Tag: Ukraine

Feds Urged Biden to Give Aid to Ukraine Before He Held Back to Force Burisma Prosecutor’s Firing

Just the News

Just weeks before then-Vice President Joe Biden took the opposite action in late 2015, a task force of State, Treasury, and Justice Department officials declared that Ukraine had made adequate progress on anti-corruption reforms and deserved a new $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee, according to government memos that conflict with the narrative Democrats have sustained since the 2019 impeachment scandal.

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New GOP Group Launches Campaign to Encourage Continued Support for Ukraine

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Republicans launched an organization Tuesday to advocate for continued financial support of Ukraine in the war against Russian aggression, according to a press release.

GOP Strategist Sarah Longwell and commentator Bill Kristol will head Republicans for Ukraine, which unveiled its $2 million campaign to encourage party voters and politicians to stand with the nation, according to the press release. The organization will run digital ads of Republican voters’ testimony about why they believe the party should continue providing aid to Ukraine on cable, television and YouTube throughout the remainder of 2023.

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U.S. Aid to Ukraine Amounts to $900 Per American Household, Economist Says

Admin

Congressionally approved aid for Ukraine has cost each U.S. household hundreds of dollars, Heritage Foundation budget expert Richard Stern says.

“The formal aid packages alone amount to a staggering $113 billion—roughly $900 per American household and almost 12 times the spending cuts promised by House leadership in the annual spending bills,” Stern, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, said in an email to The Daily Signal, Heritage’s news outlet.

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Biden Wants Another $24 Billion for Ukraine, Just $4 Billion for the Border

Just the News

The White House on Thursday outlined a $40.1 billion funding request in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that includes $24 billion for Ukraine-related expenses but just $4 billion to bolster security at the southern border.

Specifically, the White House wants $13.1 billion for the Pentagon to send military aid directly to Kyiv and replenish its own stocks. It further seeks $8.5 billion for the State Department to provide humanitarian and economic support. Lastly, it seeks $2.3 billion for the Treasury to provide financial programs for the country in place of Chinese or other adversarial sources.

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Biden Admin Secretly Encouraged Overthrow of Leader Who Wasn’t Pro-Ukraine Enough, Leaked Cable Reveals

Admin

President Joe Biden’s administration’s diplomats encouraged Pakistani political leaders to remove former Prime Minister Imran Khan from office after he hesitated to criticize Russia for its war against Ukraine, according to a new report on Wednesday.

Imran Khan was removed from office in April 2022 after a controversial vote of no-confidence by the Pakistani National Assembly. On March 7, 2022, officials from the Department of State met with Pakistan’s then-Ambassador to the United States Asad Majeed Khan and encouraged Imran Khan’s removal from office after he visited Russia shortly after it began hostilities in Ukraine, according to a diplomatic cable that was published by The Intercept.

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Court Records Confirm Millions Flowed to Biden Family from China

Just the News

In the end, there really was a silk road of money that flowed from China to the Biden family’s coffers, despite Joe Biden’s insistence to the contrary.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Delaware — which charged  Hunter Biden with tax and gun crimes last month — released to a federal court last week a now-scuttled plea deal that affirmed the presidential son got millions himself from Chinese sources in 2017-18 alone. That included money from a Chinese energy firm as well as legal payments from a Chinese executive convicted of bribery.

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Commentary: A Second Trump Term Can Walk Us Back from the Brink of War

Admin

Voters should remember that a President’s role is primarily foreign affairs, which includes trade and border security. In 2016, and today, President Trump is the only candidate that has consistently focused on what the actual job of the president is, rather than what those with outsized influence want it to be.

President Trump is the first president to start no new wars since Jimmy Carter. Like Carter, he also affected a Middle East peace deal with Israel – not just one of them, but four. Arguably the first realist president since Richard Nixon, Trump’s combination of unpredictability enforced by blunt and brutal talk, credible military deterrence reinforced through a more robust military that was less used and overstretched, and a genuine and authentic desire to be a peace-maker created a moment in time for cooperation and peace through strength. Unfortunately, under Biden, the promise of peace has become a Shakespearean tragedy when considering our present dilemma in Europe and East Asia.

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Commentary: Defense Survey Reveals Age, Gender, Party Divides

RealClearWire

Although Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has dominated worldwide headlines for more than a year and refocused the attention of U.S. policymakers on NATO and Eastern Europe, Americans are much more worried about China’s emerging power.

In an open question asked by RealClear Opinion Research, 53% of registered voters named the People’s Republic of China as “the greatest threat to the United States.” Russia was cited by 29% of respondents, while 4% named North Korea – the same percentage who answered that America’s biggest threat was the United States itself.

