TV News LIES

Officials have publicly named the two West Virginia National Guardsmen shot near the White House on Thanksgiving Eve.

According to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro at a Thursday, Nov. 27 press conference, the injured members were identified as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe.

NBC Washington reported that Beckstrom is from Webster Springs and Wolfe is from Martinsburg.

The victims have undergone surgery and remain in critical condition, Pirro said. Beckstrom and Wolfe were sworn in less than 24 hours before the attack, Pirro said.

A suspect, officials described as a "lone gunman," is in custody and facing charges in connection with the attack, deemed to be a possible act of terrorism.

Here's what we know so far.

Officials said the two National Guard members were shot near a Farragut West Metro station on Nov. 26. The troops were part of a "high-visibility patrol" at around 2:15 p.m. ET near the corner of 17th and I St. NW, about two blocks from the White House, when the shooting occurred, officials said.

The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal from Washington State, was also shot and subdued by other guard members in the area.

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Vice President JD Vance called for prayers for the National Guard troops who were shot just blocks from the White House.

During remarks to U.S. troops at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Vance said that officials do not know the motive and said the troops shot were in “pretty tough condition.” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey later confirmed the troops, who were part of the West Virginia National Guard, had died.

“It's a somber reminder that soldiers, whether they're active duty reserve or National Guard, our soldiers, are the sword and the shield of the United States of America,” Vance said. “And as a person who goes into work every single day in that building and knows that there are a lot of people who wear the uniform of the United States Army, let me just say very personally, thank them for what they're doing. We're grateful to them.”

Note: There are conflicting reports about the conditions of the Guardsmen.  Please check bacdk for updates.

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The United States Naval Academy fired the commandant of midshipmen, Capt. Gilbert Clark Jr., on Monday due to a “loss of confidence in his ability to effectively lead” the brigade, removing him than his position less than half a year after he assumed the post.

Clark, who assumed the role in June, was axed by Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte.“The naval service maintains the highest standards for leaders and holds them accountable when those standards are not met,” the Naval Academy said Monday.

For now, Clark will be succeeded by Capt. Austin Jackson, currently a deputy commandant of midshipmen, as an interim commandant. 

The school did not provide further details about the reason for the dismissal. The U.S. Navy commonly references “loss of confidence” when firing senior leaders.

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A federal judge on Thursday halted for now Donald Trump’s deployment of national guard troops to Washington DC, dealing the president a temporary legal setback to his efforts to send the military to US cities over the objections of local leaders.

US district judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former president Joe Biden, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying national guard troops to enforce the law in the nation’s capital without approval from its mayor.

Cobb paused her ruling until 11 December to allow the Trump administration to appeal.

The legal fight is playing out alongside several others across the country as Trump presses against longstanding but rarely tested constraints on presidents using troops to enforce domestic law.

The DC attorney general, Brian Schwalb, an elected Democrat, sued on 4 September after Trump announced the deployment on 11 August.

The lawsuit accused Trump of unlawfully usurping control of the city’s law enforcement and violating a law prohibiting troops from performing domestic police work.

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The U.S. Coast Guard will reportedly no longer consider swastikas, nooses, or the Confederate flag to be hate symbols, according to forthcoming guidelines obtained by The Washington Post, though the service branch denies changing its stance towards such imagery.

Under the guidelines obtained by the paper, these symbols will instead be considered “potentially divisive” imagery, though flying the Confederate flag will remain banned.“We don’t deserve the trust of the nation if we’re unclear about the divisiveness of swastikas,” an anonymous Coast Guard official who has seen the alleged guidelines told the paper.

The Coast Guard strongly disputed it was softening its policy towards these symbols.

“The claims that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses or other extremist imagery as prohibited symbols are categorically false,” Admiral Kevin Lunday, Acting Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a statement to The Independent. “These symbols have been and remain prohibited in the Coast Guard per policy. Any display, use or promotion of such symbols, as always, will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.”

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that President Trump does not want to execute members of Congress who urged the military not to follow unlawful orders, but that he wants to see them “held accountable.”

Trump earlier Thursday responded to a video made by six Democrats with military and intelligence backgrounds, calling it “seditious behavior from traitors” and later posting “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

“No,” Leavitt said. “Many in this room want to talk about the president’s response, but not what brought the president to responding in this way.”

Leavitt disputed that the president had given any illegal orders and accused the lawmakers of inciting violence.

“To suggest and encourage that active duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do,” Leavitt added. “And they should be held accountable. And that’s what the president wants to see.”

The video featured Sens. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.), and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.) and Maggie Goodlander (N.H.), all of whom have served in the military or as intelligence officers.

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