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Key moments from Donald Trump’s Iowa speeches

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Key moments from Donald Trump’s Iowa speeches

Former President Donald Trump took to the stage in Iowa on Saturday for two separate speeches as he continued his campaigning ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Trump spoke to thousands of supporters at the DoubleTree Hotel and Convention Center in downtown Cedar Rapids and the National Cattle Congress, in Waterloo, and said that he wanted to convincingly win the primary as “it sets a tone for the general election.”

Since March, polls have shown the former president opening up a considerable lead over his rivals.

According to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Trump is polling at an average of 55.9 percent as of Friday, October 6, compared to 14.7 percent for his closest challenger, Ron DeSantis.

During his rally Trump attacked President Joe Biden and made reference to the legal cases against him in addition to this weekend’s attack in Israel.

Newsweek has rounded up the key moments from his speech.

Trump Blames Biden for Israel Attack

The former president said Hamas’ attack against Israel would not have taken place had he remained in the White House.

He told the Waterloo crowd: “The Israeli attack was made because we are perceived as being weak and ineffective and with a really weak leader.”

Trump also said: “As president, I will once again stand with Israel and we will cut off the money to Palestinian terrorists on day one.”

The Republican also hit out at a deal that led the Biden administration to release $6 billion of Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar to facilitate a U.S.-Iran prisoner swap.

While Trump said the $6 billion had been sent to Iran, Reuters reported a Biden administration official saying none of the $6 billion had been spent yet and that it was solely for humanitarian purposes.

Trump Calls General Mark Milley Stupid

The Republican frontrunner once again hit out at retired U.S. Army General Mark Milley and criticized the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, continuing an ongoing spat between the two.

Trump said: “I had a couple of guys, like this guy Milley. What a stupid person he is, no what a stupid person he is. Sir, he said to me, it is cheaper to leave the equipment there than to take it.”

Milley, who Trump appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last month appeared to make a thinly-veiled swipe at the former president and vowed to protect the Constitution.

He said: “We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.

“We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

Trump Makes Claims About Democrats’ Abortion Position

The former president made an unsubstantiated claim that Democrats are in favor of the executing of babies after they are born if the mother does not want them.

Trump said: “If it’s after the ninth month and the baby was born, you put the baby aside. You discuss with the mother and if the mother doesn’t want the baby we execute the baby. This is part of their thing.”

There is no provision in the U.S. that allows for babies to be executed after birth if the mother does not want them.

While abortions do occur in the third trimester, 93.1 percent of the 620,327 legally induced abortions reported across the U.S. in 2020 took place early in gestation before 13 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 5.8 percent were performed between 14 and 20 weeks gestation.

Trump Bemoans Legal Woes

The former President bemoaned that he will not have a jury for his upcoming fraud trial in New York after an appeals court rejected his request to halt it.

He referenced being sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James after she claimed he created false and misleading statements about his finances in order to facilitate deals.

The trial has no jury and is a civil case, which means Trump will not face time in prison if he is found guilty.

Trump told the crowd: “These are crooked people, this is election interference. These are very dishonest people and she has a judge, who is a radical left judge.

“And I don’t get a jury, so even if I had a tough jury I’d win but I’m not allowed to have a tough jury. Nothing to do with checking a box. You know what they all said, oh the lawyer. No, you can’t check a box. There’s no box to check.”

Trump Says He Has A Better Body Than Biden

The former president was applauded after he insulted the current White House incumbent after photos emerged showing Biden shirtless on a beach.

Trump said: “He’s got a consultant somewhere. This is the worst consultant in politics that thinks he looks good in a bathing suit, right?

“He spends so much time at the beach, how do you do that and, you know, I have a much better body than him. But I’m not really sure that I want to expose it.”

Trump Gushes Over His Ivanka and Hanibal Lecter

Trump at the speech in Cedar Rapids heaped praise on his daughter Ivanka Trump, describing her as a “beauty” and “the whole package.”

According Raw Story, Trump ventured away from his speech and spoke about how beautiful he considered his daughter to be.

He continued: “The beauty, the style. The style, the beauty. The whole package.”

The former president then commented that he was “not allowed” to speak about his daughter’s appearance.

Trump also praised fictional serial killer Hanibal Lecter, although he quickly clarified he meant an actor who portrayed him, who he claimed said that he loved the former president.

He said: “Hanibal Lecter, how great an actor he was. You know why I like him? Because he said on television ‘I love Donald Trump’ so I love him.”

