The Biden administration has reportedly cleared Ukraine to use American long-range missile systems against targets in Russia — a move long urged by Ukrainian officials, resisted by U.S. officials concerned about escalation, and identified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a trigger for a direct conflict between NATO and Russia.

Background

In February, President Joe Biden secretly signed off on the transfer of the Army Tactical Missile Systems to Ukraine. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Garron Garn told CNN that following Biden's approval, the ATACMS were included in the $300 million aid package announced on March 12 then delivered the following month.

The American-made supersonic missiles have a range of up to 190 miles. Ukraine also has British-made Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of 155 miles.

The U.S. has blocked the use of such weapons in recent months over fears of escalation. However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed in September that the Biden administration was considering clearing Ukraine to start lobbing them into Russia, citing the need to adjust and adapt "as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed."

Putin, whose nation has over 5,000 nuclear warheads and boasts a supersonic missile with a range of 625 miles, responded to Blinken's suggestion by telling a reporter, "It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia."

Putin, who invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, claims the use of ATACMS would constitute direct action on the part of the U.S. because American satellite reconnaissance would allegedly be necessary for successful missile strikes. He noted in June, "Ukrainian servicemen cannot do everything on their own and strike with this missile. They are simply technologically incapable of doing this."

He equated an ATACMS strike as the work of the Pentagon and a Storm Shadow strike as the work of the British government.

Escalation

According to Reuters, two American officials and a third source familiar with the decision confirmed that the Biden administration has cleared Ukraine to employ the missiles internationally and that the first of the long-range missile strikes are expected to take place in the coming days.

A U.S. official told CNN that the missiles will likely hit targets in the Kursk region of Russia, where Kyiv launched its summer counteroffensive and where Moscow recently deployed nearly 50,000 troops, including North Korean soldiers.

According to one official, the decision to authorize the use of the ATACMS was driven in part by the recent involvement of the North Korean troops in the fighting.

'This is an impeachable offense.'

By maintaining a foothold in Kursk with the help of long-range missiles, Ukraine might be in a better bargaining position in January should Trump bring Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy and Putin to the negotiating table. The New York Times indicated that Ukrainians hope to be able to trade territory in Kursk for Ukrainian territory presently occupied by Russian forces.

Reaction

Zelenskyy noted Sunday evening, "I am deeply grateful to all our partners who support us with air defense systems and missiles. This is a truly global effort."

"The plan for strengthening Ukraine is the Victory Plan that I presented to our partners. One of its key elements is providing our army with long-range capabilities," continued Zelenskyy. "There's been much said in the media today that we have received approval to take relative actions. But strikes are not carried out with words. These things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves."

Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media, "If such a decision was really formulated and brought to the attention of the Kyiv regime, then, of course, this is a qualitatively new round of tension and a qualitatively new situation in terms of the involvement of the United States in this conflict."

The Washington Post noted that the decision was not altogether unexpected in Moscow.

"The standoff will become even fiercer, and the talks will become more difficult," said Andrei Kartapolov, a former Russian Army officer and chairman of the parliamentary defense committee. "We expected them to escalate before the end of Biden's office — that was completely obvious."

The Biden administration's decision, which comes with only months remaining in the Democratic president's term, amounts to a significant escalation that has various adversarial nations, especially China — whose alliance with Russia has grown considerably since Putin's invasion of Ukraine — paying close attention.

'Ukraine can't properly defend itself if one hand is tied behind its back.'

There are presently tens of thousands of North Korean troops engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces. North Korea not only has a defense treaty with Russia but a firm mutual defense pact with China.

Despite its defense obligations, China has emphasized that North Korea's presence in Ukraine is its "own business" and has signaled a reluctance to get directly bogged down in the conflict. Nevertheless, China's foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian desperately impressed upon his American counterparts the need for de-escalation.

Responding to reports that the U.S. has cleared the use of the Army Tactical Missile System by Ukraine against Russia-based targets, Lin Jian, the spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, stated, "China's position on the Ukraine issue is consistent and clear, and an early ceasefire and pursuit of a political solution are in the interests of all parties. Promoting a de-escalation of the situation as soon as possible is the top priority."

The Chinese regime also insisted that Russia, which executed a large-range missile and drone attack against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure over the weekend, should similarly pursue de-escalation.

Some American lawmakers have expressed support for Ukraine's use of the missiles, including Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who stated, "Biden's decision to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of ATACMS in Russia is long-awaited progress. But it's critical that authorized targets include Russian oil refineries, which pump out the lifeblood of the Kremlin's war machine."

