White House News (白宮消息) | Aug. 11, 2020

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Pompeo Heads to Central Europe as US Looks to Confront Russian, Chinese Influence

Aug. 10  (WASHINGTON) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarks on a weeklong trip to central Europe on Monday, as the United States looks to confront Russian and Chinese economic and geopolitical competition in Europe. 

The top U.S. diplomat is traveling to Prague and Pilsen in the Czech Republic; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Vienna, Austria; and Warsaw, Poland, from August 11 to 15.
 
Pompeo will become the first secretary of state since 2011 to visit Slovenia, where he will sign a Joint Declaration on 5G technology as Washington is countering risks posed by communist China’s “infiltration into high-tech networks” in the region.

Trump escorted from briefing after shooting outside White House
US president abruptly left a news briefing then returned moments later saying law enforcement shot an armed suspect.

Aug. 11 - US President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted from the White House briefing room on Monday shortly after a shooting outside the fence surrounding the complex.

Trump returned to the media room after several minutes and said a person had been shot by law enforcement and to the hospital. He said he understood the suspect had been armed.

"It was a shooting outside of the White House," Trump said.

"It seems to be very well under control. ... But there was an actual shooting, and somebody has been taken to the hospital. I don't know the condition of the person."

He said the shooting was near the fence at the edge of the White House grounds.

Nobody else was wounded in the shooting, Trump said. He praised the Secret Service response and said the agency would have more details on the event later.

"There were no details - we just found out just now," Trump told reporters.

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to queries about the incident.

Minutes into a news briefing, Trump was taken out of the room with no explanation for the disruption. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought were also taken out of the room and the doors were locked.

Trump told reporters he was taken to the Oval Office outside the briefing room after he was escorted out.     source

White House News (白宮消息) | Aug. 10, 2020

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Esper appears to backtrack on Beirut explosion cause after White House pushback

Aug. 10 - Washington (CNN)Defense Secretary Mark Esper is downplaying any differences he had with the White House's assessment as to what caused the deadly explosion in Beirut after his speculation that the blast was likely the result of an accident drew push back from the White House.

"The bottom line is we still don't know" what caused the explosion, Esper told Fox News in an interview that aired this weekend.

"On the first day, as President Trump rightly said, we thought it might have been an attack, some of us speculated it could have been, for example, a Hezbollah arms shipment that blew up, maybe a Hezbollah bomb making facility, who knows?" Esper said, adding that the media was trying to stoke division between himself and President Donald Trump.Despite his comments that some were speculating that the explosion may have involved an attack, several defense officials told CNN on Tuesday the US military did not have any information pointing to an attack, an assessment echoed by Esper on Wednesday when he said most believed it to be an accident.

"Yesterday I commented that it was looking more like an accident and it's regrettable that some in the media ... are trying to draw divisions within the administration between maybe me and the President and others, it's simply not true," he said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/09/politics/mark-esper-beirut-lebanon-explosion-explanation/index.html

HD footage shows new angle of blast that rocked Beirut, Lebanon
Aug 10, 2020

Charlie Brown (查理布朗) | Aug. 9, 2020

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AUGUST 8, 2020
Weekly Democratic Address

Congressman Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) delivered the Democratic Weekly Address.

Pelosi, Schumer Joint Statement on Trump Coronavirus Announcements

Aug. 8 - Washington, D.C. – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today issued the following joint statement after President Trump signed an executive order and memoranda instead of negotiating with Democrats to pass meaningful coronavirus relief legislation:

“Today’s meager announcements by the President show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families.  We’re disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve Americans’ problems, the President instead chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements to slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors’ Social Security and Medicare.

“These policy announcements provide little real help to families.  For instance, not only does the President’s announcement not actually extend the eviction moratorium, it provides no assistance to help pay the rent, which will only leave desperate families to watch their debt pile higher.  Instead of passing a bill, now President Trump is cutting families’ unemployment benefits and pushing states further into budget crises, forcing them to make devastating cuts to life-or-death services.

“Furthermore, these announcements do nothing to increase testing, nothing to reopen schools, nothing to put food on the table for hungry families, nothing to prevent heroes being laid off across state and local government, nothing to protect the Postal Service or the integrity of our elections, nothing on many critical needs of the American people.

“Since the House passed The Heroes Act twelve weeks ago, more than 3.5 million Americans have become infected and 70,000 have tragically died.  The coronavirus is moving through our country like a runaway freight train and the economy is quickly running out of steam.  The only solution to crush the virus and protect working families is to pass a comprehensive bill that is equal to the historic health and economic catastrophe facing our country.
 
“Democrats repeat our call to Republicans to return to the table, meet us halfway and work together to deliver immediate relief to the American people.  Lives are being lost, and time is of the essence.”    source

https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/8820

Charlie Brown (查理布朗) | Aug. 8, 2020

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In a heated exchange, CNN's Poppy Harlow confronts Trump's top economic adviser

Aug 8 - New York (CNN Business)If you get paid more to stay at home than go to work, why would you go to work?

That's the logic Larry Kudlow, the White House's Director of the National Economic Council, and the Trump administration subscribe to. In a testy back and forth with CNN's Poppy Harlow, Kudlow said Republicans want to scale back the $600 weekly supplemental unemployment insurance benefit in a bill or executive action that would renew the expired emergency provision.

"I think it is a disincentive to go back to work," Kudlow said of the checks. "We think we can create a much better balance to provide incentives to come back to work."Kudlow cited a recent University of Chicago study as evidence backing the claim. The study found two-thirds of people receiving emergency unemployment benefits are making more money on unemployment than they were when they were working.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/07/economy/larry-kudlow-poppy-harlow-unemployment/index.html

Larry Kudlow: As numbers deteriorated, I've changed my mind
Aug 7, 2020
White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow tells CNN's Poppy Harlow that he has consistently maintained that the coronavirus pandemic is a "huge problem" after she presents him with his quotes from earlier in the year that seem to downplay the severity of the situation.

Charlie Brown (查理布朗) | Aug. 7, 2020

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https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/06/politics/ny-ag-announcement/index.html

​New York attorney general files lawsuit to dissolve NRA
Newsroom
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced she will attempt to dissolve the National Rifle Association, accusing its senior leadership of violating laws governing non-profit groups, using millions from the organization's reserves for personal use and tax fraud. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz tells us more.
Source: CNN

'You could have set your watch by it': NRA counter-sues New York Attorney General and claims her lawsuit trying to dismantle their organization is a 'premeditated attack' deliberately timed to thwart Trump's reelection chances
Letitia James filed the lawsuit in New York on Thursday alleging fraud