New book exposes Biden’s ‘scripted’ Cabinet meetings amid alleged cognitive decline cover-up
Former President Joe Biden‘s Cabinet meetings were overly “scripted,” CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson reveal in their book, “Original Sin,” an outline of Biden’s cognitive decline and his administration’s alleged cover-up. “The Cabinet meetings were terrible and at times uncomfortable – and they were from the beginning,” a Cabinet member told the authors. “I don’t recall a great Cabinet meeting in terms of his presence. They were so scripted.” The White House’s speechwriters shortened Biden’s remarks and shrank his vocabulary to adapt to “Biden’s diminished capabilities,” according to Tapper and Thompson. During his one-term presidency, Biden’s aides told the journalists that he became increasingly reliant on teleprompters and note cards, even for private conversations and in Cabinet meetings. Four Cabinet members who spoke with Tapper and Thompson described Biden’s meetings as overly scripted. One Cabinet secretary said he hated “the scripts” for Cabinet meetings, while another doubted in 2022 that he could run for re-election. CREDIBILITY CRISIS: WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS SPEAK OUT ON WHETHER BIDEN’S MENTAL DECLINE WAS DELIBERATELY HIDDEN “You want people to tell you the truth and have a real dialogue, and those meetings were not that,” a Cabinet member told Tapper and Thompson. NEW BOOK REVEALS BIDEN’S INNER CIRCLE WORRIED ABOUT HIS AGE YEARS BEFORE BOTCHED DEBATE PERFORMANCE However, as Biden’s bad speeches and reliance on note cards became common practice, a speechwriter told Tapper and Thompson that over time, “they just got used to it.” The story behind closed doors was inconsistent with the White House’s narrative, according to “Original Sin.” In January 2024, the White House convened a meeting with Biden, his national security advisers and congressional leadership to urge Congress to continue financially supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described Biden as “incredibly strong, forceful, and decisive,” and the official White House readout said Biden was “clear” about protecting national security and “underscored the importance of Congress ensuring Ukraine has the resources it needs.” However, a House Democrat who attended the meeting said, “That’s not true,” Tapper and Thompson wrote. A second House Democrat described the meeting as a “disaster,” and a “s—show.” “For the first twenty minutes of the meeting, the president listlessly read bullet points out of a binder. For many at the table, he was difficult to hear. He stumbled over words; he started sentences and then stopped abruptly; he trailed off,” Tapper and Thompson said. A House Democrat said he was “not capable of making a strong, forceful argument,” and deferred to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and National Intelligence Director Avril Haines to answer questions, as outlined in “Original Sin.” Tapper and Thompson described a concerning event for senior administration officials on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. After reading a “weak, slurry” speech from a teleprompter, Biden confused Alabama with Texas and then his own Cabinet members, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “I blame his inner circle, and I blame him,” an official who found the event “crazy” told the authors a year later. As Cabinet members observed concerning practices that accompanied Biden’s day-to-day meetings, Tapper and Thompson described how the president’s circle grew smaller and smaller in 2023 and 2024. “Access dropped off considerably in 2024, and I didn’t interact with him as much,” a Cabinet secretary told the authors. “I didn’t get an explanation.” The Cabinet secretary said they briefed senior White House aides who would then communicate the information to the president themselves. They questioned if it was the White House’s way of filtering information to shape his decisions. “I think the people around him had their own agenda, and they didn’t want more people around him,” another Cabinet member told Tapper and Thompson. The Cabinet members who spoke to Tapper and Thompson described a “weird period” when they didn’t have any access to Biden for months between 2023 and 2024. They described it as a “deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few people as necessary.” When they did see him, they said they were shocked at how “disoriented” and “out of it” he seemed, mumbling and “not making much sense.” Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden’s cognitive decline and his inner circle’s alleged role in covering it up. A Biden spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Move over, Black Hawk: Army unveils the MV-75, tiltrotor aircraft to replace iconic assault chopper
