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The Talk Shows Aug 27th, 2017 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; Texas Gov. (R) Greg Abbott. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): -Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator William "Brock" Long; Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio.FACE THE NATION (CBS): - Tom Bossert, White House homeland security adviser; Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Tom Donilon, former national security adviser; retired Adm. James Winnefeld.THIS WEEK (ABC): Abbott; Bossert; Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan; Douglas Lute, former U.S. ambassador to...

Foreign nationals attempting to enter the United States through various visa programs will now have to prove they have the means return to their native countries as federal law mandates. As part of President Donald Trump’s Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, the vetting procedures conducted by the State Department of foreign nationals trying to come to the U.S. have been strengthened to weed out not only radicalized individuals, but also foreigners with no documented intentions on departing. The National Law Review outlined the changes by the Trump Administration, writing that “the revisions appear to instruct officers to apply a...

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that the lack of diversity at the State Department is a “leadership” issue as he outlined the department’s efforts to recruit more African-American, Hispanic and female personnel. “It’s not just to achieve a mix of population that looks like the rest of our country,” Tillerson said during an address to students of the department’s internship and leadership programs in Washington, D.C. “It enriches our work; it enriches our work product.” Tillerson’s remarks come at a time of tension in Washington as President Trump weathers scrutiny for his response to the white nationalist rally...

Tillerson, Mattis rebuff Bannon claim of no 'military solution' for North Korea Published August 17, 2017 Fox News Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday rebuffed White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s claim to a liberal magazine that “there’s no military solution” for North Korea’s nuclear threats. Bannon unloaded in an interview published late Wednesday by The American Prospect. He hammered the importance of what he called the “economic war with China,” dubbing the tensions with Pyongyang a “sideshow” and rejecting the notion there’s a military solution. Asked Thursday about those comments, Tillerson and Mattis...

Full title: State Department lawyers removing references to ISIS 'genocide' against Christians, other religious minorities The State Department's top lawyers are systematically removing the word "genocide" to describe the Islamic State's mass slaughter of Christians, Yazidis, and other ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria from speeches before they are delivered and other official documents, according to human rights activists and attorneys familiar with the policies. Additionally, Democratic senators are delaying confirmation of Mark Green, Trump's pick to head the U.S. Agency for International Development who has broad bipartisan support. These efforts guarantee that Obama-era policies that worked to exclude Iraq's...

The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon has announced that President Donald Trump’s administration has delivered military equipment to the Hezbollah-linked Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), namely Bradley Fighting Vehicles. “It will provide the Lebanese Armed Forces with new capabilities to protect Lebanon, to protect its borders, and to fight terrorists,” declared Elizabeth Richard, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, referring to the U.S.-supplied military vehicles. “Over the next several months, the Army will undergo intensive training on how to operate and maintain this new, very sophisticated combat system.” “I am pleased to once again demonstrate our long-term commitment to Lebanon, and our support...

In an interview with the BBC earlier today, White House deputy advisor Seb Gorka seemed to completely undermine Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on North Korea, claiming that it was “simply nonsensical” for Tillerson to speak on military matters. As one would imagine, Gorka’s comments created a bit of a stir. The State Department pushed back, stating that Tillerson “carries a big stick.” And, during an interview on Fox News this afternoon, host Liz Claman pressed Gorka to explain his remarks, leading to a pretty uncomfortable few minutes for the ex-Breitbart editor. [snip]

Former Secretary of State Hillary Cinton's emails are under investigation again. Hillary Clinton and her staffers still have access to sensitive government information, but that could change. The State Department has opened a formal investigation into whether the former Democratic Presidential nominee mishandled classified information when she was Secretary of State. Depending on the outcome of the probe, Clinton and her aides could lose their security clearances. The State Department has not said when its probe began.

[snip] “It’s largely not a highly disciplined organization,,” he said in an interview last month while on a flight back from the Middle East, where he tried unsuccessfully to resolve a bitter feud between Qatar and four Arab nations. “Decision-making is fragmented, and sometimes people don’t want to take decisions. Coordination is difficult through the interagency — has been for every administration.” Almost from the time of his arrival, Mr. Tillerson has said the department needed to be reorganized, and he has embarked on a wholesale rethinking of its structure. He has hired two consulting companies, undertaken a departmentwide survey...

