The President's Daily Brief - March 12th, 2024: Nuclear Threats, Gaza’s Port, & Barbecue Speaks

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: A chilling new development as a report surfaces about the US preparing for a possible nuclear strike by Russia in Ukraine, heightening global tensions late in 2022. The US's proposal to construct a temporary port in Gaza receives a nod from Israel's defense minister, in a strategic effort that may undermine Hamas. Haiti's infamous gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, known for orchestrating significant violence, announces his readiness to form an alliance with "the devil", as he steps into the limelight with clear demands to his followers. On the domestic front, in the Back of the Brief: Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, alongside his wife, returns to the courtroom, pleading not guilty to a fresh batch of federal allegations. 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

It's Tuesday, 12 March. 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 a disturbing new report that claims the U.S. was preparing for a potential nuclear strike from Russia in Ukraine in late 2022. Later in the show, U.S. efforts to build a temporary port in Gaza to deliver aid to Palestinians has gained the approval of Israel's defense minister, who actually believes the move could help

to defeat Hamas. Plus, Haiti's most notorious gang leader, Jimmy Chorizier, the man behind the violence in Haiti, who also goes by the nom de plume barbecue, is going public with his demands, as he tells his supporters he's ready to make an alliance with the devil, and he's referring to the actual devil. And in today's back of the brief, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez and his wife were back in a courtroom on Monday pleading not guilty to new federal charges. Now just to remind, Bob Menendez is still a U.S. Senator. Perhaps, and here you can call me cynical, it's an indication as to just how low we've set the bar for Washington, D.C. But first, today's spotlight. I wanted to start today's show with a disturbing report from the New

York Times. It provides new insight into the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, specifically how close the U.S. government believed Moscow could be to launching a nuclear strike. According to the Times, the White House concerns date back to October of 2022, about eight months or so into Russia's invasion. American intelligence intercepted numerous communications between Russian commanders who were frequently discussing accessing Moscow's vast nuclear arsenal. Now, most of these conversations weren't idle chit-chat. Russian military commanders were getting into specifics,

discussing things like which Russian army units would be responsible for moving or deploying the weapons. The most alarming intercept revealed that one of the most senior Russian military commanders was explicitly discussing the logistics of detonating a tactical, nuclear weapon on the battlefield. Now, if you're unfamiliar with what tactical nuclear weapons are, and there may be some of you out there who are unfamiliar with it, they're not the large strategic nuclear weapons mounted to ICBMs that we usually think of when we talk about nuclear war. Tactical nukes have a much smaller yield and are designed for use in military situations,

not to wipe out cities. They're designed to be used against enemy forces and their equipment on the battlefield. While the use of a tactical nuke wouldn't necessarily lead to Armageddon, the problem is the nuclear genie would be let out of the bottle, so to speak, and it's not a fun genie either. It's not like Will Smith from the live version of Aladdin or even more fun, Barbara Eden from I Dream of Jeannie, remember her? Now, we're talking here, the unfun version of the genie. It would be the first time a nuclear weapon was used in war since, obviously, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. the specter of this happening was enough to completely spook the White House. The Biden administration was so concerned that it created several task forces to

simulate various scenarios in which Russia would use a tactical nuke and develop a response plan because nothing says you're serious about an issue like creating a task force or two, and Washington, D.C., as we all know, is ground zero for task forces. One simulation envisioned a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive that, could endanger Putin's hold on Crimea. Another involved the demand from Moscow that the West halt all military support for Ukraine to divide NATO. Now, with these scenarios in mind, the administration determined that any U.S. countermove would have to be conventional, in other words, non-nuclear. However, officials, speaking to the Times, said that the response would be dramatic, perhaps even a

conventional attack on the units that had launched the nuclear weapons. As the White House planned for the worst, Biden dispatched CIA director William Burns to speak with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Naryshkin, and he's the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service. Burns said he delivered a stark warning to Russia. If they decided to use tactical nukes on the battlefield, there would be major consequences. Now, Naryshkin swore that he understood and that Putin did not intend to use a nuclear weapon. All right, before we go to the break, A quick reminder for all our PDB listeners. If you want to listen to the show without interruption, I'm talking ad-free, we've launched

our premium subscription service. To listen to the ad-free version and get access to exclusive member content, you can sign up at PDB premium.com. Coming up next, the Israeli government gives its approval to U.S. efforts to deliver more aid to Gaza. And Haiti's most powerful gang leader is speaking out after weeks of bloodshed. I'll have those stories when we come back. Welcome back.

