Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today that he will move forward on a plan to allow a senate vote on the far-left platform called “The Green New Deal”.

Now, McConnell obviously doesn’t support the GND because: (a) his benefactor, Tom Donohue, doesn’t want anything to do with it; and (b) the entire premise behind it is stunningly stupid.  As such, those who don’t fully understand how McConnell operates think that McConnell is toying with the Democrats and forcing them to take a position of support that is toxic to their interests…. But that’s not Mitch.  Beware.

Yes, McConnell knows the Green New Deal is toxic to the central political aspirations of the Democrats amid his chamber; and he knows many of the 2020 candidates would be forced to put-up their support, or shut-up their moonbat-wing.  However, that’s not his motive for supporting a vote.  The UniParty Mitch-move is to remove the sword of Damocles the GND represents from his UniParty alliance (both Democrats and Republicans).

McConnell absorbs all power. McConnell views himself as more powerful than all other political elements within Washington DC, including the office of the president. McConnell is the self-annointed emperor of the dark swamp forces.  To understand McConnell you have to reset traditional reference points.

It is precisely because the Green New Deal is politically toxic to the 2020 presidential race that Mitch McConnell will make a move to remove the political risk represented by the GND and again position himself as gatekeeper to the center of all power.

Mitch will remove the sword of Damocles from the 2020 politicians, protect the viability of any opponent to Trump, and simultaneously remove a very sharp arrow from the quiver of republican politicians in the 2020 campaign.  Mitch isn’t hurting democrats by announcing support for a vote; he is actually helping them.

That my friends, is how Mitch McConnell works.

By removing the threat represented by the GND, McConnell removes an attack weapon from his real adversary, Donald J Trump.  That’s Mitch…. That’s how Mitch operates… That’s the Decepticon DNA carried by McConnell that only close political followers can see.

Giving democrats an opportunity to vote against the silly GND is a way for McConnell to remain the almighty center of power and control.  If he didn’t take that approach, the weapon would be available for any exploitation.

That’s Mitch McConnell.

Now here’s the pantomime….

WASHINGTON – The Senate will hold a vote on the Green New Deal, an environmental and energy plan touted by progressives, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday.

McConnell told reporters after a meeting of the Senate Republican caucus that he has “great interest” in the plan, which would spell an end for coal, a key economic driver in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, while promising new jobs for out-of-work miners and other workers.

“We’ll give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal,” McConnell said.

McConnell did not say when the vote would happen. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said the vote has not been scheduled.

[…] The deal has no chance of passing the Senate, where it will need 51 votes and faces united opposition from Republicans, who hold 53 of the chamber’s 100 seats.

But it will force Senate Democrats, including a slew of 2020 presidential candidates, to vote on the proposal — potentially providing votes for McConnell and the GOP to exploit politically.

“It’s astonishing to see this many presidential candidates moving so far to the left on a position that is going to raise energy costs for families, hurt jobs in America and really provide almost a government takeover of many of the industries in our country,” said Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and a member of GOP leadership. (read more)

Once you see the strings on the McConnell marionettes you can never go back to a time where you didn’t notice them.

…”Hey, Nancy would appreciate a little help with the AOC issue; do you think it would be possible for us to schedule-in a little sharp elbow room for her”?…

President Donald Trump again permits U.S. media to review the content of a cabinet meeting covering the majority of current national issues.  Most transparent administration in history.  [Full video and transcript]

.

[Transcript] 11:54 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Thank you. Hi, Steve. So, maybe we can begin. I’ll ask Secretary Wilkie to say grace, please.

SECRETARY WILKIE: (Gives a prayer.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Secretary. Beautiful.

Thank you all for being here. Before we begin, we’re thinking about certain things that we’re just starting to look at. David Bernhardt is, as you know, going through the process — becoming Secretary of Interior, from Acting. He’s done a fantastic job. And I think it will continue, and we look forward to that.

We’re thinking about doing, on the 4th of July or thereabouts, a parade. A “Salute to America” parade. It will be a — really, a gathering, as opposed to a parade, I’d guess you’d have to say. Perhaps at the Lincoln Memorial. We’re looking at sites. But we’re thinking about doing something, which would become, perhaps, a tradition. “Salute to America” on July 4th or July 4th weekend. Somewhere around that area.

And, David, you’re taking charge of that and you’ll see how it works out with schedules and everything else. And I think it could be a very exciting day. And the fireworks is there anyway, so we just saved on fireworks. We get free fireworks because it’s already being done. (Laughter.) So, that’s very good.

So, good morning and welcome to our Cabinet meeting. As I said in my State of the Union Address, I’m eager to work with both parties to deliver for all Americans. That’s what we have to start doing. There’s tremendous and quite unusual attitude on the other side. There’s a lot of anger. And they’re slipping extremely far left. And we don’t want that to happen to our country. So we’re working very hard with the other side, and hopefully positive things can take place.

Since the election, we’ve created 5.3 million jobs, including more than 300,000 last month alone. Blue-collar jobs have grown at their fastest pace in more than 30 years. And we’ve added half a million manufacturing jobs. That number is going to very soon be 600,009 because of certain things that are happening. And economic growth has nearly doubled since I took office.