Manila - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on the offense at a summit here as he tries to increase the pressure on, and isolation of, North Korea after the U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions against the country's rogue regime. Tillerson is in Manila for an annual summit hosted by Southeast Asian countries collectively known as ASEAN. He’s meeting with regional partners, including Russia and China, just days after North Korea tested its second intercontinental ballistic missile in a month. The new sanctions were drafted by the U.S. in consultation with China and passed unanimously at the U.N. Saturday....

Oh, this is almost too much winning… almost. A pearl-clutching op-ed in the New York Times declares the hurt sensibilities within the State Department are leading to multiple people quitting Specifically citing the different managerial strategy of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and the priorities of the entire Dept. of State mission being reset, the career bureaucrats are dropping like flies hitting the T-Rex zapper.

The Cold War between the president and secretary of state became obvious from the latest State Department annual report on the global terrorism situation, which blames Israeli security policies for stalling the peace process and claims that the Palestinian leadership rarely incites terror attacks. This, in spite of Trump’s repeated statements of support for Israel. In the 2016 State Department Country Report on Terrorism, State clearly took the position of the Palestinian Authority against Israel. That was particularly evident in citing changes on the Temple Mount as incitement of terror, clearly referring to Israel’s recent erecting metal detectors at the...

The State Department under Secretary Rex Tillerson has been locked in a growing power struggle with the White House that has angered officials in the West Wing and sparked claims that the Trump administration's top diplomatic organ is now in "open war" with the White House on a range of critical issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, Iran, the crisis with Qatar, and other matters, according to multiple sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about the situation. The State Department is said to be in a state of "massive dysfunction," with top officials working under Tillerson ignoring White House...

Arabs live among themselves in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Jordan, Egypt - no Jews except a few - but are they happy? No, still they’re miserable: family feuds, tribal grudges, civil wars, thousands killed, millions homeless,brother against brother. President Trump needs to have a talk with Rex Tillerson. Tillerson’s State Department has issued a report that blames Israel for…EVERYTHING. Nobody saw that coming. Well I sure didn’t. Love Trump. Tillerson, not so much, even from the start. The report okays Arab violence as a means to redress “frustrations” and “disappointments”…such as “lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood.” The Jews,...

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told friends he thinks he will be lucky to last a year leading the State Department, according to a new report. Foreign policy leaders, including Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, have been clashing with West Wing insiders, such as adviser Sebastian Gorka and chief strategist Steve Bannon, over foreign policy outlook and strategy, Reuters reports: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told friends he will be lucky to last a year in his job, according to a friend, while two officials said national security adviser H.R. McMaster was frustrated by what he...

Talk of potential "Rexit" at Foggy Bottom, new tests for President Trump on immigration, tax reform and media relations and a big challenge for the nation's oldest civil rights organization -- it's all part of our Inside Politics Forecast. 1) A chill across the executive branch -- and new rumblings from State Department There was a decided chill across the executive branch as last week came to a close after a tumultuous series of events that rattled worker bees and caught the attention of Cabinet secretaries. A large part of that dynamic was the result of the White House staff...

Officials in the Trump administration's State Department are standing by a recent report criticized by Congress that blamed Israel for terror attacks and claimed Palestinians rarely incite violence, telling the Washington Free Beacon that it remains unclear why terrorists engage in violent acts. Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, criticized the State Department Thursday for releasing a report portraying Israel as the culprit in terrorism and downplaying Palestinian incitement of violent acts against the Jewish state, the Free Beacon first reported. Roskam demanded the State Department alter its report to bring it more in...

The State Department is has long been compromised — State Department careerists work for the countries they are assigned to, not to America, and that’s the problem. The State Department is the problem. We need patriots and freedom lovers in state craft, not Muslim Brotherhood lackeys. President Trump is attempting to overhaul the State Department and leave his “America First” stamp on the cumbersome bureaucracy — a move that is reportedly making former officials very nervous. Trump’s war on the State Department The Hill, July 2017: President Trump is seeking to radically remodel the State Department in an unprecedented way,...

The State Department is has long been compromised – State Department careerists work for the countries they are assigned to, not to America and that’s the problem. The State Department is the problem. We need patriots and freedom lovers in state craft, not Muslim Brotherood lackeys. The State Department is has long been compromised – State Department careerists work for the countries they are assigned to, not to America and that’s the problem. The State Department is the problem. We need patriots and freedom lovers in state craft, not Muslim Brotherood lackeys. The left-leaning Hill are quaking in their...