Defense Sec. Hegseth refuses to provide lawmakers details on costs of sending Marines to Los Angeles
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has refused to answer questions on the cost of deploying Marines to L.A. when asked by the subcommittee's top Democrat. Rep. Betty McCollum said 'this is a deeply unfair position to put our Marines in.'
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Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
State Department orders departure of nonessential staff from Baghdad embassy
The State Department is ordering the departure of all nonessential staff from its embassy in Baghdad due to concern over increased security risks in the region, according to two State Department officials familiar with the matter. "President Trump is committed to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad. In keeping with that commitment, we are constantly assessing the appropriate personnel posture at all our embassies," one of the officials said. "Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce our Mission in Iraq." The embassy already has a very limited number of nonessential employees, so the order is not expected to impact many individuals. Under the current plan, one official said the U.S. military would not be involved in transporting the nonessential personnel out of the country, but that those plans could change if the situation on the ground calls for it. Another U.S. official said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East as tensions ratchet up between Israel and Iran. -ABC News' Luis Martinez and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report. State Department orders departure of nonessential staff from Baghdad embassy originally appeared on
New York Post
32 minutes ago
- New York Post
MSNBC host tells Colbert that Trump has started to ‘f— around with the military'
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said Tuesday that it felt different to have President Donald Trump 'f— around with the military' in his second term during an interview with late-night host Stephen Colbert. Wallace argued that there were no 'normal Republicans' in Trump's current administration and said 'what's different about Stephen Miller running the ICE raids, and running basically a siege of Los Angeles, is that there is no Mark Esper, Jim Mattis, and that's the big difference, and that is the danger.' Colbert then asked Wallace about the National Guard troops and the Marines that have been sent to Los Angeles to help quell the riots. 'We have seen Trump stretch his presidential powers over the last five months. Is this different?' 'It feels different, it feels different to, can we swear here?' she asked as Colbert said she could. 'To f— around with the military, it feels really different, and he wanted to the first time, but people like Mark Milley, people stopped him. It feels really different to use the military as pawns out loud and as a public tactic. That feels different to me.' A battalion of 700 U.S. Marines are mobilizing in Los Angeles to respond to anti-immigration enforcement riots, just days after Trump deployed the National Guard to the area as well. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded to criticism of Trump's actions on Tuesday, telling Fox News Digital that 'violent rioters in Los Angeles, enabled by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, have attacked American law enforcement, set cars on fire, and fueled lawless chaos.' On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said President Donald Trump 'f— around with the military' had a different feeling compared to what he has done throughout his time in office. Scott Kowalchyk/CBS 'President Trump rightfully stepped in to protect federal law enforcement officers. When Democrat leaders refuse to protect American citizens, President Trump will always step in,' she added. Colbert also asked Wallace about the state of the Democratic Party and asked the MSNBC host if they were 'in danger of an autocrat.' 'I don't know, and I think that, in politics, you are one leader away from a comeback, you're one moody character away from this unlikely hero. And so I think the Democratic Party hasn't rotted. I mean the Democratic Party has not corrupted itself, it hasn't turned on itself in the way that the Republican Party has. And I think the Democratic Party is one leader away from being something fresh and appealing to a majority of others again. I think the Republican Party is still heading down, down, down following Trump and his authoritarian ways,' she said. Wallace claims there are no 'normal Republicans' in Trump's current administration and that the difference is that with Stephen Miller running the ICE raids, it is basically running a siege in Los Angeles, California. AP Wallace previously made headlines earlier this year while covering Trump's address to Congress, during which the president made a 13-year-old cancer survivor, DJ Daniel, an honorary Secret Service agent. 'But I think this was a lesson in finding one thing that you let yourself feel,' Wallace said during her coverage of the address. 'And I let myself feel joy about DJ, and I hope he's alive for another, you know, 95 years, and I hope he lives the life he wants to live. He wants to be a cop. He knows what he wants to do, and maybe when you have childhood cancer, that crystallizes for you.' 'I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer,' she continued. 'But I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump's supporters, and if he does, I hope he isn't one of the six who loses his life to suicide, and I hope he isn't one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.' The MSNBC host was criticized by Trump and the White House at the time.
The Hill
33 minutes ago
- The Hill
Marines deployed near LA have not completed training on use of force, nonlethal weapons
The 700 Marines mobilized to the Los Angeles area on Monday have not yet completed pre-mission training as of Wednesday morning, with no clear picture yet as to whether they will be deployed on the ground, a U.S. Northern Command official confirmed to The Hill. The Marines 'are still conducting pre-mission training and they have not been employed by Task Force 51, the DoD command element in Los Angeles,' a Northcom spokesperson said in a statement. 'I do not have an estimate of when they will be employed.' The training includes standing rules for the use of force and the use of nonlethal weapons. The spokesperson added that no other active-duty Marines have been deployed to other locations and cities at this time. Like the 4,000 California National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles to quell largely peaceful protests against the Trump administration's immigration raids, 'these Marines will protect federal functions, personnel, and property, which includes accompanying federal personnel on missions,' they added. The new statement stands in contrast to a Northcom statement from yesterday, which said the Marines had already been trained in de-escalation, crowd control and standing rules for the use of force. The same day, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said the Marines had received 'in excess of two hours' of the training, and that they would have shields and batons as their equipment. U.S. Army Major General Scott Sherman also told reporters that the Marines are still undergoing 'civil disturbance training and the standing rules of force training.' He also revealed that Guard troops will be able to temporarily detain individuals until law enforcement agents step in to arrest them. 'They are strictly there to detain, to wait for law enforcement to come and handle those demonstrators,' Sherman said. Criticism is growing among Democrats as to the legality of President Trump's decision to deploy U.S. service members to Los Angeles, calling the decision a wildly out-of-proportion response to the situation. 'You are deploying the American military to police the American people; you are sending the National Guard into California without the governor's request, sending the Marines not after foreign threats, but after American protesters,' Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during an Appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday. 'Threatening to use our own troops on our own citizens at such scale is unprecedented, it is unconstitutional, and it is downright un-American,' she continued. Trump, meanwhile, has doubled down on his decision to deploy troops, insisting it is constitutionally legal while calling out California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for not ensuring federal agents were protected. 'The INCOMPETENT Governor of California was unable to provide protection in a timely manner when our Ice Officers, GREAT Patriots they are, were attacked by an out of control mob of agitators, troublemakers, and/or insurrectionists,' Trump wrote on Truth Social early Wednesday. Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth has repeatedly defended the decision to deploy Marines to Los Angeles, including in testimony to Congress.
