INTERVIEW – KT MCFARLAND – FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST @KTMCFARLAND
>> Obama calls Trump unfit to be president. Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama offered one of his sharpest denunciations of Donald Trump to date Tuesday, declaring the Republican nominee entirely unfit to serve as president and lambasting Republicans for sticking by their nominee. The strong rebuke in the White House East Room came after Trump’s criticism of the family of a slain Muslim US soldier, along with comments that displayed apparent confusion related to the Russian incursion into Ukraine. “The Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president,” Obama said at a White House news conference with the Prime Minister of Singapore. “He keeps on proving it.”
>> Obama approves 30-day airstrike mission against ISIS in Libya. (Fox News) — President Obama has authorized a 30-day mission for the U.S. military to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State terror group in Libya as new strikes were unleashed Tuesday, Fox News has learned. Marine Corps Harrier jets launched from the Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp conducted at least two airstrikes against ISIS targets in the coastal city of Sirte Tuesday. USS Wasp is set to remain off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea for the next month along with an escort ship, the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney. The U.S. has launched at least seven airstrikes in total since the campaign began Monday.
>> Dems trying to tie Putin and Russia with Trump. Washington (CNN)Donald Trump’s Russia problem isn’t going away. In the past week, the Republican presidential nominee has been pilloried for his comments expressing openness to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has called on the Russian government to share emails it possibly hacked from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and drawn rebukes from critics who say he’s soft on a traditional US adversary. Trump says Putin is ‘not going to go into Ukraine,’ despite Crimea.
>> WSJ: US airlifted $400 million to Iran as detained Americans were released. The U.S. government airlifted the equivalent of $400 million to Iran this past January, which occurred as four detained Americans were released by Tehran, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The cash transfer was the first installment paid in a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a failed 1979 arms deal dating from just before the Iranian Revolution. State Department spokesman John Kirby denied the cash transfer was done to secure the release of the four Americans.
>>> @RealDonaldTrump tweeted an hour ago: “Our incompetent Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was the one who started talks to give 400 million dollars, in cash, to Iran. Scandal!”
