Also on today’s menu:
Trump Stirs Backlash With Abortion Comments
To Old And Too Mentally Fogged?
Lost And Found: F-35B Lightning II Military Jet
Five Americans who had spent years in Iranian jails arrived in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, this morning after the United States released five Iranians from U.S. custody. (Three of the Iranians chose not to return to Iran.) As part of the exchange agreement, South Korea released $6 billion it held in Iranian cash. Banks in Doha, the capital city of Qatar, accepted the impounded money under an agreement that placed higher oversight conditions on the disbursement of those funds than South Korea had provided, but the release of the money has been characterized as ransom that will encourage the kidnapping of more Americans.
U.S. officials have maintained that the five Americans detained in Iran were wrongfully imprisoned for political leverage, while the five Iranians in the United States had violated U.S. sanctions.
The $6 billion in Iranian funds represent money owed by South Korea to Tehran for oil purchased before the Trump Administration imposed sanctions in 2019 that banned such transactions. Under the exchange agreement, the released money can only be used for humanitarian purposes.
The release of the five American prisoners brings the total to 35 Americans released by foreign nations during Joe Biden Jr.’s presidency.
Trump Stirs Backlash With Abortion Comments
Students for Life has announced that it will halt its campaign to rally anti-abortion voters in the 2024 race until Donald Trump clarifies the comments he made in an NBC Meet the Press interview in which he attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban, calling it “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake”.
When pressed by Meet the Press host Kristen Welker on his own position and whether he would support a 15-week federal ban, Trump said, “I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t.”
Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins threatened to pull her group’s 1,000 volunteers off the campaign trail and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said anything later than a 15-week ban “makes no sense”.
Roughly 93% of all abortions in the country occur at or before 13 weeks of pregnancy.
To Old And Too Mentally Fogged?
Donald Trump, who has portrayed Joe Biden Jr. as too old and too mentally fogged to occupy the Oval Office, has made recent remarks that cast himself in the same light. Last Friday, addressing the Pray, Vote, Stand summit, Trump said Biden is “cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead and … now in charge of dealing with Russia and possible nuclear war”. Under Biden, he added, “We would be in World War Two.”
Trump also suggested that he had beaten Barack Obama for the presidency in 2016, rather than Hillary Clinton.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis picked up on the subject of age and fitness for office, saying, “I think that if the founders could kind of look at this again, I do think they probably would’ve put an age limit on some of these offices.”
Lost And Found: F-35B Lightning II Military Jet
Military officials who had asked for the public’s help in finding a lost F-35B Lightning II military jet after the pilot ejected over South Carolina have now located debris from the $100 million stealth fighter two hours northeast of Joint Base Charleston in rural Williamsburg County.
The jet was left in autopilot mode when the pilot ejected for undisclosed reasons, and officials had focused their search around the jet’s last known location, Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, north of Charleston.
The plane’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, said the jet’s main advantages are that it is nearly impossible to track with radar. Despite it being the most expensive weapons system ever developed, since it was first pitched in the early 1990s, the F-35 has been subject to a host of catastrophes, setbacks, and cost overruns. The crash in the Carolinas makes the ninth crash since the plane came into operation and it has been grounded multiple times in the past.
“The mishap is currently under investigation, and we are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative process,” the Marine Corps said after the search ended.
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