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker (R) similarly expressed optimism over the development, stating Sunday, "If initial press reports are true, I am encouraged at the prospect of allowing Ukraine to use long-range ATACM missiles supplied by the U.S."

Republican Rep. Mike Turner (Ohio) wrote, "Ukraine can't properly defend itself if one hand is tied behind its back. Today's news that the Biden Administration is finally allowing Ukraine to use some U.S.-provided ATACMS to strike limited targets within Russian territory is long overdue."

Turner stressed the need to "put pressure on Vladimir Putin" ahead of Trump taking office.

Other American lawmakers are less than enthused over the prospect of a shooting war with Russia.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) tweeted, "By authorizing long range missiles to strike inside Russia, Biden is committing an unconstitutional Act of War that endangers the lives of all U.S. citizens. This is an impeachable offense, but the reality is he’s an emasculated puppet of a deep state."

Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale (R) wrote, "American long range missiles being used to attack Russia? As many as 12,000 North Korean troops staged in Russia. When will Congress reclaim its authority and stop this proxy war we are entangled in?!"

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Blaze News original: Biden-Harris deep state censorship scandal EXPOSED: Here's who's fighting back

Under the leadership of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the U.S. State Department has become fixated on controlling speech under the pretense of guarding against so-called "disinformation."

Fortunately, some of the apparent targets of the agency — reporters Gabe Kaminsky of the Washington Examiner and Matt Taibbi of the "Twitter Files," as well as some Republican lawmakers — have chosen to fight back, calling out the State Department for trying to censor Americans and right-leaning media outlets exercising their First Amendment rights in ways the government doesn't like.

Blaze News caught up with Kaminsky and others wrangled into this ongoing fight for free speech to learn what they have endured in the past and what they hope to accomplish going forward.

Background: The 'disinformation' boogeyman

These days, it seems that all high-profile Democrats and their allies in the media are obsessed with this trend.

In connection with FEMA funding and the hurricanes that recently battered the Southeastern United States, Vice President Kamala Harris claimed in early October that "there's a lot of mis- and disinformation being pushed out there" by former President Donald Trump.

'Our First Amendment stands as a major block.'

CNN anchor Dana Bash dutifully followed Harris' lead and bragged in an X post that she had asked Harris "about dangerous misinformation coming in part from Donald Trump."

Back in 2022, Harris' running mate, vice presidential nominee Tim Walz (D), bizarrely asserted that "there's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, especially around our democracy."

Speaking at a World Economic Forum event in September, former Secretary of State John Kerry lamented that "if people go to only one source and the source they go to is sick and has an agenda and they're putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to just hammer it out of existence."

Even with deadly forces of nature flooding a major swath of the U.S., tens of thousands of rapists and murderers from foreign countries stealing into the country, painfully high prices at the pump and in grocery stores, and the ever-present threat of nuclear war, the Democrats have apparently settled on "disinformation" as the most pressing problem facing America today.

The State Department never responded to the series of questions Blaze News submitted about the topic, so it remains unclear how the department defines "disinformation" or how it determines which information is branded "disinformation" and which is considered plain old information.

Despite this lack of clarity, back in 2016, under the Obama administration, the State Department created a subdivision entitled the General Engagement Center, which has as its mission "to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations."

In short, the GEC was mainly established to root out "disinformation" propagandized by other countries in order to guard Americans against pernicious foreign influence.

Within just a few years, however, the GEC appears to have devolved into little more than a federal panopticon seeking out Americans and American media outlets that hold disfavored views and then censoring them by allegedly funding disinformation-related organizations, both foreign and domestic.

The Twitter and Kaminsky files

In January 2023, independent journalist Matt Taibbi famously initiated what became known as the "Twitter Files," a series of exposés revealing alleged ties between the social media platform now called X and various federal agencies.

The first installment of the Twitter Files focused mainly on 2020 — while Trump was still in office — and the increasing number of requests from federal agents and lawmakers to silence accounts over alleged disinformation about COVID-19. According to Taibbi's report, the State Department's General Engagement Center was among the first to flag supposedly "Russia-linked accounts" that promulgated COVID-related messages in various languages to spread disinformation to "a global audience."

By 2021, Joe Biden had been sworn into office, and the GEC then allegedly expanded its efforts to root out disinformation.

