James Joyner is a Professor of Security Studies. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn went so far as to push legislation renaming a highway for President Donald Trump as he sought the president’s endorsement in his hotly contested runoff with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Now he says that bill “may not make it into my priorities the next seven months.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday confirmed the country’s first case of New World screwworm — the parasitic fly poised to harm the state’s $15 billion cattle industry — in South Texas.
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The confirmation comes one day after Rollins debunked the claims of a state lawmaker that the screwworm was less than 1 mile from the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The parasitic fly targets the live flesh of warm mammals including cattle, pets, wildlife and humans. Screwworm infects them by embedding their larvae in open wounds. The larvae feed off the flesh, causing severe wounds or death.
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Screwworm had been eradicated in the U.S. since the 1960s when the pest was pushed back into Central America. However, cases began springing up in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. In 2024, Mexico reported its first case.
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Rollins blamed the spread of screwworm toward the U.S.-Mexico border on “the open-border policies of the last administration and the resulting illicit cattle movement”
When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.
The president’s eldest son said through a spokesperson that he wasn’t involved. The Pentagon said Trump Jr. played no role in the record-setting deal. And the startup’s founder told reporters that his company, Vulcan Elements, received no political favoritism.
But interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm linked to Trump Jr. was made by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s.
A group of lawmakers demanded answers from the White House this week following a ProPublica investigation revealing that a top aide to the president intervened to secure a $620 million Pentagon loan to a startup linked to the president’s eldest son.
ProPublica’s reporting “reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence peddling that superseded this process, enriching the President’s son at the expense of U.S. national security and taxpayer dollars,” wrote the group of Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii as well as Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado and Mike Levin of California.
Last year, the Pentagon announced the loan to Vulcan Elements, a small North Carolina startup, about three months after Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm took a stake of undisclosed size in the rare-earth magnet company.
When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.
Since when do we have the Pentagon *Bank* loaning money to putative defense contractors? Yes, as with all things Trump, this is manifestly corrupt, but why not start with the apparent fact that someone at the Pentagon is dipping into the ocean of money that is routinely appropriated for defense and “lending” it to a start-up. ‘Choosing winners,’ as the GOP howled any time a Dem administration as much as mentioned the name of a vendor.
ETA – but, but, but….Hunter Biden sold a painting!!!
There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.
The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58thseason, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.
“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.
The waste is heartbreaking.
Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.
At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.
I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.
@Charley in Cleveland: There are provisions in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regs (DFARS) for contract financing (FAR/DFAR Part 232). These are usually for special cases and are strictly scrutinized. I don’t know the details of this deal, but I wouldn’t be surprised that the legal aspects have been greatly distorted and great pressure put on the government contract officer to sign off on it.
There should be some sort of guarantee involved, too.
In Mexico, when a government agency hands out an advance for a large contract, it requires a surety bond for the full amount*. This protects the agency from the supplier failing to meet its obligations, or just running away with the money.
None of which makes handing the Taco spawn money in any way ethical or responsible.
*It can also be a deposit or a certified or cashier’s check for the full amount, which would render the advance pointless.
I wonder what kinds of questions El Taco’s pollsters go around asking. If any exist, that is. You’d think he wouldn’t have launched a Middle East Quagmire(TM) without at least gauging the sentiments of the deplorable base first…
I imagine questions such as “Would you support El Taco suspending the midterm elections?” “How do you feel about El Taco dissolving Congress and replacing it with a capitol-shaped rubber stamp?”
LOL.
Trump Interstate? After US Senate loss, Cornyn says it’s no longer a priority
First U.S. screwworm case confirmed in South Texas
It’s Biden’s fault.
You have to wonder when the Trump Crime Family corruption is going to break through to the general public.
The White House Intervened to Get a $620 Million Deal for a Company Tied to Donald Trump Jr.
Lawmakers demand answers about $620M Pentagon loan to firm tied to Trump Jr.
@Scott:
Since when do we have the Pentagon *Bank* loaning money to putative defense contractors? Yes, as with all things Trump, this is manifestly corrupt, but why not start with the apparent fact that someone at the Pentagon is dipping into the ocean of money that is routinely appropriated for defense and “lending” it to a start-up. ‘Choosing winners,’ as the GOP howled any time a Dem administration as much as mentioned the name of a vendor.
ETA – but, but, but….Hunter Biden sold a painting!!!
Statement from fired CBS/60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley:
https://x.com/DylanByers/status/2062013125554246140
@Charley in Cleveland: There are provisions in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regs (DFARS) for contract financing (FAR/DFAR Part 232). These are usually for special cases and are strictly scrutinized. I don’t know the details of this deal, but I wouldn’t be surprised that the legal aspects have been greatly distorted and great pressure put on the government contract officer to sign off on it.
One of the most interesting things I’ve watched. Universe 25. I imagine there are folks here who’ve heard of it. I had not. Rather discouraging.
@Scott:
There should be some sort of guarantee involved, too.
In Mexico, when a government agency hands out an advance for a large contract, it requires a surety bond for the full amount*. This protects the agency from the supplier failing to meet its obligations, or just running away with the money.
None of which makes handing the Taco spawn money in any way ethical or responsible.
*It can also be a deposit or a certified or cashier’s check for the full amount, which would render the advance pointless.
I wonder what kinds of questions El Taco’s pollsters go around asking. If any exist, that is. You’d think he wouldn’t have launched a Middle East Quagmire(TM) without at least gauging the sentiments of the deplorable base first…
I imagine questions such as “Would you support El Taco suspending the midterm elections?” “How do you feel about El Taco dissolving Congress and replacing it with a capitol-shaped rubber stamp?”