US LAUNCHES STRIKES AGAINST IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS IN YEMEN
U.S. and UK military forces carried out air strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Thursday, with support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain.
President Joe Biden said he ordered the strikes in response to a series of unprecedented and escalating attacks by Houthi rebels on U.S. and international maritime vessels in the Red Sea, one of the world’s most crucial waterways for commercial shipping.
A senior administration official said yesterday evening that the strikes specifically targeted Houthi missile, radar, and UAV capabilities to disrupt and degrade their ability to threaten global trade and freedom of navigation in the shipping thoroughfare.
“This was a significant action,” a senior administration official said, adding that it was carried out with every intention and expectation of significantly reducing the Houthis’ ability to launch the types of attacks that they have carried out in recent weeks.
The U.S. and UK strikes on Houthi-controlled facilities in Yemen received “non-operational support” from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain, according to a senior military officer, who said the strikes did not target civilians in Yemen.
“I can reemphasize to you that these targets were very specifically selected for minimizing the risk of collateral damage. We were absolutely not targeting civilian population centers. We were going after very specific capability and very specific locations with precision munitions,” the senior military officer said.
Attacks by Houthi rebels, which began in mid-November, have impacted the international commercial shipping of more than 50 countries and have escalated in recent days to include direct targeting of American ships. The Houthis, who support Hamas, claim their attacks are in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
The senior administration official emphasized the president’s statement that if the attacks continue, the president “will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
—Caden Pearson and Emel Akan
TRUMP SPEAKS IN CLOSING ARGUMENTS
After lengthy back-and-forth about whether Donald Trump would have an opportunity to speak in his defense during closing arguments in an exhaustive and, for some, exhausting civil fraud case, the former president and front-running 2024 Republican candidate finally got permission from New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron to address the court for five minutes on Nov. 11.
But in a fashion reminiscent of earlier phases of the trial, particularly when Trump took the stand in November, the judge cautioned that the defendant had to stay strictly on topic.
Conscious of the tight time limit and the number of issues raised in the trial—as well as the $370 million stakes—Trump got right down to business.
“Well, I think, your honor, that the financial statements were perfect, the banks got all their money back, and the banks are happy as can be,” Trump said.
His comments recapitulated arguments that the defense has taken pains to make over and over again during the trial, which has been running, with intermissions, since Oct. 2. Namely, that the statements of financial condition (SFoCs) that New York’s attorney general charges contained inflated valuations were estimates prepared in keeping with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and that—just as critically—none of the lenders and insurers Trump supposedly duped have accused him of fraud or of being a deadbeat. On the contrary, they have actively sought to grow business with the Trump Organization.
To bolster this point, Trump recalled conversations he had with representatives of Zurich Insurance Group. On the evidence of those exchanges, Trump suggested, you would have to conclude that he was, from their point of view, a model customer, not a grifter deserving of a massive and crippling disgorgement.
“I mentioned Zurich. I spoke to an executive at Zurich, they said ‘You didn’t defraud us,’” Trump recalled.
In his next statement, Trump partly disregarded Justice Engoron’s strictures, and made a segue into what he considers to be the larger issues at play in the trial.
“There wasn’t one witness against us—this is a political witch hunt—that was set aside. We should receive damages for what they’ve taken this company through. We have millions of pages of documents, they have nothing,” Trump continued.
He also reiterated his defense team’s case that, given his net worth, the idea that he and his associates had to cook the books in order to pose as creditworthy is questionable on its face. If a small discrepancy turned up in the SFoCs, it does not amount to fraud.
“The amount of money you’re talking about, compared to the billions of dollars of net worth, is irrelevant, it’s virtually irrelevant. It’s a very small number,” he said.
In his next statement, Trump directly challenged the judge’s decree that it was immaterial and inappropriate for him to raise issues outside the scope of SFocS, valuations, assessments, and other technical real estate matters.
“When you say don’t go outside these things, we have a situation where I’m an innocent man, I’ve been persecuted by somebody running for office. The legal scholars talking about this case, they find it disgraceful. This is the first time you’ve ever used this [consumer protection] statute, the statute is vicious, it is in fact a statute used for consumer fraud,” he said.
Trump went on to say that he was the victim of fraud here, when he really deserved credit for “a lot of great things” he had done for New York.
Justice Engoron accused Trump of ignoring his explicit instructions and behaving in a manner unworthy of his courtroom. He spoke to Trump’s lawyer, Christopher Kise, as if the defendant were an unruly child in need of stern discipline.
“Mr. Kise, please control your client,” the judge said.
The defense’s closing statements ended at 12:50 p.m. and then after lunch the prosecution spent the afternoon summarizing its case against Trump.
—Michael Washburn
TRUMP FANS IN IOWA
They just might be Iowa’s “Trumpiest” family.
Because of a chance encounter that created a powerful personal connection, eight members of the same Iowa family started working on the reelection campaign of former President Donald Trump.
At a church service in December, Tim and Terra Krachenfels, parents of 12 children ages 2–22, met Leo Terrell, a former Democrat who now shows up regularly on Fox News to talk about how much he supports Trump.
The Krachenfels family had supported Trump ever since he first ran for office in 2015, but hadn’t been politically active. Then Terrell asked them: “Have you ever thought about working on the campaign?”