We have a big team over in China right now, and they’re working very hard, dealing with the Chinese. We want very much to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. But the tariffs are bringing a tremendous amount of money to our Treasury. And as you read, of the 21 points — and actually, the number would be 25 now, on the areas that are taxed at 25. China is paying for 21, and we’re paying for 4. So that’s pretty good.

But we’re bringing billions and billions of dollars into our Treasury right now. We’ll see what happens, but they very much want to make a deal. Their economy has been hurt by the tariffs. And our economy is thriving like, really, never before. I mean, we’re doing incredibly well.

We have a lot of companies going to be announcing. They’ve already announced, in some cases — and in many cases, they have announced — they’re moving back into the country. They want to be a part of the United States. It’s like a miracle in the United States, what’s happening. But we have a lot of companies that have left. In many cases, they left our country and they’re moving back. And that means a lot of jobs.

Speaking of jobs, we have to have more people coming into our country because our real number is about 3.6, 3.7. It took a little blip up during the shutdown and went up to 4. And 4 — any country would take a 4. But we’re about 3.7; probably going lower. We need people. So we want to have people come into our country, but we want to have them come in through a merit system, and we want to have them come in legally. And that’s going to be happening. We’re doing very well in that regard.

But we have tremendous numbers of companies. And you’ve been reporting on them. A lot of car companies are coming back to the United States.

We want to keep the job boom going strong, and we must protect our economy. And we have to protect it from any attempts to impose socialism. Socialism does not work too well. And we don’t want that as part of our country and as part of our heritage. We just can’t have it. Everything would come to an end — and rapidly. And then, all of a sudden, you’d see things happening and you’d say, “What’s going on? Whatever happened?”

But we’re at a high point today, and we’re going to go a lot higher. We have a long way to go, frankly, as far as I’m concerned — especially where we make the good trade deals and make the good military deals.

As an example, as you know, South Korea — we defend them and lose a tremendous amount of money. Billions of dollars a year defending them. They agreed, at my request. And working with Secretary Pompeo and John Bolton, they agreed to pay, yesterday, $500 million more toward their defense. Five-hundred million, with a couple of phone calls. I said, “Why didn’t you do this before?” They said, “Nobody asked.” So — it’s got to go up. It’s got to go up.

Right now, it costs us $5 billion a year to defend. As an example, South Korea — we have a great relationship, and with President Moon. And we’re doing great things. And North Korea is coming along. South Korea is just an example. But South Korea is costing us $5 billion a year. And they pay — they were paying about $500 million for $5 billion worth of protection. And we have to do better than that. So they’ve agreed to pay $500 million more. And over the years, it will start going up, and they will be terrific. And they’ve been very good.

We’ve had a really strong — we made a new trade deal with South Korea. And the same thing will go with Japan. And the same thing will go with Saudi Arabia and many others. I mean, we protect Saudi Arabia. They’ve got nothing but cash. And we protect them with great subsidy. We give Saudi Arabia subsidy. Should be the other way around, as far as I’m concerned, right?

So a lot of things are happening. And all of this endures to the strength of our country and to our economy. And so we’re looking forward to seeing that.

The Mexico deal — as you know, Mexico/Canada trade deal, the USMCA is a tremendous deal. But one of the things — because NAFTA was one of the worst deals in the history of this country ever signed. It cleaned out our jobs and our company. It was just a terrible, terrible thing that we signed NAFTA.

So this is the NAFTA replacement. It has nothing to do with NAFTA. And one of the things that make it very hard — it’s very hard for a company, financially, to leave our country, under the USMCA. Very, very prohibitive to leave. And that was the thing I wanted more than any other element. I said, “I don’t want these companies going and leaving, and going to Mexico and Canada.” They’ve got their own companies. I don’t want to do that. We lost tremendous — we lost 25 percent of our automobile industry to Mexico. We lost 30 percent to a combination of both Canada and Mexico.

So that’s wielding its way through, and I guess it’s hitting Congress very shortly, and we’ll see how that does. But that’s a great deal. And it’s a very labor-friendly deal. It’s a deal that the workers of our country will love.

One in three women, as you know, are sexually assaulted on the long journey north. We want to stop that. We want to stop those journeys. The way you do that is with barrier security, a wall. And we’re making a lot of progress. In fact, I noticed yesterday, when I got to El Paso, they had signs, “Finish the Wall,” instead of “Build the Wall.” Because we’re doing a lot of wall right now. Just started a big portion of the wall in the Rio Grande Valley, which is now the biggest area for people coming in. We’ve sealed up a lot of the areas where people come in.

But they’re looking for the soft spots, and they come up in a caravan and they look for the areas without any barrier. And that’s why they like to come in. And we grab them, and it’s a very tough situation.

We could save billions and billions of dollars in cost and hundreds of billions of dollars in drugs and what they’re doing to us with drugs. And so much of it comes through. And don’t believe people when they say it all comes through the portals; it doesn’t — the ports of entry. It comes through — the big loads come through the border, where you don’t have wall, where they can drive a truck, a big truck, loaded up with drugs or loaded up with this thing called a “human cargo.” Human cargo. These are traffickers. These are the worst people on Earth. And they don’t come through the ports of entry with people in the back of a car tied up. Could never do that. They come through areas where there’s no barrier.