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‘Commander in Chief:’ GOP Presidential Hopeful Tim Scott Launches New Ad Before Key Campaign Events in Iowa and New Hampshire

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Tim Scott rolled out a new campaign ad Monday in Iowa and New Hampshire in front of two significant campaign events in the first nominating states. 

In the ad, titled “Commander in Chief,” the South Carolina senator denounces China for spying on children, stealing U.S. jobs, and buying up American farmland.

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Commentary: Who’s Up, Who’s Down, and Who’s Out After Tucker Carlson’s Blow-Out Interviews in Iowa

Admin

Who won the Republican blow-out interview lalapalooza with Tucker Carlson in Iowa Friday night? Besides Tucker himself—who was on the Q side of this extended Q & A—the participants were South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Let me say straight off that the biggest beneficiary was probably Tucker himself. He is a master interviewer, outgoing and friendly in manner, informed about the issues, unrelenting in his questioning. Some of his hosts at the Family Leadership Summit, which with Blaze Media sponsored the event, were so impressed with his performance that they suggested to the audience that Tucker himself should run for president. It’s an idea that has been in circulation for a while and it got a notable “trending” uptick as the evening unfolded. Tucker himself has dismissed the idea in no uncertain terms, but it is worth noting how widespread his support is among the politically mature.

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DeSantis and Haley Well Received by Evangelical Christians at Iowa Faith and Leadership Summit

M.D. Kittle

In closing the nationally watched Family Leadership Summit late Friday afternoon, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ratcheted up the political rhetoric and sounded more fired up than he’s been at some of his previous campaign trips to Iowa.

“With me, on Day 1, you get a new FBI director,” the top tier candidate for the Republican Party presidential nomination told the crowd of 1,700-plus attendees at the 12th evangelical Christian conference.

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Pence Battles Boos, Tucker Carlson’s Tough Questions at Iowa Family Leadership Summit

M.D. Kittle

Former Vice President Mike Pence has long been a standard bearer for the evangelical Christian movement in American politics.

On Friday, before a gathering of hundreds of Christian faithful at the 12th Annual Family Leadership Summit in downtown Des Moines, it felt, to some degree, that the GOP candidate for president had lost a good portion of that faithful base.

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Tucker Carlson Grills GOP Candidate Senator Tim Scott on War in Ukraine, Biden’s Cluster Bombs

M.D. Kittle

U.S Senator Tim Scott said there shouldn’t be American military “boots on the ground” in Ukraine. But the South Carolina Republican campaigning for president  remains supportive in the U.S. providing the weapons and resources Ukraine needs to push back Russia’s invasion. 

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson hit Scott with tough questions on Ukraine, the border and more at Friday’s Family Leadership Summit, which included a cattle call of GOP presidential candidates. 

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Tennessee U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles Updates from Inside the ‘Raucous Chamber’: ‘What’s the Pathway to Peace’ in Ukraine?

Tennessee Star Staff

Tennessee U.S. Rep Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on the newsmaker line Friday for a broad-ranging interview covering everything from FBI Director Chris Wray’s “tap dancing” to the prospects of our Tennessee Army reservists being sent to the Ukraine.

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NATO Can Consider Membership for Ukraine After War with Russia Ends, Biden Says

Just the News

President Joe Biden says that Ukraine is not ready to join NATO because the country’s war with Russia must end before the military alliance can consider allowing Kyiv to join. 

“I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” Biden told CNN in an interview aired Sunday. “We’re determined to commit [to] every inch of territory that is NATO territory. It’s a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then we’re all in war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case.”

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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson Calls on Biden to Urge NATO Allies to Meet Their Defense Spending Commitments

M.D. Kittle

As President Joe Biden prepares for this weekend’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is asking the president to hold NATO accountable.

Johnson joined 34 of his Republican colleagues in sending Biden a letter asking that he remind NATO allies to honor their commitment to spend at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.

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Stumping in Iowa, Trump Calls the 2024 Presidential Race ‘The Final Battle’

M.D. Kittle

Calling the 2024 presidential race the “final battle,” former President Donald Trump pledged to “expel the war mongers” and “demolish the Deep State” during a campaign rally Friday afternoon in western Iowa.

Campaigning in the shadow of a federal indictment and mounting legal troubles, the Republican Party frontrunner sounded as defiant as he takes on the political fight of his life.

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Pence Says Trump and DeSantis Are Wrong on Ukraine and America’s Role as Arsenal of Democracy

M.D. Kittle

Former Vice President Mike Pence says his “former running mate,” among others in the Republican Party presidential nomination chase, are missing the significance of the U.S. coming to the aid of Ukraine.