It is unclear which of the several actors who have portrayed Lecter Trump referred to and none have publicly stated their support for the president.

Newsweek has contacted a Trump spokesperson for comment via email.

Mike Lindell willing to completely bankrupt MyPillow to continue fight

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Mike Lindell willing to completely bankrupt MyPillow to continue fight

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has vowed to “never settle” in defamation cases brought against him even if it means his company goes bankrupt.

Lindell is currently embroiled in defamation lawsuits filed by voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems. Both companies argue their reputations were severely damaged by Lindell’s unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was won by Donald Trump and that the companies conspired to rig voting machines.

Lindell is a longtime ally of the former president and one of several who have faced legal action following false claims of election rigging in 2020. He also has spoken out recently about the financial problems MyPillow is facing.

Speaking with Steve Bannon, former White House senior advisor to Trump and now host of the War Room podcast, Lindell vowed that he would not settle with Dominion and Smartmatic. Lindell said he would “never settle anything” and “never stop fighting no matter” while reiterating false claims about the 2020 election.

Bannon asked Lindell: “You’re prepared to take this to the bitter end even if it means the bankruptcy of MyPillow?”

Lindell responded: “We don’t have a country if we don’t win this. You know what – my employees, everybody understands that.

“This has been amazing the last three days and with the pouring out of support.”

As he spoke, he clutched a pillow, presumably one from his own range, and held it against his face.

Bannon said the media would “spin this” negatively, claiming they would talk about “the fall of Mike Lindell. We knew he’d go down…it’s funny how they protect all of these machine companies. They protect the evil.”

In September Lindell said that vendors became uneasy when MyPillow initiated an online auction to sell off industrial equipment and various items that were no longer needed, with some items failing to attract even a single bid.

In response to the situation, Lindell had to reassure his vendors and emphasize that the company was not financially distressed.

Lindell noted that the situation deteriorated further and claimed American Express reduced his credit line from $1 million to $100,000. He mentioned that a vendor even threatened to shorten their payment terms from 120 days to 60 days.

Lindell, who faced challenges with major retailers refusing to stock MyPillow products, had previously accused American Express of severely impacting his company by decreasing his credit line.

He said at the time: “American Express, I wasn’t going to say this, we’ve been with them 15 years and we do all of our online marketing, all our shipping with them, out of the blue they took our credit line from a million dollars down to $100,000, just cripples MyPillow.”

An American Express spokesperson told Newsweek: “We can’t comment on specific customer accounts or applications, but I can tell you that American Express does not make customer decisions based on personal views or political affiliations.”

To add to Lindell’s troubles, this week lawyers defending him claimed they are seeking to sever ties with him over millions of dollars in outstanding legal fees. In a court filing Thursday, the law firm of Parker Daniels Kibort LLC said Lindell and MyPillow are months behind on their legal bills in three defamation cases, and they can no longer afford to represent him. The firm said continuing to represent Lindell could threaten the survival of their business.

Despite the fallout from not paying his legal representatives, Lindell praised Parker Daniels Kibort for representing him in recent years.

Lindell told Newsweek on Thursday: “We haven’t been able to pay them [lawyers] for the past couple of months.

“These lawyers were courageous,” Lindell said. “They took on a case where every other lawyer in this country are afraid to take on any case against the electronic voting machines and the evil that’s out there. This was a great group of attorneys… and they need to get paid; and if there’s no money to pay them, they can’t keep going.”

Newsweek has contacted MyPillow for comment by email.

Ukraine "running rings" around Russia amid Crimea wins: Ex-general

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Ukraine "running rings" around Russia amid Crimea wins: Ex-general

Russia’s weakened military appears unable to deal with Ukraine’s multi-theater offensive effort, according to a former commander of U.S. Army Europe, with Kyiv’s varied attacks wreaking havoc in in southern Ukraine, Crimea, and even within Russian borders.

Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges told Newsweek in an interview that the “Ukrainian General Staff is running rings around the Russian General Staff” as both sides look to make gains before the mud and freezing conditions of fall and winter set in.

Recent months have seen an intensification of small drone attacks across western Russia, several even reaching Moscow and causing damage in the capital. Meanwhile, major strikes on occupied Crimea have become commonplace, as naval drones and advanced cruise missiles target key defensive and naval facilities.

