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‘Show. Us. The. Plan.’: Pentagon Chief Ripped for Dodging Budget Details in Heated Hearing

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified before the House Appropriations Committee, where he appeared to be unfamiliar with his department’s budget and repeatedly was unable or unwilling to answer members’ questions, prompting several heated exchanges in what some described as his “filibustering.”

As Secretary Hegseth devolved into attacking the Biden administration, Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, the committee’s top Democrat, interjected.

“Please, I don’t — I want, I want your plan. I’ve had difficulties with the prior administration, and I don’t mind calling them out. What is your plan for the future? Can we get that in writing and on paper so that we know where you’re going?” DeLauro demanded.

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“Because we don’t have anything today,” she continued. “We have zip, nada, and knowing where you’re going. You could talk percentages, you could talk about whatever you want, but unless this committee sees dollars and cents and where you’re going and what your plan is, then we may reconsider what you need to do to go forward.”

“Give us the details.”

In another heated exchange, Hegseth was accused of “filibustering” before U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum.

“So in Los Angeles, we believe that ICE, which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country, especially after 21 million illegals have crossed our border under the previous administration,” Hegseth claimed, baselessly citing false numbers.

When he began attacking California Democrats, Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, McCollum interjected.

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“Mr. Chairman, if Secretary Hegseth’s not going to answer the budgetary questions, I will yield back my time if the Secretary refuses to answer the budgetary questions I put before him. They’re important. What training missions aren’t happening? Where are you pulling the money from? And how are you planning this moving forward?” she asked.

“These are budget questions that affect this committee, and the decisions we’re going to be making in a couple of hours. If you’re not going to answer them, please let the chairman know, and I will I will take back my time and I will yield it back.”

When asked by the committee chair, Hegseth again filibustered and attacked the Biden administration.

Later, after the hearing concluded, Congresswoman McCollum reposted video on social media and wrote: “Secretary Hegseth offers revisionist history because he can’t answer a single question about the defense budget.”

Fred Wellman, a 22-year combat vet, veterans activist, and West Point and Harvard Kennedy School graduate, blasted Hegseth:

“He showed up at the budget hearing with all of his usual bull—- talking points but none of the actual budget. He hasn’t bothered. His priority is prayer meetings, workouts, book banning, and travel. He does videos in his office but none of the actual boring work of a Cabinet Secretary.”

Ranking Member DeLauro also took to social media and blasted the Defense chief.

“Show. Us. The. Plan.” she demanded.

When the Defense Department’s “Rapid Response” social media account attacked DeLauro, asking, “why are you screaming?” the Ranking Member replied, “Why are you lying?”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: House Republicans Quietly Slip Anti-LGBTQ ‘Religious Freedom’ Clause Into Funding Bill

 

 

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Death Penalty to Prayer: Nancy Mace’s Shifting Positions on Kirk’s Alleged Killer

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Over the course of two days, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has taken starkly shifting positions on the alleged assassin of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk—repeatedly blaming Democrats, calling for the death penalty, then urging prayer for the suspect to find Jesus Christ.

When news broke on Wednesday that Kirk—who had a large following on the right, and was close with President Donald Trump and his family—had been shot and had died, Mace declared, “They killed Charlie Kirk.” She did not specify who she thought “they” were.

Two hours later, Mace wrote, “It’s time to bring back the death penalty.” By late Thursday morning, she charged, “The Left owns what happened yesterday.”

She also posted video of herself from Wednesday, before Kirk had been pronounced dead, saying she was “devastated.”

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Using a slur for transgender people, she said that Kirk, when he was shot, was talking about mass violence.

“I hope that every single Democrat across the country will stand up and acknowledge that they have a problem within their party,” she urged. “So when are my colleagues on the left side of the aisle, the Democrats, going to own the violence that’s happening in this country against Republicans and against conservatives?”

“It’s only going to get better if Democrats step up to the plate and take responsibility for what’s happening in this country—the threats that are happening—and come together.”

“Democrats own this. Democrats own this,” she said. “Democrats own this 100%.”

Less than two hours after that post, echoing her earlier claim, she added: “Let me say this as nice as I can: DEMOCRATS OWN THIS.”

On Thursday, responding to now-retracted reports that the alleged shooter might have been transgender, or pro-transgender, Mace posted video of her telling reporters, “Enough is enough.”

READ MORE: Republican Says Left’s Ideology Is ‘Pure Evil’

Again using a slur for transgender people, she said it “sounds like” the shooter was transgender or pro-transgender.

“The left, the Democrat Party, has allowed this stuff to happen,” she also charged.

Late Friday morning, Mace posted an image of the alleged assassin, about whom little was known, and wrote: “Bring back the death penalty.”

Also on Friday, amid reports that the alleged shooter, identified as Tyler Robinson, had turned himself in to law enforcement, Congresswoman Mace wrote: “We know Charlie Kirk would want us to pray for such an evil, and lost individual like Tyler Robinson to find Jesus Christ. We will try to do the same.”

