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The Atlantic Publishes Additional Messages From ‘Secret War Plans’ Groupchat

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel participates in an interview conducted by Jeffrey Goldberg in his office at the Pentagon Oct. 30, 2013 (Not Released)

The Atlantic has published additional messages from Signal group chat among national security leaders that were inadvertently shared with Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, teeing up potential consequences for the publication.

The move could trigger consequences for the magazine. Despite officials’ claims on Tuesday that the information contained within the chat was not classified, publishing such information could still violate the Espionage Act, which prohibits the release of national defense information.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz have faced calls to resign following revelations that the outlet’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to a private group chat earlier this month in which Hegseth, Waltz, Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials reportedly discussed impending airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels. 

The Atlantic noted that the White House opposed its publishing of the information.

Read the new messages:

“TEAM UPDATE: TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch. 1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package). 1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s),” Hegseth apparently wrote in a screenshot of a text message released Wednesday by The Atlantic. 

“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package). 1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets). 1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched,” Hegseth reportedly continued, before adding “Godspeed to our Warriors.”

Waltz later allegedly wrote “The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed,” according to The Atlantic. 

“Excellent,” read a message in response attributed to Vance.

The Atlantic said in its report Wednesday – titled “Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal” – that “the statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump – combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts – have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions.”

“There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared,” wrote the Atlantic’s Goldberg and reporter Shane Harris. 

“Experts have repeatedly told us that use of a Signal chat for such sensitive discussions poses a threat to national security. As a case in point, Goldberg received information on the attacks two hours before the scheduled start of the bombing of Houthi positions. If this information – particularly the exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen – had fallen into the wrong hands in that crucial two-hour period, American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face,” they also said.

The Atlantic report said “A CIA spokesperson asked us to withhold the name of John Ratcliffe’s chief of staff, which Ratcliffe had shared in the Signal chain, because CIA intelligence officers are traditionally not publicly identified.”

Multiple government officials have rebuked the additional reporting and have accused The Atlantic of peddling a “hoax.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said in response to the report that “The Atlantic has already abandoned their bulls— ‘war plans’ narrative, and in releasing the full chat , they concede they LIED to perpetuate yet ANOTHER hoax on the American people. What scumbags!”

“The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans,’” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the highest-ranking Democrat to do so, wrote a letter to President Donald Trump yesterday demanding that Hegseth be “fired immediately.” 

“The so-called Secretary of Defense recklessly and casually disclosed highly sensitive war plans — including the timing of a pending attack, possible strike targets and the weapons to be used –during an unclassified national security group chat that inexplicably included a reporter. His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law,” Jeffries wrote.

Judge In Trump Classified Documents Case Sets Preliminary Trial Date

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Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Federal Judge Aileen Cannon announced the preliminary court date for former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial.

The blockbuster trial is scheduled to begin on August 14. The former president is facing 37 charges including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and making false statements. Trump has pled not guilty to all charges.

Trump last appeared in a federal court in Miami earlier this month to be arraigned on his charges. 

This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

Trump Confirms Names On VP List

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[Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump confirmed a short list of names he is considering asking to become his running mate in the coming months,

Trump joined Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham to discuss the upcoming South Carolina primary, which takes place on Feb. 24., Ingraham asked the former president if the rumored names were in fact on his list of potential running mates.

The list includes three former GOP candidates, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). He also confirmed that Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who served in Congress as a Democrat but has since shifted to more conservative views.

Trump confirmed “they are” on his shortlist, but did not provide a timeline for when he will announce his vice presidential pick. He said, “all of those people are good. They’re all solid.”

Trump specifically commended Scott, who was in the crowd at the event, for his support.

“A lot of people are talking about that gentleman right over there,” Trump said when asked about a running mate, pointing to Scott. “And he’s, been so great. He’s been such a great advocate.”

“I have to say, this is in a very positive way, Tim Scott, he has been much better for me than he was for himself,” the former president continued. “I watched his campaign and he doesn’t like talking about himself, but boy, does he talk about Trump.”