To that end, the GEC apparently partnered with the Global Disinformation Index, a London-based organization that ranks various media outlets based on the risk they pose of purveying disinformation. Because GDI is located overseas, the GEC could theoretically send money its way without running afoul of the GEC mission to address only "foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts."

And since the GDI included many American outlets on its Dynamic Exclusion List, the GEC appears to have indirectly funded attacks on American media. Blaze Media was among the top 10 media outlets the GDI described as the "riskiest" for disseminating disinformation, as were the Daily Wire, the Federalist, RealClearPolitics, One America News, and the New York Post.

According to reports from Gabe Kaminsky of the Washington Examiner, between October 2021 and March 2022, the GEC gave the GDI a grant of $100,000.

The National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit heavily funded by the State Department, apparently gave the GDI an additional grant of more than $750,000, bringing the total given to the GDI by organizations within the State Department's purview to over $850,000.

Neither of those grants has been renewed, the New York Post reported.

'The State Department had numerous opportunities to respond to my reporting on it funding the Global Disinformation Index, but they declined to answer basic questions.'

Rather than engage in introspection after that information became public and assess whether the State Department had gone too far in seeking to silence free speech and the free press, in March 2023, the department apparently compiled a press guide so that agents could defend it against the reports from Taibbi, Kaminsky, and others.

The New York Post eventually got hold of the press guide and published screenshots of it in a damning report last month. All of the screenshots of the State Department's press guide shared by the Post except one is marked "U.S. Department of State" and "not for public release."

According to one screenshot, which appears to be a script for agents to follow in the event they are asked about the relationship between the GEC and the GDI, agents are encouraged to say that the GEC did not invest in the GDI "to blacklist conservative media outlets" but rather to analyze "disinformation efforts in East Asia and Europe."

"The GEC presented GDI with a scope of work to apply its disinformation risk measurement across a set of foreign countries and languages in East Asia and Europe," the script suggests that agents say, according to the screenshot. "GDI was able to expand its disinformation risk measurement across six new languages — Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian and Ukrainian — enabling a more precise focus on [People's Republic of China] and Russian disinformation activities."

"The GEC's work with GDI was limited to counter-disinformation efforts in East Asia and Europe," another screenshot reiterates.

Should a State Department agent be asked whether the GDI ever created "a blacklist of American sites," the script suggests referring the inquirer "to GDI for questions on their activities."

Other screenshots of the press guide indicate that the State Department wanted to go on the offense, seemingly attacking the reporters who covered the relationship between the GEC and the GDI rather than defend the actions of the agency.

In a section entitled "Background for Briefer's Eyes Only," the press guide accuses Taibbi of misrepresenting the facts regarding federal influence over Twitter and Elon Musk of amplifying Taibbi's misrepresentations by retweeting his first Twitter Files thread.

"Elon Musk's retweet of Taibbi's thread insinuates that the [United States government], and the GEC in particular, pressured Twitter to close U.S. accounts of which the USG disapproved," one screenshot says. "The evidence offered for this claim is often missing, inferred, or presented out of context."

The text in the screenshot never explains in what way Taibbi failed to support his claims or offered evidence "out of context."

The State Department press guide also takes aim at Kaminsky, implying that he failed in his journalistic responsibilities by not asking for an interview with State Department officials, even as it admits that Kaminsky "sent questions repeatedly" to the State Department press office, the screenshot shows. The guide even acknowledges that the press office "responded to his requests."

Kaminsky, who reportedly sent the State Department press office nearly a dozen requests for comment between January and February 2023, gave the Post a different version of events. "The State Department had numerous opportunities to respond to my reporting on it funding the Global Disinformation Index, but they declined to answer basic questions," he said.

In a summary page of the press guide, the State Department reiterates the mission of the GEC, that it is geared toward combatting "foreign attempts to spread disinformation and propaganda globally" and that it "does not fund programs in the United States."

Another page of the guide insists that "the GEC does not and has never attempted to moderate content on social media," a screenshot reveals.

In a statement to Blaze News, Kaminsky called that assertion "false."

"That claim is untrue alone based on the GEC's involvement in the lead-up to the 2020 election with the Election Integrity Partnership, a collaboration between colleges, think tanks, social media platforms, and the U.S. government to thwart alleged falsehoods online," he said.

"It makes sense that the State Department — or any other agency — would craft public or non-public press guidance to determine how to respond to reporting that scrutinizes its activities and unearths wrongdoing," he continued.

