Special U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney, former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, announced his resignation from the White House on Thursday, citing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-shots-fired-inside-capital-rioters-storm-senate-members-of-congress-don-gas-masks">rioters</a> at the United States Capitol on Wednesday.
“I called [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo last night to let him know I was resigning from that. I can’t do it. I can’t stay,” Mulvaney <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/07/mick-mulvaney-resigns-from-trump-administration-expects-others-to-follow.html">told</a> CNBC News.
The former chief of staff said he spoke to others who are planning to resign too but are currently staying on &#8220;because they’re worried the president might put someone worse in.&#8221;
“Those who choose to stay, and I have talked with some of them, are choosing to stay because they’re worried the president might put someone worse in,” Mulvaney said.
Matthew Pottinger, deputy to National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, resigned Wednesday. Stephanie Grisham, chief of staff for first lady Melania Trump, and White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, have also resigned, CNBC noted, adding that it is rumored O’Brien&#8217;s resignation is imminent, too.
Mulvaney highlighted yesterday&#8217;s chaos at the U.S. Capitol in his rationale for resigning. “We didn’t sign up for what you saw last night,” he said. “We signed up for making America great again, we signed up for lower taxes and less regulation. The president has a long list of successes that we can be proud of.”
“But all of that went away yesterday,&#8221; he added, &#8220;and I think you’re right to ask the question as to ‘how did it happen?’”
Trump, Mulvaney said, is &#8220;not the same as he was eight months ago.”
“The folks who spent time away from our families, put our careers on the line to go work for Donald Trump, and we did have those successes to look back at, but now it will always be, ‘Oh yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government,’” the former chief of staff said, adding, “That legacy is gone as of yesterday and that’s extraordinarily disappointing to those of us who work for him.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/01/06/three-white-house-officials-resign-after-capitol-breach-with-more-expected/?sh=26d686837395">According</a> to Forbes, Grisham who formerly served as press secretary to Trump is &#8220;very close&#8221; with First Lady Melania Trump &#8220;but had previously considered leaving multiple times.&#8221;
“As someone who worked in the halls of Congress I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today,” read a statement from deputy press secretary Matthews, adding, “Our nation needs a peaceful peaceful transfer of power.”
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White House social secretary Rickie Niceta, per Forbes, &#8220;resigned in reaction to the Capitol breach&#8221; on Wednesday.
Commerce Department’s deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and security John Costello, too, resigned Wednesday in reaction to the chaos at the Capitol, <a href="https://twitter.com/dnvolz/status/1347181081552891905">according</a> to The Wall Street Journal. Ryan Tully, the National Security Council’s senior director for European and Russian Affairs, also reportedly <a href="https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1347190192059404288">resigned</a>.
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Today, I resigned my position as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intelligence and Security. <a href="https://t.co/x8d6qCczok">pic.twitter.com/x8d6qCczok</a>
&mdash; John Costello (@CostelloJK) <a href="https://twitter.com/CostelloJK/status/1347198645381292034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-chief-at-least-fourteen-officers-injured-amid-capitol-violence">Police Chief: At Least Fourteen Officers Injured Amid Capitol Violence</a>
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Mick Mulvaney

Resignations Stack Up At White House: ‘I Can’t Do It. I Can’t Stay Here’

Donald Trump

Stephanie Grisham

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney suggested Friday that Americans should expect that there will be some disruptions to schools and transportation as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, but expressed confidence that the U.S. is well-prepared to handle the situation.
Amid <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-new-york-reportedly-monitoring-over-9000-people-for-coronavirus">reports</a> that over 8,000 people in California and several hundred in New York are being monitored for potential infection, Mulvaney addressed the issue of the virus&#8217;s spread during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Fort Washington, Maryland on Friday.
&#8220;Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably. Maybe see impacts on public transportation? Sure,&#8221; Mulvaney said during the event, as reported by <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/virus-could-disrupt-u-s-schools-transportation-mulvaney-says">Bloomberg Quint</a>. &#8220;But we do this,&#8221; he stressed. &#8220;We know how to handle this.&#8221;
Addressing the impact of the epidemic on the financial sector, Mulvaney added, &#8220;Really, what I’d like to do today to calm the markets is tell people to turn their televisions off for 24 hours.&#8221;
Bloomberg notes that Mulvaney&#8217;s comments &#8220;indicate that the administration is planning for potentially bigger disruptions.&#8221;
&#8220;He spoke a day after stock markets plunged the most since 2011 over concerns that the coronavirus outbreak would continue to spread and drag down the global economy,&#8221; the outlet reports. &#8220;There are now more than 83,000 cases of the virus worldwide, with infections spreading in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Germany.&#8221;
Mulvaney&#8217;s confidence in the U.S. response to the epidemic is an echo of President Trump&#8217;s repeated assurances that the federal government is on top of the issue, as he underscored in a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-conference/">press conference</a> Wednesday.
&#8220;Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low,&#8221; Trump said, in part referencing his decision to shut down flights from high-risk areas. &#8220;&#8230;We’re ready to adapt and we’re ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-new-york-reportedly-monitoring-over-9000-people-for-coronavirus">The Daily Wire</a> reported Thursday, over 9,000 people are currently being monitored in the U.S. for potential infection, including over 8,000 in California and another 700 in New York.
The number of monitored cases in California dwarfs all other states. “California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that 33 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and the state is currently monitoring at least 8,400 others —a day after U.S. health officials confirmed the first possible community transmission of the coronavirus in a Solano County resident,” CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/27/california-is-monitoring-8400-people-for-the-coronavirus.html">reported</a>.
<a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/02/26/coronavirus-update-de-blasio-cuomo-outline-preparations-in-new-york/">CBS New York</a> reported Thursday that New York state&#8217;s health department revealed that &#8220;700 people in the state have been asked to voluntarily self-isolate for two weeks.&#8221; None of those cases are in New York City, the outlet notes; nonetheless, city officials are preparing for a potential outbreak.
&#8220;Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio joined New York City health officials to outline a plan of action once the virus shows up in the city,&#8221; CBS 2 reports. &#8220;As of Wednesday, there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in the city. All those who were in quarantine have been released – but that’s expected to change. And once it does, city leaders say they’re ready, but could use more help from the federal government.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-new-york-reportedly-monitoring-over-9000-people-for-coronavirus">California, New York Reportedly Monitoring Over 9,000 People For Coronavirus</a>
&nbsp;

