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Sen. Bernie Sanders has confirmed to VPR that he is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. His official announcement video was posted online Tuesday morning. "I wanted to let the people of the state of Vermont know about this first," Sanders told VPR's Bob Kinzel. "And what I promise to do is, as I go around the country, is to take the values that all of us in Vermont are proud of — a belief in justice, in community, in grassroots politics, in town meetings — that's what I'm going to carry all over this country." Iran-al Qaeda alliance may provide legal rationale for U.S. military strikes Trump administration officials warn of global security threat  Iran is providing high-level al Qaeda operatives with a clandestine sanctuary to funnel fighters, money and weapons across the Middle East, according to Trump administration officials who warn that the long-elusive, complex relationship between two avowed enemies of America has evolved into an unacceptable global security threat. With the once-prominent Islamic State receding from the spotlight, The Washington Times has learned that the administration is focusing increasingly on the unlikely alliance between Iran and al Qaeda, with what some sources say is an eye toward establishing a potential legal justification for military strikes against Iran or its proxies. Skeptics have long doubted that Iran, which this year marked its 40th anniversary as a Shiite Muslim theocracy, could find common cause with a radical Sunni Islamist group such as al Qaeda, but U.S. officials argue that a confluence of interests — and a common enemy in the U.S. and its allies — has brought a level of covert cooperation and coordination that has reached new heights. 16 States Sue Trump Over Emergency Wall Declaration A group of 16 states filed suit in federal court in California to stop President Donald Trump's emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, The Washington Post reported Monday. Earlier in the day, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" he planned to file California's lawsuit.. Joining California and New York are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia. All have Democratic governors but one — Maryland, whose attorney general is a Democrat — and most have legislatures controlled by Democrats, The New York Times reported.
Andrew McCabe says the investigations into Trump faced no congressional pushback Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said Tuesday that no congressional leaders pushed back against the counterintelligence and obstruction of justice investigations launched against President Trump. Mr. McCabe told NBC’s “Today” show that he briefed the “Gang of Eight,” the group of top congressional leaders from both parties — which would have included former Speaker Paul D. Ryan and current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — about the investigations. “That’s the important part here,” Mr. McCabe said. “No one objected — not on legal grounds, not on constitutional grounds and not based on the facts.”
Trump Mulls Change with Intel Director Coats Citing several White House sources, President Trump has a “general disappointment” in Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats — and there may be a “change of leadership” ahead, Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy told CNN Monday. In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Ruddy slammed the intel chief for recently “undercutting” Trump and “trying to make policy and not inform policy” before Congress. “The intelligence chiefs… just went before an open session of Congress, and they openly said that they believe the president's policies and efforts in North Korea are going to fail based on the intelligence,” Ruddy said. “I think you have a classic example here where Director Coats is trying to make policy and not inform policy,” he continued. “The purpose of intelligence is to give the president the facts, let him decide and make the decisions, not to publicly declare that his policies are going to fail a week before he goes over to North Korea on this very important summit.” CBS' Lara Logan Laments Mostly Liberal International Press CBS News foreign correspondent Lara Logan criticized the international media corps as predominantly “liberal,” crowding out conservative outlets that represent the other side of the coin. In an interview with retired Navy SEAL Mike Ritland for his Mike Drop podcast, posted by Breitbart, Logan asserted the “media everywhere is mostly liberal, not just the [United States].” Liberals banking on AOC 2.0 scramble for Mark Kelly alternative in Arizona When former astronaut Mark Kelly said last week he would run as a Democrat to try to unseat a sitting Republican U.S. senator in Arizona, the news sent liberal activists scrambling to try to come up with a candidate of their own. Left-wing groups urged Rep. Ruben Gallego, a vocal member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, to join the race to give liberals a more palatable option as they prepare for 2020. Across the country, those same liberal groups are eyeing next year’s elections with anticipation, hoping to prove that stunning primary season upsets in 2018, such as freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ousting of a 20-year party leader, were just an opening act. Cartel Ambushes Mexican Soldiers near Texas Border An ambush by gunmen from a faction of Los Zetas killed one Mexican soldier and injured two others in Nuevo Laredo. Three attackers working for a convicted terrorist also died in the incident just south of Laredo, Texas. Mexican military officials have not released any information on the attack, however unofficial sources with direct knowledge revealed to Breitbart News the attack took place along the highway that connects Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey. Moving in various SUVs, a team of gunmen with the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas attacked a convoy of soldiers patrolling the streets of Nuevo Laredo. The shooters killed one army lieutenant and injured two others. Under the leadership of convicted terrorist Hector Raul “El Tory” Luna Luna, the CDN has once again advanced their tactic of silencing local news outlets to keep the organization out of public view. None of the local news outlets in Nuevo Laredo reported on the weekend shootout. El Tory, the operational leader for the CDN, is wanted in the U.S. for a grenade attack against the American consulate in Monterrey. The CDN is working to inspire terror throughout the border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon by dumping ice chests with human remains and written threats to rivals. Justice Dept Official: Rosenstein to Step Down by Mid-March Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will leave the Department of Justice by the middle of March, according to a new report. Fox News reported Monday night that Rosenstein, who was already expected to depart in the wake of Attorney General William Barr being confirmed last week, is leaving to give Barr the chance to transition into his new role. The network cited a senior DOJ official in its report. Fox reported that Barr has chosen Jeffrey Rosen, an academic who currently serves as president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, to serve as his deputy AG. Keeping a TV tall tale straight is never easy Life sometimes imitates art, often bad art. Actors live and work in a make-believe world, and when they step outside that world they’re naturally confused about which world they’re in. Jussie Smollett was an obscure actor in a troubled Fox television series called “Empire.” Ratings are down, and sinking, and the Fox network was braced for more bad news when the new season returns next month. What “Empire” needed was publicity to juice expectations. Why not some help from Jussie? But now Jussie is in trouble with the law because of the tale he told to the cops, that two white guys in bright-red MAGA hats beat him up outside a sandwich shop in a rough neighborhood in Chicago, poured bleach on him, looped a noose around his neck, shouted racist and homophobic insults, and left him in the street to die. (Or to await his close-up.) But then the plot thickened and took an interesting turn. Tracing the real root of America's opioid crisis Opioids are flooding into the United States in such vast quantities that President Trump declared a “National Health Emergency” in October 2017. Yet, despite some tales to the contrary, the opioid crisis is literally manufactured in places like Mexico. China, too. In their factories, fentanyl and other copycat drugs are produced in staggering amounts. And they’re decimating us. According to the Centers for Disease Controal and Prevention (CDC), from 1999-2017 almost 400,000 people died from an overdose involving opioids. On average, 130 Americans die each day in this way. The CDC further states that the “most recent cases of fentanyl-related harm, overdose, and death in the United States are linked to illegally-made fentanyl. It is sold through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often mixed with heroin and/or cocaine as a combination product — with or without the user’s knowledge — to increase its euphoric effects.” The crux of the problem is the smuggling of illegal opioids and other “legal” drugs illicitly copied and manufactured in China and other places. These versions of the “legal” drugs are then smuggled into the United States by Mexican drug cartels and sold in the United States at enormous profits.
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