Pence said he recently paid a call on the war-torn European nation and its president to see firsthand “the results of the extraordinary, unprovoked invasion by Russia” as well as the “tenacity and toughness” of the Ukrainian military.

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Arizona House Judiciary Committee Members Call on Phoenix City Council to Rescind Ukraine Firearms Ordinance

Kaitlin Housler

Chairman Quang Nguyen (R-Prescott) and Vice-Chair Selina Bliss (R-Prescott) of the Arizona House of Representatives Judiciary Committee have sent a letter to the Phoenix City Council asking its members to rescind a recently-approved ordinance that allows for the transfer of approximately 500-600 unclaimed firearms to the National Police of Ukraine.

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Florida’s First Lady, Republican Presidential Hopefuls Mike Pence and Doug Burgum Campaign in Iowa This Week

M.D. Kittle

Florida’s first lady is scheduled to launch her “Mamas for DeSantis” effort as she campaigns Thursday in Iowa for her husband and Republican presidential hopeful Governor Ron DeSantis.

Casey DeSantis’ stop is part of a busy Fourth of July holiday week for presidential campaigns in the Hawkeye State, with former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum returning to Iowa, as well. 

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With Scandal Revelations, Joe Biden Couldn’t Get a CIA Security Clearance, Intel Experts Say

Just the News

A pressure campaign to get communist China energy executives to pay money. Classified memos improperly stored in an insecure garage, An FBI informant’s allegation of bribery in Ukraine. A false claim of Russian disinformation to sway an election.

The swell of scandalous evidence engulfing Joe Biden’s family right now is raising a tantalizing question: if he weren’t president could he still get a security clearance if he applied for a job at the CIA or FBI?

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IRS Whistleblower: Hunter Biden Hasn’t Paid Taxes on 2014 Money from Ukrainian Oligarch’s Firm

Just the News

Federal agents secured evidence that Hunter Biden engaged in a “pretty classic tax evasion scheme” that allowed him to avoid paying taxes on millions of dollars in income since at least 2014, and the deal he ultimately got would not have been afforded to other Americans facing such serious charges, an IRS whistleblower who supervised the investigation tells Just the News.

“If these facts were from the local businessman or the neighbor next door, they would have been charged, they would have already probably had their entire sentence,” IRS Supervisor Agent Gary Shapley said during a 45-minute interview aired Thursday on the John Solomon Reports podcast.

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YouTube Repeatedly Censors RFK Jr. as Democratic Leaders Demand Reinstatement of 2020 Censorship

Just the News

The disputed 2020 election now appears in the rearview mirror for YouTube, which is now determining what users can see relevant to the next election.

The Alphabet-owned, video-sharing site and Google sibling has censored at least two videos, and may be throttling a third, featuring Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shortly after ending a two-and-a-half-year ban on questioning the “integrity” of the last presidential election, saying it accomplished little relative to the potential harm it caused.

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BlackRock Recruiter Says $10k ‘Can Buy a Senator,’ Calls Ukraine War ‘Good for Business’: Video

Just the News

A recruiter for BlackRock said that the asset management firm is able to “buy a senator” for $10,000 and that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “good for business,” according to a video recorded by an undercover journalist.

“You could buy your candidates. First, there is the senators. These guys are f***ing cheap. Got 10 grand? You can buy a senator. I’ll give you 500k right now. It doesn’t matter who wins, they’re in my pocket,” BlackRock Recruiter Serge Varlay said in a video published Tuesday by the O’Keefe Media Group, which was founded by guerilla journalist James O’Keefe.

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Pennsylvania Representatives Blast Biden on Quality-of-Life Issues Ahead of His Philadelphia Visit

Bradley Vasoli

One day before Joe Biden heads to a Saturday Philadelphia rally, U.S. Representatives Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA-14) and Dan Meuser (R-PA-9) excoriated him in a press call over quality of life issues. 

Joined by Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas, the two lawmakers blasted the president for seeking reelection in 2024, insisting Biden has made life worse for Americans on virtually every facet affected by public policy. They mentioned that inflation rages, real wages slump, energy production languishes, gas prices rise, fentanyl use spreads, reading and math scores tumble and crime swells. 

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Glenn Jacobs Commentary: With the Uniparty’s Indictment of Donald Trump, the Die is Cast

Admin

When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his army — an act Roman law strictly prohibited — he is reported to have said, “Alea iacta est,” Latin for “the die is cast.” Caesar, one of history’s most brilliant military and political minds, understood there was no turning back, even though the outcome was uncertain and quite possibly catastrophic.

