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‘Considering What We Are Facing’: US Cyber Defense Halt Against Russia Stuns Republican

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A prominent Republican congressman, the former House Intelligence Committee chair, appeared shocked on national television when he learned that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered a top Pentagon agency, U.S. Cyber Command, to suspend operations and planning against Russia’s cyber offensives.

Secretary Hegseth’s “stand down” order, while allegedly temporary, is expected to “last for the foreseeable future,” according to The Record, a cybersecurity news site which first reported the news.

CNN reported that a senior U.S. official called Hegseth’s order “a major blow.”

According to the network, “planning for such operations takes time and research to carry out. The concern, the official said, is that the pause on offensive cyber operations against Russia will make the U.S. more vulnerable to potential cyberattacks from Moscow, which has a formidable cadre of hackers capable of disrupting U.S. critical infrastructure and collecting sensitive intelligence.”

READ MORE: World Leaders Rush to Support Zelenskyy as Americans Debate Trump’s Allegiance

The development has received widespread coverage over the weekend.

“Russia is not a significant cyber threat to the U.S. anymore, Trump’s new Defense Secretary says,” the science and technology website Gizmodo reported. “The policy shift represents a complete 180-degree turn from America’s posture over the past decade, which has consistently considered Russia one of the top cybersecurity threats. Credible reporting and government investigations have shown that Russia has hacked into U.S. systems countless times.”

Experts were also stunned.

Veteran cyber expert James Lewis, formerly of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said “it’s delusional to think” the stand down order “will turn Russia and the FSB [the Russian security agency] into our friends,” The Guardian reported. “They hate the U.S. and are still mad about losing the cold war. Pretending otherwise won’t change this.”

The order appears to extend past the Department of Defense, suggesting it may have originated at the highest levels of the executive branch.

Analysts at the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) received a new priorities directive that included China, but not Russia, The Guardian also reported. One source “said analysts at the agency were verbally informed that they were not to follow or report on Russian threats, even though this had previously been a main focus for the agency.”

“Russia and China are our biggest adversaries,” that source said. “With all the cuts being made to different agencies, a lot of cybersecurity personnel have been fired. Our systems are not going to be protected and our adversaries know this.”

READ MORE: ‘What the Hell Is This?’: GOP Group’s Andrew Tate Invitation Draws Bipartisan Outrage

“People are saying Russia is winning,” they added. “Putin is on the inside now.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) has decades of defense experience in Congress, having served on several committees on the armed forces and veterans affairs, and as Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence until January—when Speaker Mike Johnson unexpectedly removed him from that critical position. He is a strong supporter of Ukraine and opposes Russia.

At the time of his removal, The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol remarked, “If you’re going to sell out Ukraine to Putin, makes sense to get Turner out of the way first.”

Last year, Turner was also one of a few House Republicans who “were warning about how elements of their party had been infected by Russian propaganda,” The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake noted on Monday. (Video of Turner from last year here.) Turner, he added, “was removed 7 months later as chair of the House intel committee.”

In February 2024, Turner issued a “national security threat” warning on Russia’s activities in space so dire that President Biden’s National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby was forced to deliver a statement from the White House press briefing room.

On Sunday’s “Face the Nation,” CBS News’ Margaret Brennan told Congressman Turner (video below), that “CBS has confirmed these reports that Defense Secretary Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to temporarily halt cyber operations and planning against Russia. The Washington Post reports that that’s as long as the negotiations continue. There are no negotiations under way. Does this concern you? Have you been briefed on this?”

A stunned and stammering Rep. Turner delivered his response.

“I can’t – I don’t – no, I’m not – unaware of that. And I don’t believe that that would be – there are too many, I’m certain, considerations there for that to be an accurate statement, so blanket,” he said, according to the official CBS transcript.

“But they have ordered Cyber Command to halt cyber operations,” Brennan reiterated.

“Considering what I know that – that – considering what I know what – what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that would, I’m certain, not be an accurate statement of the current status of the United States’ operations,” Turner insisted, despite multiple news reports confirming the stand down order.

“I’m confident, considering what Russia is currently doing against the United States, that the United States, the status against Russia would not be that, considering what we are facing from Russia operations,” Turner added.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Did I Say That? I Can’t Believe I Said That’: Trump’s Remarks Again Fuel Memory Questions

 

 

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‘Deliberate Incitement’: Outrage as White House Claims Dems Cater to ‘Hamas Terrorists’

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October 16, 2025

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is under fire after alleging that Democrats are catering to “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

“The Democrat Party’s main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals,” Leavitt said on Fox News on Thursday afternoon.

“That is who the Democrat Party is catering to — not the Trump administration, and not the White House, and not the Republican Party, who is standing up for law abiding Americans, not just across the country, but around the world.”

Leavitt did not explain why the Democratic Party should be catering to the Republican Party or to the Trump administration.

READ MORE: Trump Focused on Bailout for Farmers Loyal to Him ‘For a Really Long Time’ Says Official

Critics blasted the Press Secretary.

Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer wrote: “This s– is so f– dangerous and everyone on the Republican side just nods along.”