White House Chief of Staff: Expect Disruptions To Schools, Transportation Due To Coronavirus

California

COVID

New York

White House

On Sunday, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney appeared on &#8220;Fox News Sunday&#8221; with host Chris Wallace.
During the segment, Wallace brought up the ongoing issue of impeachment with Mulvaney, claiming that a Republican insider told him that some in the party appear to be peeling away from the president:
<blockquote>WALLACE: There seems to be a growing number of Republicans in Congress who are, if not breaking with the president, distancing themselves from the president. You had Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader who wrote a scathing article about Syria this week.
[Wallace then quoted the McConnell op-ed: &#8220;Withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria is a grave strategic mistake and a strategic nightmare for our country.&#8221;]
WALLACE: House Republicans voted against the Trump policy in Syria 129-60, more than 2-1. And I talked to a very well-connected Republican in Washington this week, somebody whose name you would know well, who says that if the House votes to impeach and it gets to a trial in the Senate, there is now a 20 percent chance he believes – obviously, it&#8217;s just an estimate – now a 20% chance enough Republicans will vote with the Democrats to remove the president.
MULVANEY: Oh, that&#8217;s just absurd. But let&#8217;s deal with the issue of Syria.
WALLACE: No, let&#8217;s deal with the issue of whether Republicans – you&#8217;re losing your support.
MULVANEY: Same thing. This comment about a 20% chance, the person clearly doesn&#8217;t know what they&#8217;re talking about.
But talk about the reaction of the Republicans and Democrats up on the Hill to the decision in Syria, [the] president knew that was going to happen. He recognizes the fact that it&#8217;s not a politically popular in this town to make the decision that he made to move the troops out of Syria. He ran on it. He told people he would do this if he won, and he&#8217;s doing it now because he won.
WALLACE: Forgive me for interrupting, we are running out of time, I just want to ask you, though – is there any concern that the president is losing those support of Republicans in Congress?
MULVANEY: No, the president is extraordinary popular back home, more popular in the swing districts now that impeachment has started.
WALLACE: I&#8217;m talking about here in Washington.
MULVANEY: Yes, but they have to go home eventually as well. So, no. Do I have to understand that there are certain folks, especially the neoconservative wing of the party, who are upset about the Syria decision? I absolutely do. The president knew that was going to happen. Again, elections have consequences on foreign policy. That&#8217;s where we started this conversation, and that thankfully they do.</blockquote>
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The vote to which Wallace was referring took place on Wednesday. The House of Representatives voted 354 to 60 on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-votes-overwhelmingly-to-condemn-trumps-military-pullback-in-turkey">H.J. Res. 77</a> to condemn and oppose the president’s foreign policy decision regarding Turkey and Syria. Of the 354 &#8220;yea&#8221; votes, 129 were Republicans.
Wallace’s source isn’t the first person to claim that a certain percentage of Senate Republicans might vote for impeachment.
On September 26, former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pelosi-on-losing-the-house-in-2020-over-impeachment-doesnt-matter">told a crowd</a> at the 2019 Texas Tribune Festival that if the vote were anonymous, dozens of Senate Republicans would vote to impeach:
<blockquote>Somebody mentioned yesterday that if there were a private vote, [there] would be 30 Republican votes. That’s not true. There’d be at least 35 — or maybe more if it were a private vote, but that’s not possible.</blockquote>
The American public’s mood on impeachment appears to have changed markedly over the past several weeks.
A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/while-polls-favor-impeachment-inquiry-ken-starr-says-impeachment-doomed-to-fail">Politico/Morning Consult</a> poll conducted between September 24-26 asked: &#8220;As you may know, the 􏰀first step toward removing a president from office is impeachment. Do you believe Congress should or should not begin impeachment proceedings to remove President Trump from office?&#8221;
43% of respondents said &#8220;yes,&#8221; while 43% said &#8220;no.&#8221; 13% were unsure.
According to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-trump-losing-to-biden-warren-by-double-digits">Gallup</a> survey released on Wednesday, 52% of Americans want the president “impeached and removed from office” given “what [they] know at this point,” while 46% don’t want the president impeached and removed. 2% had “no opinion.” That’s a 7% swing since a Gallup asked a similar question in June.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-trump-losing-to-biden-warren-by-double-digits">FOX POLL: Trump Losing To Biden, Warren By Double Digits</a>

Trump.