So we’ll see what happens. I got reports last night, when I was going out to speak. We had, by the way, a massive crowd. And my competitor had very few people, but the press didn’t report it that way. The press reported it like two speeches. We had a competitor that decided to challenge me with the crowds. And he failed very badly. From what I hear, he had less than a thousand people. And we had a packed arena, and we had probably 25,000 people outside of the arena. It was an incredible night in Texas, I can tell you that. It was really amazing.

But as I’m going on stage to speak, they’re telling me about the committee came out with a deal. And, you know, they went over it very briefly. Then I went over it briefly last night, but it was 3 o’clock in the morning. And I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled. But the wall is getting built, regardless. It doesn’t matter. Because we’re doing other things beyond what we’re talking about here. So we’ll see what happens.

We’re having a meeting on it later. It’s really obstruction. The Democrats want everybody to be able to come into our country. We have many criminals. When you look at the numbers of criminals that are nabbed — I mean, I’m looking at numbers that are incredible. This card was just given to me by Secretary Nielsen. And — assaults: 99,000 assaults. Larceny: 40,000. Burglary: 25,000. Fraudulent activities: 25,000. Damage and stolen property: 17,000. Sex offenses: 13,552. Sexual assaults: 10,468. That’s sexual assaults on people that live in our country by people that are coming illegally across our borders. In many cases, people that have come before I became — before I became President.

What happens is we are working very hard. We’re getting rid of tremendous numbers of MS-13. And the Democrats don’t like us to get rid of MS-13. Now, you figure that one out. These are violent people, and they don’t like us to get rid of MS-13.

So, robberies: 11,177. Kidnappings: 4,112. Murders: 3,914. Okay? So these are people that ICE is dealing with, and nobody can deal with them more effectively. There’s probably no group in this country that does so much and gets, really, so little respect or love as ICE. It’s really a terrible thing. They’re doing an incredible job.

One other thing I might want to say is that anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress. And Congressman Omar is terrible, what she said. And I think she should either resign from Congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. What she said is so deep-seated in her heart that her lame apology — and that’s what it was; it was lame, and she didn’t mean a word of it — was just not appropriate. I think she should resign from Congress, frankly. But at a minimum, she shouldn’t be on committees, and certainly that committee.

And with that, we’re going to have a meeting. Our Cabinet is doing really well. I’ll tell you, we’re doing great. Our country is doing great. The stock market is up tremendously today. Of course, I haven’t seen it in 15 minutes, so, you know, anything is — Larry Kudlow, anything is subject to change, right? But so far, so good. And we’re hitting new records with growth. We’re hitting new records with the economy. We’ve hit many new records on unemployment.

More people working today in the United States than at any time in the history of our country. We’re getting very close to 160 million people. And we’ve never had anything like that, which tells you that we have to have people come into our country — great people, from the areas that we’re talking about. But we want them to be productive, and they — we want people that are going to love our country and help our country.

So I want to thank our Cabinet. The Cabinet is doing a fantastic job. Really, unsung job. Because members of this Cabinet, there are those people that say this is one of the best Cabinets this country has ever had. I happen to agree. I happen to agree. We have great, great people in our Cabinet. And I want to thank you all very much for doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much.

And, Matt, I guess, maybe at some point there will be a vote, and —

ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL WHITAKER: Thursday, we hear. Thursday we are.

THE PRESIDENT: — maybe at some point you won’t be doing what you’re doing. Come here. I think you’ve done — you’ve taken a tremendous amount of abuse. You handled yourself incredibly last Friday. But on behalf of all of us, I want to thank you very much. Matt Whitaker. (Applause.)

It’s heartfelt, too — believe me.

Okay, thank you all very much.

Q Sir, will you sign Congress’s border deal?

THE PRESIDENT: I have to study it. I’m not happy about it. It’s not doing the trick. But I’m adding things to it. And when you add whatever I have to add, it’s all going to happen where we’re going to build a beautiful, big, strong wall that’s not going to let criminals and traffickers and drug dealers and drugs into our country. It’s very simple. It’s very simple.

We’re building a wall. And now I’m saying we’re finishing the wall. We just started a big, big section on the Rio Grande. You probably saw it. Some of you were there when they started. You went there; you didn’t believe it. You went there, and you see trucks all over the place. You said, “Hey, he’s not kidding.” I don’t kid. I never kid about construction. I love construction. (Laughter.) And I know how to do it for the right price. And we’re getting a beautiful-looking structure that’s also less expensive to build and works much better. That’s a good combination of events, because it was crazy what they were putting up.

In fact, I happen to think that the walls that they were building were so unattractive and so ugly that walls got bad names. Okay? If that means anything. But they were so ugly, with rusted steel and big ugly plates on top that were all tin-canned. It’s called tin-canned, where they’re wavy, because the heat makes them expand and contract, and they’re tin-canned.