The U.S. Army is preparing to retire its iconic Black Hawk helicopters — the workhorses of its air assault fleet for nearly five decades — in favor of a faster, more versatile aircraft built for the challenges of 21st-century warfare. Bell Aircraft’s V-280 Valor, a cutting-edge tiltrotor aircraft, has been selected to begin phasing out the Black Hawk by the 2030s. Once fully deployed, it will be designated the MV-75, though a common nickname has yet to emerge. The Valor combines the vertical lift capabilities of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing airplane, cruising at 320 mph — nearly double the Black Hawk’s top speed of 175 mph. This hybrid design, enabled by tiltrotor technology, allows the MV-75 to hover, land vertically in tight spaces, and then shift into high-speed horizontal flight. It’s tailor-made for operations in the Indo-Pacific region, where U.S. forces must be able to travel long distances over the ocean and conduct rapid insertions into constrained environments, such as jungle clearings or island terrain without runways. Fox News Digital recently took a tour of Bell’s Advanced Vertical Lift Center in Crystal City, Virginia. BILLIONS SPENT, WARFIGHTERS WAIT: INSIDE THE PENTAGON’S BROKEN BUYING SYSTEM AND THE PLAN TO FIX IT “The Army recognized that the battlefield has changed,” Rob Freeland, Bell’s director of government relations and public affairs, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “The enemy now has long-range fires, advanced sensors, and robust networks. You have to move faster and strike before they do.” Speed and range are at the heart of this transformation. As Freeland put it: “If you can move at twice the speed and range of your adversary, you can change the outcome before they can react.” The MV-75 is designed to carry up to 14 troops and haul payloads of 10,000 pounds, making it ideal for rapid troop deployments, heavy resupply and surprise assault missions. It will also feature autonomous and semi-autonomous capabilities, a leap forward in reducing pilot workload and enabling future unmanned operations. The V-280 Valor beat out a proposed joint Sikorsky-Boeing compound helicopter platform dubbed the SB-1 Defiant-X in 2019 for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. The Army has contracted Texas-based aerospace company Bell to build six prototypes, conduct the first test flight by 2026 and begin full-scale production by 2028, with delivery targeted for 2030. However, leadership has expressed interest in accelerating that schedule under the Army Transformation Initiative. “We’re not waiting for a distant out-year to make this thing real,” said Gen. James Mingus, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, speaking at the Mission Solutions Summit earlier this month. “We are driving to get this aircraft online years ahead of schedule.” HEGSETH ORDERS SWEEPING ARMY OVERHAUL AND CONSOLIDATION AIMED AT COUNTERING CHINA AND GOLDEN DOME CAPABILITIES The “MV” designation reflects the aircraft’s multi-mission and vertical takeoff capabilities. It’s built for a broad range of missions, including air assault, maritime interdiction, medical evacuation (MEDEVAC), combat search and rescue, and tactical resupply. The first unit to receive the MV-75 will be the 101st Airborne Division, the Army’s elite air assault force. One of the Army’s priorities in selecting a replacement was reliability. After years of dealing with aging helicopters requiring frequent maintenance, the Army is demanding aircraft that can stay in the fight with minimal downtime. “Because it’s inherently reliable, you don’t need a mountain of gear next to you just to keep the aircraft flying,” said Freeland. The MV-75 program is part of a broader Pentagon push to modernize U.S. military capabilities in an era defined by strategic competition with China. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Since entering service in the late 1970s, the UH-60 Black Hawk has been the backbone of Army aviation. It has flown in nearly every major U.S. military operation over the past 40 years, from evacuating wounded troops in Grenada and Panama, to supporting combat and logistics missions in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The Black Hawk was infamously involved in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, and became a household name through its depiction in the 1999 book and 2001 movie “Black Hawk Down.” Its versatility, durability and ability to perform under fire made it a symbol of American air power — but after decades of use, its replacement will need to adapt to the evolving battlefield.
