by anyone,” she said.

Among the notable guest panelists slated to appear before the subcommittee were:

  • conservative journalist Andy Ngo, who has led the way in on-the-scene reporting from violent riots in Seattle and Portland
  • left-leaning law professor Jonathan Turley, who raised eyebrows previously by making a constitutional argument in defense of President Donald Trump during impeachment hearings
  • acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli

De Blasio Let NYC Skip Permits to Paint BLM Propaganda in Front of Trump Tower

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De Blasio Let NYC Skip Permits to Paint BLM Propaganda in Front of Trump Tower

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted on Monday that the city skipped over the permitting process entirely in order to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the street outside the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue.

When asked about the permit process and what the city needed to do in order to paint in front of the Trump Tower, de Blasio claimed that the moment was “too important” for the rules.

“That is something that again transcends all normal realities because we are at a moment of history when that had to be said and done. That’s a decision I made,” de Blasio said at a news conference, according to the New York Post.

“We haven’t said ‘no’ to people,” he continued. “We’ve said, ‘If you want to apply, you can apply, but there’s a process.'”

Critics were quick to point out that de Blasio gave himself an exception while denying the same privilege to a woman’s group supporting President Donald Trump after they applied for a permit to paint the phrase “Engaging, Inspiring, and Empowering Women to Make a Difference!” on a street. 

The group sued city officials last month, alleging that de Blasio green-lighted BLM propaganda, which is an obvious “political gesture,” but denied the same rights to a pro-Trump group because of its political affiliations.

“On information and belief, de Blasio’s conduct as alleged herein is intended as a political gesture to the BLM movement and those sympathetic to it which has been done in order to enhance his future prospects as a Democratic candidate for office or appointee and by rallying BLM support for Democrats, including in the 2020 Presidential election,” the lawsuit states.

When asked about the permitting process’s specific criteria, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg refused to specifically name the requirements, but added that “the city does have discretion on painting those projects.”

De Blasio claimed that he did not bar the pro-Trump group from painting their slogan. Instead, he referred them to the Department of Transportation’s permitting process—a process he allowed the BLM movement to skip completely. 

“That is something that again transcends all normal realities because we are at a moment of history when that had to be said and done, that’s a decision I made,” de Blasio said. “But the normal process continues for anyone who wants to apply.” 

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