I said, “Why didn’t you paint the steel?” “Well, sir, we save money by not painting.” And I said, “Yeah, but it’s going to rust. You have to paint.” I’ve never seen — I’ve ordered a lot of steel — I’ve never seen, in my whole life, steel come to me that was unpainted. This can only happen at the border. It wasn’t me; it was our past geniuses.

So, I can tell you that, am I happy at first glance? I just got to see it. The answer is no, I’m not. I’m not happy. But am I happy with where we’re going? I’m thrilled because we’re supplementing things and moving things around. And we’re doing things that are fantastic and taking from far less — really, from far less important areas. And the bottom line is we’re building a lot of wall. Right now, we’re building a lot of wall.

And you think it’s easy? We’re building in the face of tremendous obstruction and tremendous opposition from a small group of people. And one thing that happened that was, I think, very revealing — we had the biggest and best border agents and experts come up and see the committee. And they said, more than anything else, “You need a barrier. You need a wall.” And the recommendation was unacceptable to the committee. So that tells you more than anything else.

Q Mr. President, are ruling out the possibility of a government shutdown?

Q Do you really want to go through another shutdown?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you’re going to see a shutdown. I wouldn’t want to go to it, no. If you did have it, it’s the Democrats’ fault. And I accepted the first one, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished because people learned during that shutdown all about the problems coming in from the southern border. I accept — I’ve always accepted it.

But this one I would never accept if it happens, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. But this would be totally on the Democrats. Okay?

Q Mr. President, are you saying that you may amend and send back the proposed compromise, or that you may grudgingly accept it and then move forward with the executive action?

THE PRESIDENT: It’s always nice to negotiate a little bit, right? So, you know, whatever you get. But I would hope that there won’t be a shutdown. I am extremely unhappy with what the Democrats have given us. It’s sad. It’s sad. They’re doing the country no favor. They are hurting our country very badly. But we certainly don’t want to see a shutdown. But you’ll be hearing fairly soon.
The bottom line is — on the wall — we’re building the wall. And we’re using other methods, other than this and in addition to this. We have a lot of things going. We have a lot of money in this country, and we’re using some of that money — a small percentage of that money — to build the wall, which we desperately need.

Q Mr. President, do you plan to meet with President Xi at the end of March?

THE PRESIDENT: Not at this moment. We have our people over there now. I just got a report. Things are going well with China. China wants to make a deal very badly. I want it to be a real deal, not just a deal that makes — you know, cosmetically looks good for a year. We have a chance to really make a deal — a real deal with China. We’ve never been in this position before. We’ve always been the lame duck. And we’re not the lame duck anymore. And we’ve gone up tremendously in value as a country, in economic value. Tremendously.

Larry, we’ve gone up what — $11 trillion, $14 trillion? And China has gone down close to $20 trillion since we’ve started this whole —

MR. KUDLOW: Worst performing stock market in the world.

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

MR. KUDLOW: China — worst performing stock market in the world.

THE PRESIDENT: Has anybody ever heard of Larry Kudlow? (Laughter.) That voice. I hear that voice, and you think money. Right, Larry? (Laughter.)

MR. KUDLOW: Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: So, I didn’t even know that. That’s — China, he said, has the worst performing stock market right now in the world. And we don’t want that. We want China to do — but — and that’s because of us. And we’re — have to be one of the best performing stock markets, but we are the best performing country and we have a lot of potential for further growth.

So we’re doing very well over in China. Our people are there. You know the people very well. And I think we’re going to have some good answers. I think — either way, I’m happy. I’m happy either way. I could live receiving billions and billions of dollars a month from China. China never gave us 10 cents. It was always the opposite way. Now they’re paying billions of dollars a month for the privilege of coming into the United States and, honestly, taking advantage of our country. So we’ll see how it works out.

But at some point, I expect to meet with President Xi — who I have a lot of respect for and like a lot — and make the parts of the deal that the group is unable to make. That’s the way deals happen.

Q Will the March 1st deadline slide, do you think?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thus far, I’ve said — as you know, the tariffs tick up for us. In other words, we take in much more money because the tariff — and there’s nothing they can do that’s comparable, so it’s not like tit for tat. The tariffs kick in; they go up.

Right now, they’re paying — they’re paying 25 percent on $50 billion. Okay? And they are paying 10 percent on $200 billion. So we have $250 billion. We have $267 billion that we were very nice about and we’re not taxing. On the $200 billion, we’re paying the 10 percent. The 10 percent on $200 billion goes up to 25 percent on March 1st. And so far, I’ve said don’t do that.

Now, if we’re close to a deal where we think we can make a real deal, and it’s going to get done, I could see myself letting that slide for a little while. But generally speaking, I’m not inclined to do that. Okay?

Q If Congress sends you a deal that you disagree with, would you consider declaring a national emergency to build the wall?

THE PRESIDENT: I consider everything. I’m considering everything. You know, we already have national emergencies out there. You know, President Obama, President Clinton, President Bush — they’ve declared many national — this is not unique. They’ve declared many national emergencies. Many, many. And you have some out there that we can use in addition to one that we can declare if we want to do it.

Thank you very much everybody. Thank you. Thank you.

