AP caught red-handed making false claims about Gabbard — forced to retract story



The Associated Press was forced to withdraw one of its Monday articles after it falsely claimed that U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin "very good friends."

The now-retracted article incorrectly reported that Gabbard said Trump and Putin are "focused on strengthening ties." However, Gabbard was not referring to Trump's relationship with Putin but rather to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

'If this isn't a clear example of pushing a solely political narrative, then nothing is.'

Gabbard's misrepresented quotes were taken from an interview with India's NDTV released Monday.

"The ties between our two countries, the United States and India, go very, very far back," she told NDTV. "What we're continuing to see is a strengthening of that partnership and recognizing that the mutual interests of both of our countries are centered around peace, prosperity, freedom, and security."

"We have two leaders of our two great countries who are very good friends and are very focused on how we can strengthen those shared objectives and those shared interests," Gabbard added.

The AP article, titled "Gabbard says Trump and Putin are 'very good friends' focused on strengthening ties," was retracted from its website and replaced with a statement declaring that the outlet had decided to withdraw the story.

It read, "The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin 'are very good friends.' Gabbard was talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The AP will publish a corrected version of the story."

As of Tuesday morning, the article was removed from the AP's website. However, the article remains live on some news publishers that utilize the AP's feed.

The original AP article read, "U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin 'are very good friends' who are focused on ways to strengthen the bonds between the United States and Russia."

"Gabbard said ties between Russia and the U.S. go 'very far back' and that Trump is committed to expanding a relationship centered 'around peace, prosperity, freedom and security,'" it continued.

The AP claimed, "Gabbard's comments reflect the dramatic shift in U.S.-Russia relations under Trump, who has boasted of his relationship with Putin, blamed Ukraine for Russia's invasion and taken a hard line against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy."

The outlet further claimed that Gabbard had "echoed Russian propaganda about the war and expressed sympathy for Russia."

All of Gabbard's quotes mentioned in the article were her comments about India and Modi. Regardless, it claimed that her falsely attributed comments about Trump's and Putin's "friendship" had "alarmed some critics of Trump's call for warmer relations with Moscow."

Alexa Henning, Gabbard's deputy chief of staff, torched the AP for its false reporting.

"The @AP is total trash," Henning wrote in a post on X. "DNI @TulsiGabbard was referring to PM Modi & President Trump and this is the headline they publish."

"This is why no one trusts the maliciously incompetent and purposefully bias[ed] media. If this isn't a clear example of pushing a solely political narrative, then nothing is," she added.

The AP told Fox News Digital, “AP has removed its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘are very good friends’ because it did not meet our standards. We notified customers and published a corrected story with an editor’s note to be transparent about the error.”

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Exposed: how Washington engineered the Ukraine crisis — and pushed us to the brink of World War 3



Joe Biden is rushing to do as much damage as possible before leaving office.

Along with bailing out his son, he’s racing to funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine. Rather than de-escalating tensions or seeking a resolution to the conflict, Biden seems hell-bent on edging the world closer to the precipice of World War III. This is not hyperbole.

‘Trump must be brutally honest with the American and Ukrainian people, just as he had the courage to do in the case of Afghanistan.’

Scott Horton, the author of “Provoked,” delivers an unflinching and meticulously-researched critique of U.S. foreign policy, laying bare how Washington reignited Cold War tensions with Russia and set the stage for the current crisis in Ukraine.

In telling the story of how successive administrations pursued policies designed to antagonize Russia, dismiss its security concerns, and provoke the conflict that now rages, Horton — who was recently accused of being a Russian propagandist on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" — leaves no stone unturned.

His inescapable conclusion? Deliberate choices led to this dangerous impasse.

Let’s be clear: Ukraine cannot and will not defeat Russia — not now, not ever.

Say this aloud, however, and you’re instantly labeled a Putin sympathizer. But Horton is no Kremlin crony. He’s ruthlessly logical, a voice of reason cutting through the propaganda-fueled chaos.

If you care about facts over feelings, read "Provoked," his 1,000-page takedown of the mainstream narratives driving Europe — and the world — toward catastrophe. Packed with over 6,000 footnotes, Horton methodically exposes the geopolitical moves that have brought us to the edge of extinction.