The South Carolina senator suspended his primary bid in November after failing to earn enough support.

DOJ Pauses Investigation as Judge Grants Trump Request for Special Master

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

A federal judge has approved former President Donald Trump’s request a special master be appointed to review materials seized during the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon approved the request on Monday after the former president’s legal team and Justice Department officials met over the request in court last week. (Related: Florida Judge Responds to Trump Teams Request to Appoint Special Master to Review Seized Materials)

Judge Cannon said a written ruling will come “in due course.”

The Daily Wire reports:

“Pursuant to the Court’s equitable jurisdiction and inherent supervisory authority, and mindful of the need to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances presented, Plaintiff’s Motion [ECF No. 1] is GRANTED IN PART,” Cannon wrote in her order. “The Court hereby authorizes the appointment of a special master to review the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege.”

The Florida judge’s order also temporarily halts the Justice Department’s investigation of the documents.

During last week’s court hearing the DOJ argued Trump’s request for a special master was “unnecessary” and released shocking photos of the recovered documents.

“Furthermore, appointment of a special master would impede the government’s ongoing criminal investigation and—if the special master were tasked with reviewing classified documents—would impede the Intelligence Community from conducting its ongoing review of the national security risk that improper storage of these highly sensitive materials may have caused and from identifying measures to rectify or mitigate any damage that improper storage caused,” the filing said. “Lastly, this case does not involve any of the types of circumstances that have warranted appointment of a special master to review materials potentially subject to attorney-client privilege.” 

Trump’s legal team has argued some records protected by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege, another claim the DOJ has heavily pushed against.

Big Tech Accused Of Election Manipulation After Omitting Trump Shooting

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Google users searching for the attempted assassination of former President Trump are having difficulty accessing information…

Instead, the website autocomplete feature omitted the results of the July 13 shooting, prompting accusations the Big Tech giant is trying to influence the presidential election. 

Screenshots from Google instead showed recommended search results of the failed assassination of Ronald Reagan and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the shooting of Bob Marley and the failed attempt on former President Ford. 

Even the keywords “Trump assassination attempt” yielded no additional terms from Google, according to users. 

“Big Tech is trying to interfere in the election AGAIN to help Kamala Harris,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X. “We all know this is intentional election interference from Google. Truly despicable.”

A Google spokesperson told FOX Business that there was no “manual action taken on these predictions.”

“Our systems have protections against Autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, which were working as intended prior to this horrific event occurring,” the spokesperson wrote. “We’re working on improvements to ensure our systems are more up to date.”

The company spokesperson said the autocomplete feature is “just a tool to help people save time” and they can still search for anything they want. 

“Following this terrible act, people turned to Google to find high quality information – we connected them with helpful results, and will continue to do so,” the company said. 

X owner Elon Musk chimed in on the surprising results.

“They’re getting themselves into a lot of trouble if they interfere with the election,” he wrote in a follow-up post.

Trump Officially Locks Up GOP Nomination

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

It’s finally official…

On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump secured the GOP nomination after winning the GOP primary in Washington state.

“It’s your favorite president speaking to you on a really great day of victory,” Trump said in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, by his campaign. “One week ago, we had something called Super Tuesday and it was indeed super, because we won at numbers at nobody has ever seen before, records in virtually every state.”

“And tonight, likewise, but this one got us over the top,” he continued. “The Republican National Committee has just declared us the official nominee.”

After the race was called, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “It is my great honor to be representing the Republican Party” on the top of the ticket in November.

“Our Party is UNITED and STRONG, and fully understands that we are running against the Worst, Most Incompetent, Corrupt, and Destructive President in the History of the United States,” the former president wrote.

“But fear not, we will not fail, we will take back our once great Country, put AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN – GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE,” he added. “November 5th will go down as the most important day in the history of our Country! GOD BLESS AMERICA.”

President Joe Biden also secured the Democrat nomination the same day, officially teeing up a rematch of the 2020 election.