Q Sir, were you aware that AMI was investigating Jeff Bezos?

THE PRESIDENT: No. No, I wasn’t.

END

Mark the calendars; today is an important date.  CTH has noted, repeatedly, how extremely difficult it would be for the media to walk-back over three years of false reporting on the insufferable and manufactured “Muh Russia” collusion narrative.

However, remarkably, today that process actually begins.  WATCH:

.

There’s way more to this shift. WAY more. ABC News, home of the resistance insider operative George Stephanopoulos, is also starting to use an atypical process to control distribution of the let-down as they back toward the ‘muh Russia’ exits.

The three month trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has ended with the New York jury finding the cartel leader guilty of all counts.

New York – A Brooklyn jury on Tuesday found Mexican kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman guilty of running a massive drug-trafficking operation.

The drug lord looked stunned as the panel handed down the verdict on its sixth day of deliberations — convicting him on all counts, including operating a continuing criminal enterprise, use of firearms and various charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

Dressed in a grey suit, Guzman then looked for his ex-beauty queen wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, in the gallery — who flashed him a supportive thumbs up as her eyes welled with tears.

Guzman, who twice escaped prison in Mexico, now faces up to life behind bars. He is set to be sentenced on June 25.

The decision follows an 11-week trial with testimony from more than 50 prosecution witnesses — including 14 former associates of Guzman’s who took the stand against him — and a 30-minute, single-witness defense case. (read more)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is traveling through central Europe as part of the ongoing Trump administration outreach to genuine U.S. geopolitical allies who are often diminished by the larger economies within the EU.  [Follow the Photo-Journal Here]

While in Budapest, Hungary, Secretary Pompeo participates in a joint press availability with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. The political and national values carried by the U.S., via President Trump, and Hungary, via PM Orban are in alignment.

.

[Transcript] MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Distinguished secretary and minister, distinguished under secretaries, deputy secretaries, dear guests: Heartfelt welcome to all of you at the press conference of Their Excellencies Peter Szijjarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Secretary of State Michael Richard Pompeo. First of all, may I ask His Excellency Mr. Peter Szijjarto to deliver his speech.

FOREIGN MINISTER SZIJJARTO: (Via interpreter) Good day to all of you. Heartfelt welcome to all of you and heartfelt welcome to the Secretary of State. It is a true honor for us that seven and a half years after the last visit of the U.S. Secretary of State we can welcome you here in Budapest. And we have to say although we can know that from several sources that the Secretary of State is a man of his words, because when last May I had the honor that I was received by the Secretary in Washington, then at the NATO meeting, following that he said, “Peter, I’ll have to come to you.” And I said, “Yeah, that is not going to depend on us,” and the Secretary is now here in Budapest. Heartfelt welcome, and we are really very happy, and this is an honor, a great honor for us. Also a heartfelt welcome to the representatives of Hungarian international press. Thank you very much for coming to our press conference.

I really do believe that the fact that the minister, the Secretary, is here just showcases (inaudible) started to rebuild the third pillar of U.S.-Hungarian relations, because earlier we rather focused on the economic and the defense pillar of these relations. And now since the Republican administration is in power in the United States, ever since there’s been a rapid improvement or a rebuilding of our political ties as well. Obviously, this is greatly due to the fact that the Government of Hungary and the Donald Trump administration, the U.S. administration, has a similar or same stance in several questions in general politics and specific politics as well.

Now both administrations, both governments are patriotic in terms of their policies where national interest is first; and both administrations, both governments consider it to be one of the first and foremost responsibility of the state to guarantee the safety and security of people – of the people, and this is how we could cooperate in the fight against the global migration pact. We have always been in line with the efforts of the United States to defend their borders, and both governments considers it very important to safeguard the Christian heritage and to support Christian communities worldwide. And together with the United States we just step up in international organizations so that there would be a fair treatment vis-a-vis Israel by the international community, international political community.

We Hungarians, the Hungarian Government, has based our foreign policy on mutual respect, and we think that the world is not going to be a better place if some countries do spend their times by intervening in internal political affairs of other countries or lecturing other countries. Therefore we, based on principles, have extended our veto in the European Union whenever it came to criticism concerning the decisions – political decisions of the United States. For that, we have undergone and we have taken on conflicts and risks as well, but we’re not going to consent in the future as well – or either – that either the European Union or other international organization would criticize the sovereign political decisions of the United States. At the same time, we also carry out a foreign policy which is based on openness and sincerity. So we say the same thing – we say the same things behind the scenes that we say here. So it is easy therefore for us to discuss issues like relations to Russia or the gaining ground of China in other places or also our relations to Russia.

I also said to the Secretary of State that the fate of the 150,000 Hungarians in the Subcarpathians is very important to us. This is a geopolitical issue and we cannot disregard that. We are always going to stand for Hungarians living in the Subcarpathians.

As I also told the Secretary, that whenever we talk about the economic gaining ground of China, then Hungary is responsible for 1.2 percent of the EU-China world trade, and I also said that there is a hypocrisy concerning the cooperation with Russia because there is a lot of criticism on the surface, and below the surface there is a lot of trade between Europe and Russia in billions of euros.