"Investigative reporting by Taibbi, myself, and other journalists demonstrated that the GEC has been closely linked to efforts by activists to suppress domestic content on social media and also funded entities such as the Global Disinformation Index that aim to thwart U.S.-based voices that the British group disagrees with."

Matthew Peterson, editor in chief of Blaze News, one of the outlets disparaged by the GDI, is likewise incensed that the federal government has seemingly taken aim at its own law-abiding citizens:

The federal government now routinely uses our tax dollars to shape and censor political speech in America. In this case, we see the State Department engaged in an active war against journalists like Matt Taibbi and Gabe Kaminsky and elected officials like Jim Banks who dared to expose their unconstitutional activity. If America is to retain a republican form of government, federal officials cannot be allowed to attack and smear anyone who attempts to discover the truth about what they are up to.

The State Department, the Global Disinformation Index, the National Endowment for Democracy, and Taibbi did not respond to a request for comment.

'A sloppy and hypocritical lie': Lawmakers become involved

In addition to Taibbi and Kaminsky, the State Department press guidance obtained by the Post also refers to members of Congress, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.).

Murphy, who has described himself as "one of the bipartisan creators" of the Global Engagement Center, appears to have been included in the press guidance because he issued his own tweet thread in February 2023, claiming that the accusations against the GEC in Taibbi's Twitter Files thread were "MADE UP OUT OF THIN AIR."

According to Murphy, the GEC never "improperly labeled" Twitter accounts as agents of "Russian propaganda."

"All the GEC did was was to note that bots and social media accounts that had previously been proven to be linked to foreign governments were now in the business of spreading anti-U.S. COVID misinformation. That's it," he wrote.

'The Putin regime and the Biden-Harris administration both hate free speech, and that’s why they targeted me.'

The reasons for including Rep. Banks in the State Department press guidance are less clear, especially since the key reference to him in the document appears to be a misquotation of a statement Banks gave to Kaminsky.

For an article published February 9, 2023, Banks told the Washington Examiner: "House Republicans will be hauling these bad actors before Congress, and I absolutely support legislation to ban federal funding of anti-free-speech groups."

However, the quotation attributed to Banks that appears in the State Department press guidance, according to a screenshot shared by the Post, looks markedly different: "The Republicans of the House of Representatives will bring these bad actors to justice to Congress, and I absolutely support the legislation banning federal funding for the fight against freedom of speech."

In a letter dated September 16, 2024, and addressed to Secretary of State Blinken, Banks indicated that the cause for the discrepancy is that the State Department cited "RIA FAN (Russia)" as the source for Banks' statement, not Kaminsky or the Washington Examiner.

The ultimate effect of the GEC's "intentional misquotation," Banks argued in the letter, was to give "the impression that [he] had been speaking with a Russian propaganda outlet."

"The State Department, in defense of its domestic so-called 'disinformation' operation, purposefully spread disinformation about a U.S. lawmaker," the letter continued. "This is a sloppy and hypocritical lie and it is typical of the Biden-Harris State Department’s repeated attacks on the First Amendment and Americans’ free speech rights."

Kaminsky is likewise troubled by the apparent misquotation of Banks, telling Blaze News that it raises "concerns about speech suppression."

"The State Department's decision to cite the Russian misquotation, which did not circulate among U.S.-based readers, was an apparent effort to unfairly link Banks to a foreign adversary. Some would call that disinformation. Ironic, no?"

In a statement to Blaze News, Rep. Banks called out Russia and the Biden-Harris administration as enemies of free speech.

"Russia sanctioned me for being an enemy of Vladimir Putin, and now the Biden State Department is falsely smearing me as a Russian propaganda booster," he said. "The Putin regime and the Biden-Harris administration both hate free speech, and that’s why they targeted me."

About a week after Banks issued the letter to Blinken, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote a letter of his own, claiming the GEC was beyond hope and demanding its outright dissolution.

"By smearing anyone who disagrees with it as a Russian stooge, this network conflates U.S. citizens with a U.S. adversary, as State Department talking points did to my colleague Representative Jim Banks and the award-winning journalists Gabe Kaminsky and Matt Taibbi in a scheming sleight of hand that ruled out of bounds political opinions and fact-based reporting it opposed but cannot refute," Issa said.

"Mr. Secretary: It is time for this failed entity to be held accountable. It is time to bring an end to the Global Engagement Center," his letter closed.

