Washington Post reports on the State Department IG firing: “I have learned that there may be another reason for Mr. Linick’s firing,” Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement sent to me. “His office was investigating — at my request — Trump’s phony declaration of an emergency so he could send weapons to Saudi Arabia.”
This is connected to this story by the New York Times which came out over the weekend about the Saudi arms deals.
The IG had also “begun an inquiry into Mr. Pompeo’s possible misuse of a political appointee to perform personal tasks for him and his wife, according to Democratic aides. That included walking the dog, picking up dry-cleaning and making restaurant reservations, one said — an echo of the whistle-blower complaint from last year.”
Here is a line from a New York Times piece on intelligence briefings for Trump: Mr. Trump rarely absorbs information that he disagrees with or that runs counter to his worldview, the officials said. Briefing him has been so great a challenge compared with his predecessors that the intelligence agencies have hired outside consultants to study how better to present information to him.
The Trump Administration withdrew from a key arms control accord.
More family separation of immigrants are happening. Here is more from a New York Times report.
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Trump’s Job Approval: 42.9%