But I also told the Secretary that the U.S. can rely on Hungary as a reliable defense ally, and we are very proud of the fact that our 494 strong contingent serving and our NATO umbrella in Kosovo and Afghanistan, we are going to extend that with 108 personnel, and we are also happy and proud that we can participate in the international counterterrorism coalition led by the United States. And we’re also proud of the fact that this year, we can take part in the air policing of the Baltic states.

I’d like to announce a very significant improvement of progress, the defense cooperation agreement between the U.S. and Hungary. This agreement was completed in 1997. The world has changed ever since. There are tremendous new challenges, security threats. Therefore, we agreed that it was just due time to modernize this agreement. And last Friday, we managed to conclude these talks. We managed to finalize the text. We have – we agreed upon that text. Therefore, next week, the defense committee of the Hungarian parliament is going to discuss that.

I would also like to inform you about the fact that very important talks are ongoing concerning increasing and improving the security of the country. I’m talking about defense procurement next week and the weeks after. We are going to approach the defense committee of the Hungarian National Assembly about having advance talks of a mid-range AD system acquire – procurement. Also we are going to, as I said, approach the defense committee because we would like to increase our ability, improve our ability to defend our critical facilities.

As far as security is concerned, I asked the assistance of the Secretary – I asked his assistance about ExxonMobil so that ExxonMobil would make a final decision on investment concerning the – concerning natural gas from the offshore gas fields in Romania. 3.4 billion is the capacity on the pipelines when the interconnectors are connecting the Russia, the Romanian, and Hungarian pipelines. So should the American company make this decision, Hungary will make major steps forward concerning the diversification of procurement of natural gas.

And finally, we’ve also touched upon the economic ties between the two countries. The United States is the second-largest investor in Hungary. We are very grateful to GE, IBM Aircraft, BorgWarner, and other investors in Hungary for employing 105,000 Hungarian citizens. They’re – 1,700 strong is the investment community in Hungary, the U.S. investment community in Hungary, and we are very proud of the fact that U.S. companies repeatedly bring new investment decisions favoring Hungary. And we also owe gratitude because there – even in such an era which is challenged with political challenges, they still kept up the good ties.

Secretary, thank you very much for accepting my invitation. Thank you very much, after seven and a half years, to come – for coming to Hungary. Thank you very much.

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Thank you very much. We now ask His Excellency Michael Richard Pompeo, Secretary of State of the United States, to deliver his speech.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thanks, Peter. It’s an honor to be in Hungary as my first trip here as the Secretary of State, meeting with Prime Minister Orban and Defense Minister Benko. Peter, it was great to meet with you and your team as well.

It’s especially important to be here on this 30th anniversary of the end of communism. For three decades, the Hungarian people have worked to build a free and prosperous nation in the heart of Central Europe. The United States has been with you from the outset through trade, foreign assistance, defense partnerships, and people-to-people ties between our two countries. In doing so, we’re continuing a long tradition of America and Hungary standing together on the side of freedom.

I was a former cavalry officer a few years back. I’m indebted to Colonel Michael Kovats, the founder of the U.S. Cavalry, who fought and died for American freedom in our War of Independence. And I recall Lincoln’s resolution of support for Kossuth when he declared that America stood with Hungary in our continued devotion to the principles of free institutions.

I’m in Central Europe this week to talk about how we renew and deepen this special bond between our countries. That begins with strong defense. Peter announced and I’m happy to announce alongside him the conclusion of the defense cooperation agreement. This will be great for each of our two countries, and I welcome too your announcement today that you’ll be acquiring new defense capabilities from the United States as well. These steps, together with Hungary’s commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense and a strong presence in Afghanistan, strengthen Hungary’s and NATO’s security.

You need look no further than Ukraine, Hungary’s next-door neighbor, to see why this is needed. Today I spoke with the foreign minister about the urgent importance of supporting Ukraine in its quest for sovereignty and territorial integrity. We must not let Putin drive wedges between friends in NATO. Hungarians know all too well from their history that an authoritarian Russia will never be a friend to the freedom and sovereignty of smaller nations.

Russia’s not the only power that wants to erode freedom in this region. I raised with Peter today the dangers of allowing China to gain a bridgehead in Hungary, and we talked openly about how we might work together on that issue. There’s an experience of states in the Asia-Pacific region that shows that Beijing’s handshake sometimes comes with strings, strings that will leave Hungary indebted both economically and politically.

Now the difference is that Russia and China are authoritarian powers who do not share our joint aspirations of freedom. Today I met with Hungarian civil society leaders as well to talk about the importance of protecting and strengthening democratic institutions throughout the Western world. Americans and Hungarians have always stood together in the pursuit of freedom, and that tradition continues today. It’s why I am so proud of the American engagement with this country in the Trump administration.