In a statement to Blaze News, Issa said:

The First Amendment rights of the American people are threatened not only by malign actors in the EU, U.K., or Brazil — but by our own State Department and specifically the Global Engagement Center. There truly is a Censorship Industrial Complex at home and abroad, and our opposition to it must be no less comprehensive. Congress can’t look away from this continuing scandal that grows worse with every revelation. We need to be committed and creative if we’re going to win the fight for free speech and a future without the GEC is a step in that right direction.

Issa may soon get his wish. A State Department appropriations bill that has already passed the House and that will soon be under consideration in the Senate seeks to strike funding for the GEC based on its alleged ties to American censorship.

Refusing to be silenced

Ever since Taibbi, Kaminsky, and others exposed the apparent attempts at the Global Engagement Center to censor Americans in defiance of the First Amendment, elected Republicans and some watchdog groups have taken action against it.

'One of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation.'

Back in December, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined the Daily Wire and the Federalist in filing a lawsuit against the State Department for allegedly "actively intervening in the news-media market to render disfavored press outlets unprofitable" by sending taxpayer dollars to help fund the Global Disinformation Index and a similar group called NewsGuard.

The lawsuit further alleged that the GEC implemented "one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation."

In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson from NewsGuard told the Post that the lawsuit “inaccurately portrays” NewsGuard’s relationship with the State Department.

"NewsGuard does not offer any technology that censors or blocks any content, or that blocks ads on content,” the spokesperson continued. "Instead, we provide information — our assessments of sites — so that our clients can decide for themselves where to place their ads or which content to amplify, and each client decides for themselves how to use that data."

Following the bombshell report from the New York Post that made public the State Department's press guidance, a group identified as the Functional Government Initiative filed Freedom of Information Act requests in the hopes of uncovering further details about the agency's alleged attempts to malign Kaminsky, Taibbi, Banks, and others in defense of the GEC.

In its requests, the Functional Government Initiative also asked for certain communications involving Blinken and other top State Department officials dating all the way back to January 2023. The aim, FGI spokesperson Pete McGinnis told the Examiner, was to see "who was involved in the blacklisting efforts" and "just how high up the chain this memo was guiding their media strategy."

"The reporting on the Biden-Harris administration’s censorship clearly struck a nerve at the State Department."

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Blinken beclowns himself with op-ed hyping Biden-Harris strategy to deter aggression

Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed in an op-ed Tuesday that the Biden-Harris administration has been successful in bolstering America's international image and geopolitical position as compared with four years ago.

Blinken's thesis and remaining credibility did not survive the day.

Within hours of publication, Iran — afforded access to billions of dollars by the Democratic administration despite its murder of American soldiers in Jordan — attacked Israel. Blinken, no stranger to humiliation, has since been met with widespread ridicule.

In the foreign affairs op-ed, Blinken claimed that when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China "were already aggressively challenging U.S. interests" despite years of relative peace under President Donald Trump.

"These countries believed that the United States was in irreversible decline at home and divided from its friends abroad," wrote Blinken. "They saw an American public that had lost its faith in government, an American democracy that was polarized and paralyzed, and an American foreign policy that was undermining the very alliances, international institutions, and norms that Washington had built and championed."

According to the alleged architect of the misleading Hunter Biden "intel" letter that impacted the 2020 election, this Democratic administration has worked hard to successfully counter such perceptions with a "strategy of renewal."

"The Biden administration's strategy has put the United States in a much stronger geopolitical position today than it was four years ago," wrote Blinken.

'An end zone dance by Blinken as the world burns.'

The secretary appeared keen to gloss over, spin, or ignore various signals and causes of America's deteriorating position, deterrence, and perception over the past four years, including:

the illegal entry of over 10 million illegal aliens into the homeland;
the administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and armament of the Taliban;
the Russian invasion of Ukraine;
military recruitment issues;
brazen attacks on American embassies and on troops;
routine attacks by Houthi terrorists on ships in the Red Sea;
the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel;
growing Sino-Russian cooperation in the face of the Biden-Harris administration's failed sanctions;
North Korean missile launches over Japan and around Korea despite American warnings;
the continued rise of the communist Chinese-led intergovernmental organization BRICS; and
Saudi Arabia's increasing drift from the U.S. dollar.

"Time and again, the Biden administration has demonstrated that the United States is the country others can rely on to help solve their biggest problems," wrote Blinken.

The secretary suggested further that the Biden-Harris administration's strategy was geared toward deterring aggression, adding that, in the case of Iran, "we increased diplomatic pressure and strengthened the US military's force posture to deter and constrain Tehran."