Last week, during the State of the Union address, President Biden revealed plans to construct a temporary port facility off the Gaza coast to increase the flow of humanitarian aid, expanding America's role in the devastated region. Now, while the president said the international plan would move forward with or without Israel's assistance, it does appear that leaders in Israel are now fully on board with the effort. Israeli defense minister Yov Galat said Monday, while touring the Gaza coast that in his view, the aid plan will help Israel accelerate the demise of Hamas, according to a report from the times of Israel. As we've discussed on the PDB, the Biden administration has been growing increasingly frustrated with Israel

over their refusal to open additional border crossings to allow aid to flow more freely to the roughly 2.2 million residents of Gaza. It's estimated by the UN that at least a quarter of the population faces starvation. Now, there's no word on whether the White House is also irritated with Egypt for not opening the Rafa crossing to more aid or the movement of refugees. It's worth remembering that on the Israeli side, the issue of aid is a complex one. Hamas has leveraged access to incoming aid to maintain their grip on the population, with supplies often siphoned off by the militant group before critical resources can reach civilians. Galant expressed his hopes that a more controlled corridor for delivering aid

directly to Gazans can help break Hamas's grip over resources in the region, making it easier to isolate the terror group further from the civilian population. Galant said, quote, the process is designed to bring aid directly to the residents and thus continue the collapse of Hamas's rule in Gaza, end quote. He added that the new maritime corridor will help the international community, quote, ensure that supplies reach here for those who need them and not for those who don't, end quote. Since the announcement, the U.S. has wasted no time getting the operation underway. Officials dispatched an army vessel on Saturday to the eastern Mediterranean region off the Gaza coast to begin construction on the temporary port. It will take an estimated 60 days to complete

construction 60 days. Now, I don't know, maybe I'm overly optimistic, but it would seem like the full weight of the U.S. could deliver a temporary port in less than two months if maybe we just, I don't know, bypassed DOD health and safety regulations and OSHA concerns. Once a pier as constructed, a coalition led by the U.S. will begin moving supplies from Cyprus into Gaza through the new maritime corridor. The international coalition will be overseen by the U.S. in partnership with the the UAE, Jordan, and other allies in the region. Now, the supplies will be screened by authorities, including those from Israel, before leaving Cyprus to avoid further delays once they reach Gaza. All right, I want to turn our attention back to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Haiti,

where chaos reigns as the country falls under the near total control of violent gangs. As we discussed yesterday on the PDB, the situation on the ground is quickly, reaching a point of no return. The U.S. evacuated the embassy in the Haitian capital of Porta Prince over the weekend as gang assaults continued unchecked throughout the city, and Haiti's acting president Ariel Rui is still trapped in Puerto Rico, unable to fly back into the now-gang-controlled international airport in his country. The gangs appear to be largely under the thumb of one man, notorious crime boss Jimmy Barbecue Cherisei, as we've previously covered, He serves as the de facto head of the G9 family and allies.

That's an unsavory coalition of 12 gangs across Port of Prince that was established back in 2020. With the country in anarchy, Barbecue now finds himself as the most powerful man in Haiti. This week, the self-styled revolutionary began outlining his plans for the future of his rebellion, according to the ABC News report. Now, when I say self-styled revolutionary, I mean crime boss. Speaking to the outlet, Barbecue reiterated his demand for Prime Minister Henri to resign, promising that if he does, there will be at least a temporary truce to, quote, evaluate this situation. Barbecue's grievances, however, go far beyond Henri.

