Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
September 25, 2020
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
FBI analysts thought agency's handling of Michael Flynn case was a "nightmare" . . . FBI analysts who had knowledge into the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn were concerned about the agency's conduct, with some speculating that certain agents wanted Hillary Clinton to be president. According to court filings from Flynn's lawyers, one FBI employee said the case against the former general was a 'nightmare.'
The concerns were expressed by FBI employees in the early days of the federal investigation into Flynn's ties with Russia sometime in August 2016. One FBI analyst speculated that the investigation showed that some agents 'wanted a Clinton presidency' and not a 'wild card like Trump.' Daily Mail
Source of Steele dossier was investigated by FBI as possible Russian spy . . . The primary "source" of the anti-Trump dossier authored by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011 for suspected contact with Russian intelligence officers, Fox News has learned. Attorney General Bill Barr penned a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,
on Thursday responding to requests as part of the panel's review into the origins of the Russia probe. Fox News
New wave of Covid-19 cases builds . . . Confirmed COVID-19 cases are rising again in the United States, building a new crescendo of disease that is likely to exceed earlier waves of infection in a pandemic that has already killed more than 200,000 on U.S. soil. As Americans venture back to school, to the workplace and — in spite of warnings from public health officials — to bars and restaurants, cases have begun to rise in
the last two weeks. The United States has averaged about 40,000 new cases a day over the past week, up from a recent low of about 34,000 cases a day earlier this month. The Hill
Virus becoming more contagious . . . Scientists in Houston on Wednesday released a study of more than 5,000 genetic sequences of the coronavirus that reveals the virus’s continual accumulation of mutations, one of which may have made it more contagious. The new report, however, did not find that these mutations have made the virus deadlier or changed clinical outcomes. All viruses accumulate genetic mutations, and most are insignificant,
scientists say. Washington Post
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Stimulus talks resume . . . Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have agreed to revive negotiations over a stalled follow-up coronavirus relief bill. “I've probably spoken to Speaker Pelosi 15 or 20 times in the last few days on the CR,” Mnuchin told the Senate Banking Committee during a hearing with Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell, referring to a
continuing resolution to extend government funding, “and we've agreed to continue to have discussions about the CARES Act.” The Hill
WH says Trump to accept "free and fair election," but president unsure it can be honest . . . President Donald Trump said Thursday he isn't sure the election could be 'honest' – just minutes after his press secretary asserted that he would accept the results of the election so long as it was 'free and fair.' Trump's comments once again raised unproven charges about mail-in ballots. 'We want to make sure the election is honest but I’m
not sure that it can be,' Trump said, once again raising doubts about an election he has warned will be 'rigged.' It came after White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany provided a conditional statement to the press – saying Trump 'will accept the results of a free and fair election.' Daily Mail
Pelosi refuses to rule out religious test for Supreme Court nominees . . . Here is the question Nancy Pelosi dodged: "Do you agree that Article VI, which bans religious tests from being a qualification for office, do you think that that should apply to Supreme Court nominees as well"? The significance, of course, is that President Trump is likely to nominate Catholic conservative Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. And Democrats are going to
apply a religious test, at least partially because the Catholic Church opposes abortion. So Pelosi is unwilling to agree with the Constitution. But that’s nothing new when it comes to liberal jurisprudence. White House Dossier
A day in the campaign: Trump vs. Biden . . . President Trump has what’s known Thursday as a full working day. First he motorcades down to the Supreme Court to pay his respects to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Then he will get in his chopper on the South Lawn, take it to Joint Base Andrews, and travel to Charlotte, North Carolina to outline his new health care plan. Then, he’ll leave Charlotte and move on to Jacksonville, Florida, where he will hold a
campaign rally likely lasting well over an hour. He will finally head to the Miami area, where he will stay overnight. Meantime, in Delaware, the Biden campaign informed reporters at about 9:30 am ET that they were free to go, because Joe Biden will not be doing anything at all. This is completely typical. Happens almost every day. White House Dossier
Trump offers healthcare plan protection those with preexisting conditions . . . President Donald Trump on Thursday evening signed a series of executive orders which he said constituted part of a long-promised health care plan. Speaking before a crowd in Charlotte, N.C., Trump said that his plan would would offer "better care, with more choice, at a much lower cost, and working to ensure that Americans have access to the care they need." He detailed
a set of concrete policy goals: affordable insurance, cutting prescription drug costs, ending surprise billing, increasing price transparency, and protecting patients with preexisting conditions. Washington Free Beacon
White House suggests CNN anchor Keilar caused shooting of Louisville cops . . . White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany blasted CNN anchor Brianna Keilar Thursday over comments she made in response to the grand jury decision in the Breonna Taylor case, suggesting Keilar's rhetoric led to Wednesday night's shooting of two Louisville police officers. On Wednesday, Keilar slammed Kentucky Attorney General
Daniel Cameron's remarks condemning "mob justice." "I question the judgment of the Kentucky attorney general saying quote 'Mob justice is not justice.' He said that it becomes revenge," the "CNN Right Now" anchor began. "That word, 'the mob' and the president having said that 'if Joe Biden wins, the mob wins.' That's what he says, We know this is very politically loaded language." Fox News
Dianne Feinstein husband helped unqualified student get into Berkeley . . . Richard Blum, a wealthy investment banker and Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband, was revealed Thursday as the mystery University of California regent in a state audit earlier this week who inappropriately penned a letter that likely helped a borderline student gain admission to UC Berkeley. The explosive audit released Tuesday found that dozens of students were
admitted to the most selective UC campuses over more qualified applicants because of exaggerated athletic abilities, connections and wealth. San Jose Mercury News
Dems prepare bill limiting Supreme Court terms to 18 years . . . Democrats in of the House of Representatives will introduce a bill next week to limit the tenure of U.S. Supreme Court justices to 18 years from current lifetime appointments, in a bid to reduce partisan warring over vacancies and preserve the court’s legitimacy.
