Giuliani, Lewandowski among new members of Homeland Security advisory council
President Donald Trump announced his appointments to an advisory council inside the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, with a list that includes a right-wing news commentator, former lawmakers, Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani and a top former campaign adviser.
The announcement by Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the council, established first in 2002, will provide 'real-time, real-world and independent advice on homeland security operations.'
The list includes right-wing political commentator Mark Levin, as well as Giuliani, who helped lead efforts to try and overturn the 2020 election results and was later sued for defamation by two Georgia election workers; a lawsuit he lost before a jury in Washington, DC.
'This new-look, America First HSAC will draw upon a deep well of public and private sector experience from homeland security experts committed to fulfilling President Trump's agenda,' the press release on the new council states.
The appointments also include Corey Lewandowski, a Trump campaign leader in 2016 who is currently a chief adviser to Noem.
Other members of the council include South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who will chair the council, as well as other government officials, attorneys, security experts, as well as the founder of 'Bikers for Trump,' according to DHS.
The council will hold its first meeting early next month.
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CBS News
23 minutes ago
- CBS News
Vallejo asks Solano County for help navigating police staffing crisis, contract concerns delay vote
The city of Vallejo, in an urgent plea, asked the Solano County Sheriff's Office to help it address a critical police staffing shortage. As of Tuesday, the ball remains in Solano County's court to make a final decision on approval. Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to delay the decision to next month at their regular July 22 meeting. It comes as last week the Vallejo city council unanimously voted to approve an $11.2 million contract with the Solano County Sheriff's Office that would allow 17 full-time Solano County Sheriff's deputies and staff members to respond to about half of Vallejo's city limits from noon to midnight, seven days a week spanning the entire calendar year of 2026. Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara said Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors' meeting that he does support helping the Vallejo Police Department navigate this crisis, but his department needs more time to make it work. "Is this the end-all, fix-it plan? No, but for 12 months, if we can give them some breathing room and all the stars align?" the sheriff asked, saying he would want to step in if the details can be worked out. Tuesday, his recommendation to the Board was to revisit approving the contract next month. Chair of the Board of Supervisors Mitch Mashburn agreed. "I want to make sure we have all our ducks in a row and our house in order, just like Vallejo did before we just say, 'Yeah, we want to do this,' " said Mashburn. "There are too many other elements that are factors in this that have to be worked out." The goal is to help get 911 response times down in underserved parts of Vallejo that are seeing unmanageable violent crime. Community members voiced their concern in public comments on Tuesday. "The violence keeps rising and families like mine are left praying every single day that we are not gonna be next. That's why I'm standing here today pleading with you to allow Solano County sheriff's deputies to come in and assist. It's about saving lives, it's about survival," said Vallejo mother Marissa Serafina through tears, who says her own son has been shot twice. In July 2023, CBS13 first reported that the city of Vallejo declared a state of emergency due to the crippling police staffing shortage. Since then, the department says it is working to get its head back above water, but this assistance from the sheriff's office would give them the immediate help and the stability needed to try and achieve full staffing again by 2027. Supervisor Cassandra James was the only "no" vote in Tuesday's decision to delay. James, a Vallejo resident, criticized not taking immediate action. "I also have to deal with the shootings every day, I live in that very community," James said." So it's really important that we do not let process get in the way." Part of the holdup is that the Solano County Deputy Sheriff's Association (DSA), which is the Sheriff's department union, sent a letter to the Vallejo City Council last week in opposition. The DSA says 90% of its members do not support taking on the Vallejo contract. "Prioritizing staffing for Vallejo... will reduce services for unincorporated Solano County. Reassignments from specialized bureaus or reduced patrol staffing will compromise our ability to deliver the high-quality service our citizens expect and erode community trust," the letter reads. "I received a copy of that DSA letter. Many of the elements raised, I really believe, can be resolved," said Vallejo Mayor Andrea Sorce. Sorce and other Vallejo city council members showed up to Tuesday's meeting to plead with the board in public comment to approve the contract. "There should not be lines that divide protecting and serving. There is no reason in a county with such brilliance, able to think outside the box, that we cannot figure this out together to serve Vallejo," said Dr. Tonia Lediju, Vallejo city council member. Two more issues were discussed in great detail at Tuesday's meeting that the sheriff's office needs to figure out within the next month. First, the department needs the board's help in fast-tracking the process of getting additional police vehicles outfitted to serve the Vallejo community. In addition, Sheriff Ferrara says he recently learned in an HR memo that his department could lose eight formerly retired deputies who came back onto the force thanks to a state law change to help address understaffing. The department has to work with CalPERS, the state's retirement and pension agency, to make sure they can keep those eight retired annuity deputy sheriffs, otherwise the deal with Vallejo might not work. "If I lose those eight now, I have got to hire 25," Ferrara said, adding if this happens, the department will be 'dead in the water' and calling these next steps a 'heavy lift." Ferrara promised he would do his best to find a resolution. The supervisors could end up scheduling an emergency meeting in early July if those labor issues and contract negotiations are quickly resolved. Otherwise, the Board is expected to vote on the contract on July 22.
