Bangladesh's Islamist party projects force with a big rally in Dhaka
An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus said the next election would be held in April but his administration did not rule out a possibility of polls in February as strongly demanded by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies.
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Winnipeg Free Press
6 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Biden aide denounces GOP probe as baseless and denies any cover-up
WASHINGTON (AP) — A longtime close aide to President Joe Biden on Wednesday denounced Republican investigations into the former president as 'baseless' in testimony to lawmakers and defended Biden as capable of carrying out his presidential duties 'at all times.' Steve Ricchetti, a senior advisor to Biden during his presidency, wrote in his opening statement to the House Oversight Committee that he was willing to answer lawmakers' questions about Biden's mental state while in office despite Republicans' effort to 'intimidate officials who served in the previous administration.' 'I believe it is important to forcefully rebut this false narrative about the Biden presidency and our role in it,' Ricchetti said. 'There was no nefarious conspiracy of any kind among the president's senior staff, and there was certainly no conspiracy to hide the president's mental condition from the American people,' wrote Ricchetti, who has served as an aide to Biden since 2012. He said Biden was 'fully capable' of carrying out his duties throughout his term. Ricchetti's testimony comes after weeks of appearances from former Biden aides as House Republicans seek to build their investigation, which is central to their oversight agenda as they seek to turn the spotlight back to the last administration. Some former staffers, including Biden's physician, Kevin O'Connor, and Anthony Bernal, a top aide to former first lady Jill Biden, invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and declined to answer questions from the committee. Others, including former White House chief of staff Ron Klain and Neera Tanden, former director of the Domestic Policy Council, have answered the committee's questions at length. The committee will hear from seven more senior Biden staffers in the coming weeks. The Trump White House has launched its own inquiry into Biden. In June, Trump issued an executive order that argued there were 'clear indications' that Biden 'lacked the capacity to exercise his presidential authority' and ordered an investigation into 'whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden's mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the president.' Ricchetti argued the Republican-led inquiries were 'an obvious attempt to deflect from the chaos of this administration's first six months.' He contrasted it with what he said were Biden's accomplishment on issues like infrastructure, inflation, climate policy and the coronavirus response. 'I firmly believe that at all times during my four years in the White House, President Biden was fulfilling his constitutional duties. Did he stumble? Occasionally. Make mistakes? Get up on the wrong side of the bed? He did — we all did. But I always believed — every day — that he had the capability, character, and judgment to be president of the United States,' Ricchetti said. At the heart of the Republican probe is a legal dispute over the Biden White House's use of the autopen, a device used in all presidential administrations to issue the president's signature for laws and executive orders. Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration allege, without evidence, that Biden was not in a cogent state of mind for much of his presidency and that many policies enacted during his time in office may consequently be illegal. Biden has called Trump and House Republicans 'liars' for the claim and said he 'made every single one' of the decisions in office that involved an autopen. Biden's aides are now echoing that sentiment directly to the committee. Republicans are still eager to highlight Biden's various gaffes as a political cudgel against Democrats. Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have largely dismissed House Republicans' probe as a distraction from the Trump administration's agenda. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said Republicans in the probe 'look like losers' after she exited the deposition for Anthony Bernal, the former chief of staff to Jill Biden.
Winnipeg Free Press
6 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Army secretary directs West Point to rescind appointment of Biden-era cybersecurity director
NEW YORK (AP) — The Secretary of the Army on Wednesday directed the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to review its hiring practices, bar outside groups from choosing employees and remove a newly announced hire who led the nation's cybersecurity agency under President Joe Biden. The directive, shared on the social platform X by Secretary Dan Driscoll, came just a day after Jen Easterly was announced as the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in West Point's social sciences department. It demonstrated how vigorously President Donald Trump's administration has sought to wield control over the ideology and leadership of higher education and the military during the president's second term. It also highlighted how deeply concerns about censorship have seeped into the Republican Party and the Trump administration. As the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, Easterly faced harsh criticism from Republicans who argued that her work to counter misinformation about elections and the COVID-19 pandemic amounted to censorship. CISA secures the nation's critical infrastructure, including the nation's dams, banks and nuclear power plants. It also secures voting systems — work that became controversial as Trump has made false claims to create doubt about the integrity of elections in recent years. Easterly has denied claims that her agency censored anyone and said last fall that 'allegations against CISA are riddled with factual inaccuracies.' She said in January she hopes the agency will be allowed to continue its election-related work despite 'contentiousness' around that part of its mission. Driscoll's directive came after far-right activist Laura Loomer posted about Easterly's new role on X, saying 'Biden holdovers' at the Defense Department were 'undermining' Trump's administration. Loomer has frequently urged Trump's administration to purge staffers she deems insufficiently loyal to his agenda, and on multiple occasions, they have been fired. The memo directs West Point to terminate Easterly's agreement with the institution and 'immediately pause non-governmental and outside groups from selecting employees of the Academy, including instructors, professors, teachers and shaping academic or developmental lectures.' It also requests an immediate review of the military training academy's hiring practices. Asked for a reason for the memo, an Army spokesperson said in a statement that ahead of the new academic year, 'we are crafting a deliberate approach to ensure that our future officers are best prepared to meet the demands of the modern battlefield.' Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell was more blunt about the reasoning in a post on X. 'We're not turning cadets into censorship activists,' he said. 'We're turning them into warriors & leaders. We're in the business of warfighting.' Easterly, an Army combat veteran and West Point graduate, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. ___
