Damning Report Reveals How Antony Blinken Lied to Congress on Israel

Earlier this year, two U.S. government authorities determined that Israel was deliberately blocking food and medicine deliveries into Gaza during its brutal massacre in the territory.

But even after the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department’s refugees bureau shared their findings with senior diplomats in late April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress almost the exact opposite days later, ProPublica reported Tuesday, citing leaked reports.

In a statement to Congress on May 10, Blinken said, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

Before his statement to Congress, Blinken received a 17-page memo from USAID on Israel’s conduct, obtained by ProPublica, which described instances of Israel killing aid workers, bombing hospitals and ambulances, tearing down agricultural structures, regularly turning away trucks of food and medicine, and sitting on supply depots.

Food for Gaza, including flour that could have fed nearly 1.5 million Palestinians for five months, was stockpiled less than 30 miles from the Gazan border in an Israeli port, the memo stated. In February, however, Israel stopped allowing flour into the territory, accusing the recipient, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, of having ties to Hamas. An independent investigation would find no evidence for Israel’s claims.

On its own, the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration also concluded that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid, recommending that nearly $830 million in weapons and bombs to Israel, paid by U.S. taxpayers, should be frozen under the Foreign Assistance Act. USAID echoed the recommendation, writing in its memo that the U.S. should pause additional arms sales to the country.

These findings appear to have been either overlooked or ignored by Blinken and other leading Biden administration officials. The United Nations has declared a famine in Gaza, saying that many Palestinians in the territory go days without food and that many children have starved to death. The war also has created a health emergency in Gaza, including the territory’s first confirmed case of polio in 25 years.

The State Department issued a statement in response to questions from ProPublica, claiming that it had pressured Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.

“As we made clear in May when [our] report was released, the US had deep concerns during the period since October 7 about action and inaction by Israel that contributed to a lack of sustained delivery of needed humanitarian assistance,” the statement read. “Israel subsequently took steps to facilitate increased humanitarian access and aid flow into Gaza.”

The U.S. government’s handling of USAID’s memo led to internal conflict, with one official in the State Department, Stacy Gilbert, resigning in May over Blinken’s statement to Congress.

“There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid,” Gilbert wrote in a statement at the time. “To deny this is absurd and shameful. That report and its flagrant untruths will haunt us.”

There are no signs that Blinken or the Biden administration plan to change their policies toward Israel or its war in Gaza, even as the war has killed more than 41,467 Palestinians, including 16,500 children, almost certainly undercounts and not including death tolls from Israel’s military attacks in the West Bank and southern Lebanon. Even in the face of evidence collected by U.S. agencies themselves, the Biden administration refuses to consider an arms embargo against Israel or acknowledge Israel’s many war crimes.

Even Donald Trump’s allies can’t seem to find any evidence of the Haitian immigrant conspiracy that’s plagued Springfield, Ohio, since it was elevated by the top of the Republican presidential ticket two weeks ago.

After a visit to the beleaguered Ohio town, biotech millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy brushed off the plainly racist MAGA theory that Haitian residents had been stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets.

“Having gone to Springfield, I didn’t see that evidence,” Ramaswamy said during a Tuesday appearance on CNN, before attempting to flip the script back on Democrats.

“So when we’re getting into fact-checking, I think we should apply the same standard 360 degrees,” Ramaswamy continued, referring to comments Kamala Harris has made about women “bleeding out in parking lots” due to abortion bans.

Host Kasie Hunt was quick to push back, mentioning Amber Thurman, a woman who died in Georgia after waiting more than 20 hours for care under the state’s restrictive abortion ban. But Ramaswamy was unfazed, despite having just admitted that there is truth behind Harris’s words and none behind Trump’s.

“Let’s not use the fringe words that somebody on either side might say,” he said. “And let’s focus on the actual content of the debate, even when we disagree most. I think that’s going to be a key step to reviving our country.”

Multiple city officials, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, and even J.D. Vance himself have stated in no uncertain terms that the Haitian immigrant conspiracy is false.

Since Vance and Trump began elevating the myth just two weeks ago, Springfield has received at least 33 bomb threats, forcing it to evacuate and temporarily shutter several of its schools, colleges, festivals, and a significant portion of its government facilities, including City Hall, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Ohio License Bureau, the Springfield Academy of Excellence, and Fulton Elementary School.

Meanwhile, the surrounding area has seen a restructuring of its local Republican boards in light of the controversial conspiracy. One Ohio sheriff lost his election duties after he elevated the conspiracy by inviting locals to send him the addresses of constituents with Harris-Walz signage in their yards.

Donald Trump just can’t stop talking about Kamala Harris working at McDonald’s—and now he’s escalating things for absolutely no reason.

Harris has previously said that she worked at the popular fast food chain when she was a college student, and referred to her experience as part of her call for livable wages and protections for workers from sexual harassment and abuse.

Trump, whose first job as the son of a real estate mogul was investing in real estate, seemingly cannot tolerate this bullet point on Harris’s résumé, and has latched on to right-wing conspiracy theories that it was a lie. The former president has become so obsessed with trying to discredit Harris’s job experience that he told a crowd of his supporters he would try out working at McDonald’s for the day.