All the while, Ukrainian troops in southeastern Ukraine have been pressing the counteroffensive that has been underway since early June. Kyiv’s ground forces are yet to rend a decisive hole in Russia’s defensive lines as they seek to collapse the so-called “land corridor” of occupied territory linking Crimea to western Russia.

The success or failure of the operation could prove decisive in shaping the war, with more skeptical observers citing the offensive’s slow progress as a signal that the conflict is freezing over, perhaps necessitating fresh peace talks with the Kremlin.

Sevastopol Exodus

In Crimea and the Black Sea, at least, Kyiv is being buoyed by cascading successes. Ukrainian commandos have been raiding the peninsula and engaging Russian troops and facilities there, while other Ukrainian forces seek and destroy valuable radar and air defense sites protecting Crimea’s strategic jewels.

Among those is Sevastopol, the home of the beleaguered Black Sea Fleet and the crux of Russian power on the peninsula. In past weeks, Ukraine—which has no conventional navy and a limited air force—has badly damaged two more Russian vessels, including a Kilo-class submarine, and destroyed the Black Sea Fleet headquarters.

Recent satellite images suggest the bulk of the fleet and the ships carrying Moscow’s prized Kalibr cruise missiles have relocated out of Sevastopol. This is an apparent admission that Russian-occupied Crimea—sometimes referred to as Moscow’s “floating aircraft carrier” in the Black Sea—is not as formidable as once thought.

“It remains to be confirmed, but if the Black Sea Fleet is having to leave Sevastopol now because they realize that they are so vulnerable to long-range precision weapons that they can’t stay there, this is really impressive,” Hodges—long a proponent of Ukrainian liberation of Crimea regardless of Western skepticism—said.

“But it also shows the benefit of having the long-range precision weapons that can hit the facilities at Sevastopol, the air base at Saki, the logistics hub at Dzhankoy.”

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email to request comment.

Moscow has problems within its own internationally recognized borders, too. “You’ve got these drones that have been hitting targets throughout Russia,” Hodges said. “Each of these causes the Russian commercial airports to have to shut down operations, which has an economic impact as well as psychological.

“And then we read about cyberattacks that are shutting down airports all over Russia. What you see is enormous pressure on the Russian General Staff and on their air defense systems.”

Crimea or Bust

Crimea appears the ultimate strategic goal for Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky has already vowed that the war will end in Crimea, the same place it began with the arrival of Moscow’s “little green men” in 2014.

Western partners have expressed doubt given tactical challenges posed by liberating Crimea. Some have even warned that a Ukrainian attack on the peninsula might prompt a Russian nuclear escalation given its importance in President Vladimir Putin’s neo-tsarist mythmaking.

But Kyiv appears undeterred. “There are no ‘new territories of Russia’ or ‘annexed territories’ and there is no chance that Russia will be able to retain control over them,” Mykhailo Podolyak—an adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office—wrote on social media last month. “There is only the territory of Ukraine, including Crimea.”

Hodges has long been pushing Western partners—the White House in particular—to explicitly commit to the liberation of Crimea. “Part of the problem is that people just can’t imagine that Russia could actually lose Crimea,” he said.

“If you pick up a map and look at it, you see immediately why Crimea is the decisive terrain of the war. Ukraine will never be able to rebuild their economy as long as Russia occupies Crimea, because all of their ports on the Black Sea will be blocked or easily disrupted. That’s unacceptable for the Ukrainians.”

“They’re not trying to push back along the whole line. They don’t need to. Once Crimea has been liberated, the Russians don’t care about Donbas except for the ‘land bridge’ part. They haven’t done a thing in 10 years to improve one farm in that whole damn place.”

Many of the most punishing Ukrainian strikes since mid-June—including those chasing the Black Sea Fleet out of Sevastopol—have relied on foreign technology. British-French Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles in particular, have proved a serious challenge for the Russians.

Kyiv will need more advanced Western technology to keep up its offensive tempo. Recent political developments in the U.S. and European Union, though, raise the prospect that funds and arms might dry up if the war continues. Much will hinge on the U.S. presidential election next year, and on the ability of EU nations to supercharge military industries that appear anemic in the face of full-scale conflict.

“I try to focus on capability instead of specific platforms, because if you talk about specific platforms you can come up with all kinds of excuses,” Hodges said, in a nod to the continued American and German refusals to provide the long-range MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System and Taurus cruise missile, respectively.

