The President's Daily Brief - June 24th, 2024: Putin’s Nuclear Warning, Deadly Missile Exchange, & Columbia's Antisemitism Scandal

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Ominous nuclear warnings out of Russia. President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to ramp up Russia's nuclear arsenal and further develop its nuclear triad, aiming to strengthen strategic deterrence against the West. The war in Ukraine continues to take its toll on civilians as Russia and Ukraine traded a pair of deadly missile attacks over the weekend. We’ll return to the New York City campus of Columbia University, where three deans have been placed on leave after being caught exchanging shocking text messages during an anti-Semitism panel. In today’s Back of the Brief, just days before the Iranian Presidential election, the Biden administration has announced that it will allow the Islamic regime to run absentee voter stations right here on U.S. soil. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get your day off to a great start with a delicious hot cup or two or three of blackout coffee. Family-owned premium coffee fresh-roasted and shipped out within 48 hours of roasting. I mean, seriously, blackout coffee within 48 hours of roasting, the beans are on their way to your home and into your cup. Go to blackout coffee.com promo code PDB for 20% off your first time purchase. It's Monday, 24 June. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll start things off with ominous nuclear warnings out of Russia, and frankly, when it comes to rattling nuclear sabers, Putin and his cronies, well, they're the tops. President Putin has announced plans to ramp up Russia's nuclear

arsenal and further develop its nuclear triad, aiming to strengthen strategic deterrence against the West. Of course he did. Later, the war in Ukraine, continues to take its toll on civilians, as Russia and Ukraine traded a pair of deadly missile attacks over the weekend. Plus, we'll return to the New York City campus of Columbia University, where three deans have been placed on leave after being caught exchanging shocking text messages during an anti-Semitism panel, and by shocking, I mean completely not unexpected. And in today's back of the brief, just days before the Iranian presidential election, the Biden administration has announced that it will allow the Islamic regime to run absentee

voter stations right here on U.S. soil. Well, how democratic of them? I mean, if there actually was anything democratic about the Iranian regime's election process, which there's not. But that's what you get when the U.S. administration is chock full of Iran apologists. But first up, Today's PDB spotlight. Russian President Vladimir Putin is once again sending a warning to the West, announcing his intention to revamp the Russian Federation's nuclear arsenal. Speaking to a group of graduates of the country's military universities in the Kremlin late last week, Putin said, quote,

we plan to further develop the nuclear triad as a guarantee of strategic deterrence and maintaining the balance of power in the world, end quote. Now, Putin's use of the term nuclear triad is significant here. It refers not only to the weapons themselves, but also to the methods of delivery. If you're not familiar with the concept of the nuclear triad, it's a strategy designed to ensure a flexible nuclear deterrent through multiple different methods of striking an opponent, different delivery systems. As you can probably guess from the name, Triad, well, this is a three-pronged strategy.

land-based missiles, submarines with missiles, and strategic bombers. This setup ensures that a country can launch a nuclear attack from land, sea, and air, making it obviously hard for an enemy, in this case from Putin's perspective, the U.S. and the West, to counter and destroy all of Russia's nuclear weapons all at once. The idea of the nuclear triad started during the Cold War, a time when tensions, of course, between the United States and the old Soviet Union, which Putin is constantly hankering for, were at their peak. Initially, both countries, the U.S. and the USSR, relied mainly on land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles,

which could travel long distances quickly, obviously, but on projected paths. Then they develop submarines that could launch missiles from underwater, and finally, well, they added strategic bombers. Today, Russia's nuclear triad includes advanced land-based missiles like the RS-24-Yars, submarines like the Bari class, and fast bombers like the TU160 Blackjack. This mix of land, sea, and air-based weapons ensures that even if one part of the triad is attacked, the other parts can still carry out their strikes. Given Russia's current preoccupation with its conventional war in Ukraine, it's unclear how many resources they'll be able to allocate to revamping their nuclear weapons program.

