Good Morning DC,
The Biden camp is feeling some serious frustration with the mainstream media, and they’re not holding back.
The campaign issued a strong statement accusing national broadcast outlets of completely missing the mark on a video posted by Trump regarding abortion. According to them, the media’s interpretation of the video has been nothing short of misleading, if not downright inaccurate.
Biden team is not happy that the media can’t say more than Trump said actually, and they’re convinced that Trump is secretly harboring intentions of pushing for a nationwide ban on abortion.
“Once again, mainstream outlets are misleadingly sanitizing the language of Donald Trump, this time by obscuring evidence that he would sign a national abortion ban,” the campaign says.
Except, the media can’t conceal anything that Trump did not say. So, what do you do? You can read and decide for yourself: Trump, on abortion, in his own words.
Let’s get you caught up with the news of the day.
Last night, the President and First Lady welcomed Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and Mrs. Kishida Yuko of Japan at the White House for a ceremony of the guest book signing and exchange of gifts.
The President and First Lady presented PM of Japan with a handmade three-legged table crafted by a Japanese American-owned company in Pennsylvania, made from American black walnut wood. President Biden gave Prime Minister Kishida a custom framed lithograph and a two-volume LP set autographed by non other than Billy Joel, along with a vintage vinyl record collection of American music artists.
Jill Biden gifted Mrs. Kishida with a framed painting of the Yoshino cherry tree they planted together on the South Lawn, as well as an autographed soccer ball signed by the US and Japanese Women’s National Soccer Teams.
The official visit of Prime Minister Kishida of Japan, according to the senior administration officials, is seen as the “fundamental validation” of President Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
This state visit, according to senior administration officials comes at a point that the relationship between the US and Japan is “shifting to a higher level.”
Japan has gone from a 1 percent cap on defense spending to 2 percent of GDP and it’s going to become the third-largest military spender in the world. Japan has lifted the cap on defense technology export.
Rep. Ro Khanna has taken to the CBS to let America know that he wants Nicole Shanahan to step down from the presidentail race. Why? Because, Khanna says in his letter, the Kennedy run for office “could tilt the election in Donald Trump’s favor.”
Khanna said that the Democrats need Shanagan help re-elect Joe Biden. “Your climate leadership would be welcome in our big tent,” Khanna tells Shanahan.
In response to the request for her withdrawal, RFK Jr.’s VP pick reacted via her X account.
In my conversation with Ro he congratulated me on the position and encouraged me to run, stating that every American has the right to run in this country. He stated that we live in a democracy, and it was wrong for anyone to threaten me against running.
Clearly, Ro has changed his stance based on pressure from the party. I hope he understands how anti-democratic it is to ask someone to step down from a race that empowers the American public to make their own decisions. I am very disappointed that he has been pressured into issuing this letter to me publicly. He could have called me privately. He has my direct line.
Nicole Shanahan
House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to meet with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron. This development follows Cameron’s recent meeting with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Cameron’s intention was to persuade Johnson to approve $60 billion in funding to aid Ukraine.
Former Speaker McCarthy spoke at Georgetown last night on media, democracy and his tenure of the Speaker of the House. There were some newsworthy moments.
McCarthy said that the no-confidence vote leading to his loss of speakership occurred due to a specific incident involving Representative Matt Gaetz.
“One person wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old,” Kevin McCarthy said.
Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas will testify during Budget Hearing before House Appropriations Subcommittee at 10 a.m.
Samantha Power will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 2 p.m.
Families of the American hostages held by Hamas met with Vice President Harris at the White House yesterday. Their message to the Biden administration was clear: “We want results,” they said in front of the West Wing.
In a joint press conference with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Blinken briefly addressed the hostage situation.
“We have our teams working on this 24/7,” said Blinken said Blinken, noting that the US is closely collaborating with Qatar, Egypt, and Israel.
“We have an offer that’s on the table now to Hamas that is very serious and should be accepted. Hamas could move forward with this immediately and get a ceasefire that would benefit people throughout Gaza as well as, of course, get the hostages home. I think the fact that it continues to not say yes is a reflection of what it really thinks about the people of Gaza, which is not much at all,” said Blinken.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron declined to divulge many details about his meeting with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. While justifying his meeting as “entirely in line with precedent of government ministers meeting with opposition politicians in the run-up to elections.”
Cameron is keeping the content of the meeting confidential. Perhaps, this discretion stems from the lack of significant success in persuading Trump to support aid to Ukraine.
“It was a private meeting, so I haven’t really got anything to add to your questions, but we discussed a range of important geopolitical subjects,” said Cameron.
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