News of the World

[DerVVulfman]

TRUMP SAYS NO RETRIBUTION
"Critics saying I'd seek retribution are 'wrong,'
but 'I would have every right' to go after opponents"

Article and Interview footage with full statement

* Fast forward 4:45 to establish... 'he said exactly that'
The very next day, social media is claiming he said the absolute opposite.

Former President Trump told Fox News on Wednesday that critics claiming he'd seek retribution against political opponents are "wrong," but he would have "every right" to go after his adversaries if he is re-elected in November.

Trump sat down for an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity to discuss the state of the country and his political campaign after he was found guilty last week on 34 counts of falsifying business records in NY v. Trump.

Hannity asked the former president what he would say to people who believe he wants retribution and will use the justice system to go after his political adversaries if he returns to the White House in 2025.

"Number one, they're wrong," Trump replied. "It has to stop, because otherwise, we're not going to have a country. Look, when this election is over, based on what they've done, I would have every right to go after them, and it's easy, because it's Joe Biden and you see all the criminality, all of the money that's going into the family and him, all of this money from China, from Russia, from Ukraine."

. . .

Trump said he doesn’t want to do what Democrats have done to the Republican Party.

"They want to arrest on no crime. They want to arrest the person that won the nomination in a landslide," he told "Hannity."

"What they're doing to me, if it's going to continue, we're really not going to have much of a country left. It's really, it is weaponization. You call it lawfare, you call it — some people call it just warfare — but it is weaponization of the election," the 2024 GOP frontrunner added. 

Behind Closed Doors,
Biden Shows Signs of Slipping
Participants in meetings said the 81-year-old president performed poorly at times.
The White House said Biden is sharp and his critics are playing partisan politics.

The Article

WASHINGTON—When President Biden met with congressional leaders in the West Wing in January to negotiate a Ukraine funding deal, he spoke so softly at times that some participants struggled to hear him, according to five people familiar with the meeting. He read from notes to make obvious points, paused for extended periods and sometimes closed his eyes for so long that some in the room wondered whether he had tuned out.

In a February one-on-one chat in the Oval Office with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the president said a recent policy change by his administration that jeopardizes some big energy projects was just a study, according to six people told at the time about what Johnson said had happened. Johnson worried the president’s memory had slipped about the details of his own policy.
Last year, when Biden was negotiating with House Republicans to lift the debt ceiling, his demeanor and command of the details seemed to shift from one day to the next, according to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and two others familiar with the talks. On some days, he had loose and spontaneous exchanges with Republicans, and on others he mumbled and appeared to rely on notes.

“I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy said in an interview. “He’s not the same person.”

The 81-year-old Biden is the oldest person to hold the presidency. His age and cognitive fitness have become major issues in his campaign for a second term, both in the minds of voters and in attacks on him by Republicans. The White House and top aides said he remains a sharp and vigorous leader.

Some who have worked with him, however, including Democrats and some who have known him back to his time as vice president, described a president who appears slower now, someone who has both good moments and bad ones.

For much of his career, Biden enjoyed a reputation on Capitol Hill for being a master negotiator of legislative deals, known for his detailed knowledge of issues and insights into the other side’s motivations and needs—and for hitting his stride when the pressure was on. Over the past year, though, with Republicans in control of the House, that reputation has diminished.

White House officials dismissed many of the accounts from those who have met with the president or been briefed on those meetings as motivated by partisan politics.

“Congressional Republicans, foreign leaders and nonpartisan national-security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment,” said White House spokesman Andrew Bates. “Now, in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues.”

This article is based on interviews with more than 45 people over several months. The interviews were with Republicans and Democrats who either participated in meetings with Biden or were briefed on them contemporaneously, including administration officials and other Democrats who found no fault in the president’s handling of the meetings. Most of those who said Biden performed poorly were Republicans, but some Democrats said that he showed his age in several of the exchanges.

(STORY CONTINUES IN THE WSJ)

France changes course, says it will sell Mirage fighters to Ukraine

The Article

June 6 (UPI) -- France has announced plans to begin selling Mirage fighter jets to war-embattled Ukraine "by the end of the year," French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday.

Macron made the announcement on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when U.S. and allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, in 1944, turning the tide in World War II and marking the beginning of the end of Nazi totalitarianism in Europe.

"Tomorrow we will launch a new cooperation and announce the transfer of Mirage 2000 [jets], which help Ukraine protect its skies," Macron said during an interview with broadcaster TF1 in the northern city of Caen, coinciding with the start of an official visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Macron said he intends for as many as 4,500 Ukrainian pilots to be trained on Mirage 2000 fighter jets in France over a six month period, beginning as soon as this summer.

He did not, however, say how many fighters he intends to send to Ukraine, and the defense ministry did not elaborate on its plans. Macron said he would brief Zelensky further in a private meeting on Friday at the Elysée Palace.

"We've always had the same philosophy, we help the Ukrainians to fight," Macron added.

Macron said Ukraine has asked Western allies to send military instructors to train its forces on its soil to meet the growing demand for troops.

Zelensky has said that Russia is beginning to gain the upper hand on the battlefield and needs international help to build up Ukrainian troop numbers.

"The Ukrainian president and his minister of defence asked all the allies -- 48 hours ago in an official letter -- saying 'we need you to train us quicker and that you do this on our soil,'" Macron said.

Zelensky has made repeated pleas for additional arms, firepower and other military assistance from Western nations, including the United States, which recently passed more aid and, by some reports, totals at least $175 million, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

This is a change of direction for France, which had, until now, stopped short of sending Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine, and had instead suggested to Kyiv that its defense forces should focus on acquiring F-16s, which are more common that the Mirage.

World leaders and veterans from allied nations had gathered in commemoration of the 80th year of D-Day, which provided the backdrop for Macron to make the fighter jet announcement. U.S. President Joe Biden and Macron drew comparisons between the fight against Nazism in World War II and Ukraine's battle against the current Russian invasion.

Zelensky is scheduled to meet with defense manufacturers, Macron and the French National Assembly on Friday.

Macron told France 24 that the move signals a new attitude of partnership with Kyiv.

"We are working with our partners and we will act on the basis of a collective decision," he said.