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The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump says Gabbard and US intelligence ‘wrong' on Iran nukes as he warns Tehran could have bomb in ‘weeks'
President Donald Trump on Friday slammed his handpicked Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Intelligence Community's assessment of Iran's nuclear weapons program and claimed Tehran could produce a working weapon within 'a matter of weeks' while offering no evidence to support the alarming assertion. The president was speaking to reporters after arriving in New Jersey, where he will spend the weekend at one of the golf resorts he owns while occasionally huddling with advisers regarding Israel's week-old war against Tehran. When he was asked to compare the current claims being made about Iran's nuclear program with the assertions made about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 American invasion, Trump replied that the difference is that Iraq had no such weapons and claimed that he never believed Iraq possessed any to begin with. But he then pivoted to claiming that Iran has a 'tremendous amount' of nuclear material, which he said could permit the Islamic Republic to produce a working weapon 'within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months.' 'We can't let that happen,' he said. Trump's claims about Iran's nuclear program directly contradict what Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Congress during a hearing last month on worldwide national security threats. The former Hawaii congresswoman, who testified under oath, said the U.S. Intelligence Community 'continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon' and noted that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had 'not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.' 'She's wrong.'
Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Biden blasted for rude behavior on Amtrak trains while commuting to new DC office
Former President Joe Biden has reportedly been flouting Amtrak etiquette on his beloved rail commute as he infuriates other passengers with his antics. The 82-year-old has been commuting between his Delaware home and a government-provided Washington DC office on a weekly basis in recent times. But not everyone is happy the former commander-in-chief is back riding the rails, as he has reportedly been breaking Amtrak's strict rules on noise in its silent sections. 'He was talking in the quiet car!' one frustrated Amtrak passenger told the New York Post. The outlet further alleged that despite Biden's long history with rail travel, earning him the nickname 'Amtrak Joe' as he famously commuted on the rail throughout his 36 years in the Senate, he has forgotten other Amtrak norms. Biden recently asked for ice cream as a snack from the train's cafe, not knowing it doesn't serve his favorite snack. In recent weeks, social media users have shared random sightings of the former president on Amtrak, seemingly in disbelief he takes the low-key route to DC. But the reason for his repeat trips back to his DC office have also been confusing observers, as many question what he is working on since leaving office. Although some say Biden's Amtrak trips are ruining their commutes, one witness told the Post that it is not entirely his fault. 'If he's talking, it's because he's constantly approached,' they said. 'That is always a criticism of him — that he's too soft spoken! No winning.' Since dropping out of the 2024 election over concerns about his age and cognitive decline, several former staffers now say they are confused at what he is doing on his weekly trips back to DC. 'It's really a mystery,' a former Biden aide said. 'They're supposed to be setting up library stuff but no one has heard anything. We're all wondering the same thing because he doesn't go to restaurants or anything public around here.' An insider told the Post that he often spends time in the office and calls Democrats to pass the time, however many may wish to avoid being too closely tied to the former president following the election drubbing in November. 'He's also been attending events which are sometimes coordinated through the office,' they said. 'He was just in Galveston, Texas, to attend a Juneteenth service as a recent example. Separately, he's working on his book and library and foundation phases of post-presidency.' It comes as Biden has faced a torrid few months since leaving the White House, as former staffers quickly came out to criticize his presidency and apparent cognitive decline. He was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May, with doctors saying the disease has already spread to his bones. This month, the former White House physician to President Barack Obama, Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, spoke out on the health rumors as he admitted that Biden should have undergone far more stringent cognitive testing during his presidency. Kuhlman didn't mince words warning that Biden should have been subjected to extensive annual neurocognitive exams and that the results should be made public.' My position is that a 78-year-old candidate, Trump at the time, an 82-year-old president [Biden], would both benefit from neurocognitive testing,' Kuhlman stated, noting how age-related decline is inevitable. 'Any politician over the age of 70 has normal age-related cognitive decline.' Kuhlman, the author of Transforming Presidential Healthcare, has been making these recommendations for nearly a year - notably publishing them in a New York Times op-ed on the very day Biden bowed out of the 2024 race. Despite multiple detailed physicals during Biden's time in office, Kuhlman pointed out that none included neurocognitive assessments like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) - a basic test famously taken and 'aced' by President Trump. 'I have no doubt that President Trump aced it,' Kuhlman remarked. Yet Biden's evaluations, spanning five to six single-spaced pages and referencing 10 to 20 specialists, conspicuously omitted any serious cognitive screening.
