Latest news with #BidenWhiteHouse
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Issue Is: Alex Thompson and 'Original Sin'
LOS ANGELES - "Original Sin" by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson is the best-selling book in America this week, according to the New York Times. It's dominated the political conversation more than any other book has in years. Co-author Alex Thompson joins us this week on "The Issue Is:" to talk about what was really going on at the Biden White House, reaction to the book, and changes that are needed in the media going forward. "The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson" is California's statewide political show. Watch more episodes at
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
FBI reopens investigation into cocaine at White House, leaked Dobbs opinion
The FBI has decided to reopen or push for more resources for three major cases that garnered high-profile interest -- and drew ire from some congressional Republicans, Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced on Monday. The cases include a 2021 pipe bomber, the cocaine found at the Biden White House over the Fourth of July weekend in 2023 and a leaked landmark Supreme Court opinion. "Shortly after swearing in, the Director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest," Bongino posted on X. "We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases. "I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress," he added. "If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us then please contact the FBI." MORE: FBI has opened 250 investigations tied to violent online network '764' that preys on teens, top official says In July 2023, over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, cocaine was found at the White House, but the Secret Service closed the case on July 12, 2023, saying it couldn't identify a suspect. The cocaine was found in an area that the White House said hundreds of people had access to and that there was no security footage of the incident. "Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered," the FBI said in a statement that July. "At this time, the Secret Service's investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence." House Republicans criticized the closure of the investigation, saying it raised security concerns at the White House. "This alarming development requires the Committee to assess White House security practices and determine whose failures led to an evacuation of the building and finding of the illegal substance," House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., wrote on July 7 to then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. The FBI is also looking into who leaked the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, sending abortion rights decisions down to the state level. The Supreme Court's investigative authority looked into the leak but couldn't determine who the leaker was. MORE: Photos show cocaine found inside White House complex in July The pipe bombing case occurred when two explosive devices were placed outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee offices in Washington, D.C., a day before the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. The case has vexed law enforcement and was a talking point of FBI Director Kash Patel's even before he assumed his post as head of the FBI. Law enforcement has been unable to find out who placed the devices despite video evidence of the incidents. FBI reopens investigation into cocaine at White House, leaked Dobbs opinion originally appeared on
Fox News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Axios reporter pushes back on Biden's denial of mental decline, saying White House insiders disagree
Axios reporter Alex Thompson remarked Thursday that members of the Biden White House would "disagree" with President Joe Biden's assertion that claims about his mental decline were false. During an interview on "The View," President Joe Biden and his wife Jill were asked about new books from Democratic sources that claimed there was a "dramatic decline" in the president's mental faculties during the later part of his term. "They are wrong," Joe Biden responded. "There's nothing to sustain that." Jill Biden added, "One of the things, I think, is that the people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us. And they didn't see how hard Joe worked every single day. I mean, he'd get up. He'd put in a full day, and then at night he would — I'd be in bed, you know, reading my book, and he was still on the phone, reading his briefings. Working with staff. I mean, it was nonstop." CNN host Boris Sanchez asked Thompson on "CNN News Central" later that day to respond to Biden's comments, leading the Axios reporter to insist there was not only a decline but a cover-up as well. "Well, I'd say, our reporting shows that many people inside the Biden White House disagree, and they do believe that there was a significant decline and a cover-up of that, especially in 2023 and 2024," Thompson said. Thompson recently accepted the White House Correspondents' Association's Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage. His reporting closely documented Biden's disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump, the events leading up to it, and Biden's eventual decision to exit the race. During his acceptance speech, he called out the mainstream media for largely ignoring signs of Biden's decline until it couldn't be denied anymore. "President Biden's decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception," Thompson said. "Some people trust [the media] less because of it," he said. "We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows. I say this because acknowledging errors builds trust, and being defensive about them further erodes it." Thompson concluded, "We should have done better."