I opened by talking about the 30th anniversary of the end of communism. I am announcing new initiatives that will strengthen U.S. presence in Central Europe region-wide. We are increasing support for people-to-people ties, events, and exchanges. It’s consistent with both the United States and Hungary’s mission. As part of this effort, I’m happy to announce the addition of Hungary to the Future Leaders Exchange Program, which will provide scholarships for Hungarian high school students to spend a year living with U.S. families and attending American schools. I told Peter they all had to come to Kansas. That’s my home state. (Laughter.) We’re also increasing support to help Hungary in its fight against corruption, strengthening law enforcement cooperation, and providing mentorships, training, and exchanges for independent media in all four Visegrad countries.

Too often in the recent past, the United States was absent from Central Europe. That’s unacceptable. Our rivals filled those vacuums. Today we reaffirm our determination to compete for positive influence in the region. We’ll do so through a reinvigorated diplomacy that seeks to cooperate strategically but also allows us to frankly discuss areas where we disagree in a manner that befits allies, and we’ll do so by expanding America’s commercial, public diplomacy, and cultural ties. We have every expectation Hungary will do its part to keep the commitment that it made 30 years ago. It is every ally’s responsibility to keep Europe free, just as Hungary did in 1948[i], 1956, and 1989. We have full confidence that you’ll continue to stand on the side of freedom, and it’s been a joy to be with you today.

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Thank you very much, and now we open the floor for questions. You can ask one question from American – the American press and then the Hungarian press as well, respectively. Christina, please.

♦ QUESTION: Thank you. Mr. Secretary, you spoke about pushing back against the influences of rivals in Eastern Europe, mainly China and Russia. How do you counter the objectives of those two states in a region, and in your talks with leaders today, do they feel the same way about the threat that you do? And if I may follow up, will you discuss the rule of law, press freedom, and human rights at your dinner with President Orban tonight?

SECRETARY POMPEO: So the answer to your second question is of course. Among friends we always talk about the important issues. America has always stood for that set of values, and I’m confident that we’ll have a good discussion about that. It’s very important. With respect to the first issue, or the first question, the way you engage is to compete. America was a no-show. When we’re not here, others will follow and they’ll show up, and they’ll be in duty on behalf of the country where America is absent to do the right things for their people, and when America’s absent, that won’t be in America’s best interest. So we’ve taken a fundamentally different approach in the Trump administration. We’ve now had 14 senior-level U.S. visits throughout Central Europe in just the first two years of this administration. I won’t tell you how many there were in the previous administration, but it starts with a “Z.” (Laughter.)

This is important. The way we achieve these outcomes, the way that we begin to develop relationships that are important, where we come to have shared understandings, is to be present, to have conversations, to have hard conversations when that’s what’s required. We do that. We had a good conversation today and I’m very confident we’ll continue to do that in the days and weeks and months ahead.

♦ QUESTION: And Mr. Minister, if I may: You said it was easy to discuss things like Russia and China with the U.S. Do you feel that your two countries are on the same page when it comes to that issue? And are you willing to distance yourself from Russia and China in order to get closer to the U.S., and what are you looking for from the U.S. in return? Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER SZIJJARTO: (Via interpreter) We are NATO allies. When it comes to cooperation with Russia or cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, that does not harm us being a reliable – or doesn’t endanger us being a reliable ally to the United States and to NATO. If you look at our cooperation with China, we represent 1.2 percent of the trade between the European Union and the People’s Republic of China. If you look at that Chinese company which is very often in the news nowadays regarding telecommunication, are they present in Hungary? Yes. Who are their major contractors? A German and a British company. So when it comes to China, I think hypocrisy should be left finally behind. We are usually accused, Central Europeans, that the so-called 16+1 format is so much breaking the European Union. Now out of the 16 countries involved in this cooperation, 11 are members of the European Union. Do you know how many percent of EU-China trade 11 of us represent? Less than 10 percent. So I think it’s not us that will be the game-changers in the relationship between, let’s say, the Western world and China.

And when it comes to Russia, I told the Secretary as well that there’s an enormous hypocrisy and political correctness in the European political arena in this regard. Because look, it’s not the Hungarian and it’s not the Central European energy companies which are preparing and building Nord Stream 2 together with Gazprom. It was not the Hungarian prime minister to be invited as a superstar at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, but it was the French president. It was not the leaders of the Hungarian energy companies to sit together on the stage with President Putin on the last Russian energy week, but the CEOs of the biggest Western European energy companies. Look at the trade figures. Look at the trade figures between the Western European countries and Russia, and you will see that we are let’s say fed up in a legitimate way that you usually portray us as having a tight relationship to Russia.

♦ QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Yes, my name is Noemi Nemeti from M1 News, and you talked about the diversification of gas procurement. Now, what could be the trace, what could be the pathway of a pipeline from Romania to here, and do we also support that there would be an LNG terminal in Croatia?

FOREIGN MINISTER SZIJJARTO: (Via interpreter) Well, look, in Central Europe currently, we are unilaterally dependent on Russia concerning – concerning energy procurement and especially as far as gas is concerned. Eighty-five percent of our natural gas import comes from Russia, 85 percent. And we have done everything we could. I mean, we have implemented all necessary investments to diversify our gas acquisition sources. Now, we are in the position that it is solely up to our allies whether we can diversify our sources or not. If ExxonMobil makes a decision in favor of exploring gas in Romania so that we can buy gas from Romania, or the Croatians, if they come up with a fair price quotation, then we could also buy from the Krk LNG terminal in the Krk, the isle of Krk. Because look, according to the quote they gave us, 50 percent – there would be – the transition cost from Krk would be 50 percent more than if we were to have bought the – if we bought the gas from Rotterdam, from the Netherlands. Now, that’s not normal. And of course, this is why together with Slovenia we are applying for European sources, financial funding so that we can interconnect our gas pipelines and we could have an access to the LNG terminals.

