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White House walks diplomatic tightrope on Israel amid contradictory messaging: ‘You can’t have it both ways’

White House walks diplomatic tightrope on Israel amid contradictory messaging: ‘You can’t have it both ways’

The Biden administration has been taking criticism as of late for what some have described as conflicting messaging on key subjects relating to the United States’ top Mideast ally: Israel. During a daily briefing last week, Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the administration’s attestation to an “ironclad commitment” to Israel while “slow-walk[ing] arms sales.” Jean-Pierre replied, in part, by reiterating America’s commitment to Israeli security remains “ironclad.” Meanwhile, President Biden himself pledged that if the Israel Defense Forces incur substantively into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, “I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem.” BLINKEN DELIVERS STRONGEST REBUKE OF ISRAEL YET: ‘GET OUT OF GAZA’ Several lawmakers have taken issue with the administration’s stance, including Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chair of the House Armed Services Committee, who called the president’s recent tack “another shortsighted decision by Biden that undermines our allies, emboldens our adversaries, and sends the message that the U.S. is unreliable.” “Our adversaries would love nothing more than to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Israel,” Rogers told Fox News Digital in a statement Friday. “Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas and Iran.” Rogers’ counterpart in the Senate, Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., also called out Biden over a May 8 Associated Press report that the U.S. indeed paused a shipment of bombs in response to Israel potentially making a decision on a “full-scale assault” on Rafah. “If Hamas laid down its weapons, the war would be over. But if Israel lays down its weapons, it would be the end of Israel,” Wicker said.  MIKE PENCE ACCUSES BIDEN OF IMPEACHMENT HYPOCRISY “Unfortunately, President Biden has this backwards. He has withheld arms for our staunchest ally one day then professed solidarity with the Jewish people the next,” the Magnolia State lawmaker added. Former National Security Council official Victoria Coates said of the administration’s conflicting messaging, “you can’t have it both ways.” “You’re going to have to pick a team and put on a jersey and get in a fight. And the administration is desperately trying to please both sides,” Coates said. “And what they’ve achieved is that both sides are very angry with them. So, you know, it’s it’s just a massive failure both on the policy and the political front.” Two other GOP senators, Ted Budd of North Carolina and Joni Ernst of Iowa, wrote the White House a detailed letter demanding issue-specific answers from Biden on his comments on arms sales and Rafah. Some of the questions posed included demands on which types of ammunition are reportedly being withheld, whether any arms withheld were part of those directly approved by Congress in a recent supplemental appropriation, and how such reports square with the president’s April 23 pledge to “make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and terrorists it supports.” “Why did your administration fail to notify Congress about this decision to withhold assistance to Israel?” Ernst and Budd asked in the letter.  “We must give Israel the arms it needs to fight the Hamas terrorists that continue to hold Americans hostage. We call on your administration to immediately restart the weapons shipments to Israel today.” In a statement, Budd told Fox News Digital one of his constituents, Keith Siegel, remains in Hamas captivity along with seven other U.S. citizens. “President Biden is making it harder to secure the hostages’ freedom,” Budd said. Another Republican lawmaker, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul of Texas, called the threat of an arms embargo a “dangerous mistake” and “shortsighted.” On his Fox News program, “Life, Liberty & Levin,” former Reagan Justice Department chief of staff Mark Levin went so far as to say Biden’s actions have renewed “ancient blood libels against Jews.” Stateside, Biden has condemned the “ferocious surge of antisemitism in America” and said that “there’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos” only after he tried to clean up comments made during a press gaggle where he said, “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians …” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The administration has been criticized for declining to take a tough stance against criminal acts committed by some anti-Israel agitators on college campuses or call on law enforcement to step in. In April, 27 Republican senators wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to demand an update on any efforts to curb the “outbreak of anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist mobs on college campuses.” “These pro-Hamas rioters have effectively shut down college campuses and have literally chased Jewish students away from our schools,” the letter reads in part. “The Department of Education and federal law enforcement must act immediately to restore order, prosecute the mobs who have perpetuated violence and threats against Jewish students, revoke the visas of all foreign nationals (such as exchange students) who have taken part in promoting terrorism, and hold accountable school administrators who have stood by instead of protecting their students.” In response to the protests, Rep. Michael Lawler, R-N.Y., of whose district 90,000 Jewish U.S. citizens call home, drafted the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which successfully passed the House, 320-91, with some “nay” votes falling on grounds the bill would purportedly infringe upon First Amendment rights. Lawler’s office did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by press time. Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, Bradford Betz, Greg Norman and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

