TV News LIES

The Trump administration’s lead diplomat on Iran, Brian Hook, has announced his resignation days before the US attempts a high-stakes gambit against Tehran at the United Nations.

He will be replaced by Elliott Abrams, who will combine the Iran special representative job with his current role as special envoy for Venezuela. Abrams is a hawk on both countries – and has combined Iranian and Latin American issues before, when he was a significant figure in the Iran-Contra affair under the Reagan administration.

Hook, until now a rare survivor at the top levels of the state department in the maelstrom of the Trump era, did not give a reason for his resignation, claiming the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran had been “very successful”.

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According to a joint filing by lawyers for Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, the president plans by July 27 to file a complaint raising arguments against Vance’s grand jury subpoena, which Trump said the nation’s highest court allowed him to make.

Vance countered that most of these arguments have already been rejected in the litigation, and Trump deserves no special treatment because he is president. The district attorney agreed not to enforce the subpoena through July 27.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan has scheduled a Thursday hearing on the matter.

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Donald Trump is planning to restart rallies in the next two weeks in a major turning point for the president since the coronavirus shut down traditional campaigning.

Trump’s advisers are still determining where the rallies will take place and what safety measures will be implemented, depending on the type of venue chosen. Campaign manager Brad Parscale is expected to present Trump with possibilities within the next few days.

The president has been itching to resume his boisterous rallies, his favorite way to connect with supporters and let off steam. He's planning to use the events to drive home what is expected to be a major theme of his campaign: that he is the leader of the country’s reopening and economic rebound. Trump held a hastily-called press conference Friday to celebrate an unexpectedly strong jobs report, and his campaign immediately began running a massive ad campaign seizing on the news.

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Breaking with President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper says he doesn't support using the military to quell protests triggered by the death of George Floyd.

“I don’t think they need to be used,” Esper told NBC News in an exclusive interview Tuesday night. “We have more than enough National Guard capacity out there.”

Esper expanded on those remarks in a press briefing on Wednesday.

“I say this not only as Secretary of Defense but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard,” Esper said.

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In an extraordinary resignation letter, provided to The Washington Post, James Miller resigned from his post at the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board.

Miller, a former undersecretary of defense for policy, cited Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s participation in President Donald Trump’s Monday night photo op in front of St. John’s Church.

The resignation comes as the nation braced for its eighth night of protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd. Here is part of the letter:

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