But let me also say that it is not in the interest of Western Europe today for Eastern Europe or Central Europe to diversify the source – their sources. Otherwise they would not be building a new pathway between Russia and Northern Europe or Western Europe, which is going to be – which will have the capacity of 50 billion cubic meter, which is more than 50-fold the Hungarian annual consumption. So this is the agreement between Russia and Germany today, and that is going to improve the energy security and safety of Western Europe and Germany while we are just standing here waiting for our allies to make positive decisions so that we can also diversify our sources.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Look, I’ll just add very quickly this isn’t about selling American gas. This is a national security matter from the American perspective. This is about assisting countries throughout Europe and having alternative sources and not being dependent on Russia for their natural gas, so that if there is a day when there’s crunch time and when there is political influence to be had, these countries have alternatives; they are not solely dependent, and therefore at political risk to be suffered from Russian engagement that they are – that they do not welcome.

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Thank you very much. This concludes our event today. Thank you very much for your kind attention and thank you very much for the attention of the press. Thank you. Bye-bye.

[Transcript Link]

President Trump is interviewed by Fox News host Ms. Laura “Eeyore” Ingraham following a massive MAGA rally in El Paso, Texas:

(Trump Overflow Crowd, El Paso, Texas)

President Donald Trump Trump begins 2019 with a massive MAGA rally at the El Paso County Coliseum in El Paso, TX.   At this first rally of the year, President Trump is expected to reiterate his pragmatic proposal for a border security wall while Democrats simultaneously campaign against border security and advocate for open-borders.

The anticipated start time is 7:00pm MST / 9:00pm EST with pre-rally speakers and events ongoing.

UPDATE: Video Added

RSBN Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – GST Livestream Link

According to Rasmussen reporting President Donald Trump is at a nearly two-year high of 52 percent approval. The latest poll shows 52% approve and 47% disapprove of Trump’s job performance.

Despite the scale and scope of media opposition this approval rating is the highest since March 6, 2017 and highlights two recent aspects: (1) The popularity of policy as outlined in the recent State of the Union Address; and (2) The democrats going over-the-top in their opposition to mostly pragmatic proposals.

Additionally, both CBS [poll here] and CNN [see here] reported broad support for President Trump’s policy initiatives as polled immediately after the State of the Union speech.  [Nancy Pelosi, notsomuch]

President Trump met with Homeland Security officials and national law enforcement earlier today prior to departing the White House for a speech in El Paso, Texas.

The president paused to discuss the issues surrounding the need for border security. Additionally, President Trump outlined the scale of criminal aliens being held in detention prior to deportation, and gave examples of some of the criminal actions as outlined by the DHS.

Jon Solomon appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss his latest op-ed in the Hill [See Here].  Unfortunately, two years of congressional investigations that go no-where; two prior inspector general reports that conclude with no corrective action; and two-plus years of in-our-face corruption by DOJ and FBI officials, does not lend toward optimism when the next best hope sold by Solomon is another Senate investigation.

.

Democrats do not miss an opportunity to take advantage of any angle where they can criticize, attack and weaponize a narrative against their political opposition.  So riddle me this… Somebody has been leaking congressional transcripts to Jon Solomon and The Epoch Times (Jeff Carlson).  The unauthorized releases include testimony from: Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr, James Baker, Bill Priestap and, most recently, Trisha Beth Anderson.

Question:  Why aren’t the democrats framing a political attack narrative around these unauthorized, unlawful and unethical releases?

“expedited“?

September was five months ago.

The widely held view of the process is/was that Rod Rosenstein selected Robert Mueller as special counsel, and following that selection Mueller created his team. The perspective from CTH research is slightly different.

CTH believes that following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the FBI Chief Legal Counsel, Jim Baker and FBI Deputy Director, Andrew McCabe; together with the corrupt small group that was involved in the prior year’s counterintelligence investigation; reacted to Comey’s firing by pressuring Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint their preferred person, Robert Mueller.

Within this internal debate (May 2017); at the time this construct was being argued; is when the famous comment from Rosenstein originates: “what do you want me to do, wear a wire?” The corrupt FBI investigative crew; having initiated and continued “Crossfire Hurricane”; including people from the DOJ-NSD side (Ohr, Weissmann, etc) were pressuring Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel….. but not just any special counsel.. Baker and McCabe had the person pre-selected. That person was Robert Mueller.

Obviously we can see the reason for this FBI/DOJ crew to need a special counsel. As career corruptocrats they were operating from a mindset of mitigating risk to themselves and continuing to advance on the objective to attack the executive office through their investigative schemes. The key point here is subtle but very significant. Robert Mueller didn’t select his team, the corrupt team selected him.