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Sorry, not Sorry': Trump administration goes silent on boarding school history
Mary Annette Pember ICT The advancements made in the United States in recent years to officially face up to its ugly Indian boarding school history are being walked back under President Donald Trump. The Trump administration announced in April that at least $1.6 million in funding had been slashed for projects meant to capture and digitize the stories of systemic abuse of generations of Indigenous children in government-run boarding schools. Now questions are being raised about the removal of details from the White House website of President Joe Biden's historic apology for Indian boarding schools and his proclamation a few weeks later that the former site of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School would become a national monument. SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. CONTRIBUTE TODAY. Both announcements have been scrubbed from the website, which responds to links with an '404 error' message. The Carlisle proclamation appears to have been moved to a government web page described as 'Biden White House Archives.' 'This is historical material 'frozen in time,'' according to a statement at the top of the archived page with Biden's Carlisle proclamation. 'The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.' Related: Historic Apology: Boarding school history 'a sin on our soul' Other statements suggest some of the measures may have been rescinded by the Trump administration. An archived statement posted by outgoing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Jan. 6, 2025, includes links to the apology and the Carlisle proclamation, with a warning note at the top. 'You are viewing ARCHIVED content published online before January 20, 2025. Please note that this content is NOT UPDATED, and links may not work,' the notice states. 'Additionally, any previously issued diversity, equity, inclusion or gender-elated guidance on this webpage should be considered rescinded.' ICT's requests for comment received no response from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, nor from press representatives from the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the Office of Army Cemeteries. 'A sin on our soul' The U.S. made great strides toward officially facing its Indian boarding school history during Biden's years in office, including a year-long Federal Indian Boarding School initiative launched by then-Interior Secretary Haaland, who is Laguna Pueblo and a descendent of boarding school survivors. As part of the initiative, Haaland traveled across the country on a 'Road to Healing' tour that gathered testimony from survivors and their families. The initiative also began the process of documenting the thousands of Indigenous students who were forced from their families and taken to boarding schools, which sought to wipe out Native people, culture and language. The Department of the Interior released two Indian boarding school investigative reports in 2022 and 2024. The final report included a series of recommendations for the government, starting with an apology. Biden issued the historic apology at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona on Oct. 25, 2024, in an emotional speech that brought tears to many in the crowd, describing federal Indian boarding school policies as 'a sin on our soul.' 'I formally apologize today as President of the United States of America for what we did,' he said. 'I apologize, apologize, apologize!' As first reported in The New York Times on May 1, the link to Biden's apology has been deleted from the White House website. Biden's apology could not be found on other government websites, either, although a chronological slide show of his presidency in the archives includes one photo of the event. Related: Honoring the children: Biden proclaims new national monument at Carlisle Biden followed up the apology with a proclamation in December 2024 designating the Carlisle Indian Industrial School site as a national monument. Although the proclamation is no longer on the White House website, an archived version remains and a description of the monument — which would be the 432nd site in the national park system — remains on the National Park Service website. Biden proclaimed the Pennsylvania school site a national monument under the Antiquities Act, which authorizes the president to declare, at his discretion, historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures and other objects of historic or scientific interest, as national monuments, safeguarding them from harm. According to Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, about half of the country's national parks were first protected under the Antiquities Act, and they note that no court has ever overturned a president's monument designation. Earthjustice leadership says that nothing in the Antiquities Act authorizes the president to remove lands from a national monument, but the Yale Journal on Regulation published an opinion earlier this year that a general discretionary revocation power exists for the president that authorizes him to reverse the designation. According to the National Park Service, not all of the national monuments proclaimed by presidents over the past century are still national monuments. Eleven have been abolished by acts of Congress. Some of the designations were removed because resources for which the monument was originally established diminished or were determined to be of less significance, or because of mismanagement or other problems. 'Start with the truth' Questions remain whether the advances made in recent years for Indigenous people will last through the latest Trump administration. A string of federal layoffs cut off resources in the Indian Health Service, the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education, and other agencies that impact tribal communities. Tribal colleges and universities also faced cuts. Some of the cuts were rescinded by the Trump administration or by judicial orders, but reports continue to surface about problems accessing funds that should still be available. In April, the Trump administration announced the reduction of $1.6 million for the boarding school digitizing project. The cuts to the digitization project were among a string of grants canceled by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition lost more than $282,000, halting its work to digitize boarding school records. Also terminated was a $30,000 grant for a project between the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Alaska Native Heritage Center to record and broadcast oral histories of elders in Alaska. NABS and the other grant recipients received identical letters saying the grants "no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities," signed by Michael McDonald, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. "If we're looking to 'Make America Great Again,' then I think it should start with the truth about the true American history," said Deborah Parker, a citizen of the Tulalip Tribes and chief executive of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. This article contains material from The Associated Press. Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT's free newsletter.