WATCH: Chris Wallace Cites ‘Well-Connected Republican’ Who Suggests ‘20% Chance Enough Republicans’ In Senate Will Vote To Impeach

Chris Wallace

Impeachment

Kurds

Syria

Turkey

Just hours after the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke appeared on multiple news programs, blaming President Donald Trump as a cause of the tragedy.
&#8220;Yes, we’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years during an administration where you’ve had a president where you’ve called Mexicans rapists and criminals,&#8221; O’Rourke told ABC-7 on Saturday when asked directly if the president is responsible.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a> I just asked <a href="https://twitter.com/BetoORourke?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BetoORourke</a> if <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> is at all responsible for today’s mass shooting in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElPaso?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElPaso</a> He said yes and added that in his opinion, the President is indeed a racist. <a href="https://twitter.com/abc7breaking?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@abc7breaking</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABC</a> <a href="https://t.co/wA3iB3uLFN">pic.twitter.com/wA3iB3uLFN</a>
— Michael Gordon KVIA ABC-7 (@MichaelGordonTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelGordonTV/status/1157840032738136064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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O’Rourke’s remarks came in the wake of a mass shooting at a Walmart in the presidential hopeful’s home town of El Paso, Texas. At least 20 individuals were killed in the Saturday attack and more than two dozen others were left injured.
&#8220;[Trump] is a racist and he stokes racism in this country,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And it does not just offend our sensibilities, it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence.&#8221;
O’Rourke also appeared on CBS News’ &#8220;Face the Nation&#8221; the following morning where he again contended that &#8220;President Trump has a lot to do with what happened in El Paso&#8221; the day prior.
&#8220;[I’m going] to ensure that we do everything that we can to guarantee that this does not happen again going forward,&#8221; O’Rourke told host Major Garrett. &#8220;It has to go well beyond thoughts and prayers, and even beyond sensible gun control legislation universal background checks, like ending the sales of weapons of war.&#8221;
&#8220;This is really about hatred and racism and intolerance that continues to grow in this country,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Hate crimes are on the rise for each of the last three years, division being sown by this president, hatred being welcomed during his administration — all of us must stand up against this and for a much better, a much safer country.&#8221;
Interestingly, CNN’s Jake Tapper confronted O’Rourke with a document allegedly written by the suspected gunman, stating that his racist beliefs were ingrained prior to Trump’s leadership.
&#8220;I don’t know the point that you’re trying to make here, Jake,&#8221; O’Rourke replied after pausing a few moments, before continuing to compare the president’s &#8220;racist&#8221; rhetoric to Nazi Germany&#8217;s Third Reich.
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&#8220;Let’s not mince words right now, this president is encouraging greater racism, and not just the racist rhetoric but the violence that so often follows,&#8221; the former congressman continued. &#8220;This shooter in the manifesto cites in part for his inspiration the shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, who cites Donald Trump as his inspiration.&#8221;
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney brushed off O’Rourke’s accusations of racism as a talking point for his presidential campaign.
&#8220;Here’s the question you can ask Beto … did anyone blame Bernie Sanders for the congressional baseball game shooting? No, I don’t think so,&#8221; Mulvaney said on ABC’s &#8220;This Week.&#8221; &#8220;Did anyone blame Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the crazy guy who tried to blow up the DHS office in Washington state, taking a homemade bomb and an AR-15 to shoot up what he called a concentration camp — the exact same rhetoric that [Ocasio-Cortez] was using?&#8221;
&#8220;There’s no benefit here to trying to make this a political issue,&#8221; he added.

Beto O’Rourke

WATCH: Beto O’Rourke Swiftly Makes The Rounds Blaming Trump For Texas Mass Shooting