A betrayal rooted in the Cold War's end

The seeds of the Ukraine crisis were sown in the early 1990s at the end of the Cold War. U.S. officials assured Soviet leaders that NATO would not expand eastward — a promise never formalized but understood as sacrosanct by key figures like Mikhail Gorbachev.

Horton points to former Secretary of State James Baker’s assurance to Gorbachev that NATO would move "not one inch eastward" beyond Germany. That was a brazen deception. By the mid-1990s, NATO was incorporating former Warsaw Pact nations, beginning with Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first post-Soviet president, cautioned Bill Clinton in 1994 that NATO’s expansion would undermine trust and fracture Europe once more.

"NATO was created in Cold War times," Yeltsin argued. "Today, it is trying to find its place in Europe, not without difficulty. It is important that this search not create new divisions, but promote European unity. We believe that the plans of expanding NATO are contrary to this logic. Why sow the seeds of distrust? After all, we are no longer adversaries; we are partners.”

His plea fell on deaf ears. Horton underscores the gravity of this oversight, quoting George Kennan, the architect of Cold War containment, who warned that NATO expansion would be “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era.”

Horton tells Align that “the truth is that since the end of the last Cold War, successive administrations have pushed their so-called sphere of influence deep into Eastern Europe, expanding their military alliance, in violation of solemn promises and agreements, up to Russia's borders.”

He continues, outlining a pattern of provocations:

“They’ve overthrown governments friendly to Russia, including Ukraine’s — twice in the Bush and Obama years. They’ve installed anti-ballistic missile defense systems from suspicious dual-use-capable launchers, supported Kiev's war against the 'rebels’ of the east, and continued to threaten to integrate the nation into the NATO alliance, against all the best advice of leaders of the U.S. foreign policy establishment who knew better all along.”

“These are not Russian talking points,” Horton emphasizes, “any more than they are a justification for Putin’s 2022 invasion and subsequent war — not at all. But they are the truth, and enough to undermine the lie that the Russian president has simply decided 25 years into his presidency to reconquer Eastern Europe for no reason beyond his twisted sense of history and imperial Russian entitlement.”

Horton drives the point home: “He had always prioritized good relations with the West and allowed the status quo to hold in Crimea and the Donbas until Washington escalated the issue, time after time.”

Color revolutions and the road to Maidan

In his book, Horton lays bare the deep roots of Ukraine’s turmoil, tracing them back to the 2004 Orange Revolution — a moment Moscow saw not as a democratic awakening but as a Western power play.

To Russian leaders, this was no grassroots uprising. The West’s fingerprints were all over it, from financial backing of opposition groups to overt political support for Viktor Yushchenko, whose contested victory marked a shift away from Moscow’s influence. For Russia, the message was clear: The West wasn’t just knocking on its door — it was trying to kick it down.

A decade later, the 2014 Maidan Revolution turned simmering tensions into a full-blown geopolitical inferno.

Horton documents how protests against President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to prioritize ties with Moscow over a European Union deal spiraled into chaos, aided and abetted by U.S. intervention. Yanukovych’s refusal to bow to Western pressure made him a target, and soon enough, he was ousted from power with Washington cheering from the sidelines.

Then came the smoking gun: a leaked phone call between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt.

During the call, they candidly discussed handpicking Ukraine’s next leaders — proof that this was nothing more than a coup disguised as a wholly organic, democratic uprising. For Moscow, this wasn’t just meddling; it was an act of war by other means. The coup shattered any pretense of diplomacy, prompting Russia to annex Crimea and back separatists in the Donbas.

Horton argues that the West’s actions didn’t just provoke Russia — they guaranteed a response. Crimea, home to Russia’s vital Black Sea fleet, was never going to fall into NATO’s orbit without a fight

A grim prognosis for Ukraine

The human cost of these provocations is staggering, and Horton offers a bleak forecast. “In tragedy and defeat,” he says, “Ukraine will lose at least the four southern and eastern provinces to Russia.”

He warns that if Ukraine doesn’t negotiate soon, critical regions like Kharkiv and Odesa could also fall. The latter, Ukraine’s last major port city on the Black Sea, is vital to the nation’s survival. He explains in our discussion: “It would take direct U.S. intervention to reverse the course of the war on the ground, and even Biden knew we could never go that far without risking direct war between Russia and NATO.”