New York Times
23 minutes ago
- New York Times
Live Updates: Trump Pushes Allies on Military Spending at NATO Summit
President Trump has cut funding and specialists from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which helps protect the nation's power grids, elections and water utilities. Soon after the United States bombed Iran's critical nuclear facilities, the Trump administration warned that Iran could seek revenge by inspiring violent extremists or launching cyberattacks against U.S. networks. But many of the federal programs or resources that would defend the nation against such attacks have been scaled back significantly in recent months, after Mr. Trump slashed the federal bureaucracy and reoriented much of the national security apparatus to help with his immigration crackdown. Mr. Trump has cut funding and specialists from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, which helps protect the nation's power grids, elections and water utilities. In a sign of the heightened risk of a cyberattack, the F.B.I. directed officials in recent days to assist the cybersecurity agency in protecting critical infrastructure, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. But that directive came after F.B.I. officials tasked with working on cybersecurity or counterintelligence were asked to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement on routine deportations. The administration has also purged decades of experience at the highest ranks of the F.B.I., heightening concerns that the bureau might be unprepared to deal with myriad crises that the agency faces on a daily basis, let alone the possibility of Iran taking revenge on American soil. Image The F.B.I., led by Kash Patel, has directed officials in recent days to assist the cybersecurity agency in protecting critical infrastructure. Credit... Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times And the administration has proposed breaking up a little-known office tasked with detecting potential chemical, biological and nuclear attacks against the United States. 'We are less safe now than we were on Jan. 20 because of the indiscriminate cuts by DOGE, that shift in priority to focus exclusively on immigration and not on counterterrorism or other national security threats, and the loss of institutional knowledge about those national security threats,' said Mary Ellen Callahan, the former assistant secretary of homeland security for the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office, which Mr. Trump has proposed disbanding. 'We are less safe now and the risks are higher now.' Mr. Trump's aides maintain that his policies have restored national security to the United States by tightening its borders and pursuing sweeping deportations of immigrants in the country without legal status. The Department of Homeland Security has been quick to publicize arrests over the weekend of 11 Iranians in the United States illegally, including one who was on a terrorism watch list. And the White House has sought to redirect attention to the Biden administration's border policies, contending that the record number of migrants who crossed into the United States in recent years posed a significant risk to the nation. 'We're doing everything that we can to keep our people safe,' Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday. 'This is one of the reasons why border security is national security: is if you let a bunch of crazy people into your country, those crazy people can eventually take action. We're going to do everything that we can to make sure that doesn't happen and to keep Americans safe.' The approach by the Trump administration, however, ignores some of the more modern ways that Iran or its proxy groups could target the United States, according to national security officials. And even though Iran and Israel have agreed to a cease-fire, national security officials warned that the nation was still exposed to retaliation from Iran or its proxies, particularly one cloaked in sensitive computer systems. Image A rally in support of the Iranian armed forces in Tehran on Tuesday. Credit... Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times 'We are not out of the woods yet in terms of what Iran will try to do as payback,' said Thomas S. Warrick, a former counterterrorism official in the Trump, Obama and Bush administrations. 'But there's a host of D.H.S. programs that were intended to help defend the United States homeland from those attacks, and we're going to find that many of those programs have been adversely affected.' Mr. Trump and his allies have long held animosity for CISA, the agency he signed into law in his first term that would eventually declare the 2020 election was one of the best-run in history — undercutting Mr. Trump's claims. In early March, Mr. Trump slashed more than $10 million in funding to two critical cybersecurity intelligence-sharing programs that helped detect and deter cyberattacks and alerted state and local governments about forthcoming attacks on cybernetworks. CISA has also canceled contracts that affected more than a hundred cybersecurity specialists with a range of specialties. In its 2026 budget request, the administration also proposed cutting more than 1,000 positions from the agency, which is funded to hire more than 3,700 people. 'It takes a huge toll on our readiness to meet the challenges like what we may face if Iran chooses to retaliate in the United States in some way,' said Suzanne Spaulding, a homeland security under secretary for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure in the Obama administration. 'Not only do you have a decimated work force and fewer people — you've lost experts and institutional knowledge, and expertise has walked out the door.' In that budget request, the administration also proposed dismantling the office tasked with countering weapons of mass destruction and absorbing its functions into other parts of the department — an action that Ms. Callahan said would 'dissipate the mission.' At the same time, Mr. Trump is hoping to secure about $175 billion in new spending to enforce his ambitious anti-immigration agenda through his domestic policy legislation, which is still making its way through Congress. The administration has also redirected many federal agents to assist ICE for its deportation campaign, including F.B.I. agents who have been pulled from their usual tasks of cybersecurity, counterintelligence or criminal work. Image ICE agents in New York last month. Thousands of federal agents have been pulled into Mr. Trump's immigration plans. Credit... Dakota Santiago for The New York Times The Times reported in May that the Justice Department decided that about 2,000 of its federal agents — from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — were required to help find and arrest undocumented immigrants for the remainder of the year. But in the days since the attack on Iran, F.B.I. officials are pivoting to address the threats posed by Iran. 'Perhaps, in hindsight, forcing out the most experienced national security senior executives, and having counterterrorism and counter intelligence agents and analysts spend their time assisting on immigration roundups, might not have been the most well-thought-out ideas,' said Michael Feinberg, a former F.B.I. agent who spent years handling national security matters before abruptly leaving the bureau several weeks ago. The F.B.I., in a statement, declined to comment on personnel decisions but said the agency does 'continuously assess and realign our resources to respond to the most pressing threats to our national security and to ensure the safety of the American people.' Mike Sena, the president of an association representing information-gathering 'fusion centers' spread across the country that are partially funded by the Department of Homeland Security, said he noticed that many of the federal officials who worked with state and local law enforcement agencies had left their jobs. Many of his peers in the law enforcement community are also concerned that they may not be able to rely on federal funding. 'How do you sustain and maintain the capabilities from even a year ago when folks aren't there anymore?' Mr. Sena said.