Beto O'Rourke

Shooting

Texas

On Sunday, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney appeared on Fox News with host Chris Wallace, who grilled the Trump administration official over the president’s tweets regarding Baltimore:
<blockquote>WALLACE: Well, let&#8217;s start with what we didn&#8217;t anticipate and that is the Twitter war. President Trump attacked Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings on Saturday, saying that his district in the Baltimore area of Maryland is worse, worse conditions, more dangerous than along the southern border.</blockquote>
Wallace showed President Trump’s tweets about Rep. Elijah Cummings’ (D-MD) congressional district, which includes part of Baltimore.
The host continued:
<blockquote>In fact, median household income in the district is in the upper half nationally, and Columbia, Maryland, which is part of the Cummings&#8217; district, has been called the safest city in America. So, what is the president talking about?</blockquote>
Mulvaney replied, and the following exchange took place:
<blockquote>MULVANEY: And I think Maryland is – I think on a per capita basis, or per household basis, the richest state in America. You still see pictures on the Internet of complete poverty in Baltimore, Maryland.
What this is about though is the president fighting back against what he saw as being illegitimate attacks about the border in the hearing this week. If you go online, you can see the questioning that Elijah Cummings did of Kevin McAleenan regarding the conditions at the border. Mr. Cummings saying that children were sleeping or sitting in their own feces, that&#8217;s just not right. It&#8217;s not accurate, born by the fact, by the way, that Mr. Cummings has not been to the border in recent memory, certainly not during this administration. And when the president hears lies like that, he is going to fight back and that&#8217;s what you saw in those tweets.
WALLACE: This goes back to what happened with the four members of &#8220;The Squad.&#8221; Nobody objects to the president defending his border policies, but this seems, Mick, to be the worst kind of &#8230; racial stereotyping. &#8230; Black congressman, majority black district – I mean, no human being would want to live there? Is he saying people that live in Baltimore are not human beings?
MULVANEY: So, Chris, help me with this. When the president attacks AOC plus three, when he attacks &#8220;The Squad&#8221; last week, he gets accused of being a racist. When Nancy Pelosi does it a few days later, the left and many members of the media, not you in particular, I want to make that clear, come to Nancy&#8217;s defense. How it couldn&#8217;t possibly be racist. That she was simply attacking their ideas.
The president is doing the same. The president is attacking Mr. Cummings for saying things that are not true about the border.
I think it&#8217;s right for the president to raise the issue of – look, I was in Congress for six years. If I had poverty in my district like they have in Baltimore, if I had crime in my district like they have in Chicago, if I had homelessness like they have in San Francisco, and I spent all of my time in Washington, D.C. chasing down this Mueller investigation, this bizarre impeachment crusade, I&#8217;d get fired. And I think the president&#8217;s right to raise that. It has absolutely zero to do with race.
WALLACE: You say it has zero to do with race – there is a clear pattern here, Mick. The fact is that before his inaugural – before his inauguration, the president tweeted about John Lewis, a black congressman that he should &#8212; this is before his inauguration, he should spend time in his crime-infested district.
Then, two weeks ago, he goes after these four members of &#8220;The Squad,&#8221; all women of color, and says they should go back to the crime-infested countries from which they come. Then he talks about Elijah Cummings and he says his district is rat and rodent-infested. Infested. It sounds like vermin. It sounds subhuman. And these are all six members of Congress who are people of color.
MULVANEY: I think you&#8217;re spending way too much time reading between the lines.
WALLACE: I&#8217;m not reading between the lines. I&#8217;m reading the lines.
MULVANEY: Does anyone watching this program dispute the fact or the possibility that if Adam Schiff has said the same thing about the border, that the president would be attacking Adam Schiff the exact same way today?
WALLACE: I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;d be talking about his crime-infested, rodent-infested district.
MULVANEY: He very well could. It has zero to do with the fact that Adam is Jewish and everything to do with Adam would just be wrong if he were saying that. This is what the president does. He fights and he&#8217;s not wrong to do so&#8230;
WALLACE: You&#8217;re completely comfortable with him saying that this is a rodent-infested district and no human being would want to live there? You&#8217;re comfortable with that personally?
MULVANEY: Have you seen some of the pictures on the Internet? Just this morning from the conditions in Baltimore, Maryland. Have you seen them?
WALLACE: You can do that in any inner city in America.
MULVANEY: You absolutely could.
WALLACE: And you could argue, why doesn&#8217;t the president do something to stop it?
MULVANEY: The richest state in the nation, the richest state in the nation has abject poverty like that. A state, by the way, dominated for generations by Democrats. I think it&#8217;s fair to have that conversation.</blockquote>
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On Sunday, President Trump sent out a tweet regarding Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) congressional district:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. It is not even recognizeable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155442764940812290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote>Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. It is not even recognizable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!</blockquote>
Among the deluge of responses, some called the president out over what they believe is an attempt at &#8220;damage control.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">So this is your lame attempt at damage control&#8230;going after <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Pelosi?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Pelosi</a>’s district to make it look like you weren’t a despicable RACIST yesterday with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cummings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cummings</a>. You’re pathetic. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Trump?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Trump</a>
— Andy Ostroy (@AndyOstroy) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndyOstroy/status/1155447626445312000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote>So this is your lame attempt at damage control&#8230;going after #Pelosi’s district to make it look like you weren’t a despicable RACIST yesterday with #Cummings. You’re pathetic. #Trump</blockquote>

WATCH: Chris Wallace To Mulvaney: ‘Is [Trump] Saying People That Live In Baltimore Are Not Human Beings?’