However, at a minimum, it's yet another look into Putin's psychology and the ramping up of his Cold War-style rhetoric. And this isn't the only ominous development related to Russia's overall nuclear strategy. Yesterday, Andre Katapanov, the head of the Russian Lower House of Parliament's Defense Committee, was quoted by the state news agency RIA as saying that Russia may, in the near future, make significant changes to its nuclear doctrine. The Russian lawmaker was reported as saying, quote, if we see that the challenges and threats increase, it means that we can correct something in the doctrine regarding the timing of the use

of nuclear weapons and the decision to make this use, end quote. As of right now, Russian doctrine states that the president would only consider using a nuclear weapon, quote, when the very existence of the state is put under threat. However, the lawmaker's statement suggests that Russia might be considering lowering that threshold. All right, coming up after the break, Russia and Ukraine trade deadly missile attacks over the weekend. And several stories out of Columbia University show the institution still has an anti-Semitism problem. Well, now there's a surprise.

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It was a deadly weekend in the Ukraine war, with both sides exchanging attacks that resulted in civilian deaths. We'll start off in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, and the focal point of Russia's latest offensive. According to local and regional authorities, at least three people were killed and another 52 wounded in a Russian aerial bombardment on Saturday. day. Four missiles were launched against the city, damaging residential buildings, shops, and public transportation stops. The strike was likely an effort by Russia to take out the city's vital infrastructure. In addition to the civilian casualties, about half of the city lost power due to the attacks. In response to the attack, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said, quote, this Russian terror with guided aerial bombs must and can be stopped. Bold decisions from our

partners are needed so that we can destroy Russian terrorists and Russian combat aircraft where they are, end quote. Now, the Russian attack did not go unanswered. The Russian defense ministry claimed that yesterday Ukraine launched an attack against Sevastopol, a city and Russian occupied Crimea, with five long-range missiles. According to authorities, four of the missiles were shot down by Russian air defenses. Now, attacks on Sevastopol are frankly nothing new. It's the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, so it's a legitimate military target. However, the attacks typically occur at night, in part to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. This time, Ukraine reportedly struck in the middle of the day, and one of the missiles exploded above a beach area, raining shrapnel reportedly down on

beachgoers. Officials in Russia's health ministry report that at least five people died, including three children who died of shrapnel wounds, and they expected death toll to rise, In addition, 124 people were reportedly injured, including 27 children. As always, it's important to note that these numbers haven't been independently verified, and frankly, casualty statistics from both sides have typically been difficult to corroborate. This incident is incredibly dangerous, though, considering that it reportedly involved U.S. made attack of missiles. Russia was, of course, quick to blame the U.S., with Russia's defense ministry calling it a, quote, terrorist attack, and saying Washington and Kyiv bore responsibility for a, quote, deliberate missile

strike on peaceful residents. Now, not to put too fine a point on it, but there is nothing quite so disingenuous as the Russian defense ministry acting outraged over attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Well, uh, wait, actually, yes, there is something as disingenuous, possibly more so, and that would be Hamas acting outraged over the deaths of Palestinian civilians. But I digress. All right. I want to turn now to our ongoing coverage of anti-Semitism in higher education, specifically. There are a few stories coming from ground zero of this controversy, and that would be Columbia University.

We'll start with a group of school officials who were busted exchanging rather shocking text messages during a campus panel on anti-Semitism. Now, the exchange took place in late May during a panel discussion called Jewish life on campus, which focused on the climate since the October 7th Hamas attacks. Right in the middle of the discussion, three of the school's deans were seen exchanging dismissive text messages. Images captured by a participant showed the deans texting each other emojis conveying disgust and disparaging remarks, with one even suggesting the event was just a fundraising ploy. Now, this revelation ignited a firestorm online, leading to the University placing the three deans on administrative leave pending an investigation. In response,

another Columbia University dean, who was also involved in the messages, but not disciplined, apologized, claiming that the texts did not reflect the views of any individual or the university. So I'm sorry. So how does that work? The douchebag deans, wallowing in the security of academic tenure, exchanged disparaging remarks, and somehow we're supposed to believe that the remarks don't represent their views. What a load of crap. This latest incident comes as the school's task force on anti-Semitism released a report alleging egregious acts of anti-Jewish bias among the faculty. The report documented incidents where professors singled out Jewish students for their views on the Israeli government, publicly shamed students who reported anti-Semitic comments, and pressured students

to participate in anti-Israel protests. One particularly egregious example involved a professor allegedly urging his class to disregard the mainstream media because, quote, it's owned by Jews. Oh, Jewish students were targeted not only for their beliefs, but also harassed for simply wearing religious items associated with Judaism. Some students were allegedly pushed out of student clubs for refusing to endorse anti-Israel actions. Now, as if the actions of faculty and school administrators weren't bad enough, New York City officials don't appear to be taking this seriously either.