“I don’t care if these things are dropped by storks, the point is that if the Ukrainians have long range precision capability, they can hit every bit of the logistics, maintenance, refueling, ammunition in Sevastopol,” Hodges said. “That’s what Ukrainians are doing with a combination of drones and now Storm Shadow. Of course, you need a lot of these things.”

“Whenever I heard somebody from the Pentagon say: ‘The Ukrainians don’t need those, they’re not part of the offensive,’ [I think] these are people that have no idea what they’re talking about. They don’t understand what the Ukrainians are trying to do. They’re thinking very linearly. It’s astounding to me.”

Russia already exploiting Israel attacks to bolster war in Ukraine: ISW

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Russia already exploiting Israel attacks to bolster war in Ukraine: ISW

Russia is already wielding Palestinian militant attacks on Israel as a weapon to try to erode Western backing for Kyiv and distract the West’s attention from Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a new assessment.

“The Kremlin is already and will likely continue to exploit the Hamas attacks in Israel to advance several information operations intended to reduce US and Western support and attention to Ukraine,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said on Saturday.

On Saturday, Palestinian movement Hamas launched its most deadly attacks on Israel in years, firing rockets from Gaza as its fighters waged a land, air and sea assault. Israel then carried out strikes on Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, declaring Israel was now “at war.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington would “offer all appropriate means of support” to Israel after the “horrific and ongoing attacks,” adding that the U.S. “unequivocally condemned this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.”

But the Kremlin has spread information that largely blames Western countries for “neglecting conflicts in the Middle East in favor of supporting Ukraine,” the ISW argued in its latest assessment.

Following the outbreak of large-scale violence in southern Israel and Gaza, former Russian president and current deputy chair of Russia’s security council, Dmitry Medvedev, said that the U.S. had been “helping the neo-Nazis” rather than focusing on finding a Palestinian-Israeli settlement. The Kremlin has said its full-scale invasion of Ukraine is a “special military operation” to “denazify” the government in Kyiv. This has been rejected by Ukraine and the international community.

“What can stop America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet?” Medvedev, who is known for his bellicose and anti-Western rhetoric, wrote in a post to Telegram on Saturday.

In a separate statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, appeared to blame “the West” for blocking peace-making efforts between Russia, the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations for the outbreak of renewed violence in the Middle East.

These suggestions from the Kremlin “target Western audiences to drive a wedge in military support for Ukraine,” the ISW argued.

Within Ukraine, these narratives “seek to demoralize Ukrainian society by claiming Ukraine will lose international support,” the think tank continued, adding they also serve to “reassure Russian domestic audiences that the international society will ignore Ukraine’s war effort.”

The surge in violence has claimed the lives of hundreds of fighters and civilians on both sides, with the tallies expected to rise in the coming days.

“Hamas has started a brutal and evil war,” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday morning. “We will be victorious in this war despite an unbearable price.”

Hamas spokesperson Khaled Qadomi told Al Jazeera that the movement wanted the “international community to stop atrocities in Gaza, against Palestinian people, our holy sites like Al-Aqsa [mosque in Jerusalem].”

“All these things are the reason behind starting this battle,” he said.

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said on Sunday that Israel would continue action against Hamas’ “barbaric” attacks in the next few days.

“This is our 9/11,” he said in a video shared to the Israeli military’s social media. “We’re going to respond very, very severely to this,” he said.

Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas, said on Sunday that the movement’s fighters “continue to engage in fierce and heroic clashes, fighting on multiple fronts, inflicting casualties on the enemy.”

Russia loses 21 tanks, 17 artillery systems in a day: Ukraine

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Russia loses 21 tanks, 17 artillery systems in a day: Ukraine

Russia has lost 21 tanks and 17 artillery systems in a single day, according to an update from the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

The General Staff said in an October 8 Facebook post that Russian forces had also lost 580 personnel and 38 vehicles and fuel tanks in the latest fighting.

According to the General Staff, the Russian military has lost a total of 4,821 tanks, 6,705 artillery systems, 282,280 personnel as well as 9,111 vehicles and fuel tanks since the conflict began.

It also claimed 9,123 armored personnel vehicles, 315 aircraft, 316 helicopters as well as 20 warships and boats had been destroyed since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion in February 2022.

Newsweek has not been able to independently verify Ukraine’s figures and estimates of casualties during the war have varied widely.

Russia rarely publishes figures on its own troop losses and when they do, they are noticeably lower than those shared by Ukraine.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment via email.