“I think I’m gonna go to a McDonald’s next week, some place,” Trump said during a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on Monday. “I’m gonna go to a McDonald’s, and I’m going to work the french fry job for about a half an hour. I want to see how it is.”

As Trump spoke about Harris’s résumé, he got so worked up he started shouting, almost incoherently. “But she said she worked, and grew up in terrible conditions, she worked at McDonald’s, it was such—SHE NEVER WORKED THERE!

“And these FAKE news reporters will never report it. They don’t want to report it because they’re FAKE! They’re FAKE! They don’t want to report it,” Trump said. Unfortunately for the Republican presidential nominee, the press does not typically report on stories if they’re not true.

“She never worked at McDonald’s, but it was a big part of her résumé,” Trump continued.

Here, Trump appears to overstate the role that Harris has given her experience at McDonald’s. Harris explained at a campaign event in June 2019 that “I did the french fries and I did the ice cream.”

Trump explained his own in-depth fact-checking process, to show how he was able to determine Harris was lying: “They went to, they went to the different places, ‘Did she work here?’ ‘Did she work here?’ ‘Did she work here?’ She said, ‘We don’t know who the hell she is, leave us the hell alone, we’re making hamburgers!’” He did not clarify who the “she” who told “them” to leave her alone is.

Clearly, Harris’s claim that she worked at McDonald’s is eating away at Trump—he already ranted about the same thing in a post on Truth Social last week.

“How bad is it when a Candidate running for Office makes a major part of her Campaign that she works at McDonald’s, and it turns out not to be true, but the worst part is the Media refuses to talk about it!” Trump wrote.

At a campaign rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Donald Trump railed against Haitian immigrants, riling up the crowd who began chanting for their deportation.

Trump warned that left-wing think tanks are trying to “inundate” small towns like those in Pennsylvania, changing their character, and claimed that “they will never be the same.” He then mentioned the increase of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio—who are in the country legally—and alluded to the racist pet-eating conspiracy that his campaign has helped to fuel.

“Do you think Springfield will ever be the same? I don’t think. The fact is, and I’ll say it now, you have to get ’em the hell out, you have to get ’em out, I’m sorry,” Trump said. “Get ’em out. Can’t have it. Can’t have it. They’ve destroyed it.”

The crowd roared its approval as soon as Trump said, “Get ’em out,” and then began chanting, “Send them back.”

For several weeks, Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, have repeated and fueled a racist conspiracy that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are capturing and eating pets, ducks, and geese, with Trump even repeating it during the presidential debate. Trump has used it to bolster his plan for mass deportations if he returns to the White House, and Vance has doubled down despite being fully aware that the story isn’t true. Meanwhile, the town has been inundated with violent threats to its hospitals, schools, and government buildings.

Last week, Trump singled out another town, Charleroi, Pennsylvania, for its Haitian population, drawing an immediate response from town officials, who said that Trump’s claims weren’t true. Like the immigrants in Springfield, Charleroi’s recent arrivals are in the United States legally. But the Trump campaign isn’t likely to stop its attacks, especially since the former president and convicted felon relied on anti-immigrant slogans in his first campaign in 2016. It will be up to Democrats to find a way to counter Trump’s hateful and odious message.

Representative D’Esposito doesn’t want to answer questions about a report that he gave jobs in his office to his former lover and his fiancée’s daughter.

After a scoop from The New York Times, the Long Island politician is under fire for this possible nepotism, which could be grounds for a House ethics investigation. It’s a little ironic, given that D’Esposito led the charge and eventual expulsion of former fellow New York Republican George Santos from Congress.

After the news broke Monday evening, D’Esposito could be seen dodging reporters, hurrying away from even softball questions. His only answer came when he was asked if he believed the report was a “political attack”—to which he responded, “I do.”

As he gave reporters the silent treatment on Capitol Hill, he released a formal statement Monday night that did little to deny the accusation and instead attacked the media.

“The latest political tabloid garbage being peddled by The New York Times is nothing more than a slimy, partisan ‘hit piece’ designed to distract Long Islanders from Democrats’ failing record on border security, the economy, and foreign policy,” he wrote. “My personal life has never interfered with my ability to deliver results for New York’s 4th district, and I have upheld the highest ethical standards of personal conduct. Voters deserve better than the Times’ gutter politics.”

D’Esposito faces a tough race in New York’s 4th congressional district in a rematch against Democrat Laura Gillen. The Nassau County GOP has defended the Republican congressman against the reports, calling the Times piece “politically motivated and baseless mud-slinging.”

Santos, meanwhile, is celebrating his colleague’s downfall.

“Before anyone says anything, YES I’m petty!,” wrote Santos on X in response to the video of D’Esposito hustling away from reporters. “This is just the tip of the iceberg folks!”

House Republicans have a slim four-seat majority in the House, meaning the pressure is on for the New York congressmen to find a better answer, and quick.