History will question whether, during his occasional moments of lucidity, Joe Biden or his hubristic Justice Department experienced any such epiphany before crossing an American Rubicon, the indictment of a former President and Biden’s chief political rival, Donald Trump.

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GOP Presidential Candidates Hold Varying Positions on U.S. Involvement in Ukraine

M.D. Kittle

Republican Party Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently laid out a plan that he says would end the war in Ukraine while breaking up Russia’s  growing alliance with China.

Newly minted presidential candidate North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum says, “Support for Ukraine is important to stop empowering countries like Russia in the first place by selling US energy to our allies.”

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FBI Harbored Biden Allegations Since 2017, Through Impeachment, Election, Lawmaker Says

Just the News

If House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s sleuthing turns out to be right, the FBI harbored a deep, dark secret through the first Trump impeachment, the Hunter Biden laptop saga and the 2020 election fury. The secret: that a validated and well-paid informant raised concerns all the way back in 2017 that Joe Biden was involved in a $5 million bribery scheme involving Ukraine.

The question emerging now is did America’s most famous crime-fighting agency deep-six the allegation or dismiss it as “Russian disinformation” without thoroughly probing it.

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Joe Biden Bribery Allegations Involve Ukraine, First Raised with FBI in 2017, Key Investigator Says

Just the News

Allegations that Joe Biden partook in a $5 million bribery scheme involve Ukraine where his son scored a lucrative energy job and were first presented to the FBI by a reliable and well-paid informant back in 2017, House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer told Just the News on Tuesday evening. Comer made the bombshell revelation just a day after reviewing an FBI FD-1023 form that memorialized the informant’s allegations, and two days before he plans to hold a vote in Congress to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt for failing to provide a copy to his committee as demanded by a subpoena. He said the version of the informant report he was allowed to review by Wray had about 10% of information redacted and made clear the allegations were first reported to the FBI back in 2017 as Donald Trump was beginning his term as president.

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Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Lays Out Peace Deal to End War In Ukraine, Sever Russia’s Partnership with China

M.D. Kittle

Speaking at a campaign event Friday in New Hampshire, Ohio businessman and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy laid out his plan for peace in Ukraine by opening up Russia. The 37-year-old political outsider, who has often said political leaders need to “think on the timescales of history, not on two-year election cycles,” believes a Nixon approach to Russia would curtail the looming threat of communist China.

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Russia Issues Arrest Warrant for Senator Lindsey Graham

Admin

by Ailan Evans   Russia issued an arrest warrant for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina Monday, following comments he made about the war in Ukraine. The warrant was issued by Russia’s Interior Ministry on Monday, with an additional announcement that a criminal investigation had been opened into Graham, according to Politico. It comes after Graham’s recent trip to Kyiv, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and made remarks that allegedly caused outrage in Russia. Graham said that “the Russians are dying” and claimed that U.S. military aid to Ukraine was “the best money we’ve ever spent,” per an edited video of his remarks with Zelenskyy circulating on social media, according to Reuters. The edited video, which suggests that Graham was pleased with Russian soldiers dying, sparked criticism from Russian government officials as well as the criminal proceedings. To know that my commitment to Ukraine has drawn the ire of Putin’s regime brings me immense joy. I will continue to stand with and for Ukraine’s freedom until every Russian soldier is expelled from Ukrainian territory. — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 29, 2023 “I will wear the arrest warrant issued by Putin’s corrupt and immoral government as a Badge of Honor,” said Graham…

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NATO Countries Talk Big About Beefing Up Defense Spending, But Most Haven’t Backed Up Pledges

Admin

Most NATO countries have failed to meet pledges to inflate defense spending made in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despite voicing concerns about the intense security environment in Europe, according to The Wall Street Journal.

NATO countries on the eastern flank, most notably Poland, are girding for war as the conflict in Ukraine shows no sign of abating in the near term, prompting renewed commitments to beefing up their own and Ukraine’s militaries in line with the U.S., according to the WSJ. Others believe that Russia’s poor performance in Ukraine, illustrated in recent days by an incursion of pro-Ukrainian partisans into a Russian border territory with little initial resistance, means there is less urgency to increase spending on weapons and military equipment than previously imagined, according to the outlet.

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Tennessee National Guard Unit Deploying to Kuwait

Peter D'Abrosca

According to the Tennessee Department of Military, a Tennessee National Guard Unit, the 267th Military Police Company, will soon deploy to the Middle East. 