Baltimore

Race

Trump Administration

Last Thursday, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan and Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney held a phone briefing with members of the media. The full transcript is <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/05/30/background-press-call-senior-administration-officials-crisis-our-southern-border">publicly available</a>, courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security. On the call, McAleenan referred to the present overwhelming influx of migrant aliens as placing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a situation that is &#8220;beyond sustainable capacity.&#8221;
The Center for Immigration Studies has a <a href="https://cis.org/Arthur/McAleenan-Details-Scope-Disaster-Border">helpful summary</a> of the staggering &#8212; and truly tragic, from a humanitarian perspective &#8212; key takeaways of the McAleenan/Mulvaney phone call:
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Over the past 21 days, an average of over 4,500 people have crossed our border illegally or arrived at ports of entry without documents. In May of 2017, that number was less than 700 a day. The month of May is on pace to be the highest month in crossings in over 12 years and will significantly surpass the record 109,000 in April.</li>
<li>U.S. immigration authorities now have over 80,000 people in custody, a record level that is beyond sustainable capacity with current resources. Over 7,500 single adults are in custody at the border and Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding over 50,000.</li>
<li>Over 2,350 unaccompanied children &#8211; the highest level ever &#8211; are currently in custody waiting for days for placements in border stations that cannot provide appropriate conditions for them because Health and Human Services is out of bed space and Congress has failed to act on the administration&#8217;s emergency supplemental request for more than four weeks.</li>
<li>A five- and a ten-month old drowned in a river transiting Mexico to the United States in the last few days.</li>
<li>More than 75,000 families have already transited through Mexico to the Southwest border this month alone.</li>
<li>More than 4,000 foreign nationals appeared at the border this year with children that they fraudulently claimed were their own, a number that is increasing.</li>
<li>At any given moment, up to 100,000 migrants are transiting Mexico on their way to the U.S. border.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
CBP has often used extraordinarily blunt language, of late, in describing the present <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46643/poll-even-many-more-democrats-now-describe-our-josh-hammer">crisis</a> at our southern border. In a <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/over-2200-apprehensions-el-paso-sector-border-patrol-memorial-day">press release</a> from last week <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47792/cbp-reports-staggering-number-memorial-day-josh-hammer">announcing</a> a staggering number of Memorial Day apprehensions for the CBP-designated El Paso Sector, for example, CBP referred to the &#8220;influx of illegal aliens entering our country [who have] no respect for our immigration laws.&#8221; As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46992/crisis-cbps-april-border-numbers-further-reveal-josh-hammer">reported</a>, furthermore, CBP responded to the publication earlier last month of its monthly apprehension numbers for the month of April by tweeting about the &#8220;unprecedented&#8221; and &#8220;unsustainable&#8221; influx: &#8220;#CBP is experiencing an unprecedented and unsustainable situation at the Southwest border. In April, CBP apprehended or deemed inadmissible 109,144 individuals along the SWB.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CBP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CBP</a> is experiencing an unprecedented and unsustainable situation at the Southwest border. In April, CBP apprehended or deemed inadmissible 109,144 individuals along the SWB. Details here: <a href="https://t.co/ru9AsalgPb">https://t.co/ru9AsalgPb</a> <a href="https://t.co/kzfTpfPNP8">pic.twitter.com/kzfTpfPNP8</a>
&#8212; CBP (@CBP) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBP/status/1126214086839214083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
A month prior, CBP Deputy Commissioner Robert E. Perez <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-march-statistics-southwest-border-migration">referred</a> to the migrant alien onslaught as presenting a &#8220;system-wide emergency.&#8221; &#8220;We are currently experiencing a system-wide emergency in our processing and holding facilities,&#8221; Perez stated at the time of the release of CBP&#8217;s apprehension data for the month of March.
Congressional Democrats have <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2019/05/04/the-democrats-are-humanitarian-frauds-on-the-border/">consistently rejected attempts</a> to help mollify the humanitarian crisis presently afflicting our <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46207/day-our-beleaguered-border-human-smugglers-arizona-josh-hammer">beleaguered</a> border.

DHS: Number Of Aliens In Custody At Border ‘Beyond Sustainable Capacity’

Department of Homeland Security

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Mexico

Southern Border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that President Donald Trump is &#8220;deadly serious&#8221; about levying a 5% tariff on Mexican goods if the Mexican government doesn&#8217;t step up enforcement of illegal immigration on the southern side of the border, and now it appears the Mexican government is serious about complying to avoid a trade war.
Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday that Trump&#8217;s threat was not an empty one.
&#8220;He is absolutely, deadly serious,&#8221; Mulvaney said on the morning news program, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/02/mulvaney-trump-deadly-serious-about-tariffs-1349665">according to Politico</a>. &#8220;I fully expect these tariffs to go on to at least the 5 percent level on June 10.&#8221;
He added that the White House has been working with the Mexican government &#8220;for months,&#8221; pushing immigration forces there to turn away &#8220;caravans&#8221; of migrants from central America, and demanding that the Mexican government lend a hand in the border crisis. Now, Mulvaney said, the border is in an &#8220;emergency situation&#8221; and the U.S. will no longer tolerate a lack of attention from Mexican officials.
The reason we&#8217;re doing things people don&#8217;t expect is that we&#8217;re facing things at the border we never experienced before,&#8221; Mulvaney added in a later appearance on NBC, Politico reports. &#8220;We&#8217;re using extraordinary tools because there is extraordinary circumstances that dictate those.&#8221;
The 5% tariff goes into effect this week. If the Mexican government continues to refuse to help, the tariff will increase to &#8220;10 percent on July 1; 15 percent on Aug. 1; 20 percent on Sept. 1; and 25 percent on Oct. 1,&#8221; according to White House officials.
To prove they&#8217;re listening, Mulvaney said that Mexico would need to show improvement in policing their own southern border, for starters.
Democrats bristled at the thought of instituting tariffs on Meixcan goods and accused Trump, last week, of starting an unnecessary trade war. They also insisted, as before, that the crisis at the southern border is of Trump&#8217;s own making and that administration policies have forced border patrol officials to detain more immigrants and asylum seekers than ever before.
The White House, of course, fired back, noting that Democrats have dutifully ignored any request from the White House to approve the emergency funding necessary to care for the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers who have appeared at the border in recent months. The administration insists that if Congress will not help, it will pursue other avenues, including tariffs, to entice Mexico to assist.
The plan appears to be working.
<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-mexico/mexican-president-hints-at-migration-concessions-to-defuse-u-s-trade-spat-idUSKCN1T237F">The Associated Press</a> reports that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador &#8220;hinted his country could tighten migration controls to defuse U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods,&#8221; and that he plans on engaging the White House in talks this week, which he hopes will be fruitful.
Lopez Obrador insisted, in the same news conference, that the Mexican government has ramped up immigration enforcement along Mexico&#8217;s southern border and that officials have been working diligently to turn back migrant caravans, limit the number of migrant visas issued, and capture and deport recognized criminals, including MS-13 gang members.
&#8220;The main thing is to inform about what we&#8217;re already doing on the migration issue, and if it&#8217;s necessary to reinforce these measures without violating human rights, we could be prepared to reach that deal,&#8221; Lopez Obrador said Sunday.
&#8220;We&#8217;re doing all we can to reach a deal through dialogue,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We&#8217;re not going to get into a trade war, a war of tariffs and of taxes.&#8221;