Fox News
23 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump slams Bibi over ceasefire violations, denounces cable channels over skepticism
It was a manic-depressive episode that unfolded in just half a day. President Trump was in a celebratory mood late Monday when he announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire within 24 hours–a development that, let's face it, few thought was possible. "CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!" he posted. This, he proclaimed, would mark "an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR" and "will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL." He even closed with this: "God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!" Well, that was then. By early yesterday morning, Trump was furious. There were violations of the shaky ceasefire by both sides, with an Iranian missile killing at least four Israelis in an apartment building. But Trump was particularly angry with the bigger barrage by Israel, as if he had been betrayed, demanding that Bibi Netanyahu and his leaders "cool down." Trump dropped an F-bomb on both countries, saying they "don't know what the f--- they're doing." They had spoiled his scenario. An achievement that would have put him on the path for a Nobel Prize, given the hostile relations between the terror state and the Jewish state, which has fought several wars against Iranian proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, since its founding in 1948. Unless the Norwegian academy is too liberal to ever bestow such an honor on a Trump. (A GOP congressman has just nominated him.) If you're feeling a little whiplash, you're not alone. After all, it was just a few days ago that Trump said he'd decide "within two weeks" whether to launch an attack on Iran. That and other deceptions made it seem like nothing was imminent. Then there was the strange detour about "regime change" – why not call it that? – and saying the administration knew where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding. But that went against the company line that we were only at war with Iran's nuclear program, pushed by JD Vance and others. That in turn was superseded by Trump announcing he had secured a ceasefire with Israel and Iran – which was news to the vice president as he sat down with Fox's Bret Baier. The undeniable success of the mission has muted the criticism of many Democrats and liberals, who are constitutionally incapable of praising Trump while accusing him of violating the Constitution. (The issue of congressional consultation is legit, but we can't have 535 commanders-in-chief – and Joe Biden and Barack Obama took similar unilateral actions.) AOC, as a leading example, has called for Trump's impeachment – and the president has unloaded on her. The posting: "Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the 'dumbest' people in Congress, is now calling for my Impeachment, despite the fact that the Crooked and Corrupt Democrats have already done that twice before. The reason for her 'rantings' is all of the Victories that the U.S.A. has had under the Trump Administration. The Democrats aren't used to WINNING, and she can't stand the concept of our Country being successful again. When we examine her Test Scores, we will find out that she is NOT qualified for office." Test scores? Not qualified? Ocasio-Cortez graduated from Boston University, where she double-majored in international relations and economics. And since when is there an educational standard for the presidency? There's more: "What a disaster it was! AOC should be forced to take the Cognitive Test that I just completed at Walter Reed Medical Center… "Alexandria should go back home to Queens, where I was also brought up, and straighten out her filthy, disgusting, crime ridden streets, in the District she 'represents,' and which she never goes to anymore." AOC responded on X: "Mr. President, don't take your anger out on me – I'm just a silly girl… "Take it out on whoever convinced you to betray the American people and our Constitution by illegally bombing Iran and dragging us into war. It only took you 5 months to break almost every promise you made." This is all symbolic, as Ocasio-Cortez well knows, but plays well with her left-wing base. Yesterday, in fact, the House voted to table an impeachment resolution, with 128 Democrats – more than half – joining all Republicans in deep-sixing it. In the end, POTUS appeared to get the ceasefire back on track. Trump called Netanyahu and said that "our U.S. military did what we needed to do," a senior White House official told the Washington Post. "I wouldn't say the prime minister enthusiastically agreed, but he understood that President Trump is no longer going to be militarily involved in this conflict." Bibi soon announced that he would respect the ceasefire as long as the other side does, and Iran's president made similar comments. Trump, before flying off to the NATO summit at The Hague, turned his anger on the press. He said of the underground nuclear enrichment site called Fordow: "I think it's been completely demolished. I think the reason we're here is because those pilots, those B-2 pilots, did an unbelievable job. "And, you know, the fake news, like CNN in particular, they're trying to say, 'Well, I agree that it was destroyed, but maybe not that destroyed.' "You know what they're doing? They're really hurting great pilots that put their lives on the line! CNN is SCUM! And so is MSDNC. "And frankly, the networks aren't much better. It's all fake news, but they should not have done that. "Those pilots hit their targets. Those targets were obliterated, and the pilots should be given credit. They're not after the pilots. They're after me. They want to try and demean me." He also dragged in Brian Roberts, head of MSNBC's parent company, which Trump called "Con"cast. But his demand that the two networks apologize to the pilots doesn't hold water. They were brave regardless of the impact of their 30,000-pound payloads. All CNN and MSNBC did was air stories questioning the level of damage, particularly at Fordow. Trump's contention was further undermined by this New York Times exclusive: "A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran's nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, according to officials familiar with the findings. "The early findings conclude that the strikes over the weekend set back Iran's nuclear program by only a few months, the officials said. That, my friends, is the fog of war.
