Raw Story

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) raised eyebrows on Fox Business Tuesday when she endorsed a U.S. invasion of Venezuela — but then she took it a step further, telling anchor David Asman, with no evidence, that Venezuela is "giving uranium" to hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups.

"This is going to be a very major success story, not only for [the Venezuelan people], but for us," said Salazar. "And I salute President Trump for having the fortitude, the courage, the political vision to be doing this. Because [Nicolas] Maduro is the head of a transnational criminal organization. Maduro is not the legitimate president of the country, so we're not invading a sovereign country that has a free and fair elected democratic president. No. This guy is a thug."

"And he's good friends with Hezbollah, and they're giving uranium to Hamas and to Iran and to North Korea and to Cuba and to Nicaragua," she continued. "Come on. It's time for the United States to do what we need to do. And thank god that Trump is doing it."

She went on to say Venezuela has "the largest reserves of oil in the world" and it'll be a "windfall" for America.

While Venezuela does have speculated uranium reserves, and the Iranian government helped carry out exploratory operations in 2009, there is no evidence that Venezuela is even currently mining uranium, let alone exporting it to any of the countries or groups Salazar mentioned.

Despite the questionable uranium claims, Venezuela has seen extreme economic and political repression under Nicolás Maduro, who has assumed the presidency for multiple terms by banning key opposition leaders and holding sham elections. Millions of people have fled the country to escape hyperinflation, hunger, and authoritarian policies.

The United States has sanctioned the Maduro regime for years under presidents from both parties, but Trump has escalated, with not just harsh new sanctions, but reportedly plans for attacks on military assets under the guise of drug strikes.

Former Department of Justice officials who were either forced out or resigned in protest of President Donald Trump's administration left some scathing resignation letters for their bosses, and a new organization is seeking to preserve as many of the letters as possible, according to a new report.

Since Trump took office in January, about 5,000 employees at the Department of Justice have either quit or resigned, CBS News reported on Sunday. Meanwhile, a cadre of those former employees is banding together to create a public display of the messages the former employees left for their bosses. Those employees have created an organization called Justice Connection that is organizing and posting the messages, the report added.

Stacey Young, a former civil division attorney for the Justice Department, is leading Justice Connection. A spokesperson for the organization told CBS News that they are working to preserve the messages because they "show what is happening in our country at this moment."

The repository includes messages left by high-profile former employees such as Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.

"Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought," Comey wrote in a message. "Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place."

Another former DOJ lawyer, Hagan Scotten, who resigned in protest of the Trump administration's decision to stop prosecuting New York City Mayor Eric Adams on corruption charges, also had her farewell message captured in the online database.

"If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion," Scotten wrote. "But it was never going to be me."

Read the entire report by clicking here.

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board slammed President Donald Trump's Health Secretary over his "ideological crusade" to turn the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into an anti-vaccine agency.

Last week, the CDC revised its Vaccine Safety page to include a new advisory for claims that "vaccines do not cause autism." The website now says the claim "is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.”

The new guidance cites a discredited study authored by a scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who wrote a newsletter for Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. led, WSJ's editors wrote in a new editorial.

Kennedy has repeatedly asserted that there are ties between vaccines and childhood rates of autism, although experts have questioned the evidence he's provided to support such claims.

The editors noted that the revised guidelines seem like a lawyerly attempt by Kennedy to keep his promise to GOP Senators like Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) not to change the CDC's vaccine advisory.

"He is also breaking his pledge to Mr. Cassidy not to push vaccines for children off the market," the editorial notes. "Early next month, Mr. Kennedy’s handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will discuss aluminum adjuvants and could require manufacturers to remove them from vaccines. That could force a dozen vaccines out of use."

"The aluminum ingredient in vaccines isn’t the same as what’s in kitchen foil," the editorial adds. "Aluminum is naturally present in plants, soil, water, and many foods, including vegetables, tea, and chocolate. During the first six months of life, infants ingest significantly more aluminum from breast milk or formula than they get from vaccines. But RFK Jr. is on an ideological crusade. Reformulating these vaccines with different adjuvants would cost billions of dollars and could take years."

Read the entire editorial by clicking here.

A clinical psychologist flagged a sign that President Donald Trump may be experiencing a "serious cognitive problem" during a podcast interview that debuted on Sunday.