Iran fired over 180 missiles through Blinken's propaganda about strength and deterrence on Tuesday, striking targets in Israel.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari indicated that while the country's air defenses were able to take down numerous incoming missiles, some still managed to land in central and southern Israel, reported the Associated Press.

Responding to the suggestion online that "it took less than a day for it to age like milk," Donald Trump Jr. said of Blinken's op-ed, "Yikes."

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) called Blinken "totally delusional."

"Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote an oped *TODAY* about how great the Biden admin is on international relations and Iran," wrote Libs of TikTok. "We're on the verge of WW3 and we don't have a President. The entire administration is completely incompetent. Has anything aged so bad so fast?"

Conservative columnist Joe Concha tweeted, "Oh. Ok. An end zone dance by Blinken as the world burns. Great job everyone."

"Timing is the essence of comedy," wrote Federalist CEO Sean Davis.

Former Trump intelligence official Ezra Cohen noted, "This is Soviet-level cognitive dissonance from @SecBlinken."

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Rep. Burchett gives 'Democratic operative' a much-needed burn and requests a grilling for Blinken

This week, Republican Rep. Tim Burchett (R) voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress and demanded an investigation into the former intelligence officials who misled the nation with an election-influencing letter about the Hunter Biden laptop in October 2020.

The Tennessee congressman also exercised his comedic muscles.

On Monday, a supporter online claiming Burchett's "humor is a national treasure" vowed to protect the congressman from the Ukrainian watch list of persons with apparently verboten opinions.

Burchett recently joined Blaze Media and other American individuals and entities on a Biden State Department-linked publication's list of Americans who have expressed apparently verboten views about American aid for Ukraine.

Burchett's initial response — "And what about my wit, charm, intellect and boyish good looks?" — did not go over well with one X user, who called the congressman a "traitor" to his state and to America.

The congressman wrote back, "Your sweet words melt on my heart like butter and honey on a warm biscuit and leave an indelible mark on the digestive tract of my heart."

Burchett evidently did not meet his quota for weekly bants with this brief online interaction.

Burchett shared a video to X Wednesday, wherein he can be seen walking past a young man in khaki shorts while on his way to ostensibly attend to his duties in the Capitol.

"Representative, will you commit to opposing a nationwide abortion ban?" asked the young man, identified by Burchett as a "paid Democrat operative" who daily "tries to trip me up."

Without missing a beat, Burchett responded, "Will you commit to putting some sunscreen on those legs? Man, I gotta wear welding goggles out here, they're so white."

— (@)

The former Knoxville mayor also publicly admitted to giving one of his customary monologues on video only to realize he had forgotten to hit record. When a commenter suggested the Republican "pulled a Biden," Burchett provided a note of clarification: "Except I know where the soft serve ice cream machine is in the Whitehouse (sic)."

Burchett did not, however, appear to be kidding when he asked House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) in a letter Tuesday to launch an immediate investigation into Secretary of State Antony Blinken and "certain former intelligence officials for interfering in the 2020 presidential election."

James Clapper, Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, and various other former intelligence officials active in the Obama years penned an open letter on Oct. 19, suggesting that the New York Post's report on Hunter Biden's incriminating laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

The 51 signatories allowed Politico, other media outlets, and then-candidate Joe Biden to infer from their letter that the Post's story was untrue and "consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy."

The signatories of this election-influencing letter have proven unrepentant, even when confronted on multiple occasions with the authenticity of the Hunter Biden laptop and the accuracy of the Post's report.

In his letter, Burchett zeroed in on particulars in the Post's report, specifically that the laptop "contained emails suggesting [Hunter Biden] was attempting to provide Ukrainian energy officials access to meet then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden."

Extra to noting the veracity of the laptop, which helped get Hunter Biden convicted this week, Burchett referenced former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell's testimony implicating Blinken as having "played a role in the inception" of the intelligence officials' letter.

Morell told Congress that Blinken contacted him after encountering the damning Oct. 14, 2020, Post article, and that as a result of this exchange, he began drafting the letter with the aim to get it out before the Oct. 22 presidential debate, in which Biden used the statement to great effect.

"These findings suggest the Biden campaign conspired with former intelligence officials to mislead the American public and influence the 2020 presidential election," wrote Burchett.

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Hunter Biden's laptop got him convicted. Intel officials who called it Russian disinfo remain unapologetic.

Hunter Biden was convicted today in part owing to the verified contents of his laptop, which the New York Post reported on before the 2020 election.