TRUMP WIN? Mexican President Says He’s Ready To Amp Up Immigration Enforcement To End Trade War

On Friday, CNN&#8217;s Andrew Kaczynski dropped an audio file in which Mick Mulvaney, President Trump&#8217;s incoming chief of staff, refers to the president&#8217;s ideas regarding border security as &#8220;absurd and almost childish.&#8221;
The audio comes from an August 25, 2015 radio exchange with Patti Mercer.
<blockquote>
MERCER: Donald Trump says build a wall; deport all illegal immigrants; rules are rules; you either play and stay, or you cheat and you get deported. What challenges does this plan pose?
MULVANEY: A bunch. I&#8217;ve never been in the boxcar caucus &#8211; you know, ship them home in boxcars and let the Lord sort them out. The fence is an easy thing to sell politically. It&#8217;s an easy thing for someone who doesn&#8217;t follow the issue very closely to say, &#8220;Well, that will just solve everything. Build a fence.&#8221;
When you go out and you talked to the Texas ranchers. Which I&#8217;ve done, [Rep] Jeff Duncan has done, and ask them &#8211; these are the guys dealing with it every single day.
MERCER: Because we have a fence there &#8211;
MULVANEY: Yeah, we have a fence &#8211;
MERCER: And they&#8217;re building tunnels.
MULVANEY: That&#8217;s exactly the point. The fence doesn&#8217;t solve the problem. Is it necessary to have one? Sure. Would it help? Sure. But to just say, &#8220;Build the darn fence,&#8221; and have that be the end of an immigration discussion is absurd and almost childish for someone running for president to take that simplistic a view.
And by the way, the bottom line is the fence doesn&#8217;t stop anybody who really wants to get across. You go under, you go around, you go through it. And that&#8217;s what the ranchers tell us, is that they don&#8217;t need a fence. What they need is more manpower, and more technology, and more willingness to enforce the law as it exists today. There are parts of our border that are secure and parts of our border that are not. A lot of that comes down to whether or not we are just willing to enforce the law as it exists. So it&#8217;s easy to tell people what they want to hear, &#8220;Build the darn fence. Vote for me.&#8221;
&#8230;It is pablum that politicians like to feed people in order to tell people what they want to hear as they&#8217;re trying to get them to vote for them. It&#8217;s hard to tell people that things are hard to fix, but building a fence is not going to be the be-all and end-all to our immigration problems.
</blockquote>
Many media outlets appear to be focusing their headlines entirely on Mulvaney&#8217;s criticism of the president, while ignoring his admission that a &#8220;fence&#8221; or wall is &#8220;necessary.&#8221;
Here are several headlines from mainstream outlets:
<blockquote>
CNN: Mick Mulvaney in 2015: Trump&#8217;s views on border wall &#8216;simplistic,&#8217; &#8216;absurd and almost childish&#8217;
TIME: Incoming Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney Once Called President Trump&#8217;s Border Wall Plan &#8216;Absurd&#8217;
Newsweek: TRUMP&#8217;S NEW CHIEF OF STAFF MICK MULVANEY DESCRIBED PRESIDENT&#8217;S WALL PLEDGE AS &#8216;ABSURD&#8217; AND &#8216;ALMOST CHILDISH&#8217;
HuffPo: Mick Mulvaney Once Called Trump&#8217;s Border Wall Pledge &#8216;Absurd And Almost Childish&#8217;
Slate: Trump&#8217;s Incoming Chief of Staff Said in 2015 That Border Wall Was a &#8220;Childish&#8221; Idea That Wouldn&#8217;t Work
</blockquote>
Mulvaney has indeed been critical of the president in the past, even calling him a &#8220;<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-next-chief-of-staff-called-him-a-terrible-human-being-just-before-he-was-elected-president?ref=home">terrible human being</a>&#8221; during a debate with a Democratic opponent on November 2, 2016:
<blockquote>
Yes, I am supporting Donald Trump, but I&#8217;m doing so despite the fact that I think he&#8217;s a terrible human being.
</blockquote>
In a Facebook post several weeks prior to the debate, Mulvaney <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/us/politics/mulvaney-trump-terrible-human-being.html">wrote</a>: &#8220;I&#8217;ve decided that I don&#8217;t particularly like Donald Trump as a person. But I am still voting for him. And I am still asking other people to do the same. And there is one simple reason for that: Hillary Clinton.&#8221;
Less than two months after Mulvaney&#8217;s remark, President Trump nominated the former congressman to head the Office of Management and Budget.
Despite Mulvaney&#8217;s criticisms of the president, and despite his rebuke of then-candidate Trump&#8217;s idea for a border wall, in the end, the former congressman did admit that such a barrier is &#8220;necessary&#8221; and that it would be helpful.