NY v Trump: Prosecutors to resume questioning Michael Cohen after testimony on Stormy Daniels payment

NY v Trump: Prosecutors to resume questioning Michael Cohen after testimony on Stormy Daniels payment

Prosecutors will continue their questioning of Michael Cohen on Tuesday after the ex-Trump attorney spent a full day on the stand Monday testifying against former President Trump in his criminal trial. Cohen is said to be the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team as they try to prove the former president falsified business records related to a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence. Cohen, who once famously said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, his former longtime boss and friend, testified against him about his role in arranging the alleged hush-money payment to Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election in an effort to keep her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump in the early 2000s from becoming public.  MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES HE SECRETLY RECORDED TRUMP IN LEAD-UP TO 2016 ELECTION Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger led the questioning. Cohen testified Monday that working at the Trump Organization was “fantastic” and working for Trump “was an amazing experience.” Cohen testified that he spoke to Trump multiple times a day and often lied for his boss, saying he did so because “it was needed in order to accomplish the task.” “The only thing on my mind was to accomplish the task and to keep him happy,” Cohen said.  Hoffinger asked Cohen if it was accurate to describe himself as a “fixer” for Trump, to which he replied, “It’s fair.” But as for the payment to Daniels, Cohen testified that in October 2016, he told Trump that Daniels must be paid to quiet her claims ahead of Election Day the following month. When Daniels emerged, Cohen said Trump was “really angry with me.” Cohen recalled Trump telling him: “’I thought you had this under control, I thought you took care of this.’”  Cohen said he explained to Trump that he had taken care of Daniels’ allegations as far back as 2011, but as the story resurfaced, Trump directed Cohen to “just take care of it,” calling the situation a total disaster and reasoning that it would hurt the campaign’s chances with women voters. MICHAEL COHEN’S CREDIBILITY ISSUES, BRAZEN TIKTOK USAGE RAISE MEDIA EYEBROWS AHEAD OF TESTIMONY The ex-Trump attorney testified that he spoke with Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg about how to fund the payment, with Weisselberg saying he was not in a position to initially foot the bill. “I ultimately said, ‘OK, I’ll pay it,’” Cohen testified, noting the urgency behind the matter as the election was just days away. Cohen described to the court that Daniels’ claims would have been “catastrophic to Mr. Trump and the campaign” if he did not take control of the situation and iron out the NDA and payment to Daniels.  Weisselberg, according to Cohen, said, “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you get paid back.”  Cohen said he did not discuss the matter with his wife and decided to gather funds through a home equity line of credit instead of drawing the money from his personal account. “My wife was CEO of the household, [she] would not understand $130,000 missing from our joint account,” he said. Cohen and Weisselberg informed Trump that Cohen would be using personal funds to front the payment, to which Trump responded, “cGood, good,” according to the testimony.  Cohen said he was “doing everything that I could and more in order to protect my boss, which is something I had done for a long time. But I would not hand out a 130k NDA for somebody else.” He also said he would not have proceeded with a payment to Daniels without Trump’s approval first, saying that “everything required Mr. Trump’s sign-off … on top of that, I wanted the money back.” The ex-Trump lawyer went on to say he opened a bank account with First Republic Bank to transfer the funds to Daniels, but he testified that when he did so, he fraudulently described the account as one that would deal with “management consulting.” Cohen further testified that he was not truthful regarding the intent of the account as he did not believe the bank would allow him to proceed if they knew it would be used to pay a former pornography actress. The prosecution introduced call logs from Oct. 26, 2016, showing that Cohen called Trump twice to get his “sign-off” and to ensure he had Trump’s approval for the deal. NY V TRUMP: COHEN TESTIFIES TO PAYING STORMY DANIELS FROM HIS OWN POCKET Cohen ultimately wired the funds to Daniels’ attorney, Keith Davidson, telling the court that he marked the payment as a “retainer” even though it was “to execute the NDA” and to obtain exclusive rights to Daniels’ claims. The funds were wired on Oct. 27, 2016. Cohen went on to explain that he used “DD” as the initials for Trump’s pseudonym, David Dennison, in the nondisclosure agreement paperwork with Daniels. He said the fake name was needed because “the purpose was to make sure his name did not appear anywhere.” Also during testimony Monday, Cohen admitted to secretly recording conversations with Trump without his permission ahead of the 2016 election. The conversation was about a $150,000 payment to former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker after he worked to silence ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal and her claims of an affair with Trump. Pecker had pressed Cohen that Trump needed to pay him back, with Cohen secretly recording Trump on Sept. 6 of the election year as proof Trump planned to pay Pecker, according to the testimony. Cohen added that in addition to easing Pecker’s mind that he would be repaid, he also made the recording to keep Pecker “loyal” to Trump. The recording was played for the jury, which included Cohen telling Trump that he needed to “open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” referring to Pecker.