“Voters now have a choice to make about the future of this country,” Biden said.

Former RNC Director To Join NBC News

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Former Republican National Committee (RNC) director Ronna McDaniel is joining NBC News as a contributor.

According to The Hill, McDaniel will appear on “Meet The Press” this Sunday, giving her first interview since resigning as head of the RNC earlier this year.

McDaniel is expected to be featured as part of election coverage on NBC and on the network’s sister cable channel, MSNBC.

“It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team,” Carrie Budoff Brown, who leads political coverage at NBC, wrote in a memo shared with The New York Times.

McDaniel became RNC chair in 2017 and was re-elected four times before announcing her plans to resign after the South Carolina primary.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Conservative Activist Reveals Fox News Staff Are Banned From Events

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Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk says his relationship with Fox News has soured.

Kirk, a conservative activist, once was a frequent guest on Fox News and enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the network. Fox talent also frequently headlined Turning Point events but the partnership dissolved earlier this year.

Since Tucker Carlson’s shocking ouster from the network and Fox News near-$800 settlement with Dominion Voting Systems Kirk has been nowhere to be seen on Fox News.

Mediaite reports that while Fox News has not publicly commented on the reasons behind the rift, some theories abound. TPUSA is a haven for conspiracy theories, most notably former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen. A Daily Beast report from July suggested the rift had something to do with Fox’s $787 million settlement with Dominion over those election lies, as the network feared having its hosts participate in events where such conspiracy theories were being pushed.

“Fox’s relationship with Turning Point is basically over,” a network source told the Beast. “They don’t want their talent associated with them anymore.”

Kirk weighed in on the rift in an interview with Breitbart News earlier this week.

In an interview with Breitbart’s editor-in-chief Alex Marlow, Kirk said that his TPUSA event this year sold 13,000 tickets without any star power from Fox News. And while he said that he still has great affection for Fox News personalities like Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld, they “weren’t allowed” to be part of the event. Despite that, Kirk said “sometimes desperation is the mother of innovation,” so he leaned into “culture” for the event instead when considering his headliners.

Kirk framed this shift as a benefit:

I love Fox. They’ve been very good to me. I hope we can heal our relationship, because for whatever reason, it’s gone off the reservation. Since Tucker [Carlson]’s departure, I haven’t been on — and so, we had to do an event without Fox, and that was a great thing, man, because sometimes desperation is the mother of innovation, right? We kind of grew accustomed to — Jesse Watters, love him, Greg Gutfeld, love him — but that wasn’t a thing, we couldn’t do it, they’re not allowed to be here.

RFK Jr. Blocked From New York Ballot As Supreme Court Declines Appeal

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Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Residence Questioned by Courts

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not be listed as a presidential candidate on the New York state ballot after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reinstate his name. Lower courts determined that Kennedy’s address in Katonah, New York, did not qualify as his fixed and permanent residence, leading to his exclusion from the ballot.

Kennedy’s legal team argued that removing him from the ballot would deprive his New York supporters of their right to vote for him. They emphasized that no evidence suggested voters had been misled about his candidacy. Despite these arguments, the Supreme Court declined to issue an emergency injunction.

Opposition from New York Attorney General

The emergency request to reinstate Kennedy’s name faced strong opposition from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office. Her team argued that the state had already mailed absentee ballots and the certification deadline had passed, making it too late to add his name back to the ballot. The court’s refusal marks a significant setback for Kennedy’s campaign efforts in New York.

Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign last month and endorsed former President Donald Trump’s bid for the White House. Since then, he has worked to remove his name from ballots in critical swing states while keeping it on in others, triggering a series of legal battles.

This Supreme Court appeal marked Kennedy’s first attempt to remain on the New York ballot, but he isn’t the first candidate to face such a challenge. Earlier this month, the Green Party’s candidate, Jill Stein, also failed to secure a spot on Nevada’s ballot after the Supreme Court denied a similar emergency request.