A cabal of former U.S. intelligence officials released an open letter on Oct. 19, 2020, regarding the Post's Oct. 14 report about the discovery and damning contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, which the FBI had "verified" one year earlier.

Among the 51 signatories of the letter were:

James Clapper, former director of national intelligence under Democratic President Barack Obama;
Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA under Obama;
Leon Panetta, former secretary of defense under Obama and CIA director;
John Brennan, former CIA director under Obama;
Glenn S. Gerstell, former general counsel for the National Security Agency;
Richard H. Ledgett Jr., former deputy director of the NSA;
Jeremy Bash, the former chief of staff both of the CIA and the Department of Defense; and
Michael Morell, former acting director of the CIA.

Their letter asserted that the Hunter Biden laptop story was likely a thing of Slavic fantasy — that the story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

While Clapper, Brennan, and the other 49 so-called experts were willing to admit in the letter to both not knowing whether the Hunter Biden emails provided to the New York Post were "genuine" and having no "evidence of Russian involvement," they nevertheless suggested a "laptop op" designed "to discredit Biden ... would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy."

The letter was framed thusly by Politico and left uncorrected by the signatories: "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say."

According to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, then-senior Biden campaign adviser and now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken got the ball rolling on this misleading and election-influencing letter. The letter was allegedly drafted with the aim of setting the narrative before the Oct. 22, 2020, presidential debate, wherein Biden ultimately used it to great effect. Blinken later denied conceiving of or soliciting signatures for the letter.

Even though the story was undermined by the letter and censored online, the laptop was real all along, and its contents — like those of Ashley Biden's troubling diary — were as authentic as they were incriminating. FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen made this especially clear in court last week.

'51 intelligence agents, that phony story. Remember?'

Former President Donald Trump recently suggested that the 51 officials who leveraged their perceived credibility and former status to shield Biden from the truth may soon face a comeuppance.

Trump was recently discussing false narratives spread by the Biden camp and broached the subject of the Hunter Biden laptop story.

"51 intelligence agents, that phony story. Remember? 'The laptop from Russia,' they said. And they should be prosecuted for what they did, okay?" said Trump. "Let's see what happens.

Ahead of Hunter Biden's criminal conviction, Fox News Digital reached out to the signatories of the October 2020 letter, asking whether they regretting misleading the nation. While some of the election-swaying former officials flatly say no, as in the case of Clapper, others doubled down.

Mark S. Zaid, an attorney representing Ronald Marks, Marc Polymeropoulos, Douglas Wise, Paul Kolbe, John Sipher, Emile Nakhleh, and Gerald O’Shea, suggested the letter was important and signing it was "patriotic."

Zaid even suggested that criticism of the letter amounted to disinformation but did not go so far as to pin blame on Russia.

"There continues to be by many a calculated or woefully ignorant interpretation of the October 2020 letter signed by fifty-one former intelligence officials concerning Hunter Biden's laptop," Zaid told Fox.

"A careful and objective reading of the document reflects that even today its content is accurate. It served as nothing more than a warning letter of what we have known for decades: certain foreign governments — including Russia — continue to try and actively interfere in our domestic affairs and our guard must remain vigilant. Every patriotic American should have signed that letter," added Zaid.

Signatory Greg Treverton, former chair of the National Intelligence Council, said, "What we said was true, we were inferring from our experience, and it did look like a Russian operation. We didn't, and couldn't of course say it was a Russian operation. Enough said."

Michael Hayden, who intimated late last year that Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Al.) should be removed from the human race, simply hung up the phone and dodged subsequent requests for comment.

The Post noted that Panetta defended the letter in July 2023, saying he had no regrets about signing it.

"I signed that letter for one reason, which was to make the American people aware that the Russians deliberately were engaged in a disinformation campaign in the United States and trying to impact on our election and trying to impact on our ability to have free and fair elections," Panetta told CNN.

Concerning the letter's additional spin in Politico, Zaid told the Post, "With respect to the Politico story, had I been representing my clients at the time I would have certainly asked for them to modify their headline as it is too categorically and broadly asserted a conclusion that the letter did not."

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Mark Levin: Donald Trump should indict Joe Biden upon winning election

Trump may have been convicted of all 34 counts levied against him in the Manhattan hush-money trial, but Mark Levin doesn’t believe justice has been served.

Rather, he believes it has yet to be.

“The problem is, there was a jury. There should never have been a jury, there should never have been a case. Prosecutor is a Soros prosecutor. Case should have been dismissed,” Levin says.

