TV News LIES

Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday said the Department of Justice believes Congress has already granted President Trump the authority to construct the White House ballroom under existing presidential authority.

“We don’t believe we have to go to Congress. We believe Congress has already given us the authority to do what we’re doing,” Blanche said during a Sunday appearance on Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday.”

“Many presidents have done a tremendous amount of work to the White House, as they should, and Congress has authorized them to do so,” he added in discussion with anchor Shannon Bream, a lawyer criticized by Trump after the interview aired.

An appeals court has ordered the administration to stop all work on the project by Aug. 21 unless the Supreme Court steps in to approve the overhaul. 

“We’re hopeful that the Supreme Court recognizes that so we can get the ballroom finished as soon as possible. Remember, yes, it is a ballroom, but it’s also a meaningful upgrade ae..nd necessary part of the security of this city and the security of the president and his family,” Blanche said Sunday.

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Authorities arrested the operator of a boat that capsized in New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 8, killing a mother and a 5-month-old baby, authorities said.

Manuel Hernandez, 46, was arrested on Aug. 9 and charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment, according to the New York City Police Department. The U.S. Coast Guard also said it's determining whether the vessel was part of an illegal charter operation potentially lacking credentials, safety equipment and inspection requirements.

It was unclear whether Hernandez had obtained legal representation. Immediate attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Crews rescued 12 people from the water, according to the Coast Guard. They were transported to nearby hospitals with minor injuries and were later reported in stable condition.

A woman, 27, and a baby found in the water were taken to NYU Langone Health Brooklyn in critical condition, according to the NYPD and the Coast Guard. They were pronounced dead at the hospital.

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The US Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution declaring its opposition to any presidential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes.

Introduced by Senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat of Nevada, the resolution states that Maxwell “should not be granted a Presidential pardon or any form of clemency for her crimes with Jeffrey Epstein relating to the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors”.

Although Senate resolutions like these are non-binding and symbolic, Rosen’s office noted in a news release in February when she introduced the measure that the resolution was “designed to put the Senate on record opposing the prospect” of Donald Trump of granting a pardon or clemency to Maxwell.

“It’s frankly horrifying that Trump would entertain the idea of clemency for even a second for a convicted sex trafficker,” Rosen said in a floor speech on Wednesday.

The resolution was brought on Wednesday, as the Senate weighed Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, to stay in the role permanently. Rosen said its unanimous passage sent a clear message to the White House and Blanche that “there should be NO special treatment for Ghislaine Maxwell”.

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The Senate judiciary committee has postponed a vote, scheduled for Thursday, on the nomination of Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, to be attorney general.

Blanche, who holds the role on an acting basis, apparently lacks the votes of two Republican senators who want him to confirm in writing that the Department of Justice will not proceed with a $1.776bn fund to compensate Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 2021, or a pledge to forever bar the IRS from investigating the tax returns of the president and his family.

The two senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, both lost their re-election bids this year in Republican primaries in which Trump backed their opponents.

A spokesperson for the committee, which is chaired by Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley said in a statement:

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure."

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The US Senate voted to confirm Jay Clayton as the director of national intelligence on Tuesday, giving Trump another key ally directing the nation’s intelligence apparatus.

The tally, 51-47, fell along party lines, with all Republicans supporting his nomination and all Democrats opposing it.

Clayton, currently the US attorney for the southern district of New York, will replace Bill Pulte, a staunch Trump loyalist who had been temporarily serving in the role since June. Trump’s first director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, resigned earlier this year. Clayton served as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s first term.

During his confirmation hearing on 15 July, Clayton sidestepped several questions about the 2020 election and declined to say that Trump lost it.

During an interview on CNBC in June, Clayton also suggested there was something amiss about the long period California takes to count ballots. “We had a problem, a deep problem with voting in America,” he said on the network. “On the integrity side, we’re doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it.” Clayton also would not say during his confirmation hearing whether voter fraud was a problem in American elections, even though several studies have shown it is exceedingly rare.

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The House on Thursday approved a resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, in a vote that reflected growing frustration inside Congress over the war and the ability of lawmakers to conduct oversight.

The resolution passed the House by a vote of 214 to 208. And while it is not legally binding, the resolution represents a symbolic rebuke to President Trump over a war that lawmakers never voted to authorize. It was the second such rebuke passed by the House since the start of the war.

Shortly after the House vote, Senate Democrats tried to advance a war powers resolution of their own, but the measure failed 47 to 49.

The votes came at a moment when attacks between Iran and the U.S. appear to be intensifying. Eighteen U.S. troops have died since fighting broke out in February, but four have died since July 17. U.S. forces have also suffered nearly 500 injuries, with 100 of those coming in the past two weeks, according to the Pentagon.

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