Michael Cohen, corroborating others, says Trump wanted to silence Stormy because of the election

Michael Cohen, corroborating others, says Trump wanted to silence Stormy because of the election

If Michael Cohen’s testimony yesterday had a familiar ring, that’s because his main role at the outset was to confirm the account of the National Enquirer’s publisher. While there were bits and pieces of news, prosecutors walked through meetings, phone calls, e-mails and texts with Donald Trump and others as he vouched for just about everything David Pecker had told the jury. But if there’s one line that jumped out at me, it was this: When Trump confided he would soon launch his first campaign in 2015, Cohen says his boss told him: “There’s going to be a lot of women coming forward.” That would prove to be prescient. And the following year, when Cohen warned Trump that former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal was alleging an affair, the future president’s response was: “She’s very beautiful.” STORMY ALLEGES ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH TRUMP, AGREED TO LIE FOR HER $130,000 PAYOFF Cohen’s credibility as Trump’s “fixer” – prosecutors raised the word, knowing the defense would – will come under fierce attack. He is a convicted liar who has served time in prison. That may well be the ballgame. The trial could easily turn on whether the Manhattan jury believes he is telling the truth now. There is little question about Cohen’s motivation. He has been on a crusade against the man he served for 10 years ever since their public break. In fact, Judge Juan Merchan told the prosecution on Friday to warn Cohen to make no further comments, given Trump’s complaints that he was being attacked but under the gag order could not respond. This came after Cohen posted a TikTok picture of himself wearing a T-shirt showing an orange head behind bars. No, not much mystery there. One interesting tidbit came up as Cohen described being “on top of the world” during the decade he worked for Trump. He had billed $100,000 worth of work for a Trump entertainment unit. The real estate developer then offered him a job, then said, perhaps half-jokingly, that he’d be fired the first day if he brought up the unpaid bill. Cohen’s job was then to pressure law firms into lowering their bills. During this time, D.A. Alvin Bragg’s prosecutor asked, would Cohen lie for Trump? “Yes ma’am.” Would he bully for Trump? “Yes ma’am.” Cohen’s description of a summer 2015 meeting with Trump and Pecker matched the publisher’s account. The Enquirer would run positive stories about Trump, negative stories on some of his opponents, and Pecker would warn the “Apprentice” star if someone else had a negative story and try to suppress it. Cohen would preview articles and covers in advance, as Pecker had said – such as a false allegation that Hillary Clinton had a brain injury – and would tell Trump, in part, to get credit. The first test came when the Trump Tower doorman who the Enquirer paid $30,000 for what proved to be an utterly bogus story about what tabloids always call a love child. Cohen advised they add a $1 million penalty if the man violated the agreement. NY V. TRUMP: COHEN TESTIFIES TO PAYING STORMY DANIELS FROM HIS OWN POCKET Next up was Karen McDougal, who the prosecution has decided not to call as a witness, perhaps to avoid giving Trump a point on which to appeal. The catch-and-kill payment would cost the Enquirer $150,000. Trump approved, and in the call that Cohen taped, suggested they pay in cash, but his lawyer said a check would make the transaction look legitimate. Meanwhile, Pecker was “angry’ and “upset,” saying that was too much money for him to hide from the CEO of his parent company. Meanwhile, McDougal and her lawyer rejected the deal, Cohen feared she was talking to ABC, but then they accepted the agreement. Pecker wound up telling Cohen to forget the reimbursement. The reason? A cover shoot with McDaniel for Men’s Health – which along with fitness columns was the cover for the deal – sold better than expected, and they were planning a second one. That was worth at least $150K, Cohen was told. The other extremely important answer from Michael Cohen involved the payment to Stormy Daniels, whose demand he regarded as “catastrophic” after the “Access Hollywood” tape. Cohen asked Trump about his wife.  