White House weighs preemptive pardons for Cheney, Fauci, and other Trump targets – National & International News

White House weighs preemptive pardons for Cheney, Fauci, and other Trump targets.

Jihadists seize two Syrian cities, reigniting civil war.

Uncertainty after France’s short-lived government falls.

NATIONAL NEWS

White House weighs preemptive pardons for Cheney, Fauci, and other Trump targets

Following the controversial and unusually broad pardon of President Biden’s son Hunter, the White House is reportedly mulling similar blanket pardons for several individuals who may be targeted by the incoming Trump administration. Trump recently named staunch ally Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Patel has openly vowed to pursue Trump’s political adversaries.

Some of the names being floated are former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Senator-elect Adam Schiff of California. While in the House, Cheney and Schiff sat on the January 6th investigative select committee. It’s not clear what is any crimes either Cheney or shift may have committed. However, if Patel gains the power to seek subpoenas, he could decide to go on a fishing expedition and see what turns up.

Gen. Mark Milley

Another name that has come up in these conversations is Gen. Mark Milley. Milley served as chairman of the joint Chiefs of staff in the final months of the Trump administration in 2019 up until September of 2023. Milley has since become an outspoken critic of Trump. The month before this year’s election, Milley was quoted calling Trump “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country”. The quotes were publicized ahead of the release of Bob Woodward’s book “War,” for which Woodward had interviewed Milley.

Milley testified before Congress in 2021 that he had twice communicated with his Chinese counterpart following the 2020 election, reassuring them that Trump was not planning to attack China. Following those revelations, Trump accused Milley of treason.

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Fauci could potentially be in the hot seat after the recent release of a 520-page report by the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee into the origins of Covid-19. The report concludes that the “weight of the evidence” increasingly supports the hypothesis that the virus was leaked from a lab in Wuhan China. Before the emergence of Covid-19, EcoHealth Alliance funded research at the lab into bat coronaviruses, using funds from a US government grant. Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services suspended funding to EcoHealth after finding that the organization failed to “adequately monitor” the experiments.

One of Fauci’s advisors has been scrutinized for his communications with EcoHealth’s president Peter Daszak. At the time, Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The Oversight Committee’s report specifically refers to Fauci and his ties to EcoHealth. “Although Dr Fauci believed the lab leak theory to be a conspiracy theory at the start of the pandemic, it now appears that his position is that he does have an open mind about the origin of the virus— so long as it does not implicate EcoHealth Alliance, and by extension himself and NIAID. Understandably, as he signed off on the EcoHealth Alliance grant”.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Jihadists seize two Syrian cities, reigniting civil war

Last Wednesday, the very day that Israel signed a ceasefire with Hezbollah (which immediately collapsed), a Syrian rebel faction calling itself Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a massive surprise offensive. By Saturday, HTS had completely seized control of Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city after the capital Damascus.

HTS is an offshoot of the terror group Al-Qaeda and shares their Salafist-Islamist ideology. However, HTS have claimed publicly to have severed ties with Al-Qaeda.

Despite counteroffensives by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA, controlled by Bashar al-Assad), with support from Russian airstrikes, HTS were able to see more territory with little resistance. They have now also seized the city of Hama, about 80 mi south of Aleppo. Hama holds a strategic position on the road to Damascus. It’s not clear whether they intend to launch an offensive against the capital city or whether they simply intend to disrupt any attempt to send reinforcements by the Assad regime.

After first claiming that their defenses around Hama were “impregnable,” SAA forces retreated after some intense fighting on the outskirts of the city. SAA says they withdrew to redeploy its forces “to preserve the lives of civilians and not involve the people of Hama City in these battles”.

HTS no controls much of the northwest of Syria. In the past week, over 280,000 people have been displaced, many of them not for the first time in the nearly 15 -year long civil war.

The wider picture

The renewed fighting in Syria has emerged as many of Assad’s military allies are waging pitched battles of their own closer to home. While Russia still has a significant military presence in Syria, many of those troops have recently been rotated away from Syria to the Ukrainian front. According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia will now be sending mercenaries, potentially one of the successor groups to the Wagner mercenary group, to bolster its forces in Syria.

Despite the ceasefire, Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon is still facing hostilities from Israel. Since the truce was agreed, Israel has broken it over 100 times and has prevented thousands of Lebanese citizens from returning to their homes in the south.

In years past, Hezbollah had supported Assad’s forces at the behest of its sponsor Iran, which also has a limited military presence in Syria. Their presence on the battlefield was key in halting rebel advances. When fighting first broke out in Syria last week, Hezbollah indicated it was not planning on sending troops to aid Assad. However, the group’s new leader Naim Qassem announced today that they would be supporting Assad “within their means”. Considering that they are still facing aggression from Israel on the home front, their means are likely to be limited.

Qassem’s announcement of support came after Iran’s foreign minister met with Assad and pledged Iran’s support. There had been some question whether Tehran would come to Assad’s aid this time, considering there’s a possibility of tensions with Israel escalating. However, Tehran seems to have calculated that it needs its few friends in the region now more than ever. “Popular Mobilization Forces,” an umbrella group for Iran aligned Shiite Iraqi militias, has sent hundreds of troops into the east of Syria to support Assad.

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Uncertainty in France after short-lived government falls

Yesterday, France’s fragile center-right/center-left parliamentary coalition fell apart following a no confidence vote. Three months ago, President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections, which did not go his way. A coalition of left parties won a plurality of the seats, but fell short of an outright majority. Macron’s centrist coalition came in second and the hard right coalition led by Marine Le Pen came in third.

Instead of giving the left coalition a mandate to form a government, Macron appointed Michel Barnier, the head of a center right party, as prime minister. Yesterday, the left and right united to vote Barnier out after he proposed an unpopular austerity budget. Barnier’s premiership is the shortest since World War II.

There is no certainty as to what happens next. Elections cannot be called again until at least next summer. Until then, France may remain ungovernable. Despite calls for his resignation, Macron says he has no intention of stepping down. He has asked Barnier to stay on as caretaker prime minister until he can appoint someone to take his place.

The timing is particularly embarrassing for Macron. This Sunday, Notre Dame cathedral will have its grand public reopening after a devastating fire in 2015. The opening will be attended by heads of state and foreign dignitaries, including both President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump. The cathedral’s reopening was supposed to be a great triumph for Macron, who had pledged in 2015 to have the cathedral restored by 2024.

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