Old Audio Surfaces In Which Mick Mulvaney Calls Trump’s Border Wall ‘Absurd And Almost Childish,’ Then Admits That A Barrier Is ‘Necessary’

On Friday, President Trump announced via Twitter that he would be appointing current director of his Office of Management and Budget and recent acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as acting chief of staff, replacing outgoing John Kelly. That move wasn&#8217;t completely unexpected from those who follow the White House closely. In recent days, it became clear that many top candidates simply weren&#8217;t interested in the job, and that those who were interested (see Christie, Chris) would present more hazard than help in running the West Wing.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management &amp; Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration&#8230;.
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1073703744766922754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;.I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! John will be staying until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1073703746432049153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Trump has been close with Mulvaney since the administration&#8217;s successful tax reform in 2017. Mulvaney has been a strong loyalist inside the administration; in 2017, he completely disclaimed chaos inside the administration in an interview with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/11/trumps-budget-director-is-at-home-in-the-eye-of-the-storm.html">CNBC</a>, explaining, &#8220;I read many, many times that, let&#8217;s see, Steven Bannon doesn&#8217;t get along with Reince Priebus. And neither of &#8217;em get along with Jared Kushner. And nobody gets along with Gary Cohn. That&#8217;s all entirely false.&#8221;
Note to reader: it wasn&#8217;t entirely false.
But Mulvaney&#8217;s good relationships with those surrounding President Trump will certainly help him grease operations inside the White House. Mulvaney isn&#8217;t a strong personality who feels the need to challenge the president or prevent access to other top advisors. For Trump, picking Mulvaney is effectively as close as possible to picking himself for chief of staff. What&#8217;s more, Trump gets to operate from within the White House confines, which means no need to generate new chemistry in the West Wing.
Mulvaney is about as solid a pick as Trump could make under the circumstances. The biggest question will be whether he&#8217;s capable of helping the president avoid the investigative pitfalls that will surely be presented by a Democratic Congress hell-bent on picking apart every aspect of Trump&#8217;s White House, business, and life.

Trump Picks OMB Director Mick Mulvaney As Acting Chief Of Staff

On Sunday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) appeared on CBS&#8217; &#8220;Face the Nation&#8221; and stated that the Obamacare individual mandate should be repealed in the Republican tax bill:
<blockquote>
Well, John, remember what the hated Obamacare mandate is. It fines American [families]. They can&#8217;t afford their insurance &#8212; insurance that Obamacare made unaffordable in the first place. So this bill doesn&#8217;t cut a single dime from Medicaid, it doesn&#8217;t cut a single dime from the insurance subsidies, it doesn&#8217;t change a single regulation [under] Obamacare. It simply says the IRS cannot fine you if you cannot afford health insurance.
So this has no impact on anyone who wants to get health insurance under Obamacare&#8217;s individual exchanges or under the Medicaid expansion, under their employer&#8217;s plan. It simply says that working families and poor Americans &#8212; because four out of five Americans who pay this fine make less than $50,000 &#8212; will no longer be fined for not being able to afford their insurance.
</blockquote>
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zs2Io_QYmvg" width="720"></iframe></div>
Over an hour earlier, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney appeared on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; and noted that if the provision is viewed as an impediment to getting the tax bill passed, it should be removed. However, he stated that the decision will ultimately be up to the House and Senate.
Mulvaney&#8217;s exchange with SOTU host, Jake Tapper, was as follows:
<blockquote>
TAPPER: Is President Trump at all open to the idea of dropping the provision of repealing the Obamacare mandate?
MULVANEY: Yeah, I don&#8217;t think anybody doubts where the White House is on repealing and replacing Obamacare. We absolutely want to do it. If we can repeal part of Obamacare as part of the tax bill, and have a tax bill that is still a good tax bill that can pass, that&#8217;s great. If it becomes an impediment to getting the best tax bill we can, then we&#8217;re okay with taking it out. So I think it&#8217;s up to the Senate and the House to sort of hammer out those details.
TAPPER: As of now, do you think it&#8217;s an impediment?
MULVANEY: I don&#8217;t, actually, because I think you also heard Senator Collins say something very important, which is that when we get rid of &#8212; if they do get rid of this penalty, the folks who benefit from that are predominantly folks who make less than $50,000 or a $100,000 a year. I think 58% of the folks who pay the fine make less than $50,000 and almost 80% of the people who pay that fine today make less than a $100,000. So there&#8217;s actually a benefit to folks if the repeal goes away &#8212; but again, it&#8217;s up to the House and Senate to try and hammer through those details.
</blockquote>
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QyZlNzwGiMo" width="720"></iframe></div>

WATCH: Sen. Tom Cotton Wants Obamacare Mandate Repealed In Tax Bill; Mick Mulvaney Isn’t As Sure