According to his testimony, Trump said just get it past the election. If he won, the Stormy Daniels business would become irrelevant, and if he lost, no one would care. Cohen declared: “He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign.” KENNEDY COVER-UP: FAILING TO DISCLOSE A BRAIN-EATING WORM AND OTHER PROBLEMS This is a crucial distinction. For Trump to be worried about protecting his wife and family – as former aide Hope Hicks, not a hostile witness, contended – was legitimate. Doing it for campaign reasons opens the door to a political manipulation and ultimately the falsification of records charge. The rest of the story predictably plays out. Cohen stalled on providing the money. Daniels canceled the deal, her lawyer telling Cohen she was going with the Daily Mail instead. Trump was mad, telling Cohen he thought this had been taken care of. Then the deal was back on.  After speaking to Trump, Cohen went to the bank on Oct. 16, 2016 and transferred the money from his home equity line of credit, buying the life rights to Stormy’s tale. Cohen testified that he would not have done this without the approval of Trump, who said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get your money back.” (And he eventually did.) A last scare: When the Wall Street Journal reported on Nov. 4, just before the election, on the Enquirer’s deal with McDougal, Cohen consulted several times with Hicks on the best spin for the press. He had Stormy’s denial but sat on it after concluding the story wasn’t getting much attention. Cohen was relaxed during the testimony, say reporters in the courtroom, but to me the most salient point is this: What alternative version of events can Trump’s attorneys

Nevada Supreme Court rejects teachers union-backed appeal to put A’s public funding on ’24 ballot

Nevada Supreme Court rejects teachers union-backed appeal to put A’s public funding on ’24 ballot

The Nevada Supreme Court on Monday struck down a proposed ballot initiative that would allow voters to decide whether to repeal the public funding that lawmakers approved last year for a new MLB stadium in Las Vegas. The Monday ruling dealt a blow for detractors of the funding who saw a ballot question this year as the most effective route to repeal key parts of the sweeping bill that paved the way for the Oakland Athletics to move to Las Vegas. NEVADA SUPREME COURT WILL TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT CHASING HORSE’S REQUEST TO DISMISS SEX ABUSE CHARGES Five judges voted to uphold a lower court ruling that struck down the referendum. One judge dissented, while another concurred in-part and dissented in-part. In a statement following the ruling, Schools over Stadiums political action committee spokesperson Alexander Marks said their focus is now to get the question on the 2026 ballot. The PAC is backed by the Nevada State Education Association, a statewide teachers union who has long opposed public funding for the stadium. The stadium financing debate in Nevada mirrors those happening nationwide over whether public funds should be used to help finance sports stadiums. A’s representatives and some Nevada tourism officials have said the public funding could add to Las Vegas’ growing sports scene and act as an economic engine. But a growing chorus of stadium economists, educators and some lawmakers had warned that it would bring minimal benefits, especially when compared to the hefty public price tag. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the entirety of the 66-page bill must be included in the ballot question to provide its full context. But ballot referendums can be no more than 200 words — which lawyers for Schools over Stadiums admitted made it difficult to explain the complex bill during oral arguments last month. The court ruled that the 200-word description submitted by Schools over Stadiums was “misleading” and “explains the general effect of a referendum, but it does not describe the practical effects of this specific referendum.” Attorney Bradley Schrager, who represents the two plaintiffs who are labor union lobbyists in favor of the public funding, said on Monday that “all Nevadans have a right to participate in direct democracy, but they need to observe the laws that require properly informing the voters of a proposal. This measure obviously fails to do that.” MLB owners have unanimously approved the A’s move to Las Vegas.