Winnipeg Free Press
6 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Another Trump administration figure who met Laura Loomer's ire is out. A look at her influence
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump has downplayed the influence of Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur known for her incendiary social media presence, in his administration's decision-making. But the list of administration officials who have drawn Loomer's ire and swiftly thereafter gotten the ax from Trump has been growing. The latest was Dr. Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration's polarizing vaccine chief, who announced this week he was leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of Trump. Prasad had recently become a target of right-wing activists, including Loomer, who flagged Prasad's past statements criticizing Trump and praising liberal independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. Loomer, who has publicly encouraged Trump to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the 'Make America Great Again' agenda, has taken credit for some of the ousters, tearing into some of Trump's allies and advisers and calling out what she calls a 'vetting crisis' within the White House. Trump, meanwhile, has long praised Loomer while distancing himself at times from her most controversial comments and downplaying her direct impact on his choices. Here's a rundown on connections between Loomer's criticism and Trump administration departures: Vocal opposition to Health and Human Services appointees Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Prasad was ousted following several recent controversies. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters. Last week, Loomer posted on X of Prasad, 'How did this Trump-hating Bernie Bro get into the Trump admin???' Prasad did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning. He joined the FDA in May after years as an academic researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, where he frequently criticized the FDA's approach to drug approvals and COVID-19 vaccines. Loomer was also vocal in opposition to Trump's first choice for surgeon general, whose selection was ultimately withdrawn. Trump pulled the nomination of former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat just before Senate confirmation hearings in May. Loomer had posted on X that 'we can't have a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case and who didn't go to medical school in the US' as the surgeon general. Prompting departures at the National Security Council On April 3, Loomer presented 'research findings' to Trump, Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles and others including then-national security adviser Mike Waltz, during an Oval Office meeting, according to people speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. A day later, Trump said he had fired 'some' White House National Security Council officials, downplaying Loomer's influence on the moves. The departures included the director of the National Security Agency, Air Force Gen. Tim Haugh, who also oversaw the Pentagon's Cyber Command, along with Haugh's civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble. When reached for comment, Loomer referred The Associated Press to an X post, saying she was not going to divulge any details about her Oval Office meeting with Trump 'out of respect' for the president. In a subsequent X post, Loomer appeared to take credit for the firings, writing, 'You know how you know the NSC officials I reported to President Trump are disloyal people who have played a role in sabotaging Donald Trump?' She noted, 'the fired officials' were being defended by Trump critics on CNN and MSNBC. Loomer called for Waltz's ouster in the weeks following revelations he had mistakenly added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief to a Signal chat being used to discuss military plans. As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the administration — he was ultimately nominated as United Nations ambassador — she appeared to take credit, writing 'SCALP' in an X post. A 'pressure campaign' targeting the Justice Department Adam Schleifer, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, received an email in March saying he was being terminated 'on behalf of President Donald J. Trump,' according to a person familiar with the matter. The email came exactly an hour after Loomer called for him to be fired in a social media post that highlighted Schleifer's past critical comments about Trump while Schleifer was running in a Democratic primary for a congressional seat in New York. Earlier this month, Loomer took a victory lap after the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a federal prosecutor in Manhattan who worked on the cases against Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Jeffrey Epstein, three people familiar with the matter told The AP. Comey's ouster, Loomer said on X, followed her two-month 'pressure campaign.' Has Loomer spoken out about others? Yes, chief among them Attorney General Pam Bondi. Loomer has called for Bondi's resignation over failure to keep promises to release more files from the Justice Department's sex trafficking investigation of Epstein, branding her a 'total liar.' Earlier this month, following DOJ's revelations that no Epstein 'client list' existed and no more files would be released, Loomer posted on X that she was told that FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was 'seriously thinking about resigning' amid his ongoing clashes with Bondi over the case. Weeks later, both Bondi and Bongino were still on the job. What has Trump said about Loomer's role? In April, Trump denied that Loomer had anything to do with aides being ousted from their jobs at the National Security Council, calling her a 'very good patriot and a very strong person' who only made recommendations. 'Sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody,' Trump said then, adding: 'She's usually very constructive. She recommended certain people for jobs.' Loomer was seen traveling with Trump during last year's campaign, accompanying him on a trip to New York and Pennsylvania as he commemorated the 9/11 attacks. She also traveled with Trump to Philadelphia for a debate against then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Loomer said she never officially joined the campaign after Trump's allies preferred he would keep his distance. After a Harris-related post on X in which Loomer played on racist stereotypes, Trump called Loomer 'a supporter of mine' with 'strong opinions,' but denied knowledge of her comments. He later posted on his Truth Social account that he disagreed with what she had said. ___ Kinnard can be reached at