Obamacare

Tom Cotton

President Trump&#8217;s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney has laid out the president&#8217;s economic agenda as &#8220;MAGAnomics.&#8221; It consists of mostly free market reforms, although it&#8217;s lacking in specifics.
In <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/introducing-maganomics-1499899298">a Wall Street Journal op-ed</a>, Mulvaney explained that the Trump administration believes that MAGAnomics will restore America to a 3% economic growth rate.
&#8220;Over the next 10 years, 3% growth instead of 2% will yield a nominal gross domestic product that is $16 trillion larger, federal government revenues $2.9 trillion greater, and wages and salaries of American workers $7 trillion higher,&#8221; Mulvaney wrote.
Mulvaney dismissed those who say that 3% economic growth is unattainable by arguing that similar criticisms were hurled toward Ronald Reagan, yet his economic policies resulted in a 4.4% real GDP growth rate once the recession evaporated.
&#8220;That is what a recovery looks like, and what the American economy is still capable of achieving,&#8221; wrote Mulvaney.
Mulvaney then provides a laundry list of broad economic policies: cutting taxes, rescinding regulations, reining in spending, reforming welfare so it incentivizes work, an &#8220;all of the above&#8221; energy policy, infrastructure spending and &#8220;fair trade.&#8221; Mulvaney gave a brief explanation as to how each policy would help boost the economy but the explanation didn&#8217;t provide any specifics on the details.
&#8220;MAGAnomics is for everyone, but especially for those who left for work this morning in the dark but came home after their kids were asleep,&#8221; wrote Mulvaney. &#8220;It&#8217;s for those who are working part-time but praying for a full-time job. It&#8217;s for folks whose savings are as exhausted as they are. This president hears you.&#8221;
Mulvaney&#8217;s full column can be read <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/introducing-maganomics-1499899298">here</a>. 
With the exception of infrastructure spending and supposed &#8220;fair trade,&#8221; the policy items Mulvaney lists are consistent with the free market. It is possible to reach 3% economic growth, but that can only happen <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17108/5-things-you-need-know-about-mays-weak-economic-aaron-bandler">if the debt crisis is fully addressed and if Obamacare is repealed</a>. 
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

Trump’s Budget Director Introduces MAGAnomics. So, What’s In It?

Ecclesiology is the study of the church. That includes the forms of church government, its leadership, how it worships, its relationship to the people of God and even its sacraments. In modern American evangelicalism, ecclesiology is needed more than ever. With fly-by-night churches built around a single charismatic leader, corruption of church leaders, and community churches spreading like Southern kudzu, evangelicals are losing perspective on the role of churches, their relation to churches and the proper oversight of both church leaders and laity. The lack of sound ecclesiology in many Protestant churches is one of the big reasons many conservatives are migrating towards Catholicism and the Greek Orthodox Church.
Meanwhile, on the political left, a secular ecclesiology is cementing. In an age where members of the Democratic Party could boo the inclusion of God in their platform and Barack Obama could proclaim the state is the only thing to which we all belong, government is replacing God, abortion is becoming the chief sacrament and tax paying is tithing. The left is sorting out how government will stand in for the church and, like the Spanish Inquisition, the leftwing Torquemadas will burn at the stake any who dissent. Conservatives are the new heretics.
This is on full display with President Trump&#8217;s budget. Under Barack Obama, Congress never actually passed a budget. Through a series of continuing resolutions, the Congress just adjusted funding. President Trump wants to actually govern as intended by preparing a budget and submitting it to Congress for passage. He is dealing with several realities inconvenient for leftwing orthodoxy.
The nation&#8217;s debt now exceeds $20 trillion. Barack Obama raised the national debt. If Republicans were to give Democrats all the tax increases they ever wanted, there would still be a deficit and the national debt would continue to grow. Interest payments will continue increasing, depleting money for other things.
Something has to be cut. Waste, fraud and abuse alone — presuming they could be eradicated — would not close the deficit. Programs must be cut. The leftwing desire to cut the military is an increasingly irresponsible aspiration considering events like the suicide bombing in Manchester, England. Something, though, must be cut.
As secularism takes on the form of religion in this country, one religious tenet is that the more people dependent on government, the better life is. Mick Mulvaney, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, is challenging that religious tenet. He thinks the appropriate measure for a government program is how many people the government can elevate out of poverty and off government dependence.
Jesus said, &#8220;The poor you shall always have with you.&#8221; Mick Mulvaney and conservatives believe that means we will always have a class of poor people who must be helped. Secular progressives believe it means we will always have the exact same people poor who will never be elevated out of government dependence. The idea of getting people off welfare and decreasing dependence on government is anathema to people who have come to believe dependence on government is akin to dependence on God.
As a result, there is a newfound hysteria among secular progressives. They are convinced Republicans are going to kill people by consolidating, eliminating and streamlining government programs. If one is convinced greater government means more salvation, a reduction in government means more damnation. This is akin to Christian concerns about saving and losing souls.
Likewise, as abortion becomes the chief sacrament of the left, letting government cut Planned Parenthood is akin to denying a church of its funding. Conservative areas of the country give more to charity because they have maintained a distinction between charitable aid and government program. Liberal areas of the country are the least charitable because secular ecclesiology has eliminated that distinction and any reduction in funding to any program is an attack on the liberal church.
This leaves us, as a nation, unable to proceed with civility. If one really believes Republicans want to starve old people and throw grandma off the cliff, hysteria and violence are the logical outcome. So too is bankruptcy. The president&#8217;s budget is a compassionate budget because it seeks to elevate the poor into the middle class, not keep them dependent. But to the left, that is heresy.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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