Category: Policy
Senate stares down fraught health care battle with ObamaCare subsidies set to expire
Senate negotiators are set for a high-wire act on health care in the coming weeks after leaving Washington for the holidays without a resolution on the expiring enhanced subsidies, with lawmakers increasingly shifting into campaign mode as the calendar flips to the new year. The chamber has been consumed for months by a fight over…
Hegseth hails new seizure of Venezuelan oil tanker
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Saturday evening hailed the seizure by the U.S. Coast Guard of a second oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. The U.S. Navy assisted in the seizure, which took place on international waters, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced. Hegseth made clear that the Trump administration intended to put…
Hegseth, Bradley and the Venezuela boat strikes: Who is legally responsible?
Amid intensifying scrutiny over U.S. military strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, questions are emerging over who in the Trump administration’s chain of command is legally on the hook for what many see as war crimes. Administration officials have insisted it was the decision of Adm. Frank Bradley, not Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,…
House GOP leaders to pitch health care options for vote next week
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Republican leaders will present their health care proposals to the full House GOP conference on Wednesday to find out which items have consensus for votes in the House next week. The development comes after a meeting with a “good cross-section of our members” and committee leaders in the…
US military blows up alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific, killing 4 ‘narco-terrorists’
The U.S. military blew up another alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on Thursday, killing four male “narco-terrorists” and continuing its lethal counternarcotics campaign as scrutiny over the Trump administration’s early September operation intensifies. The boat on Thursday was struck in international waters and was operated by a designated terrorist organization, U.S. Southern Command…
Who is Adm. Frank Bradley, commander who issued second boat strike order?
The White House placed the decision to launch a second, follow-up Sept. 2 strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea at the feet of the commander overseeing the operation from Fort Bragg, N.C., Navy Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley. Bradley — who was authorized by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to carry out…
Hegseth says terror designation provides Pentagon with ‘new options’ to go after Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. government’s decision to designate Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organization provides the Defense Department with “new options” to go after the alleged drug cartel, which officials alleged is headed by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. “Well, it brings a whole bunch of new options to the…
Europeans want US missiles to defend them, not America — and Rubio’s had enough of their hypocrisy
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called out European officials on Wednesday for criticizing America’s self-defense while expecting the U.S. to provide military support for their own.
The Trump administration has obliterated at least 19 alleged narco-terrorist drug boats since Sept. 2 with the stated aim of “protecting the homeland and killing these cartel terrorists who wish to harm our country and its people.”
‘I don’t think that the European Union gets to determine … how the United States defends its national security.’
President Donald Trump has suggested that each drug boat vaporized by U.S. fighter jets, AC-130J gunships, and drones amounts to 25,000 American lives saved.
A day after War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. had sunk an additional two boats in the Eastern Pacific, altogether killing six alleged narco-terrorists, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot joined the chorus of foreign dignitaries who have been complaining about the strikes.
Barrot reportedly said at the G7 summit on Tuesday, “We have observed with concern the military operations in the Caribbean region, because they violate international law and because France has a presence in this region through its overseas territories, where more than a million of our compatriots reside.”
RELATED: ‘Begin repatriating’: German chancellor admits it’s time to give Syrian migrants the boot
Photo by Omar Zaghloul/Anadolu via Getty Images
When confronted with questions about the U.S. maritime strikes during a meeting with Latin American leaders last week, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that the EU upholds international law and “international law is very clear on that. You can use force for two reasons: one is self-defense, the other one is the U.N. Security Council resolution.”
Rubio addressed the European pearl-clutching on Wednesday, politely suggesting to reporters that the continentals should pound sand.
“I don’t think that the European Union gets to determine what international law is, and what they certainly don’t get to determine is how the United States defends its national security,” said Rubio. “The United States is under attack from organized criminal narco-terrorists in our hemisphere, and the president is responding in the defense of our country.”
After indicating that the Europeans are out of their depth, Rubio hammered America’s allies across the Atlantic for their apparent hypocrisy.
“I do find it interesting that all these countries want us to send, you know, and supply, for example, nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to defend Europe, but when the United States positions aircraft carriers in our hemisphere where we live, somehow that’s a problem,” said the secretary of state.
Rubio added, “The president ordered it in defense of our country. It continues. It’s ongoing. It can stop tomorrow if [terrorist cartels] stop sending drug boats.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Government set to reopen after historic shutdown: What to know
The House on Wednesday passed a bill to reopen the government, sending it to President Trump’s desk and setting up the end of the longest shutdown in U.S. history. That vote came after eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus cut a deal with Republicans and helped advance the legislative package. But the shutdown has…
Two US Navy aircraft go down in South China Sea
Two U.S. Navy aircraft went down in the South China Sea in separate incidents on Sunday, according to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. All of the crew members in both incidents were successfully recovered by search and rescue units, it said. The first incident involved a U.S. Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, which went down in…
