The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) new leaders “hit the ground running” and made tough staffing decisions on Day One, Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump told The Epoch Times.
In an exclusive interview on March 12—the day after she and other top leaders assumed their new roles with the RNC—Ms. Trump confirmed that staffers had been laid off. She said the number of eliminated RNC jobs wasn’t final because some of the workers might be asked to return.
Lara Trump speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference at Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 22, 2024. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“It’s the dawn of a new day at the RNC,” Ms. Trump, wife of President Trump’s son Eric, said. “I think it'll be a breath of fresh air for people to see a lot of the things we do.”
She and other top leaders—including the new chairman Michael Whatley, who has headed North Carolina’s GOP—are playing hardball.
“We are not there to make friends; we are there to win,” Ms. Trump said. “If you are really focused on that goal, you do have to say no to people; you do have to have those hard conversations.”
Despite recent anemic fundraising for the RNC, Ms. Trump expressed optimism that a revamped RNC would be best for the Republican Party as a whole. Ms. Trump also vowed to redirect efforts to help President Trump and “down-ballot” Republicans to win their elections this fall.
Ms. Trump became the RNC’s new co-chair last Friday at the party’s spring meeting in Houston. She and Whatley were elected by unanimous voice vote; both were unopposed, with the blessing of President Trump.
Ms. Trump said ensuring the integrity of elections is a major focus of the new RNC, along with making strategic fundraising and spending decisions that will help ensure more Republican victories.
The recent exit of the former chair, Ronna McDaniel, followed a string of lost elections and missed opportunities.
—Janice Hisle and Lawrence Wilson
HOUSE PASSES TIKTOK BILL
The House of Representatives passed a bill that could ban TikTok and any other major Chinese social media app from the United States.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act passed in a 352–65 vote, and would legally require social media giant TikTok to split from its China-based parent company ByteDance or face a ban in the United States.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) speaks to members of the press after a members-only classified briefing on TikTok at the Capitol Visitor Center on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 12, 2024. Alex Wong/Getty Images
The bill will now go to the Senate where, should it pass, President Joe Biden has vowed to sign it into law.
Many security analysts believe that TikTok could be weaponized against American citizens through predatory surveillance practices, censorship, and the promotion of state-backed propaganda.
To counter that threat, the bill would create a process for the president to classify social media apps under the influence of certain nations as hazards to national security and prohibit them from operating unless they transfer ownership to U.S. companies.
TikTok has lambasted the decision as an assault on free speech, and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have questioned the anti-competitive nature of the bill and the increased power it would grant to the executive office.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said on the House floor that the bill should be called the “Facebook Protection and Enhancement Act” and would positively affect Meta’s share prices if approved.
Proponents of the bill say that such authority is necessary to prevent foreign powers from exploiting the United States’ relatively open market economy, however.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said that the bill wasn’t a ban on any single application, nor an affront to free speech, but a choice for TikTok between allegiance to America or China.
“This bill is not a ban, and it’s really not about TikTok,” Mr. Krishnamoorthi said. “This bill is a choice. And it’s a choice for ByteDance as well as any other social media app controlled by a foreign adversary.”
—Andrew Thornebrooke
MEXICAN MILITARY ON US SOIL
An abandoned illegal immigrant camp sits along the U.S.–Mexico border wall near Jacumba in California’s San Diego County.
Until recently, the area was a pedestrian highway for thousands of foreign nationals crossing into the United States illegally. Now, Mexican soldiers routinely patrol the rocky terrain on their side of the border—and, occasionally, as The Epoch Times observed, on the U.S. side, too.
“They should know better,” said Manny Bayon, a spokesman for the San Diego chapter of the National Border Patrol Council union, after viewing the footage. “There’s a boundary marker on top of that hill. I’ve been up there. I’ve seen it.”
Any such incursion poses a safety risk for Border Patrol agents, Bayon said. And each one is directly reported to headquarters and the White House.
“When you have somebody with an automatic weapon coming into the United States, it’s concerning. I mean, they’re not coming here with flowers or to make things better. It’s concerning because they do counter-surveillance on us.”
The Mexican drug cartels have also used military uniforms as a disguise, he added, so no breach can be taken lightly.
Todd Bensman, a senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that Mexican soldiers had told him they were rounding up migrants near the U.S. border and moving them south.
The increased Mexican military presence comes amid a flurry of bilateral talks between President Joe Biden and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico.
Bensman suggested that the two leaders—both facing upcoming elections—may have “cut a deal.” The Mexican military, he noted, began to crack down on illegal immigrants headed northward after Biden’s Jan. 9 trip to Mexico City.
“They are interdicting the traffic on top of the freight trains, blocking access to the rail yards, and pulling immigrants off the trains. This is all part of a Biden-inspired and directed Mexican crackdown that is nationwide for Mexico.”
—Brad Jones
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- A federal judge in Florida will hear arguments on Trump’s motion to dismiss charges in the classified documents case.
- Biden campaigns in Saginaw, Michigan.
- HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies before the Senate Finance Committee.
The judge overseeing Trump’s election interference case in Georgia tossed out six counts from the indictment against him on March 13, The Epoch Times’ Catherine Yang reports. The ruling comes as the judge is expected to decide this week on whether to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case.
Hunter Biden has refused an invitation to testify publicly before House impeachment investigators, denouncing the hearing as a “carnival side show,” The Epoch Times’ Tom Ozimek reports. The move follows Biden’s testimony before investigators on Feb. 29 in a closed-door deposition that he shirked for months, decrying its private nature.
The first major poll following Biden’s State of the Union address shows him slightly trailing Trump, but within the margin of error. The USA Today/Suffolk University survey also found economic optimism to be at its highest level of Biden’s presidency, though his approval rating is still underwater.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has picked and will announce his running mate at a March 26 campaign event, The Epoch Times’ Jeff Louderback reports. The attorney recently confirmed that his list of front-runners for the job included New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura.
Civil unrest in Haiti has Florida lawmakers preparing for a potential migration surge that they warn could jeopardize national security, Politico reports. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has sent hundreds of law enforcement officers and soldiers to guard the state’s southern coast.
