Unfortunately, with President Trump effectively communicating the latest information on the federal efforts to mitigate COVID-19, more corporate U.S. resistance media have decided not to carry the live broadcasts from the White House task force briefings.
Today at 2:00pm ET the White House will hold a briefing for the public and media on the latest mitigation efforts against the coronavirus. [Livestream Links Below]
White House Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – RSBN Livestream
Laura Ingraham broadcasts the second part of her interview with AG Bill Barr (majority transcribed below). In this segment we can get a sense of where the DOJ is going with the ongoing investigations by U.S. Attorney John Durham into spygate and the current status of FISA against the backdrop of the prior administration abuse.
AG Bill Barr notes John Durham will bring criminal charges against those in the previous administration: “he is looking to bring to justice people who were engaged in abuses if he can show that there were criminal violations; and that’s what the focus is on.” WATCH
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[@2:49 of video] INGRAHAM – John Brennan was smashing the President’s firing of Inspector General Michael Atkinson, let’s listen:
BRENNAN – “By removing Mr. Atkinson, and I think also sending a signal to others, Mr. Trump continues to show his insecurity in terms of trying to stop anybody who was going to expose, again the lawlessness, that I think he not only has allowed to continue, but also that he abets.”
BARR – “I think the president did the right thing in removing Atkinson. From the vantage point of the Dept. of Justice, he had interpreted his statute; which is a fairly narrow statute that gave him jurisdiction over wrong-doing by intelligence people; and tried to turn it into a commission to explore anything in the government, and immediately report it to congress without letting the executive branch look at it and determine whether there was any problem. He was told this in a letter from the department of justice, and he is obliged to follow the interpretation of the department of justice, and he ignored it. So I think the President was correct in firing him.”
House minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appears for an interview with Lou Dobbs to discuss the recent revelations around the exculpatory Papadopoulos transcript and the inference from AG Bill Barr that no legal consequences are likely for the coup attempt.
It has been so long since the original 2018 congressional request that many people have forgotten what was included in the “Bucket Five” declassification request.
Bucket Five – Intelligence documents that were presented to the Gang of Eight in 2016 that pertain to the FISA application used against U.S. person Carter Page; including all exculpatory intelligence documents that may not have been presented to the FISA Court.
Bucket Five includes transcripts of the FBI wiretap operations using confidential human sources that were run against members of the Trump campaign; including George Papadopoulos and Carter Page.
One of those transcripts, from the operation against Papadopoulos was declassified on April 1st, and released last night and today.
Before getting into the transcript, it is also important to see the bigger context and the bigger landscape as it is visible. Recent moves by the Trump administration highlight much more context and color… some may be interpreted as positive signs, and some are worth a note of caution.
Richard “Ric” Grenell was moved into the position as Acting Director of National Intelligence. Together with a new staff within the ODNI Grenell is now in position to assist in any declassification effort. Thus we also see the apoplexy by HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff, as Grenell is positioned to bring a lot of sunlight on the overall FISA-gate and Spygate operations. The corrupt intelligence community operators are not happy with Grenell holding such power. Keep this in mind.
The initial coronavirus relief funding package (CARES Act) included $380 billion targeted to small businesses as part of the larger congressional relief package. Within the SBA section small and medium businesses can apply for loans to cover payroll (75%), called payroll protection plan (ppp); and expenses (25%). If the PPP funding is used to keep employees on payroll the loan is forgiven. Thousands of businesses have applied.
Due to the success of the SBA targeted funding, the $380 billion may run out before all of the applications are covered. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin asked Speaker Pelosi and Senate Leader McConnell for an additional $250 billion infusion into the program.
Senator McConnell framed a bill to provide the additional funds and asked for unanimous consent to advance the legislation. However, speaker Pelosi doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to add pet project (constituent funding) to the bill. Speaker Pelosi instructed Senator Ben Cardin to object to the unanimous consent request and block the funds.
WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a Republican push to unanimously pass a bill to put $250 billion more into a loan program for small businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The news is horrific. The Dept. of Labor release today shows another whopping 6.6 million people filed for unemployment compensation last week. That brings the total over the past three weeks to over sixteen million.
With 16 million people filing unemployment claims, the actual rate of unemployment is likely well into double digits [13% to 16%, possibly higher]. The COVID-19 shut down has completely collapsed major segments of the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON – […] For the week ending March 21, 3.3 million people filed new unemployment claims, easily shattering the previous record set in 1982 of 695,000. Last week, that astounding figure doubled, as 6.6 million people filed claims for the week ending March 28 — a figure that was revised upward to 6.9 million in the new release.
Thursday’s figure was at the high end of analyst estimates, which ranged from 4.5 million to 7 million. (more)
Dr. Anthony Fauci did it again. The first time Fauci was noted signaling to his allies in media was when he signaled to ABC’s Jonathan Karl after an antagonistic exchange with President Trump at a task force briefing [SEE HERE].
Today, another briefing, and CNN’s Jim Acosta had a similar antagonistic exchange with President Trump. Once again Dr. Fauci hangs back to give Acosta a similar signal. Subtle like a brick through a window. WATCH:
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It’s weird. Dr. Fauci doesn’t make his little signals to any other media in the briefings other than those who seem to be purposefully antagonistic to the efforts of the administration?
It would appear that DC reporters are now asking the real questions Americans need answers to…. And thankfully we have a president with a great sense of humor and authenticity, who is able to just roll with it.
Too funny: “which son? Must be Don; I had a feeling it was Don”…
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You gotta love President Trump’s ability to roll along and engage every question. Humor one moment, serious and deliberate the next,… stern, funny, serious… In short, authentic.
Sketchy Nikki Haley endorsed Sketchy Kelly Loeffler right before Loeffler’s insider trading schemes surfaced. Given the fact that Haley and Loeffler are both ‘Big Club’ insiders; and considering the extremes Ms. Haley is going through to retain her mask; there is a dose of karmic comedy as we watch sketchy Ms. Loeffler slowly implode.
The latest polling shows Representative Doug Collins is now crushing the corrupt and sketchy Big-Club-appointed Senator Loeffler by 23 points. Under increasing scrutiny for her insider Wall Street schemes; and in a futile attempt to save herself; Loeffler now promises to liquidate all her stock holdings:
WASHINGTON DC – Sen. Kelly Loeffler plans to liquidate all of her individual stock holdings after weeks of political firestorm over trades made amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Loeffler (R-Ga.), who was sworn into the Senate in January after her appointment to fill a vacant seat and is on the ballot in a special election this November, has been criticized heavily by Democrats and her Republican opponent in recent weeks for stock trades made in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.
There was another stunning drop in projections by the IHME model; the current model being used by U.S. government officials on the coronavirus task force. [Model Here]
According to the latest projections the peak of U.S. coronavirus impact will take place on Saturday April 11th, ironically the day before Easter Sunday.
Additionally, the total projected number of COVID-19 related deaths has been dropped to 60,000. That’s the same impact as the regular 2017/2018 flu season.
National Vital Statistics – Coding for COVID-19 Deaths
…..”for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death”…