00:03:57.320Now, on Monday, during a White House press briefing,
00:04:00.300the White House press secretary, Caroline Leavitt,
00:04:02.480responded to a question from CNN's Caitlin Collins regarding Trump's post on Sunday night
00:04:07.780in which he declared the pardons are void, vacant,
00:04:10.880and of no further force or effect because of the fact that they were done by the auto pin.
00:04:15.720Caroline Leavitt said Trump was begging the question that I think a lot of journalists
00:04:20.820in this room should be asking about whether or not the former president of the United States,
00:04:27.180who I think we can all finally agree, was cognitively impaired, quote unquote.
00:04:33.320The president was begging the question that I think a lot of journalists in this room
00:04:37.540should be asking about whether or not the former president of the United States,
00:04:41.620who I think we can all finally agree, was cognitively impaired.
00:04:44.960I know it took people some time to finally admit that, but we all know that to be true, as evidenced by his disastrous debate performance against President Trump during the campaign.
00:04:54.760I digress on that. But the president was raising the point that did the president even know about these pardons?
00:05:01.640Was his legal signature used without his consent or knowledge?
00:05:06.460And that's not just the president or me raising those questions, Caitlin.
00:05:09.860And according to the New York Post, there are Biden officials from the previous White House who raised those questions and wondered if the president was even consulted about his legally binding signature being signed onto documents.
00:05:22.020And so I think it's a question that everybody in this room should be looking into, because certainly that would propose perhaps criminal or illegal behavior if staff members were signing the president of the United States autograph without criminal or legal procedures.
00:05:38.760It's very clear now this is going to be an issue the courts are going to have to deal with.
00:05:43.020And one that Donald Trump is happily raising the question, was there illegal activity with people signing Joe Biden's name without his knowledge or his consent?
00:05:55.480One of Donald Trump's promises from the campaign trail was to go after terrorists all over the world, peace through strength, making sure that we strike first on those that are trying to do harm to Americans, our soldiers and American interests around the world.
00:06:10.720Well, over the past week, Donald Trump has intensified his counterterrorism efforts, both domestically and internationally.
00:06:20.420Here is a quick summary of just some of the things that the president has done.
00:06:26.960Starting on March the 15th, President Trump authorized large-scale airstrikes targeting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen's capital.
00:06:35.880This action was in response to the Houthis' threat to U.S. shipping assets in the Red Sea.
00:06:41.580The offensive aims to protect American interests and ensure navigational freedom in the region.
00:06:47.560Donald Trump putting it this way in his own words on True Social.
00:06:51.320Today, I ordered the United States military to launch decisive and powerful military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
00:07:00.800They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American and other ships, aircraft, and drones.
00:07:11.300Joe Biden's response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going.
00:07:17.840It has been over a year since a U.S. flag commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden.
00:07:29.360The last American warship to go through the Red Sea four months ago was attacked by the terrorist group over a dozen times, funded by Iran.
00:07:39.620The Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft and targeted our troops and allies.
00:07:47.480These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and the world economy many billions of dollars, while at the same time putting innocent lives at risk.
00:07:58.660The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated.
00:08:02.260We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.
00:08:06.480The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important waterways of the world, grinding vast swaths of global commerce to a halt and attacking the core principle of freedom and navigation upon which international trade and commerce depends.
00:08:23.500Our brave warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorist bases, their leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore navigational freedom.
00:08:37.500No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the waterways of the world.
00:08:44.260To all the Houthi terrorists, your time is up, and your attacks must stop, starting today.
00:08:51.420If they don't, hell will rain down upon you like nothing you've ever seen before.
00:08:57.060President Trump went on to say to Iran, support for the Houthi terrorists must end immediately.
00:09:03.200Do not threaten the American people, their president, who has received one of the largest mandates in presidential history, or worldwide shipping lanes.
00:09:12.560If you do, beware, because America will hold you fully accountable, and we won't be nice about it.
00:09:19.160That is the president's clear message to the terrorists right now in the Middle East.
00:09:24.360Now, this message comes less than 24 hours after Trump also announced Friday night that the U.S. forces had killed the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq.
00:09:34.000The White House even released the footage of the airstrike on social media, making it clear that President Trump will go and terminate any terrorist leader anywhere he has to, to keep Americans safe.
00:09:48.740Transparency with our government is a core foundation of Donald Trump's second term in office.
00:09:54.940And that was one of his big promises from the campaign trail.
00:09:59.360Even the biggest secrets that we've never been able to actually know what really happened.
00:10:04.900One of those secrets deals with the JFK assassination.
00:10:08.660Well, President Trump has announced that his administration will release today approximately 80,000 pages of previously classified documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
00:10:23.460This is a major move towards transparency, so that the American people, well, hopefully will have more trust in our federal government.
00:10:33.340We are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files.
00:10:43.020So people have been waiting for decades for this.
00:10:46.500And I've instructed my people that are responsible.
00:10:52.640Lots of different people put together by Tulsi Gabbard.
00:10:57.880And that's going to be released tomorrow.
00:11:01.060Now, the decision to declassify these documents fulfills that promise.
00:11:05.460It is to provide greater transparency, the White House says, regarding the events surrounding Kennedy's assassination in 1963.
00:11:12.460During a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., President Trump stated, I don't believe we are going to redact anything.
00:11:23.520It's going to be very interesting, quote unquote.
00:11:26.300Now, in addition to the JFK files, the executive order signed by President Trump in January also mandates the release of records pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
00:11:41.780The National Archives and Records Administration has been tasked with processing and digitizing these records for public access.
00:11:50.740Prior to the release, by the way, over 99 percent of the approximately 320,000 documents related to the JFK assassination had already been made public, but fewer than 4,700 files withheld in part or in full.
00:12:10.220In other words, anything they didn't want you to read, you didn't see.
00:12:13.980Well, Donald Trump now says get ready to sit down and start reading all of the information of the 80,000 pages, and you will be seeing that today.
00:12:24.780Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:12:28.900Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:12:33.840And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.