Late last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, you've probably heard of Alvin Bragg, announced that they would not pursue charges against most of the protesters arrested during the anti-Israel demonstrations at the university, and that, of course, should come as no surprise. You may recall back in April, the NYPD conducted a raid on Columbia University's hands. Hamilton Hall, resulting in the arrest of 46 anti-Israel protesters for trespassing. The arrests were part of a larger anti-Israel demonstration that persisted for weeks. However, Bragg's office dismissed the cases against 31 of the 46 individuals due to a lack of evidence, such as security footage, tying them to the building takeover.

The dismissals have been met with outrage from NYPD officers, higher education officials, and Jewish leaders. prosecutors also conditionally dismiss the cases of another 14 individuals, including 12, not affiliated with the university. Michael Nussbaum, a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, criticized the decision as, quote, turnstile justice, suggesting it could lead to further chaos and property destruction. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Stephen Milan explained the difficulty in moving forward with

charges due to extremely limited video surveillance. Oh, it's just so hard. Milan stated, hey, she don't prosecute any other crimes. Why should we go after anti-Semites? Okay, that last bit was a made-up quote. All right, coming up in the back of the brief, the Iranian presidential election is just days away, and Iranians will be headed to the ballot box not only in Iran, but also in the United States. More on that when we come back. Picture this. Me, Reese Witherspoon in London. Ordering fish and chips so often, they might start wrapping me in paper. I'm traveling with my Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card, so I earn rewards wherever I book travel.

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Bring a date, your squad, or even your mom. Book direct at choiceotails.com. In today's back of the brief, later this week, thousands of Iranians will head to the polls to vote in their nation's presidential election, and they'll be doing so right here in the United States. According to our report in Voice of America, the Biden administration has once again decided to allow Iran to operate absentee voting stations on U.S. soil. According to Iran's foreign ministry, Tehran is planning to set up more than 30 ballot stations across the U.S., including in the Iranian interest section of the Pakistani embassies in Washington, D.C., and in New York.

Now, this isn't the first time that this has been allowed, as the U.S. does have a large Iranian population. According to Iranian state media, the U.S. is home to the most Iranians living abroad. The Census Bureau counts about half a million people of Iranian origin, while the National Union for Democracy in Iran believes the number could actually be much higher, exceeding possibly one million. Previous Iranian elections have seen dismally low turnouts, with the last parliamentary and presidential elections drawing record low official participation due to the severely limited candidate choices, and, of course, also due to the fact that it's a sham election anyway.

The move has ignited fierce debate among critics, given the U.S.'s longstanding criticism of Iran's human rights record and the legitimacy of its elections. Critics of the regime, both within Iran and abroad, repeatedly call for election boycotts, viewing the electoral process as nothing more than a facade for the Islamic Republic to legitimize its 45-year authoritarian rule. The State Department, while allowing the absentee voting stations, has expressed skepticism about the fairness of Iran's elections, oh, really? Noting that only candidates loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini are permitted to run for significant offices.

But yet, the State Department does enable the voting stations, so there's that. Critics, such as Richard Goldberg from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued that facilitating absentee voting on U.S. soil for a state sponsor of terrorism is absurd. Well, I mean, he's not wrong. Additionally, there are concerns about who will operate these stations and their connections to the Iranian government. Iran's U.N. mission refused to comment on the matter, dismissing it as irrelevant to Americans. Well, I mean, except that the voting is taking place on American soil, so maybe, stick with me on this. perhaps it is relevant to Americans. As the election approaches, Iranian-American groups are calling for

protests at the absentee voting stations, stressing the need for public accountability and respect for U.S. laws. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Monday, 24 June. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting PDB Premium.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.

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