Human Rights Campaign National Press Secretary Brandon Wolf asked, “Remember when they pretended to want to ‘turn down the temperature’?”

Veteran journalist John Harwood called Leavitt’s remarks “disgusting b–.”

Dylan Williams, Vice President for Government Affairs for the Center for International Policy warned: “How is this anything other than deliberate incitement that risks leading to deadly violence?”

“This is INCREDIBLY dangerous framing,” declared author Carey Lohrenz, the first female F-14 Tomcat pilot, “and should make the hair on the back of your next stand, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. And it’s also patently false.”

READ MORE: ‘I Don’t Like Being Mad Mike’: Johnson ‘Upset’ Over Dems’ Health Care Demands

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick noted that Hillary Clinton’s “‘Deplorables’ was a scandal for years and she wasn’t even in the government yet. This is the White House Press Secretary, whose salary is paid by the American public.”

Journalist Ahmed Baba wrote: “In a sane reality, this insane comment would’ve ended the career of any other press secretary. In this reality, it’s a just another Thursday. But when the Trump fever breaks, and it will break, these people will have to reckon with the digital footprints of their own depravity.”

READ MORE: Johnson Wavers After Agreeing to Debate Jeffries ‘Anywhere Anytime’

 

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Trump Focused on Bailout for Farmers Loyal to Him ‘For a Really Long Time’ Says Official

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October 16, 2025

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President Donald Trump has for weeks been talking about providing a bailout for America’s farmers harmed by his tariff policies, especially soybean farmers whose top buyer, China, hasn’t bought any U.S. soybeans since at least May.

Multiple figures have been tossed around for the bailout, possibly between $10 billion and $14 billion, but no firm plans reportedly have been set.

Wondering who and which farming sectors would benefit from the bailout, Fox Business host Stuart Varney asked Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Thursday, “Will every farmer get some money in this bailout? All of them? Or is it targeted to one group of farmers?”

Her answer reflected politics more than policy.

READ MORE: ‘I Don’t Like Being Mad Mike’: Johnson ‘Upset’ Over Dems’ Health Care Demands

“Obviously,” Secretary Rollins replied, “the president remains very focused on, as he has said, all along — he calls them ‘his farmers,’ but those who have been with him for a really long time, from the very beginning.”

Rollins went on to say that “we’ve been very clear all along, while we’re working on what that package looks like, we’re not even entirely sure what the damage is yet, so it’s hard to craft the confirmed solution as every day goes on, and we’re working to sell more of our soybeans and sorghum and wheat across the world.”

Asked about the $20 billion to $40 billion bailout President Trump has reportedly decided to give to Argentina, a direct competitor of America’s soybean farmers, Secretary Rollins said: “The president’s focus remains 100% on America first.”

CNN on Wednesday called it “$20 billion to save the political career of a foreign ally of President Donald Trump. The US is putting up $20 billion for a currency swap to prop up the Argentinian peso ahead of elections there this month, with the aim of bolstering Argentine President Javier Milei, a Trump ally.”

READ MORE: Johnson Wavers After Agreeing to Debate Jeffries ‘Anywhere Anytime’

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) on Wednesday blasted the Argentina bailout.

“While family farmers in Minnesota and Maine are losing business to Argentina, the Trump Admin is organizing a $40 billion bailout to Argentina — because who needs to reopen the government when you could just spend all your time and energy finding taxpayer dollars to give to our top agricultural competitors?”

READ MORE: ‘I Don’t Accept Pinky Promises’: AOC Sets Hard Line on Ending the Shutdown

 

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‘I Don’t Like Being Mad Mike’: Johnson ‘Upset’ Over Dems’ Health Care Demands

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4 hours ago

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October 16, 2025

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, expressing frustration over House and Senate Democrats demanding an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies to vote to reopen the government, stormed off the stage at the end of his Thursday press conference.

The Louisiana Republican lawmaker accused Democrats of playing “ridiculous political games” in their quest to halt impending massive increases in Obamacare premiums should the subsidies not be renewed. An estimated four to five million Americans are expected to lose healthcare without the subsidies, according to the BBC.

He told reporters that “there are debates and discussions happening on both sides of the aisle, but bringing everyone together and building consensus isn’t possible until we get the government operating again — until we stop,” he said, pausing in visible frustration.

READ MORE: ‘I Don’t Accept Pinky Promises’: AOC Sets Hard Line on Ending the Shutdown

“I get very upset about that,” he said, interrupting himself.

“We stop holding the American people hostage for these ridiculous political games,” Johnson declared, speaking of Democrats demanding the subsidies as part of an agreement to reopen the government.

“People see what’s going on here. We should not have border patrol agents not paid right now because Chuck Schumer wants to pay political games to cover his tail,” he claimed.  “I don’t know how much more simply to say that,” he said angrily, “and every single one of you know that’s exactly what’s going on.”

“I don’t like being mad Mike,” he charged in frustration. I want to be happy Mike. I wanna be the Happy Warrior, but I am so upset about this.”

“God bless America.”

READ MORE: Johnson Wavers After Agreeing to Debate Jeffries ‘Anywhere Anytime’

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