SCOOP: Top congressional committees launch probe into Nashville mayor accused of blocking ICE
FIRST ON FOX: Two powerful committees in the House of Representatives are opening an investigation into another Democratic official accused of blocking federal immigration authorities. House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., is leading a probe into Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell alongside Nashville-area Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn, Fox News Digital learned Friday. Ogles had been petitioning leaders for weeks to look into O’Connell after the Democratic leader publicly denounced Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in his city and signed an executive order aimed at tracking ICE movements in the area. The probe is being supported by the House Judiciary Committee, which is led by Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., chair of the subcommittee for immigration enforcement. SCOOP: HOUSE GOP MEMO HIGHLIGHTS REPUBLICAN WINS IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ “The Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland Security of the U.S. House of Representatives are conducting oversight of state and local jurisdictions that endanger American communities through efforts aimed at thwarting the work of federal immigration officials,” the four leaders wrote in a letter to O’Connell. “While the state of Tennessee has outlawed sanctuary policies, recent actions from your office threaten to chill immigration enforcement in the City of Nashville and Davidson County. Accordingly, we write to request information about how your recent actions, including a directive to Nashville and Davidson County employees to disclose their communications with federal immigration officials, affects the robust enforcement of immigration law.” The lawmakers said O’Connell’s executive order, which mandated that government employees report interactions with federal immigration authorities, “could have a chilling effect on the ability of local law enforcement to communicate freely and candidly with federal immigration employees.” “In fact, your chief lawyer recently admitted that it was an ‘open question’ whether an individual could legally ‘announce in advance that there’s an impending enforcement activity,’” they wrote. MIKE JOHNSON, DONALD TRUMP GET ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL’ WIN AS BUDGET PASSES HOUSE “This statement, when viewed in context of your order requiring all Metro law-enforcement officers to report about communications with ICE personnel, raises the prospect that Metro employees may use nonpublic information to warn criminal aliens of planned ICE enforcement operations. In other words, there is the real potential that your Executive Order could have the effect of diminishing ICE enforcement operations.” It comes after ICE agents working with the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested nearly 200 people the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said were illegal immigrants – many of them criminals with gang affiliations or other sordid pasts. The DHS news release targeted O’Connell by name over comments he made in early May. “What’s clear today is that people who do not share our values of safety and community have the authority to cause deep community harm.” MCCAUL TOUTS MONEY IN TRUMP TAX BILL TO PAY TEXAS BACK FOR FIGHTING BIDEN BORDER POLICIES After the arrests, O’Connell signed an executive order aimed at tracking peoples’ interactions with federal immigration authorities, according to WSMV4. He said of ICE’s work in his city, “It’s important for us to get this right, and it’s very frustrating to see a failure in the process.” O’Connell also helped launch the Nashville government’s nonprofit, “The Belonging Fund,” to help illegal immigrants pay for urgent care needs. The fund’s website states that “donations to the fund are made possible solely by individual donors and private organizations – no government dollars are included. That means no taxpayer dollars are being used in the administration or distribution of this fund.” Republicans, however, have questioned whether that is true. “The recipients of these funds are untraceable, and the purpose seems crystal clear: help illegal foreigners evade the law,” Ogles told Fox News Digital. “I refuse to sit back while our communities are overrun — while our neighborhoods are destroyed and our daughters are assaulted. And I doubly refuse to stay silent while blue city mayors aid and abet this invasion.” O’Connell is now one of several Democratic leaders locked in an immigration fight with the Trump administration. House Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was charged by the Justice Department with assaulting an officer after she and two other House Democrats forced their way into a Newark ICE detention center, charges McIver has dismissed as political. Fox News Digital reached out to the Nashville mayor’s office for comment on the letter.
Obamas seen together for 1st time in 6 months as analyst sees ‘no love lost’ amid divorce murmurs
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were seen in public for the first time in six months, via new photos captured by BackGrid outside the Lowell Hotel & Restaurant in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. While Michelle Obama has refuted rumors of a separation amid solo appearances by the former president, the Lowell sighting was the first for the 44th first family since December 2024. Guarded by the Secret Service, the Obamas stepped out into a car but with markedly different expressions and body language, an observation seconded by The Human Behavior Lab President Susan Constantine. “Definitely a completely different [public] appearance than we’ve seen in the past,” Constantine told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday interview. MICHELLE OBAMA SLAMS DIVORCE RUMORS DURING PODCAST INTERVIEW As someone who has observed and analyzed the Obamas for many years, Constantine said their body language was concerning when it comes to the relationship rumors. “When I’m looking at the photos, the distance between the two; with the two Secret Servicemen in between them [it] is showing that there’s literally a separation,” she said. “Almost like the two [USSS officers] inside are drawing a line between President and Missus Obama.” “She’s out front-and-center and very joyful; very empowered; a real pep in her step,” Constantine added. “She’s feeling quite confident in wherever she is at in her headspace, but you wouldn’t even think the two of them are together.” Constantine remarked that the former president looked more like a Secret Service agent guarding Michelle Obama than her husband. The former president appeared distraught, distracted and distant, she added. MICHELLE OBAMA SKIPS TRUMP INAUGURATION AS BARACK ARRIVES SOLO “You can see the stress in his face.” While the two appear different on the surface, there are clues that the two are indeed a longtime couple. In several photos, the Obamas appear to have the same gait, and their heels lift off the ground in incidental tandem, the body language expert continued. “That’s typical of being somebody who has been with you for a long time.” However, as the rumors swirl, the body language seen may beget some of that conjecture. “There is definitely something emotional – something internal between the two of them that is going on… He’s a shadow in her path.” “It’s sad to see that – she is putting him through the ringer – there is certainly something serious going on in their relationship – I can say that with professional certainty.” Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for the Obamas for comment. Michelle Obama was noticeably absent from recent public events with her husband – including former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Executive branch couples from President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump back to former Vice President Dan Quayle and former second lady Marilyn Quayle were in attendance. The only such dignitary without a mate was Obama – who spent much of the time instead of joshing with his otherwise political foe: Trump. The former president was his jovial self as seen in the pool feed of that event. The Obamas have been married for 32 years, but the former first lady has spoken about the tribulations of her marriage, including on her “IMO” podcast that she co-hosts with brother and former New York Knicks/Milwaukee Bucks Vice President Craig Robinson.