Both Ukraine and Russia have suffered significant losses since the outbreak of the war as the two sides aim to secure their military objectives.

Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges previously told Newsweek that Ukraine has an advantage in its counteroffensive and is wreaking havoc in occupied Crimea.

Hodges, who has been a proponent of Ukrainian liberation of Crimea despite some Western skepticism, previously told Newsweek: “It remains to be confirmed, but if the Black Sea Fleet is having to leave Sevastopol now because they realize that they are so vulnerable to long-range precision weapons that they can’t stay there, this is really impressive.

“But it also shows the benefit of having the long-range precision weapons that can hit the facilities at Sevastopol, the air base at Saki, the logistics hub at Dzhankoy.”

The war has led to an intensification of drones being used in attacks across western Russia with some having reached the capital, Moscow.

Major strikes in Crimea have now become commonplace with Ukraine targeting defensive and naval facilities.

But Russia has managed to retain control of its land corridor that connects Crimea with the other annexed territories which Ukraine has said it will battle to liberate.

Over four months ago, Ukraine launched a counteroffensive with the aim of recapturing Russian-occupied territory, but Kyiv and its Western backers have said it has been slower than anticipated.

The Institute for the Study of War think tank said that, in the latest fighting, Ukrainian forces had waged “successful” offensive actions near Andriivka, which is about 5 miles southeast of Bakhmut, the Donetsk city which was strongly contested for months before Russia ultimately captured it.

Top Iranian general’s ominous prediction about Hamas assault on Israel

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Top Iranian general’s ominous prediction about Hamas assault on Israel

Top Iranian General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri issued an ominous warning on Sunday about Hamas’ attack against Israel.

Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel, while dozens of their fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border by air, land and sea in areas near the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, marking the latest escalation in the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas has named the operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” in reference to the revered holy site in disputed East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a televised address on Saturday that his country was now “at war.”

Iran, an ally to Hamas, has weighed in on the conflict, with its foreign ministry describing the attack as an act of self defense “of their inalienable rights and their natural reaction to the Zionists’ warmongering and provocative policies,” Reuters reported.

Major General Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, released a statement on Sunday praising the attack, according to a report from the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

In his statement, Bagheri warned Israel that the attack showed that measures such as “the ridiculous normalization plot” would not be able to “halt the decline and eventual collapse of the spider’s web.”

“He further elaborated on the operation, stating that the combined efforts of Palestinian fighters, under the name of ‘Al-Aqsa Storm,’ against the positions and fortifications of the heavily armed Zionist regime in occupied territories, once again highlighted the hollow grandeur and brittle power of the occupying regime,” IRNA’s report added.

According to a separate report from Tasnim News Agency, Bagheri also praised Hamas for dealing “devastating blows” to Israel.

The Associated Press reported that the death toll stands at 600 in Israel and 300 in Gaza. Meanwhile, Netanyahu announced Sunday morning that Israel’s security cabinet voted on Saturday to authorize a war, allowing for “significant military activities.”

The United States government has expressed support for Israel amid the attack, with President Joe Biden delivering remarks backing Washington, D.C.’s longtime ally.

“Israel has its right to defend itself and its people. Full stop. There’s never justification for terrorist attacks, and my administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering. Let me say this as clearly as I can. This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching,” he said at the White House on Saturday.

Iran, an adversary of Israel, has voiced support for Hamas’ attack.

“Iran considers that the Zionist occupier regime and its well-known supporters are responsible … for the violence and killing against Palestinians and calls on Islamic countries to support…the rights of the Palestinian people,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said, reported Reutters.

Newsweek reached out to the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry and Hamas for comment.

Iran says it just got $43 million from US

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Iran says it just got $43 million from US

Iran said on Sunday it received $43 million in damages from the United States.

The Center for International Legal Affairs of the Legal Vice Presidency of the Iranian President released a statement on Sunday saying that $43 million was deposited into Tehran’s bank account in The Hague, the Netherlands, in connection to a legal case dealing with properties that were not transferred to Iran following the conclusion of the Algiers Declaration, according to a report from the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Newsweek could not independently verify Iran’s claim.

“Following repeated and persistent follow-ups by the Center for International Legal Affairs of the Legal Vice Presidency of the Iranian President to secure Iran’s rights based on the verdict, the amount of $43 million has been deposited by the US government into the account of the Islamic Republic of Iran at a Dutch bank in The Hague in damages and its interest,” the statement reads.