Trump has displayed some questionable behavior in recent days, including an instance where he snapped at a reporter on Air Force One and told her, "Be quiet, piggy." The event renewed conversations about Trump's cognitive health.

Dr. John Gartner, an author and former professor at Johns Hopkins University, discussed Trump's mental fitness during an interview with The Daily Beast's Joana Coles on a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast."

Gartner noted that Trump has admitted to taking multiple cognitive tests since taking office. Trump appears to be divulging the information to address concerns about his mental state, but Gartner said the admissions reveal a much larger problem.

"They said they did advanced imaging," Gartner said. "Okay, well, Trump said not once, not twice, but three times that he had taken cognitive tests. Plural. Okay, so not just a screening exam...They gave him multiple tests. We do not give people multiple cognitive tests unless we suspect there's a serious cognitive problem."

"We also never, ever...give someone an MRI unless we suspect or need to rule out a serious problem," he continued. "So, we know his doctors gave him multiple cognitive tests and an MRI. They didn't say explicitly because of the brain, but we can certainly be sure they scanned his brain. If they're giving him a neuropsychological battery, they're scanning his brain."

"If Donald Trump were just an ordinary patient and you saw these kinds of serious signs of dementia, a responsible doctor would give him both a neuropsychological battery and an MRI," he added. "Of course, they're not telling us why they gave those tests.
They're not telling us the results."

Jeffrey Epstein's brother is warning that Republicans are "scrubbing the files" and "sabotaging" the full release, according to reports.

Mark Epstein said Tuesday in an interview with NewsNation that President Donald Trump and Republicans have changed course over releasing the Epstein files because they are making moves behind the scenes to alter them.

“I’ve been recently told, the reason they’re going to be releasing the files and the reason for the flip is that they’re sabotaging these files,” Mark Epstein told NewsNation.

He added that the GOP is “scrubbing the files to take Republican names out" and claimed the files are being sanitized at a "facility" about 78 miles northwest of Capitol Hill in Winchester, Virginia, The Daily Beast reports.

“He didn’t tell me what he knew, but Jeffrey definitely had dirt on Trump,” he said.

“You could see in the emails. Trump could deny it all he wants, but it’s pretty clear everything Trump says is a lie," he added.

Trump has denied any involvement or knowledge of Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking ring and abuse of girls. And after weeks of pushing to block the release of the files and pressuring other Republicans not to sign the discharge petition, he decided to reverse his moves and now has asked Republicans to sign the petition to release the files.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 427-1 to release the Jeffrey Epstein files and send the discharge petition to the Senate in a move aimed to reveal more information about the disgraced late financier and convicted sex offender and his potential ties to other powerful entities.

Rep. Jesus "Chuy" García (D-IL), a prominent progressive lawmaker from the Chicago area, triggered a firestorm of controversy when he announced his retirement at precisely the filing deadline to run for his district, a move that meant the only candidate who declared for the Democratic primary was his own chief of staff, Patty Garcia.

The congressman, who has said he is retiring due to health concerns and his adoption of a grandchild after the death of his daughter, has faced accusations that he effectively rigged the primary to hand-pick his successor, but denies the accusation. However, paperwork obtained by Politico seems to provide evidence that he was fully aware of and supported the effort by his chief of staff to get on the ballot immediately before his retirement.

"A petition signature page submitted by Patty Garcia to the Illinois Board of Elections shows the representative and his closest allies, whom Chuy García has also helped get elected over the years, signed their names. They include Cook County Commissioner Alma Anaya, Illinois state Sen. Celina Villanueva, state Reps. Aaron Ortiz and Norma Hernandez, and Chicago City Council members Jeylú Gutiérrez and Michael Rodriguez," reported Shia Kapos and Nicholas Wu. "The form is dated Nov. 1, two days before the filing deadline and three days before Chuy García formally announced his retirement."

A spokesperson for the congressman has said this paperwork doesn't prove he manipulated the primary, and that "he did not circulate petitions" for his chief of staff, even though he signed one.

On Tuesday, the House passed a resolution, filed by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), reprimanding García's interference in the primary to succeed him.

This came despite the objections of both Illinois Democrats and House leadership, who are broadly standing behind García's decision.