State Dept Spokeswoman Attacks Cindy McCain in Confused Update on Gaza

A State Department spokesperson attacked Cindy McCain and the U.N. World Food Programme in a confused response to a question about aid reaching people in Gaza. 

Tammy Bruce was asked by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell about the resumption of aid trucks carrying food, water, and medicine into the territory following a three-month blockade by Israel, and seemed to be completely unaware of what was going on, saying that McCain, the head of the aid organization, should have “spoken up.”  

“This is, however, the first delivery of major aid, if not the only aid we’ve been hearing for months. I wish that Cindy McCain had spoken up that they had found a way to move food into Gaza because that certainly hadn’t been conveyed to us,” said Bruce on Tuesday. “But now—which, if that’s the case, that’s great.”

McCain said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday that claims by the U.S. and Israel that Hamas was looting aid trucks in Gaza were unfounded, saying that the territory’s residents were so desperate for aid that they were mobbing the trucks. 

“Listen, these people are desperate. They see a World Food Programme truck coming in, and they run for it,” McCain said. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Hamas or any kind of organized crime, or anything.”

Bruce’s comments completely missed the fact that getting aid into Gaza was only difficult due to Israel closing all of Gaza’s crossings to aid trucks. Mitchell had to correct Bruce, telling her that until now, “there has been a blockade, a blockade by Israel of the food, so no one has been able to get through those crossings.” 

“Well, I thought you just said Cindy McCain said that she was able to do that. But I would also say that this process managed to overcome that dynamic, and the dynamic has changed,” Bruce said.

“Israel was blocking it,” Mitchell repeated.

“It clearly needs to expand. I don’t speak for this foundation, but clearly we’ve got to welcome any dynamic that allows getting aid and food into the region, which is happening right now. And that’s the story,” Bruce replied. 

Bruce, like many other Trump appointees, is a veteran of TV, in her case Fox News, and this isn’t the first time she has been caught off-guard by a basic question from a reporter. Last month, Bruce threw a tantrum over CNN’s Pamela Brown asking basic questions about Ukraine and Russia, and earlier this month, Bruce was taken aback when a reporter asked her about her boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, taking over as national security adviser. 

“It is clear that I just heard this from you,” a clearly flustered Bruce responded at the time. Clearly, she’s still out of her depth.

Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan bragged Tuesday that Democratic lawmakers haven’t done anything to stop the prosecution of one of their colleagues.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked Homan to respond to the “caterwauling” from the left over the outrageous charges against New Jersey Representative LaMonica McIver. Homan seemed pleased that by targeting McIver, he could push the buttons of another congressperson: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“Well remember, just a couple weeks ago AOC went on social media saying if we put a finger on any of her co-workers, uh congresspeople, that were at our York facility there would be consequences. Well guess what? We did it. I’m waiting on the consequences,” he replied smugly.

McIver was charged with “assaulting, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement,” after she and other lawmakers visited an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility to serve a summons over code violations discovered during an inspection. Instead, the group was barraged by federal agents and McIver was charged over allegedly attempting to stop the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.

Ocasio-Cortez had warned in an Instagram video, “If anyone’s breaking the law in this situation, it’s not members of Congress, it’s the Department of Homeland Security. It’s people like Tom Homan and Secretary Kristi Noem.”

“You lay a finger on someone, on Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman … or any of the representatives that were there, you lay a finger on them, we are going to have a problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Because the people who are breaking the law are the people not abiding by it.”

Homan has repeatedly antagonized the New York Democrat, threatening her with prosecution because she’d tried to educate immigrants about their legal rights and claiming she was teaching them to evade arrest. Ocasio-Cortez responded by calling Homan a “coward.”

Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t the only one who tried to talk tough about targeting Democratic lawmakers. “It’s a red line,” said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries earlier this month. “They know better than to go down that road.”

Neither Jeffries nor Ocasio-Cortez has publicly taken any action, but the case against McIver is already falling apart. New York Representative Dan Goldman, a former prosecutor, told The Hill that the first document filed by the government was so ridiculously flawed that it was “one of the most embarrassing publicly filed charging documents from a U.S. attorney’s office that I’ve ever seen.”

The president’s attack on Big Law is so outrageous that it’s made at least one judge raise his voice, even on paper.

U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Richard Leon struck down Donald Trump’s executive order targeting law firm WilmerHale Tuesday, describing the entire directive as “unconstitutional.” In a 73-page opinion, Leon took the time to explain the principles of democracy to the president, illustrating how his political retribution campaign is quintessentially antithetical to the foundational principles of the U.S. government.