The case centers around Iran accusing the U.S. of violating its obligations under the Algiers Declaration to arrange for transfer of Iranian properties—including artworks, archeological objects, fossils and equipment—to the Middle Eastern country.

The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal sided with Tehran’s request to order the U.S. to compensate Iran for losses it suffered due to Washington, D.C., not transferring those items, according to tribunal documents from 2020.

Newsweek reached out to the White House and State Department for further comment via email.

Iran’s claim comes as President Joe Biden is facing scrutiny over his deal, which was announced in August, to secure the release of Americans held hostage in Iran in exchange for the release of $6 billion of Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar. Critics have said the deal would embolden Iran.

The scrutiny intensified after Hamas, an ally to Iran, launched an attack against Israel on Saturday, a major escalation of the longtime conflict that drew rebuke from U.S. leaders, including Biden, who has cast himself as a strong ally to Israel. Critics, however, drew a connection between the attack and the newly-released funds, though the White House disputes any relation between the two.

Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, claimed in a Truth Social post on Saturday that the attack was funded by “American taxpayer dollars.”

“Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration,” he wrote.

The Biden administration has dismissed the notion that these funds were used in the attack, pointing to limitations placed that would require them to be used for only humanitarian purposes. A White House spokesperson said in a statement to Newsweek on Saturday that the funds will not be given to Iran.

“The money held in restricted accounts in Doha remains in Doha. Not a penny has been spent, and it will never go to Iran—it can only be used for future humanitarian-related purposes. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading,” the spokesperson said.

Matt Gaetz confronted on vote for Trump tax cuts that drove up deficit

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Matt Gaetz confronted on vote for Trump tax cuts that drove up deficit

Representative Matt Gaetz was confronted on Sunday about his vote in favor of former President Donald Trump‘s 2017 tax cuts that drove up the national deficit.

Congress last week voted to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership position after Gaetz, a Florida Republican, filed a motion to vacate the office—sending the House of Representatives into chaos. He filed the motion over McCarthy working with Democrats to pass a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown that he says violated promises McCarthy made to conservatives to secure their support in the House speaker race in January.

Gaetz has insisted on Congress passing an appropriations bill that would reduce government spending, warning that failing to address the national deficit, which sits at more than $30 trillion, would have economic repercussions for millions of Americans.

However, during an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker pressed Gaetz about his vote for the Trump tax cuts, the former president’s signature legislation that, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, is set to add $1.8 trillion to the national debt through 2029.

During his interview, Gaetz defended his battle against GOP leadership amid questions about whether he could be expelled from the Republican conference over the removal of McCarthy. He said he would continue fighting for his constituents, warning that failing to reduce government spending would drive up inflation and the national debt. He specifically pointed to a plan for the federal government to refinance $8 trillion in debt.

“Well, the voters of Florida’s First Congressional District sent me here with about 70 percent of the vote. So I think that anyone trying to kick me out of Congress because they didn’t like me would have a bone to pick with them. But think about what we’re saying. I’m the guy saying we need a budget,” he said.

Welker, however, questioned the representative’s voting record on the national debt.

“Congressman, respectively, you voted for those tax cuts under the Trump administration, which helped create that $8 trillion deficit that you’re talking about. Did you not? Is this not, as some of your critics would say, hypocritical, given that?” Welker asked.

Gaetz responded: “No, I voted against 10 continuing resolutions during the Trump era. I actually voted against the budget that created the platform for the reconciliation of those tax cuts because it didn’t balance. I agreed with Senator Rand Paul at the time that we should do the tax cuts with offsets and balanced budgets.”

Although Republicans have emphasized the need to reduce the national debt during the Biden administration, it rose by nearly $7.8 trillion during the Trump administration. The former president reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent in particular led to a loss of federal revenue, according to a ProPublica report in 2021.

A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report earlier this year found that extending the Trump tax cuts would add another $3.5 trillion to the national deficit by 2033.

Newsweek reached out to Gaetz’s office for comment via email

George Conway slams Mike Pence’s attack on Donald Trump

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George Conway slams Mike Pence’s attack on Donald Trump

Conservative attorney George Conway slammed former Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday for his “offensive, ridiculous, and stupid” attack against former President Donald Trump.

Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel, while dozens of their fighters infiltrated the fortified border by air, land and sea in areas near the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, marking the latest escalation in the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The attack drew bipartisan rebuke from leaders within the United States, with President Joe Biden vowing to stick by Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a televised address on Saturday that the country was now “at war.”

Pence, who is running in the Republican presidential primary, appeared on CNN‘s State of the Union to discuss the attack on Sunday morning, suggesting that Republicans‘ rhetoric on foreign policy played a role in the attack.

“This is what happens when we have leading voices like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis signaling retreat from America’s role as leader of the free world,” Pence said on CNN.

He continued: “What happened in Ukraine was an unprovoked invasion by Russia. What happened this weekend was an unprovoked invasion by Hamas into Israel. I really believe now more than ever, both in the debate within the Republican Party and in the debate within America, is whether or not we’re going to once again stand without apology as the leader of the free world.”

His comments drew criticism from Conway, who has turned against the Republican Party over its embrace of Trump and helped found The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee. In a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, he wrote that candidates shouldn’t use the attack for “political gain.”

“Even though Trump, Ramaswamy, and DeSantis are atrocious in many ways, this attempt to invoke Hamas’s monstrous attack for personal political gain is offensive, ridiculous, and stupid. The truth is, this attack did not occur because of anything the U.S. did or did not do,” Conway wrote.

Some conservatives have shifted toward a more isolationist policy, saying that the federal government should be less involved in other countries’ affairs. The war between Russia and Ukraine has sparked GOP pushback in providing military aid to Kyiv, as some say the funds should be spent domestically instead—a stark contrast from GOP rhetoric from the pre-Trump era.

Pence has cast himself as a more traditional conservative, calling for a rebuke of the isolationist policies embraced by some on the right. However, Trump remains the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary as conservative voters embrace his brand of politics and foreign policy.

The former president addressed the attack in a Truth Social post on Saturday, writing that his administration brought “so much peace” to the region.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former president, also wrote a post on X defending his father.

“You’re the embodiment of the kind of weakness that led to this. You should have paid attention when you were groveling at the feet of the master. Trump brought peace because the world knew — F around and find out! We’ll never return to the failed approach of you and your uniparty fools,” he wrote, referring to Pence.

Newsweek reached out to Pence’s campaign for comment via email.

Joe Biden’s five major problems as Israel conflict escalates

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Joe Biden’s five major problems as Israel conflict escalates

Spiraling violence in the Middle East presents U.S. President Joe Biden with five major issues to contend with as the threat of a broader, deadlier conflict looms in and around southern Israel and Gaza.

On Saturday, Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched its most deadly attacks on Israel for years, firing rockets from Gaza as its fighters crossed over the border into Israel. Israel then carried out strikes on Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, declaring Israel was now “at war.”

Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel’s “first objective” was to “clear out the hostile forces that infiltrated our territory” and secure its borders.

“The second objective, at the same time, is to exact an immense price from the enemy, within the Gaza Strip as well,” he said.

Israel would also “reinforce other fronts so that nobody should mistakenly join this war,” Netanyahu added in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.

Biden has said that the U.S. “unequivocally condemned this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza,” adding Washington would “offer all appropriate means of support” to Israel after the “horrific and ongoing attacks.”

More than 400 Israelis were killed in the raid while Israeli air strikes killed more than 300 people in Gaza, Reuters news agency reported.

Hamas spokesperson Khaled Qadomi told Al Jazeera that the movement wanted the “international community to stop atrocities in Gaza, against Palestinian people, our holy sites like Al-Aqsa [mosque in Jerusalem].”

“All these things are the reason behind starting this battle,” he said.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday that sirens were once again going off in southern Israel, shortly after it said Israel’s air force had “struck a compound belonging to the head of the intelligence department in the Hamas terrorist organization.”

“The IAF [Israeli Air Force] is currently continuing to strike terror targets in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF added in a statement.

U.S. Unfreezes Iranian funds

The escalation comes shortly after the Biden administration agreed to allow the transfer of $6 billion of frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar as part of a prisoner-swap deal to free several Americans detained in Iran, completed last month.

On Saturday, several prominent Republican voices referred to this deal in renewed criticism of the Biden administration in the midst of the worsening violence.

“These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force,” said former president and GOP primary frontrunnerDonald Trump. “Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration,” he said in a statement.