Media complicity and misinformation

Horton doesn’t just take aim at policymakers; he reserves equal scorn for the media, accusing it of cheerleading the march to war. He tells me, “The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, The Daily Beast, MSNBC, and The National Review” are among the most shameless purveyors of pro-war propaganda.

By casting the Ukraine conflict as a righteous battle against an imperialist Russia, these outlets conveniently sidestep America’s role in stoking the flames. All of them, in his view, are guilty of being war-friendly propagandists.

He’s right. The narratives they push are as delusional as they are dangerous. Ukraine, they insist, can win, and anyone who refuses to drink the Kool Aid is considered an enemy of progress, peace, and patriotism. The lunatics aren’t just running the asylum — they’re dragging us to the brink of nuclear annihilation.

A path to peace?

Horton takes a clear-eyed view of the steps needed to end the war, urging U.S. leaders to confront an uncomfortable reality. He calls for brutal honesty with both the American and Ukrainian people, insisting they admit what’s painfully obvious: The war is unwinnable.

“The best choice is to seek peace immediately while they are only this far behind and not further,” he tells Align. A negotiated settlement, while difficult and painful, is the only viable path for Ukraine’s survival.

Horton sees a potential for resolution under a Trump administration, citing Trump’s past willingness to defy the foreign policy establishment.

He points to the president-elect’s handling of Afghanistan as an example. “Trump must be brutally honest with the American and Ukrainian people, just as he had the courage to do in the case of Afghanistan. The war is lost. We have to end it before our friends lose even more territory,” Horton explains.

In contrast, the Texas-based author argues that the Biden administration's approach stems from arrogance, emphasizing strategies that further fuel the flames of carnage.

Rather than seeking resolution, Washington has escalated the conflict, ignoring the devastating consequences. As Horton warns, this hubris could have catastrophic costs — not just for Ukraine, but for the entire world.

The Bipartisan Iraq War Revisionists Are Dead Wrong On Ukraine

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Three groups favor a long war in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin, the global industrial defense complex, and China.

Antony Blinken gives NATO allies 'green-light' to send fighter jets to Ukraine as Western sanctions cripple Russia's economy



Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that NATO member nations are allowed to send fighter jets to Ukraine as the United States and its allies continue to provide assistance to Ukraine in the midst of the ongoing Russian invasion.

Blinken said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” on Sunday, that NATO allies sending fight jets to Ukraine “gets a green-light.”

He said, “In fact, we’re talking with our Polish friends right now abut what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if in fact they choose to provide fighter jets to the Ukrainians. What can we do? How can we help to make sure that they get something to backfill the planes that they are handing over to the Ukrainians?”

A White House spokesperson told CBS News that the Biden administration is evaluating its ability to provide fighter jets to Poland should the Polish government decide to transfer planes to Ukraine, CBS News reported.

Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. said that she hopes Ukraine will receive fighter jets from Poland “as soon as possible.”

She said, “We are working with our American, especially, friends and allies, on the steady supply of ammunition and anti-air, anti-tank, and planes to be able to effectively defend our county.”

Allied Western nations have provided military and humanitarian aide to Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion and have also issued sweeping sanctions that effectively cripple and isolate the Russian financial system.

Shortly after Russia launched its invasion, leaders from the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. issued a statement expressing their intentions to remove Russian banks from the SWIFT telecommunication network.

The statement said, “We stand with the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people in their heroic efforts to resist Russia’s invasion. Russia’s war represents an assault on fundamental international rules and norms that have prevailed since the Second World WAR, which we are committed to defending. We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin.”

Since the West locked arms in support of Ukraine, the Russian economy has been rapidly deteriorating. Private financial institutions like Visa and Mastercard suspended their operations in Russia, further isolating Russians from participating in the global economy, and the Western energy company British Petroleum announced that it would liquidate its holdings in Russian energy companies and suspend its operations in Russia.

Blinken affirmed that Western sanctions were drastically impacting the Russian economy.

He said, “The impact of the sanctions is already devastating. The ruble is in freefall. Their stock market’s been shuttered for almost a week. We’re seeing a recession set in Russia. Consumers aren’t able to buy basic products because companies are fleeing Russia, so it’s having a big impact.”

Senators Press FBI To Stop Stonewalling Crossfire Hurricane Investigation Subpoenas

In the letter, the senators reprimand the FBI director for his agency's three specific failures to provide already requested and subpoenaed information