New York Polls: Kamala Harris Leads Trump

Despite Kennedy’s exclusion from the ballot, the latest Siena College poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by 13 points in a direct matchup in New York. Pollster Steven Greenberg noted that although New York remains solidly blue, the margin isn’t as wide as in recent presidential cycles.

“Despite the Democratic convention, the debate and numerous other events during the six weeks between Siena College polls, there has been little movement in the horse race or in either candidate’s favorability rating. While the race appears largely static, Harris did pick up support among Latino voters, leading Trump 56-39%, up from 48-47% in August,” Greenberg noted. “Independents moved further in Trump’s direction, supporting him over Harris 58-34%, up from 47-40% last month. Interestingly, New York’s independent voters moved significantly in the Republican direction across several questions that will be on the ballot.”

“New Yorkers trust Harris more than Trump on abortion, democracy and the economy, and trust them equally on immigration. But there are huge partisan divides. Democrats trust Harris on all four issues by between 76 and 89 percent, and Republicans trust Trump by between 76 and 89 percent,” the Siena College pollster continued. “While independents trust Harris more on abortion by 50-42%, they trust Trump more on the other three by between 15 and 34 points.”

In previous elections, Democrats have won New York by at least 18 points. President Biden carried the state by 23 points in 2020. In a multi-candidate race, Harris’ lead drops slightly to 12 points.

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McCarthy Offers Concessions in House Rules Package But Critics Doubt It Will Be Enough

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Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is getting desperate in his attempts to sway Republican detractors back in his favor.

According to The Hill, Rep. McCarthy offered a number of concessions including allowing a move to “vacate the chair” that would force a vote on ousting the Speaker with the approval of five Republican members, rather than a threshold of at least half of the House GOP Conference that Republicans adopted in an internal rule in November. 

The chamber is also scheduled to create a House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government,” a recognition of a request to increase scrutiny on the Biden administration and intelligence agencies.

In a letter to GOP colleagues, McCarthy — speaking as “Speaker-Designate” — also addressed a request from conservatives to have more representation on committees.

“I will use my selections on key panels to ensure they more closely reflect the ideological makeup of our conference, and will advocate for the same when it comes to the membership of standing committees. This will facilitate greater scrutiny of bills from the start so they stand a greater chance of passing in the end,” the letter from McCarthy said.

However, despite McCarthy’s best attempts to re-attract hardline Republican lawmakers back to his side, some conservatives said after a Sunday conference call that McCarthy is still coming up short.

According to The Washington Examiner:

During the course of the call, multiple members “said they won’t vote for it [the rules package] if Kevin is not Speaker,” one lawmaker told The Examiner. Another member said moderates expressed grievances with the changes to the motion to vacate despite pro-McCarthy lawmakers attempting to sell the package to defectors in hopes it would shift critics’ support toward the California Republican.

“They started [the call] with this new rules package that we’re all about to see and are obviously saying the rules package – it’s great, everyone worked so hard, we got all these great things and they’re gonna be historic. And then [Gaetz] got on there and said, ‘Well, if everyone wants the rules package, we should accept it no matter who the speaker is because if these are good rules are good rules, right?’” the lawmaker said. “But then the mods piled on and said actually, we hate the rules package.”

Following the call, a group of conservatives released a letter saying the California Republican’s changes had come up short of what was needed to secure support.

“Regrettably, however, despite some progress achieved, Mr. McCarthy’s statement comes almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress on January 3rd. At this stage, it cannot be a surprise that expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient,” they wrote.

“This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy for Speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo — not a continuation of past, and ongoing, Republican failures. For someone with a 14-year presence in senior House Republican leadership, Mr. McCarthy bears squarely the burden to correct the dysfunction he now explicitly admits across that long tenure.”

House Freedom Caucus chairman Scott Perry told The Hill on Sunday, “I think what he’s trying to do is the bare minimum that he needs to try and get to where he can get the votes. And that’s not indicative of somebody that really wants to embrace new ideas, reject the status quo and unify all members in the conference.”