The Independent
39 minutes ago
- The Independent
Republicans weigh Medicaid changes amid ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill's' unpopularity
This week, Senate Republicans released the tax and health care parts for their version of President Donald Trump's desired 'One Big, Beautiful Bill.' But they face a huge problem: The bill is becoming incredibly unpopular. A poll from Ipsos and The Washington Post found that a plurality of Americans oppose the bill, with 42 percent opposing it, 34 percent saying they have no opinion and 23 percent saying they support it. Specifically, they are grappling with the unpopularity of the bill's changes to Medicaid. And it does not show signs of letting up. On Monday, the Senate Finance Committee released the text of its part of the bill. During the debate around the bill in the House, Republicans made it so that able-bodied adults without dependent children would have to work, participate in education or community service for 80 hours a month. Conservative Republicans lobbied to make the work requirements begin in 2026 rather than 2029. The Senate bill goes even further. For one, it lowers the age at which children are considered dependent to 14 years old. That means parents of children older than 14 would have to work to keep their Medicaid. Sen. Jim Justice, a freshman from West Virginia, defended the work requirements. 'Biblically, we are supposed to work,' he told The Independent. 'We have taken the dignity and the hope and the belief away from a lot of people where they are hopeless, they think they can't. ' According to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, about 29 percent of West Virginians are on Medicaid and 62 percent of West Virginians on Medicaid work either part-time or full-time. It seems Republicans know how politically caustic touching Medicaid might be. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a freshman from Ohio, tore into reporters. 'You guys really need to report it accurately, though, which is we're actually increasing the amount of money we're spending on Medicaid,' Moreno told The Independent this week. 'We're spending more on Medicaid. We're also eliminating the abuse by able-bodied adults, and we're reinstating the fact that Medicaid is for people who need it.' Trump has said he wants the bill done by the July 4th holiday. Earlier this week, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz, the television host, met with Senate Republicans to discuss the bill. The legislation also seeks to cap the level of provider taxes. To pay for Medicaid, many states levy taxes on facilities like hospitals or nursing homes. This often allows for states to collect the money to receive matching funds from the federal government. Under the proposed bill, states that did not expand Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act signed by then-President Barack Obama, would be prohibited from raising provider taxes. States that did expand Medicaid would see their provider taxes reduced by 0.5 percent annually until they are capped at 3.5 percent in 2031. 'The provider tax is a way around the match,' Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota told The Independent. 'The whole point is for us to get after waste, fraud and abuse, and the provider tax is a way for states to avoid putting up their share of the match.' Sen. Ron Johnson, a fiscal hawk who has wanted the bill to slash even more spending, went a step further. 'It's legalized fraud, it's not health care,' the Wisconsin Republican told The Independent. 'Why are we paying for taxes reimbursing state taxes and fees? It's absurd.' But the proposal in the bill raised alarm bells for hospitals, since Medicaid accounts for 19 percent of all hospital revenue, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Many rural hospitals also rely on Medicaid given the large number of rural residents who are on Medicaid. Chip Kahn, the CEO and president of the Federation of American Hospitals, said in a statement earlier this week that the Senate text made the bill worse. 'Rural communities across the country will be the hardest hit, with struggling hospitals compelled to face difficult decisions about what services to cut,' he said. 'It's imperative Senators take a detour on this text and reject its deepening of the House cuts already on the table.' But it's not just the hospital lobby that hates the text so far. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, the biggest defender of Medicaid among Senate Republicans, criticized the provisions. 'I'm totally surprised by what they proposed to do on the provider tax I don't know why we would defund rural hospitals to pay for Chinese solar panels,' he told The Independent, referring to the fact that Senate version draws down the renewable energy credits from Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act at a slower pace than the House's version of the bill does. Hawley later said that he spoke with Trump about the subject. 'I think that you know he's he does not want to have Medicaid benefits cut,' Hawley said, adding that Trump doesn't want to see rural hospitals hurt either. But Hawley is not the only Republican worried about the effect on hospitals. Sen. Susan Collins, who faces a tough re-election in Maine in a state Trump lost. 'I'm looking at whether there would be receptivity to a provider relief fund that would be aimed at rural hospitals, nursing homes and community health centers,' Collins told reporters on Wednesday. 'I've not endorsed in any way, a provider tax change.'