Reports of Biden White House keeping ‘sensitive’ Hamas intel from Israel draws outrage

Reports of Biden White House keeping ‘sensitive’ Hamas intel from Israel draws outrage

The White House on Monday pushed back on reports from the Times of Israel and Washington Post that it is offering “sensitive intelligence” to Israel on the whereabouts of Hamas leaders, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declines to engage in a full-scale invasion of Rafah. President Biden has in recent days warned Israel against incurring into the southern Gaza city, threatening to halt munitions shipments if an invasion commences. Four people familiar with the situation told the Washington Post the administration is offering intel on Hamas tunnels and the hideouts of its leaders if Israel pulls back. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a National Security Council spokesperson said the U.S. continues to help the IDF target Hamas leadership. BIDEN’S HOLD ON ISRAEL WEAPONS SHIPMENT STUNS RETIRED US GENERAL: ‘THIS IS A TURNING POINT’ “[T]hat work continues on an ongoing basis. We’re not holding anything back,” the official said. “We believe [Hamas chief Yahya] Sinwar should and indeed must be held accountable for the horrors of the October 7 attack.” Former Trump National Security Council official Victoria Coates told Fox News Digital late Monday that intelligence sharing is the “bedrock of our security partnership with Israel.” “It’s unique and extremely sophisticated, and if one partner is not fulfilling their obligations — calls the whole thing into question,” Coates said. “So, if the administration has information on Hamas leadership, which… still holds eight Americans — five alive and three dead in Gaza — and isn’t sharing that with these rallies and hasn’t shared it with the Israelis, this is deeply troubling.” Coates, who is now the Heritage Foundation’s national security and foreign policy institute vice president, said that, if true, the report depicts the Biden administration as playing a “political game” versus a battle for the survival of the Jewish State. BIDEN DONORS RAGE OVER HIS PLEDGE TO PAUSE WEAPON SHIPMENTS TO ISRAEL: ‘BAD, BAD, BAD DECISION’ When asked about allegations that the Biden administration has been playing politics with the Israel issue, Coates indicated Biden’s need to win the youth vote, which she described as more in favor of the Palestinians than any other U.S. age bloc. “That’s what elected Biden in 2020 and staved off the red wave in 2022. So they know they need the 18-to-24 group. And what’s been revealed over the last six months is that group is strongly pro-Palestinian, if not overtly pro Hamas,” she said. “And so I think that’s actually the demographic they’re pandering to.” Ric Grenell, who served as both Trump’s intel chief and ambassador to Germany, called the president’s behavior an “impeachable offense.” “Let’s be clear, Joe Biden is using U.S. intelligence as a weapon to first demand help from Israel to win Michigan — when he should be providing every piece of intel we have in order to bring the American hostages held by Hamas home,” Grenell said on X, formerly Twitter. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Meanwhile, Fox News radio host Guy Benson called the report, “surreal.” According to the Post report, Biden and senior aides have also offered to help construct food delivery systems and shelter for Palestinians evacuated from Rafah.  The White House has tried to sway the Israelis to conduct only targeted strikes within Rafah versus the tack threatened by Jerusalem, as well as hope more granular intelligence assistance to Israel could dissuade them from major offensives. In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. government retains the same objectives as the Israelis. “We want to make sure that Hamas cannot govern Gaza again,” Blinken said.