His question changed their lives.
Terra and Tim, plus their six eldest children, have all been organizing phone calls to drum up support for Trump. They have made about 100,000 robocalls in just three weeks.
The four oldest children are working 12-hour shifts most days; their parents and two of the younger siblings have only been able to help out now and then.
As far as the Trump campaign knows, no other Iowa family has more members volunteering their time to help the former president get re-elected.
Their efforts are getting noticed. Campaign staff members made it possible for several of the Krachenfels volunteers to meet Trump.
Now, partly because of this experience, two of the children, Jayce, 22, and Conner, 18, now aspire to run for political office.
The two young men have been invited to help the Trump campaign outside of Iowa, too.
—Janice Hisle
SPENDING CLASH
Conservative Republicans in the House are not standing down as they have revolted against their own leadership, namely Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who reached a government funding deal over the weekend with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
This was evident on Jan. 10 as they joined Democrats in tanking a procedural vote on a bill related to restitution made by U.S. government officials, a disapproval resolution blocking a regulation by the National Labor Relations Board regarding joint employers, and a disapproval resolution to block a Biden administration regulation related to materials for electric vehicle chargers.
But that procedural hurdle was cleared on Nov. 11.
A Thursday meeting in the speaker’s office between Johnson and conservatives, including Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), did not yield any results, let alone Johnson walking away from the deal he made with Schumer.
Norman told reporters that, while nothing was agreed to, he is confident that Johnson will abandon the deal he made with Schumer that consists of the top line at $1.59 trillion with $69 billion in discretionary spending. The agreement follows a side deal earlier this year between former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden—bringing the total spending amount to almost $1.66 trillion.
The $1.59 trillion figure also was agreed to by McCarthy and Biden as part of increasing the debt ceiling.
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) lamented to reporters what she called “backroom deals” like the one between Johnson and Schumer. She voted against the debt ceiling agreement.
Members of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus were livid over the Johnson-Schumer deal, citing the amount of spending and the need for border security measures.
The Freedom Caucus called the agreement “a total failure” and “even worse than we thought.”
Some Republicans are calling for shutting down the government.
“Shut down the border or shut down the government,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) posted on X, formerly Twitter.
“What we can’t do is do what Republicans always do, which is ... to go cut some watered-down deal that won’t do the job in order to get something else,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told Iris Tao of The Epoch Times’ sister outlet, NTD, a cable network.
“Republicans agreeing to spending levels $69 billion higher than last summer’s debt ceiling ‘deal’, with no significant policy wins is nothing but another loss for America,” Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the new chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, posted on X on the day Johnson announced the deal.
“At some point, having the House majority has to matter,” he continued. “Stop funding this spending with an open border!”
Were Johnson to put forth the spending deal, he could be stripped of the gavel in what is a razor-thin GOP majority as a handful of members including Roy have not ruled out the possibility of bringing a motion to vacate—the maneuver that ousted McCarthy from the position second in line to the presidency.
But there is no appetite among Republicans to go through what occurred in October.
“I just think there is no way they can believe that that made America stronger,” Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) told reporters.
— Jackson Richman and Joseph Lord
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- President Joe Biden travels to the area near Allentown, Pennsylvania, to pitch Bidenomics to voters.
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who flirted with running for the White House as a third-party candidate, attends a political event in New Hampshire, an early primary state.
- Three doctors who have dared to defy the establishment pandemic and vaccine narratives, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Ryan Cole, and Dr. Kirk Milhoan, testify in a hearing hosted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in Washington.
BOOKMARKS
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to nine tax charges at a Los Angeles court, one day after his surprise appearance at a House Oversight hearing considering his contempt resolution.
Fake news just got a lot more real, thanks to the power of artificial intelligence. The Epoch Times’ Peter Svab unveils the scary possibilities of modern AI-enabled software to fool voters and influence hearts and minds.
What did Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley’s eyes, faces, and hands tell us about their thoughts during their acrimonious Jan. 10 debate? Politico caught up with a former FBI agent expert in body language to decode the Republican candidates’ not-so-hidden foibles.
The pick is in. Ever the showman, Donald Trump is teasing America by letting on he knows who he wants as his running mate but he isn’t ready to reveal it yet. The Epoch Times’ Tom Ozimek caught the former president coyly saying “we'll do another show sometime” during his Fox News town hall on Jan. 10.
Vivek Ramaswamy could be telegraphing his dedication to the 45th president by filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court backing Trump’s effort to stay on the Maine and Colorado ballots in the 2024 election. The Epoch Times’ Samantha Flom reports Ramaswamy’s attorneys argue the blocks are political rather than constitutional.
A lawsuit alleging Chinese authorities deliberately withheld personal protective equipment to turn a quick buck amid the COVID-19 panic got the green light from the U.S. Eighth District Court of Appeals. The Epoch Times’ Stephen Katte found that Chinese leaders characterize the international legal challenge as “very absurd.”
Bravo! The Epoch Times’ new documentary, “The Real Story of Jan. 6 Part 2: The Long Road Home,” earned a glowing review from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) ahead of a Jan. 9 screening at the U.S. Capitol. The film is available online for all Epoch Times subscribers now.