He said the next step of his revolution, as he calls it, is to overthrow the current governing system of, quote, corrupt oligarchs and corrupt traditional politicians. Maybe his plan is to replace that with corrupt crime bosses. Barbecue claims he's simply working to free the civilian population from the current ruling class, and he implied that he wants to hold elections down the road, yes, somewhere down that road. He said, quote, I'm not the one to decide if I want to be president or not. It's the Haitian people that will decide who should be their president, who should lead the country. Personally, Barbecue said, I consider myself a servant, end quote.

Now, given Barbecue's track record of crime, murder, brutality, and gang violence, His claim of just being a simple dude working to help to free the civilian population is fantastic. It's like if Pablo Escobar claimed that he just wanted to cure drug addiction and help the common folk. Barbecue's history is a blood-soaked one, with his nickname, thought to stem from either his love of burning his victims alive or chicken, depending on who you believe. I suppose it could be both. Since the latest outbreak of violence, he and his gangs have engaged in widespread mayhem,

burning down at least eight police stations and releasing thousands of hardened criminals from prisons. Daily life has ground to a halt in Haiti, and millions face the threat of famine. Now, Barbecue told his supporters last week, quote, I am ready to make an alliance with the devil, ready to sleep in the same bed as the devil, end quote. I don't know about you, but you'd like to think the devil would be a little bit more discerning. Now, it's true that Prime Minister Henri is widely loathed by the people of Haiti. He came to power without an election after the country's former president was assassinated in 2021, and his critics say he has utterly failed to deal with the country's myriad crises and reneged

on his promise to hold elections in 2023. U.S. officials met with Caribbean leaders in Jamaica on Monday in order to discuss solutions for the crisis. However, there really remains no clear path forward. All right, coming up in today's back of the brief, New Jersey Senator, Bob Menendez and his wife were back in court on Monday, standing before a judge to plead not guilty to recent federal obstruction of justice charges. I'll be right back. In today's back of the brief, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine, were in a federal court in Manhattan yesterday, both entering a plea of not guilty to fresh criminal indictments for obstruction of justice. The new allegations are part of an 18-count, that's an 18-count indictment that relates to what

prosecutors say were efforts to cover up illegal bribes. The senator and Mrs. Menendez left the courthouse without speaking to reporters and ignored any questions about whether he intends to run for re-election. That doesn't seem very transparent on his part. Senator Menendez and his wife are accused of receiving a variety of illicit gifts, including gold bars, substantial cash payments, and the keys to a brand-new Mercedes-Benz convertible. Now, naturally, these items were not gifts without strings, they were allegedly part of a larger bribery scheme. In exchange, the senator is said to have leveraged his influence to aid three businessmen in their ventures. One such enterprise involved a meat certification deal in Egypt. Okay. Amazingly, I've made it this far in life without

ever uttering that sentence before. Just for fun, I'm going to repeat it. One such enterprise involved a meat certification deal in Egypt. Hmm. Prosecutors, alleged that Menendez's actions not only supported the individual businessman's interests, but also aligned with objectives favorable to the Egyptian government. Additionally, the indictment claims a senator played a part in securing an investment deal with a Qatari fund for another associate. Now, Menendez, this will not surprise you, denies the accusations, claiming that the bribes were actually just loans.

Now, Menendez had loads of fat stacks hidden in his house, some stuffed in sport coat and suit pockets in his closet. I don't know about you, but any time I get a loan from a pal, I like to keep the dash hidden around the house. Unfortunately for the senator, the businessman, who is allegedly behind many of these loans, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty last week to seven counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services wire fraud,

obstruction of justice, and, of course, tax evasion. He also agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors in their investigation, and that possibly is not a great sign for Senator Menendez. The senator has been forced to relinquish his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that seems fair, but has said that he will not be resigning his Senate seat. And apparently, the Democrats are not willing to force Menendez out, despite the truckload of charges and evidence stacked against him, the reality is, with the slimmest of majorities in the Senate,

frankly, neither side would be willing to oust Hannibal Lecter himself, if it meant losing the majority. In Washington, political control trumps bad or criminal behavior. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief for Tuesday, 12 March. If you have any questions or comments,

please reach out to me at PDB at thefirstTV.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.