“The cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar willing to tackle unpopular cases, however daunting. The Founding Fathers knew this!” Leon wrote. “Accordingly, they took pains to enshrine in the Constitution certain rights that would serve as the foundation for that independence. Little wonder that in the nearly 250 years since the Constitution was adopted no Executive Order has been issued challenging these fundamental rights.

“Now, however, several Executive Orders have been issued directly challenging these rights and that independence,” Leon continued. “One of these Orders is the subject of this case. For the reasons set forth below, I have concluded that this Order must be struck down in its entirety as unconstitutional. Indeed, to rule otherwise would be unfaithful to the judgment and vision of the Founding Fathers!”

It’s highly unusual for judges to use even one exclamation point in their rulings. Leon used a total of 26.

The decision blocks Trump’s March 27 order, which instructed federal agencies to throw out WilmerHale’s government contracts and nix the firm’s federal building access along with their security clearances. WilmerHale was just one of many law firms targeted by the Trump administration for representing individuals that Trump has categorized as his political enemies, or for refusing to represent him during his monumental legal struggles last year. WilmerHale’s supposed crime—per the White House—was the fact that it “rewarded” Robert Mueller by keeping him on payroll after he investigated Trump’s ties to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

But not every law firm was willing to ride out the wave of Trump’s encroaching federal directives. Several major law firms had caved to Trump by April, committing to provide the convicted felon with up to $600 million in “pro bono” legal services. But the original deal, as written, may not shake out for the famed deal-maker the way he’d hoped: Earlier this month, several firms argued that the capitulation had only stipulated “specified areas” that they needed to provide legal services for, effectively giving them free range to pick their own clients.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are giving ICE new ramped-up immigrant arrest quotas, demanding that the agency detain 3,000 people per day, sources told Axios. That number is three times the arrest rate at the beginning of Trump’s term.

According to people close to the situation, Miller, who is President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, lit into ICE officials in a meeting last week, addressing them so aggressively that some felt they were at risk of being fired if they didn’t meet the new quota. Noem spoke after Miller and apparently did less yelling but also called for more arrests.

Border crossings are down, ICE has nearly 50,000 people in custody, and thanks to Republicans’ budget bill, Trump will likely dedicate $147 billion over the next decade to continuing his wanton, draconian immigration policies—all while giving the finger to any judge who dares to mention basic constitutional principles like due process. And yet it still isn’t enough for Noem and Miller, who seem particularly invested in making this crackdown as horrifying as possible.

“Keeping President Trump’s promise to deport illegal aliens is something the administration takes seriously,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Axios. “We are committed to aggressively and efficiently removing illegal aliens from the United States, and ensuring our law enforcement officers have the resources necessary to do so. The safety of the American people depends upon it.”

Karoline Leavitt is trying to claim Donald Trump’s attacks on Harvard are justified because the U.S. needs more trade workers.

The White House press secretary made the wild defense to Sean Hannity on Fox News Tuesday night, telling the conservative pundit that Trump is more interested in giving Harvard’s government funding “to trade schools, and programs, and state schools where they are promoting American values, but most importantly, educating the next generation based on skills that we need in our economy and our society.

“Apprenticeships, electricians, plumbers—we need more of those in our country, and less LGBTQ graduate majors from Harvard University, and that’s what this administration’s position is,” Leavitt said.

It’s insane that Leavitt thinks that the grants and contracts Trump has yanked away from Harvard are going to “LGBTQ graduate majors.” In reality, Harvard is losing stuff like $1 billion for health research, which could save a lot of lives. The president also tried to stop Harvard from enrolling international students, only to be blocked by a federal judge.

On Tuesday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was “considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land. What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!”

But what would such a program even look like? The all-encompassing budget bill Trump is pushing to get passed doesn’t contain any new programs in that vein. In fact, the bill will restrict access to financial aid for working-class students going into all fields, including trade schools.

Trump is attacking foreign student enrollment at Harvard (and everywhere else) by claiming that Americans can now get those slots. But how will more Americans be able to attend with less financial aid? Meanwhile, Trump is also trying to eliminate the Department of Education, which will further hurt lower-income students trying to attend any form of higher education. All of the administration’s talk about supporting American students is a smokescreen. In reality, Trump is trying to force universities like Harvard to bow to him and conservative America.