Trump blames ‘radical left’ for killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk

Even as the person who shot and killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah Wednesday remains at-large, President Donald Trump appears to be assigning some blame for the murder.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said in a recorded video from the White House Wednesday night. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence — including the organizations that fund it and support it.”

The president, who earlier mourned the loss of “The Great, and even Legendary” Kirk, ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff until Sunday evening in his honor.

The founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, Kirk, 31, was shot while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. School officials said the shooter fired the single fatal shot from a building about 200 yards away. His death was met with shock and condemnation across the political spectrum, including from all of America’s former presidents Wednesday night on social media.

—The Baltimore Sun

Joint Chiefs nominee grilled about domestic deployments

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee pressed a top military nominee Thursday on whether he supports the Trump administration’s controversial use of the military in U.S. cities to fight crime and conduct immigration enforcement.

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Christopher Mahoney, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vowed to follow the Constitution.

“General, I am concerned about the state of the joint force you will help lead if confirmed,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D- R.I., ranking member of the panel. “The administration has taken unprecedented steps to politicize the military, in my view.”

In recent months, the Trump administration has deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as part of a broader push against crime and illegal migration.

Last week, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles violated federal restrictions on using the military for domestic law enforcement.

—CQ Roll-Call

Turmoil, uncertainty at RFK Jr.’s CDC leaves those suffering from 9/11 illnesses fearful

NEW YORK— Turmoil and a lack of communication at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, led by President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, has left 9/11 advocates in the dark about the future of the World Trade Center Health Program and concerned about the first responders and survivors it’s designed to help.

Since Kennedy took over HHS, 9/11 advocate groups haven’t been able to officially speak with anyone to learn if the WTC Health Program has verified any of the new medical conditions linked to the toxins that swirled above Ground Zero following the terror attacks or if any studies are being conducted on new maladies 9/11 sufferers are facing.

A steering committee had met nearly every month for 24 years to discuss health issues facing 9/11 responders and survivors until Kennedy took over, said Ben Chevat, the executive director of the 9/11 Health Watch. Chevat’s invitations to WTC Health Program members to attend the meetings have been met with a curt response, indicating that the HHS has “issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health.”

“Under Secretary Kennedy, the needs of 9/11 responders and survivors in the WTC Health Program are still not being fully met, Chevat said “With new rare medical conditions cropping up within the 9/11 survivor community, open communication with the WTC Health Program is more important than ever, he said.

—New York Daily News

16-year-old boy identified as Evergreen High School in Colorado shooter

EVERGREEN, Colo. — The first 911 call came at 12:24 p.m. Wednesday. Then the floodgates opened, as students — either running from Evergreen High School or hunkering down in classrooms behind locked doors — phoned for help.

Kai Taylor, a 15-year-old sophomore, was eating lunch with friends outside the school in the Jefferson County foothills when he got a frantic call from his twin sister asking if he was OK.

He said he laughed and told her he was fine, but she grew more serious, saying there was an active shooter at the school and she needed to know if he was hurt.

Kai’s heart dropped, he said. Then he saw his peers running.

Desmond Holly, a 16-year-old student at Evergreen High who had been “radicalized,” shot two of his schoolmates that afternoon before turning the gun on himself, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said at a Thursday morning news briefing.

—The Denver Post

Trump says Russian drone breach may have been a ‘mistake’

President Donald Trump said incursions by Russian drones into Polish airspace could have been a “mistake,” but also expressed his frustration with an incident that has alarmed Warsaw and other NATO allies.

“It could have been a mistake, but regardless, I’m not happy about anything having to do with that whole situation,” Trump told reporters Thursday at the White House as he left for a trip to New York. “But hopefully it’s going to come to an end.”

Trump subsequently added that he would condemn Russia“even for being near that line.”

“I don’t like it,” he continued. “I’m not happy about it.”

Poland has asked allies for additional air defense systems and counter-drone technology to better protect against Russian incursions following an incident early Wednesday when drones that crossed into its territory were shot down by NATO forces.

—Bloomberg News