Less than one hour later, she added, “We truly believe if Tyler Robinson had ever sat down across from Charlie, the great debater, the man of faith and grace he was, Tyler wouldn’t have pulled the trigger.”

Friday afternoon, she concluded, “Some crimes are so evil, the only just punishment is the death penalty.”

READ MORE: Trump Declares Inflation ‘Solved’ as Americans Pay More for Gas and Groceries

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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Eric Trump Echoes Father’s Rhetoric After Kirk Assassination to Hawk His Memoir

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Eric Trump railed against “radical left lunatics” in a tirade of grievances—parroting the same rhetoric his father used in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk—as he hawked his new memoir, “Under Siege.”

“As to what the radical left lunatics were trying to do to our family, what the movement that we created, and it’s a movement of good. It’s exactly what Charlie epitomized,” the President’s son declared to podcaster Benny Johnson.

“You know, we’re all watching, and we see exactly what happened to Charlie,” he explained.

“That is us being under siege,” he told Johnson. “That is that is our party, that is our movement.”

READ MORE: Trump Declares Inflation ‘Solved’ as Americans Pay More for Gas and Groceries

“That is God being under siege,” he declared. “That’s our Constitution being under siege. That’s our American flag being under siege . That’s our family unit in this country being under siege. That’s our democracy being under siege. Everything that we love, everything that we fought for.”

“It’s every one of those college kids that’s indoctrinated,” he complained. “It’s all of them being under siege. It’s a revisionist history that they teach in our schools.”

Trump said he will donate part of the proceeds of the book to Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, “because here’s what you and I and all the other people can never allow happen: We cannot allow his mission, you know, to ever die, it won’t.”

He also claimed that “the bullets are only going one way,” suggesting that the left, not the right, is responsible for violence.

Trump went on to describe where he was when his father’s attempted assassination took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. He also invoked the 2017 shooting of Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, and “what almost happened to [Brett] Kavanaugh. And then we see what happens to Charlie Kirk.”

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“I mean, the bullets are only flying one way, and yet I get to hear the nonsense, and I get to watch all these networks every night,” he said.

“I mean, how is it that you know, the decorum is only going one way in this country, and yet we’re the ones that are labeled as the ‘fascist’? Isn’t that kind of ironic?”

“You know, hey, the Republicans in this country are generally the ones that have the guns. We’re the ones that believe in the Second Amendment. You know, they’re not doing this shooting.”

On Friday morning in a social media post with a photo of his book, Trump wrote, “Like all of you, I have been deeply impacted by Charlie’s life. His story is not over. This movement is not over, and there is still so much more to be done. In honor of Charlie’s life and his incredible legacy, I will be donating a portion of the proceeds from Under Siege to Turning Point USA to continue their amazing work.”

Pointing to that post, The Daily Beast wrote that Trump was using Kirk’s death “to sell his book.”

READ MORE: Republican Says Left’s Ideology Is ‘Pure Evil’

 

Image via Shutterstock

 

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Trump Declares Inflation ‘Solved’ as Americans Pay More for Gas and Groceries

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President Donald Trump has declared inflation “solved” as Americans are paying more for everyday goods like gas and groceries.

“I’ve already solved inflation,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Friday morning. “Costs are down.”

Inflation is now the highest it’s been since January, according to CNBC.

“Look at the energy costs,” he added. “You’re gonna have $2 gasoline pretty soon.”

The national average price of gas as of Friday is $3.19, according to AAA. Nationwide, prices are as high as $4.65 and as low as $2.71.

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The president went on to boast, “I’ve solved just about every problem.”

But statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor show Americans are paying more—in some cases far more—at the pump and at the checkout line.

“Inflation inched higher last month as Americans closed out the summer paying more for both groceries and gasoline,” NPR reported on Thursday. “Consumer prices in August were up 2.9% from a year ago, according to a report Thursday from the Labor Department. That’s a sharper annual increase than the previous month, when inflation was clocked at 2.7%.”

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to lower prices “on day one.”

Yet, due in part to his sweeping tariffs, “Virtually all major grocery categories are now more expensive than they were a year ago, some substantially so,” according to Axios. “This was the biggest month-over-month increase since August 2022, the tail end of a year of huge monthly increases in grocery prices.”

READ MORE: Republican Says Left’s Ideology Is ‘Pure Evil’

The price of coffee is up nearly 21%, the price of uncooked beef steaks is up nearly 17%, apples are up nearly 10%, and bananas are up almost 7%.

Overall, the cost of groceries in August was up 0.6% over July’s prices, and the price of gas jumped 1.9% in just one month, according to NPR.

READ MORE: ‘Fascist Playbook’: Trump Blasted for ‘Gas on the Fire’ Kirk Assassination Address

 

Image via Reuters

 

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