“The problem is, you have a judge who is a Biden judge. So, now you have two individuals, two dishonest individuals, who lack complete integrity. That is Bragg and Mershan, who are influencing a federal, national, presidential election.”

Levin says this shows “intent in the case of Joe Biden.”

“God willing, if Donald Trump is the next president of the United States, I am going to urge him, I’m going to lobby him, to tell his Attorney General of the United States, ‘Let’s stop playing games,’” Levin explains, adding, “Indict Joe Biden and indict Antony Blinken.”

Why? “Because according to Bragg, Merchan, and their surrogates — they created a crime.”

Levin says this crime is valid because of the precedent they’ve set in the Trump trials.

“That is the precedent that comes out of the New York case that Biden just supported,” he says.

In addition, former special counsel Robert Hur supplied plenty of evidence in his previous report that Levin believes could indict Joe Biden.

“We have so much evidence in this report from Mr. Hur of willful violations of classified information. It’s hard to keep track,” Levin says. “But the Department of Justice said they’re not going to act because Mr. Hur said, and certified, that Joe Biden is an imbecile.”

“So, Joe Biden is exposed, and in my view, should be indicted for willfully disclosing classified information, effectively selling secrets for a profit, and trying to cover it up,” he adds.

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Election 2024: Trump Wins, Biden Faces Indictment

Scary: White House’s Ukraine/NATO promise risks WORLD WAR with Russia

Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has promised that Ukraine will join NATO — even if it means war.

"Ukraine will become a member of NATO. Our purpose at the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership," Blinken told reporters.

That simple statement could be disastrous, as Ukraine joining NATO is one of the main reasons Russia gave for starting a war.

Glenn Beck is in disbelief.

“The one thing they didn’t want us to do was to push for Ukraine to be in NATO, and so the goal of this big global conference in Europe yesterday was to put Ukraine in NATO,” Glenn says.

“We’re in the middle of a war right now, I don’t know if anyone noticed this. Perhaps we don’t want to inflame tensions,” Stu Burguiere agrees, adding that Blinken “could probably be a little bit more judicious with the way he talks about this in the middle of hundreds of thousands of people dying on a battlefield.”

Not only did Blinken make a potentially devastating promise, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, has mentioned he’s considering sending troops to Ukraine.

“Remember, another thing Russia has said is, ‘You guys get involved, then you’re involved and I target you as well,’” Glenn says.

To learn more, watch the clip below.

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Biden and Blinken's Middle East powder keg: Revealing the explosive truth

Joe Biden and Antony Blinken are doing their best to cripple Israel and push the democratic world order to the brink.

“They are forcing through all kinds of pressure and backstabbing the Israelis to fight the war in a way that they’d rather not,” Mark Levin explains, noting that most of the Israeli army is not composed of “regular soldiers.”

“They’re literally bakers and candlemakers, they are literally plumbers and truck drivers, electricians and doctors,” he says. “They are not thinking 24/7 about military tactics, and they’re getting killed, and our media won’t report it.”

While ordinary Israeli citizens fight to defend their families, Joe Biden is funding the terrorists they’re fighting.

“This is beyond imagination,” Levin says. “He’s funding Hamas; Trump cut it off. He’s funding the PLO; Trump cut it off. He’s funding the terrorist mother ship, Iran; Trump cut it off.”

“Biden and Blinken and the rest of them actually went through the list of things Trump had done to protect this country and reversed all of them,” he continues, “because they’re sellouts.”

Meanwhile, Iran is getting closer than ever to procuring nuclear weapons — and Biden keeps funding the country.

“If they get a nuclear weapon, it’s on Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, Obama, and that whole crowd, but they won’t be held to account,” Levin says. “They’ll blame Trump.”

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Israel is Defending Itself

Biden reportedly clears Ukraine to take actions that Putin suggested would trigger NATO-Russia war

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Escalation

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Blinken beclowns himself with op-ed hyping Biden-Harris strategy to deter aggression

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Mark Levin: Donald Trump should indict Joe Biden upon winning election

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Election 2024: Trump Wins, Biden Faces Indictment

Scary: White House’s Ukraine/NATO promise risks WORLD WAR with Russia

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Biden and Blinken's Middle East powder keg: Revealing the explosive truth

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Israel is Defending Itself

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Background

Escalation

Reaction

Background: The 'disinformation' boogeyman

The Twitter and Kaminsky files

'A sloppy and hypocritical lie': Lawmakers become involved

Refusing to be silenced

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