Delhi-NCR Update: Noida sees surge in Covid-19 cases in current wave, records…, here’s what health department said
India on Monday recorded 1,009 active COVID-19 cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. According to the government data, Kerala currently has the highest number of active cases of infection at 430.
Twin bomb threats cause panic in Delhi, Chandigarh; government buildings vacated, probe underway
A wave of panic swept through Delhi and Chandigarh on Friday, i.e., May 30, as bomb threat emails prompted the evacuation of two major government buildings — Udyog Bhawan in the national capital and the Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh.
Major boost for Indian economy as GDP growth recorded at 6.5% in FY 2024-25, Q4 growth beats forecast to reach…
India’s GDP growth accelerated to a robust 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of FY 2024-25, as result of which the growth rate for the full financial year works out to 6.5 percent on the back of a strong performance of the agriculture, construction, and services sectors, as per official data.
WATCH: US intel’s take on TdA gang misses mark on ties to Maduro regime, ex-Venezuela army officer says
A former high-ranking officer in the Venezuelan military is contesting a recent report by the U.S. intelligence community about the massive Tren de Aragua gang present throughout the country. Jose Arocha, who is a former lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan military, told Fox News Digital that the recent intel community report denying Tren de Aragua is linked to the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is missing a key aspect: the socialist regime’s animosity towards the United States and penchant for asymmetric warfare. Tren de Aragua, also known simply as TdA, is a violent Venezuelan gang that has been terrorizing U.S. cities over the last several years. The group is linked to high-profile murders such as the killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the seizure of an entire apartment building in Aurora, Colorado. As one of his first moves back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump directed the State Department to designate TdA a “foreign terrorist organization.” SUPREME COURT ALLOWS TRUMP ADMIN TO MOVE ON ENDING LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR SOME VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS Speaking with Fox News Digital via Zoom, Arocha, a national security expert at the Center for a Secure Free Society, said he agrees with the Trump administration’s moves against Tren de Aragua, which he believes is an “asymmetrical warfare” tool of the Maduro regime to sow discord in the United States and other countries in the Western Hemisphere. “The Maduro regime doesn’t need to send troops to the USA. It sends criminals instead,” he said. “TdA is a plug-and-play insurgency – assembled in prison, deployed abroad.” Arocha’s statements, however, contrast with a new public memo released by U.S. intelligence agencies last month that denied any solid connection between the Maduro government in Caracas and the gang. “While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the report states. The report says that the intelligence community based its conclusion “on Venezuelan law enforcement actions demonstrating the regime treats TDA as a threat; an uneasy mix of cooperation and confrontation rather than top-down directives [that] characterize the regime’s ties to other armed groups; and the decentralized makeup of TDA that would make such a relationship logistically challenging.” Arocha, meanwhile, said that “the missing point here is that the intelligence report is too narrow a lens about the TdA.” “It’s about crime and migration, but they’re missing the warfare dimension,” he said. “They are missing that for the Maduro regime, the United States is the enemy, has been the enemy for years.” VIOLENT VENEZUELAN GANG EXPLOITS TECHNOLOGY TO TURBOCHARGE ITS DOMINANCE: EXPERTS “The TdA is not a gang,” he went on. “It’s the enabler arm of the Venezuelan regime in the hybrid warfare strategy, the asymmetrical tour of war. That’s the missing point. And that is the point that explains how a local gang is right now in more than 10 countries, including the United States. That’s incredible, and that is not possible without a state sponsor behind them.” While the report points to law enforcement actions the Maduro government has taken against TdA, Arocha explained that in reality Venezuelan prisons, including the “Tocorón” prison where the gang started, are more like resort hotels. “Tocorón, [which] they said is the epicenter of the crime in Venezuela, it wasn’t a prison, it was a palace for organized crime. Full equipment, we have a zoo, nightclubs and even a pool for the prisoners there,” he said. Arocha also posited that the 2023 raid the Venezuelan government conducted on Tocorón “appears choreographed” and that key TdA leadership was able to escape through pre-made tunnels. “While the regime gained optics of cracking down on crime, TdA’s mobility remained intact,” Arocha told Fox News Digital. 11 ALLEGED TEEN TREN DE ARAGUA GANG MEMBERS ATTACK NYPD OFFICERS: POLICE The intel report admitted that the escaped TdA members were “possibly assisted by low-level Venezuelan military and political leaders.” But to Arocha, the connection goes straight to the top. He pointed to the kidnapping and murder of Venezuelan political dissident Ronald Ojeda in Chile, which, according to Reuters, is being investigated by the Chilean government as a possible Tren de Aragua operation sponsored by the Maduro government. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE Reuters reported in March that Chilean Attorney General Angel Valencia said that Ojeda’s murder “doesn’t have the characteristics of a normal crime” and “all the evidence we have at this state of the investigation lets us conclude that a cell or group linked to the Tren de Aragua that was politically motivated that originated from an order of a political nature.” The outlet also reported that the Venezuelan government denied the accusations as baseless. Arocha further pointed to former Maduro Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who has alleged ties to Hamas and Hezbollah, as evidence that the Venezuelan government is embedded with America’s worst enemies. VENEZUELAN ILLEGAL ALIEN, ALLEGED TREN DE ARAGUA LEADER IN CALIFORNIA, ARRESTED ON IMMIGRATION CHARGES El Aissami was arrested on corruption charges and is currently in prison. “He has a strong influence with Iran and China and Russia, too. Right now, he’s in prison, which means that he’s living in the palace in prison,” Arocha remarked, smiling. “The Venezuelan regime is a proxy of Russia, China and Iran, especially China right now,” he went on. “They use Venezuela [to] create chaos in Latin America especially … not confronting directly the United States, but indirectly, using criminals, using disinformation, using every single tool they have.” In response, Arocha urged the Trump administration to continue to take a whole-of-government approach in combating TdA. He urged the administration to “increase our scope” by reaching out to Latin American countries with experience with TdA, such as the Chilean government. “They have a knowledge right now about the TdA. We have to understand what they’ve learned about, and we have to put all the pieces together to have the big
Dem county executive dings Trump admin over sanctuary jurisdiction designation
In a statement responding to the inclusion of Montgomery County Maryland on a list of sanctuary jurisdictions in the U.S., County Executive Marc Elrich accused the Trump administration of seeking to criminalize immigrants and “create fear.” President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for a list of sanctuary jurisdictions. DHS issued the list on Thursday, the department noted in a post on X. “We are not in violation of federal law, and we will not be making changes based on political headlines. Montgomery County has always cooperated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in cases involving violent crimes, serious felonies, and threats to public safety. That has been and remains our policy,” Elrich said in his statement. LEADERSHIP SHAKE-UP COMING AT ICE, HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS, SOURCES SAY “This designation, like many other actions taken by this administration, is about criminalizing immigrants, not protecting public safety. We will not be complicit in efforts to stigmatize or target our immigrant communities,” the Democrat declared. “These types of announcements are designed to create fear. But we do not govern by fear in Montgomery County. We govern by the law and by our values.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of an MS-13 member in a press release earlier this month, noting multiple instances of the Montgomery County Detention Center failing to honor immigration detainers for the individual over the years, including just last month. “The Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville convicted Amaya of attempted motor vehicle theft April 4, and sentenced him to three years of confinement with two years, five months and 11 days suspended,” the release noted of Salvadoran national Nelson Vladimir Amaya-Benitez. “On April 18, the Montgomery County Detention Center again declined to honor ICE’s immigration detainer and released Amaya from custody.” POLK COUNTY SHERIFF GRADY JUDD NAMES OBSTACLES IN DETAINING MIGRANTS UNDER TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION POLICIES Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Director Ben Stevenson acknowledged the “error.” “This individual met the criteria we use to notify and coordinate with ICE due to a prior felony conviction and validated gang membership in the DOCR records. We failed to make this notification. We take full responsibility for this error,” he said in a statement. “Montgomery County has stated consistently that we cooperate with ICE in cases involving individuals convicted of violent crimes, verified gang members, drug distributors & traffickers and other felony convictions. That policy remains in place.” TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SETS NEW GOAL OF 3,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS DAILY CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Elrich said during a media briefing that “we goofed on our part. We did not make a policy decision to let this person go.” The Trump administration has been aiming to crackdown on illegal immigration and is seeking to remove many individuals from the country after massive numbers of people flowed across the U.S. border during President Joe Biden’s administration.
How many Rafale fighter jets were shot down during Operation Sindoor? Chief Minister of THIS state asks, and govt says…
The Indian Air Force has officially neither confirmed nor denied any Rafale losses during Operation Sindoor.