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- President Trump, who tweeted yesterday that he canceled his New Jersey trip to ensure “LAW & ORDER is enforced,” arrived at his Virginia golf club. The weather forecast for Sterling, VA is mostly sunny, while it may rain in Bedminster. It’s the 271st time he has been at one of his golf clubs and 363rd time at one of his properties in his presidency.
- President Trump on Saturday reiterated a vow to protect those with preexisting conditions after his administration asked the Supreme Court this week to strike down ObamaCare, Republicans’ latest move to dismantle the health care law.
“Now that the very expensive, unpopular and unfair Individual Mandate provision has been terminated by us, many States & the U.S. are asking the Supreme Court that Obamacare itself be terminated so that it can be replaced with a FAR BETTER AND MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE ALTERNATIVE,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
“Obamacare is a joke! Deductible is far too high and the overall cost is ridiculous. My Administration has gone out of its way to manage OC much better than previous, but it is still no good. I will ALWAYS PROTECT PEOPLE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS,ALWAYS!!!” he added.
The administration on Thursday filed a legal brief to the Supreme Court asking that the ACA be invalidated, a move that would take away health insurance coverage for about 20 million people.
- U.S. fighter jets intercepted four Russian aircraft that entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone on Saturday, the latest in a series of incidents off the Alaskan coast.
- The Pentagon has announced that as part of the federal government’s July 4 celebration, military aircraft will conduct flyovers of major East Coast cities, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
- White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany denied a new report that President Trump and Vice President Pence were briefed on intelligence that Russian military operatives offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill coalition forces in Afghanistan, including US troops, during peace talks.
- A statement by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe read: “I have confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday.”
“The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate. The New York Times reporting, and all other subsequent news reports about such an alleged briefing are inaccurate.”
- In response to the Russian bounty story, Trump Tweeted: “Nobody briefed or told me,
@VP Pence, or Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an “anonymous source” by the Fake News @nytimes. Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us.
- According to Adam Goldman, one American official had told The Times that the intelligence finding that the Russians had offered and paid bounties to Afghan militants and criminals had been briefed at the highest levels of the White House. Another source said it was included in the President’s Daily Brief, a written document which draws from spy work to make analytic predictions about long standing adversaries, unfolding plots, and emerging crises around the world.
Sources: ABC News, Axios, Bloomberg, CBS News, CNN, Financial Times, Fox News,The Hill, NBC News, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, NJ.com, NPR, NY Times, Politico, Reuters, Salon, Slate, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
The Past 24 Hours Or So 