“This is what happens when @POTUS [U.S. President Joe Biden] projects weakness on the world stage, kowtows to the mullahs in Iran with a $6 Billion ransom, and leaders in the Republican Party signal American retreat as Leader of the Free World,” said Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president and now competitor for next year’s presidential elections.

“We are watching the culmination of Biden’s absolutely irresponsible policies with respect to Israel,” Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert added. “He JUST handed $6 BILLION to Iran. Now we see the results.”

“Iran has helped fund this war against Israel and Joe Biden’s policies that have gone easy on Iran have helped fill their coffers,” Florida Governor and GOP presidential contender Ron DeSantis wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The White House has been clear that a host of restrictions would apply to the funds. Tehran would only be able to use them to “buy food, medicine, medical equipment that would not have a dual military use,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said, according to Reuters.

But Iran’s Foreign Ministry clapped back at these restrictions, saying the “competent authorities” in Tehran would determine how the funds are used.

White House spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, said on Saturday that “not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people.”

“These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks today and this is not the time to spread disinformation,” she added.

“All of the money held in restricted accounts in Doha as part of the arrangement to secure the release of 5 Americans in September remains in Doha. Not a penny has been spent,” Treasury undersecretary Brian Nelson also said on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia and the Abraham Accords

The escalating violence has also likely jeopardized the progress Biden has been trying to make with Riyadh to strengthen the three-year-old Abraham Accords.

In September 2020, the U.S. steered talks that led to representatives from Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signing the Abraham Accords in Washington DC. Morocco later agreed, with Sudan also signing the declaration but not a bilateral agreement with Israel.

The accords made Abu Dhabi and Manama the third and fourth Arab states to recognize Israel, and the accords were intended to normalize diplomatic relations.

It stressed the “the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace in the Middle East and around the world based on mutual understanding and coexistence.”

But the Biden administration has been working to bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accord fold, which would stand to be a significant foreign policy win for the administration. However, reports from a Saudi-owned newspaper in the weeks running up to Saturday’s escalation had suggested Riyadh had frozen normalization talks, although this was denied by the U.S. and Israel. But in mid-September, The New York Times then reported that Washington was discussing a mutual defense treaty with Saudi Arabia, citing U.S. officials.

“This will slow considerably if not kill the Saudi Abraham Accords deal,” Mara Rudman, a former diplomat for the Middle East under the Obama administration, told The New York Times.

“It strikes at the heart of key elements for Saudi entry, a pathway forward for Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza,” she said. For Israel, there will be “zero appetite” across the political spectrum to help Palestinians, “despite the fact that so doing could actually enhance, not detract from, Israeli security.”

Biden said on Saturday that he had told his team to be in “constant contact” with regional leaders, including Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it was “closely following the developments of the unprecedented situation,” and that its government called for an “immediate halt to the escalation between the two sides.”

Divides Among the Democrats

The explosion of violence could also open a wider rift among Democrats, even as Biden vowed that his administration’s “support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.”

In recent years, Democrats on the left have increasingly withdrawn from supporting Israel. In mid-July, Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal called Israel a “racist state” ahead of a visit by Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, to address Congress, though she later apologized.

“I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy,” Jayapal said at the time. “That the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us. That it does not even feel possible.”

In a rebuke letter signed by several Democrat pepresentatives, including House Minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, other Democrat voices said “America and Israel have a uniquely special relationship anchored in our shared democratic values and strategic interests.”

“As House Democratic leaders, we strongly support Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people,” the letter added.

Not Quite as Quiet Today

With the violence and death tolls continuing to escalate, the Biden administration is likely regretting remarks made just a week ago.

“The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said during The Atlantic Festival, although he did then add: “I emphasize ‘for now’ because all of that can change.”

Sullivan has spoken with Israel’s National Security Adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the U.S. is still “in close contact with our Israeli partners,” White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on Saturday.

Future Gas Prices

The outburst of violence could also trigger a spike in crude oil prices on Monday, reports suggest.

“We may see a knee-jerk surge in crude prices when markets open on Monday,” Vandana Hari, the chief executive of Vanda Insights, told CNBC.

Israel and Palestine are “on the doorstep of an important oil-producing and exporting region,” Hari said, although the conflict is not directly impacting significant oil-producing nations.

“The impact on the oil price will be limited unless we see the ‘war’ between the two sides expand quickly to a regional war where the U.S. and Iran and other supporters of the parties get directly involved,” Iman Nasseri, Middle East managing director of energy consultancy Facts Global Energy, also told the publication.

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