“The 267th, headquartered in Dickson and with a detachment in Waverly, is a military police unit comprised of National Guardsmen trained in various security, policing, detention, and combat functions which enables the Army to maneuver freely, provide protection to the force, and promote the rule of law,” the Tennessee Department of Military said in a release. “The unit is initially deploying to Kuwait and then sending teams to countries throughout the Middle East to support other forward deployed military units.”

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Former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton Team Up with American Express and ‘Welcome.US’ to Fly Migrants into the U.S.

Just the News

American Express Global Business Travel and Welcome.US have reportedly teamed up with former Presidents Obama, Clinton, and George W. Bush’s nongovernmental organization (NGO) called Miles4Migrants to fly migrants to communities across the U.S.

Welcome.US is an NGO that was initially launched to work with President Joe Biden’s administration to facilitate some of the 85,000 Afghans who came into the U.S. in 2021 and 2022 after the debacle created when the U.S. evacuated from Afghanistan, according to Breitbart.

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Exclusive: U.S. Senator Ron Johnson Says Secretary of State Antony Blinken Should Resign If He Was ‘Impetus’ Behind Hunter Biden Laptop Scandal

M.D. Kittle

The latest allegations that Antony Blinken “played a role’ in duping the public on the Hunter Biden laptop story shows just how deep the Biden administration corruption runs, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) told The Star News Network in an exclusive interview.

The Wisconsin Republican said Blinken, President Joe Biden’s Secretary of State, who was a top adviser to Biden’s 2020 campaign, has much to explain to Congress about his role in the U.S. intelligence community’s disinformation drive on the Biden’s and the damning laptop.

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International Trade Committee Adopts Plan to Boost Arizona’s Foreign Reach and Business Opportunities

Neil Jones

Arizona State Representative David Cook (R-Globe) announced Thursday that the House International Trade Committee had its first official meeting Monday and has adopted a new plan to increase Arizona’s standings in the world’s economy.

“The Great State of Arizona is going through a transformative process in the international arena,” said Cook. “Our economy is growing, and foreign stakeholders are looking at Arizona for opportunities, including foreign direct investment in the semiconductor industry and trade in the EV-market and innovation. Our first International Trade Committee hearing sends a message to the World that Arizona is the place for doing business.”

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Pennsylvania Leadership Conference Poll: Election Integrity Conservatives’ Foremost Concern

Bradley Vasoli

At the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference this weekend, a straw poll of right-leaning activists from across the Keystone State found election integrity tops their public concerns. 

Cybersecurity Association of Pennsylvania President Scott R. Davis, who administered the survey, told attendees at the Penn Harris Hotel west of Harrisburg that 38 percent of those who voted called election integrity the foremost issue facing the state General Assembly. Trailing that topic were the state budget (28 percent) and gun laws (six percent). Eleven percent chose another issue. 

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Commentary: Why Not ‘America First?’

Admin

It’s challenging to say something original about the Ukraine war. It’s been debated now for more than a year, and it’s not over yet. But that’s bad news for those supporting the war. Most Americans’ interest in foreign policy matters is limited, and many expect quicker favorable results than are probably ever possible in war. A year of war in a far-off land – another war in another far-off land – is not something Americans are likely to support for long, especially if it’s led by a stumble-bum president who picks incompetents for cabinet secretaries, campaigned for a mentally challenged stroke victim, and may be compromised by his son’s business dealings. 

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Pence Tells Iowans U.S. Must Continue to be ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ in Ukraine

M.D. Kittle

Taking a different position than his old boss on a key foreign policy issue, former Vice President Mike Pence told a gathering of Iowans Saturday that the U.S. must continue to help provision Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression. 

While he repeatedly trumpeted “Trump-Pence” successes, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate definitely differs with potential top presidential race rivals, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, on U.S. involvement in the war-torn European country. 

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Former President Donald Trump Stumps in Iowa, Vows to Evict Biden from the White House and ‘Prevent World War III’

M.D. Kittle

Former President Donald Trump was back in Iowa Monday night and he was loaded for bear, taking aim at woke liberals, the mainstream media, the Deep State, “Paul Ryan RINOs” and the current unpopular top resident of the White House. 

And Trump, arguably the leading contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, made the crowd packing Davenport’s 2,400-seat Adler Theatre some big promises. Chief among them:  He’ll always have Iowa’s back and he’ll “stop World War III.” 

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At Iowa Foreign Policy Event, GOP Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley Says War in Ukraine is a War ‘We Have to Win’

M.D. Kittle

Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley asserts the war in Ukraine is about freedom and “one we have to win.” 

The former South Carolina governor discussed national security and foreign policy with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) Friday morning in suburban Des Moines at an event sponsored by the Bastion Institute.

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