The new bill would allow every president to nominate two justices per four-year term. “It would save the country a lot of agony and help lower the temperature over fights for the court that go to the fault lines of cultural issues and is one of the primary things tearing at our social fabric,” said California U.S. Representative Ro
Khanna. Reuters
HHS spokesman Michael Caputo has metastatic head and neck cancer . . . Michael R. Caputo, the East Aurora political consultant at the center of controversy over the Trump administration's Covid-19 messaging, has been diagnosed with cancer. Assemblyman David J. DiPietro, R-East Aurora, acting as Caputo's spokesman, said Thursday that the Health and Human Services spokesman on leave from his assistant secretary post has "squamous cell
carcinoma, a metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat."
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Hollywood terrified of offending China . . . Did you watch the Marvel comics superhero film Dr Strange and wonder why British actress Tilda Swinton stood in for a Tibetan mystic? Or sit through 2012 action film Red Dawn, in which the U.S. is occupied by Communist forces, and were puzzled as to why the hordes of invaders are, er, North Korean? Yet in both cases, Hollywood was terrified of offending China, as it was when it interfered with a range of films including Bond movie Skyfall, Mission: Impossible III, Top Gun: Maverick and Iron Man 3. The reason is simple: money. China is now the second most lucrative film market in the world and is soon expected to overtake the U.S. Daily Mail
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China erases mosques and previous shrines in Xinjiang . . . Chinese authorities have in recent years closed and demolished many of the major shrines, mosques and other holy sites across Xinjiang that have long preserved the culture and Islamic beliefs of the region’s Muslims. The effort to close off and erase these sites is part of China’s broader campaign to turn the region’s Uighurs, Kazakhs and members of other
Central Asian ethnic groups into loyal followers of the Communist Party. The assimilation drive has led to the detention of hundreds of thousands in indoctrination centers. New York Times
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Pandemic jobs recovery loses momentum . . . The pandemic jobs recovery has lost momentum in recent weeks, putting added pressure on Congress to enact more relief. The number of new applications for unemployment benefits ticked up to 870,000 last week, the Labor Department reported. New claims have not budged significantly in recent weeks, meaning that the labor market is still shedding jobs at rates unthinkable prior to the
pandemic.
And half of adults who say they were laid off because of the coronavirus pandemic remain unemployed. Washington Examiner
JP Morgan, Goldman drop US growth forecasts . . . JPMorgan Chase & Co. joined Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists in dropping forecasts for U.S. economic growth in coming months thanks to the failure of Republicans and Democrats to seal a fiscal-stimulus deal. “We are
further lowering odds of getting the $1-1.5 trillion in additional stimulus that had seemed quite likely as recently as July,” Michael Feroli, JPMorgan’s chief U.S. economist, wrote in a note Thursday. Bloomberg
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Nationwide Breonna Taylor protests continue . . . Protesters fought running battles with police on bicycles and blocked off intersections by setting dumpsters ablaze in Seattle last night as nationwide protests continued for a second night. Demonstrators have gathered across the country to express their anger after it was announced that the officers who shot black woman Breonna Taylor in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment during
a drug raid last March wouldn't be charged with her death. In New York City, several hundred protesters marched through the Big Apple while chanting Taylor’s name, and in St Louis, crowds gathered to occupy several lanes of a freeway. Daily Mail
Support for race-related protests declines . . . A new poll shows support for protests like those engulfing Louisville following a grand jury decision in the Breonna Taylor case has fallen from a peak reached soon after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May. The survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 44% of Americans disapprove of protests in
response to police violence against Black Americans, while 39% approve. In June, 54% approved of the protests. Fox News
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Chris Christie threatened to sit on Mike Bloomberg . . . New Jersey governor Chris Christie once threatened to sit on Mike Bloomberg — during a bizarre, jealous rant involving the Queen of England. The asinine threat is alleged in former governor David Paterson’s dishy new
memoir, “Black, Blind & in Charge.” It was July 8, 2010. Paterson was leading New York and Christie was the Garden State’s top exec as they awaited the arrival of Queen Elizabeth at Ground Zero, where the royal was to lay a wreath. Then-New York City Mayor Bloomberg had yet to arrive, and Christie was seething about the city honcho, Paterson recounts. “I was told by the protocol people that nobody escorts the Queen but Prince Philip,” the rotund Jersey chief executive
sniped to Paterson. “But I bet you that Bloomberg is going to try to stand in front of us both and escort her.” Christie was definitely not OK with it. “Well I’m not putting up with it this time,” Paterson remembers Christie snapping. “If he tries it today, I want you to trip him and I’m gonna sit on him,” Christie plotted. New York Post
Definitely assault with a deadly weapon.
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Keith
Keith Koffler
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