00:09:30.620The president elaborating further in a follow-up post on Truth Social.
00:09:35.020Quote, last month, I directed our great U.S. military to execute a secret mission to support oil tankers and other commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
00:09:44.360Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 million
00:09:49.540barrels of oil making its way through the strait and into the open market.
00:09:54.900Oil prices dropping shortly after the announcement before bouncing back up,
00:09:59.460closing the day at $94.60. That's up two bucks from the day's open, per the Financial Times.
00:10:07.980Coming up, the Democrat Party's fundraising machine under fire as ActBlue's CEO
00:10:13.660pleads the fifth before Congress over allegations of weak fraud controls.
00:10:19.540And a Somali World Cup referee denied entry into the U.S.
00:10:24.060after border officials flagged possible terror-related concerns.
00:10:34.700For the first time since World War II,
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00:10:42.980America's reckless government spending keeps catching up with us.
00:10:45.780Higher inflation, higher prices, higher cost of living expenses,
00:10:48.680and higher interest payments on the national debt.
00:10:51.780Every dollar Washington spends on interest is a dollar it has to tax, borrow, or print.
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00:11:31.920the ceo of democrat fundraising engine act blue regina wallace jones refusing to answer questions
00:11:41.360and pleading the fifth amendment on capitol hill yesterday as house republicans investigate whether
00:11:46.860the platform allowed illegal foreign donations to flow into federal campaigns the massive
00:11:53.100fundraising site processing roughly 19 billion in donations since its founding in 2004 with
00:11:59.160thousands of candidates and left-wing organizations benefiting from millions of donors.
00:12:04.720Since 2023, ActBlue under investigation by multiple Republican-led House committees
00:12:09.740after viral reporting from independent journalist James O'Keefe
00:12:13.560alleged suspicious donation patterns tied to the platform.
00:12:18.400Republicans now probing whether ActBlue kept its fraud controls deliberately weak,
00:12:23.820allowing illegal foreign donations and other potentially unlawful contributions
00:12:27.580to flow through the platform, only to later claim it was shocked,
00:12:32.260shocked to see the foreign connections. The probe gaining new momentum in April when the
00:12:37.440New York Times reported ActBlue's own lawyers warned the group it may have misled Congress
00:12:43.020about its foreign donation safeguards. Wallace Jones telling lawmakers ActBlue used, quote,
00:12:49.560multi-layered screening to root out foreign contributions. But internal legal memos
00:12:54.980reportedly warning ActBlue did not have the rigor it claimed to Congress, and that there was a
00:13:00.960quote, substantial risk some funds may have come from foreign nationals. ActBlue later dismissing
00:13:06.480the Republican investigations as a witch hunt, while also telling Congress it had strengthened
00:13:11.040its foreign donation safeguards. House Administration Chairman Brian Stile, Republican from Wisconsin,
00:13:17.860opening the hearing by arguing internal ActBlue documents show the platform was not merely
00:13:22.920missing red flags on fraud, but training staff to work around them.
00:13:28.280This committee issued subpoenas for documents related to fraudulent and foreign donations
00:13:32.400and alleged misconduct by ActBlue staff. In ActBlue, meeting notes turned over to this committee.
00:13:38.500Staff were instructed, quote, remember that we that we want to look for reasons to accept
00:13:44.580contributions. Do not reject contributions for a single suspicious characteristic.
00:13:50.180Look for the forest and not the trees, end quote.
00:13:54.960Further, an ActBlue memo titled Fraud Prevention 101 for New Associates in the Workflow advises that, quote,
00:14:02.800if an otherwise legitimate donor uses a fake name, we would want to accept their donation, end quote.
00:14:10.700We have additional evidence of ActBlue detecting at least 22 significant fraud campaigns.
00:14:17.460Nine of those fraud campaigns had a foreign nexus.
00:14:21.060Chairman Stile noting Wallace Jones was only appearing before the committee due to a subpoena.
00:14:26.500Prior to her appearance on the Hill, Wallace Jones releasing a video to social media.
00:14:31.600President Trump and his allies are abusing their power to target ActBlue.
00:14:35.620I was called to testify before Congress, and I will invoke my Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
00:14:43.520Invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission or even an insinuation of guilt.
00:14:49.160It is the only reasonable response to a highly partisan proceeding that is about harassing its largest political opponent's fundraising platform, not genuine oversight.
00:15:02.840These attacks did not start with Act Blue.
00:15:05.560And sadly, we know they are not stopping here.
00:15:08.620They are part of a much bigger trend of retaliation and retribution.
00:15:22.040Lots of tough talk online, but inside the hearing room, Wallace Jones, a less forthcoming.
00:15:27.800In 2023, I sent you this letter with five straightforward questions with a goal of confirming
00:15:34.800that foreign funds are not in our elections and that Act Blue had adequate fraud prevention
00:15:40.940measures in place. You replied a month later with a four-page letter describing your fraud
00:15:46.760prevention policies and procedures that you had in place at Act Blue. But according to the New
00:15:53.000York Times, your response to this committee may have been false and misleading. Ms. Wallace-Jones,
00:15:59.620when you signed this letter to me, did you believe that this letter was false and misleading?
00:16:07.360On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully declined to answer this question pursuant to
00:16:13.900my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution. Wallace-Jones going on to invoke the Fifth
00:16:19.600Amendment 21 more times, with the hearing wrapping after roughly an hour. Democrats,
00:16:25.900for their part, largely dismissing the hearing as a partisan witch hunt,
00:16:29.820accusing Republicans of targeting Act Blue while ignoring similar questions about the GOP
00:16:35.080fundraising platform WinRed, the House probe running alongside a separate DOJ investigation
00:16:41.040ordered by President Trump last year. A Somali World Cup referee denied entry into the USA just
00:16:49.580days before the tournament kicks off over security concerns. From June 11th through July 19th,
00:16:56.580the 2026 World Cup will be held across cities in three countries, the U.S., 11 cities, Mexico,
00:17:03.100three cities, and Canada, two cities. FIFA, the governing body for international soccer,
00:17:09.220selecting Omar Abdul-Khadir Artan as one of 52 referees for the 2026 World Cup,
00:17:15.720making him the only Somali referee chosen for the tournament and putting him on track to become the
00:17:21.200first Somali official ever to referee a World Cup match. But over the weekend, Artan arriving at
00:17:27.980Miami International Airport from Istanbul, then being pulled in for additional inspection by
00:17:34.020Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, and ultimately sent on a return flight back to
00:17:39.920Istanbul. The decision drawing outrage from the usual corners, with critics framing it as an
00:17:45.280Embarrassment for a World Cup host country and an alleged example of Trump-era immigration policy gone too far.
00:17:52.800Here, a segment from Tuesday on MS Now.
00:17:55.980To see this event, which is such a global sports story, impacted negatively by his heinous immigration policies, is it an oversight? Is it intentional?
00:18:07.840This is an administration that has decided to make theater out of its immigration policy in general.
00:18:12.280And now when they host the biggest party in the world, that's what the World Cup is.