The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | January 24th, 2024: US Rattles Iraq With Retaliatory Strikes & Trump Takes New Hampshire

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     The U.S. unleashed an aerial bombardment on Iranian-backed militants in Iraq following recent attacks on U.S. personnel in the region. We’ll discuss the results of last night’s Republican primary in New Hampshire where former President Donald Trump and Nikki Haley squared off. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.     Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings. There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. This podcast is sponsored by Blackout Coffee. Wake up with a delicious taste of American-made Blackout Coffee. Family-owned, premium coffee, fresh-roasted, and shipped out within 48 hours of roasting. Go to Blackout Coffee.comfit. Go to Blackout Coffee. promo code PDB for 20% off your first purchase. It's Wednesday, 24 January. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We start overseas, where the U.S. continues to step up its military response

to provocations from Iranian-backed militias in the Middle East, unleashing a wave of airstrikes against militants in Iraq on Tuesday. day. Also, on the U.S. political front, we'll discuss the results of last night's Republican primary in New Hampshire, where former President Donald Trump and former governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley squared off. But first, our afternoon spotlight. The U.S. unleashed an aerial bombardment on Iranian-backed militants in Iraq following recent attacks on U.S. personnel in the region. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the strikes late Tuesday, calling them a necessary and proportionate retaliation for attacks on the al-Assad air base in western Iraq,

which hosts U.S. and coalition forces. The strikes targeted three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Katayyb Hezbollah, that's a militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in the country. U.S. Central Command said one of those locations was used as a regional headquarters by Qatib Hezbollah, while another facility served as a storage location for rockets, missiles, and one-way attack drones. Austin said in a statement Tuesday evening, quote, These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias. The president and I will not hesitate to take necessary action to defend them and our interests, end quote. Now, Austin was quick to note that the U.S. and allies do not seek to escalate conflict in the region,

but he added that, quote, we are fully prepared to take further measures to protect our people at our facilities. We call on these groups, and their Iranian sponsors, to immediately cease these attacks. Ah, well, that should do it. The full scope of the damage remains unclear, but initial reports suggest that at least one Katai-Basbunah fighter was killed, and two more were injured by the U.S. airstrikes. As we recently discussed on the PDB, Iranian-backed militants attacked the Al-Assad Air Base on Saturday with ballistic missiles and rockets, injuring four U.S. service members

who've been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, along with an Iraqi military official. The Islamic resistance in Iraq, a loose affiliation, of Iranian-backed militants in the region with ties to Katai-Bezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack. U.S. officials called it one of the largest scale attacks on a U.S. base since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out. In total, the militants fired 17 ballistic missiles and rockets at the base. Officials said the U.S. military's Patriot missile defense system was able to intercept 15 of the missiles, but two slipped through.

Defense officials said that while the Islamic resistance in Iraq officially took credit for the attack, their intelligence indicated it was orchestrated by Kataibesbalah. Regional analysts note that details of the Islamic resistance of Iraq's inner workings are kept deliberately vague in order to give militants in the region a degree of plausible deniability to hide behind. Kataibazbala is believed to have strong ties. with Iran's Kud's force. That's a branch of their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC.

Jafar al-Hulsani, the military spokesman for Kataibhizbollah, issued a fiery response following the strike, vowing to, quote, continue to strike the strongholds of the enemies in support of our people in Gaza, end quote. The airstrikes on Tuesday mark the second U.S. retaliatory operation in Iraq this month and comes as the U.S. has aggressively stepped up strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. Iraqi officials condemned the airstrikes on Wednesday, accusing the U.S. of, quote, contributing to a reckless escalation in the region and said that such actions would be viewed as acts of aggression against its people.

Major General Yehya Rasul, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said, quote, this unacceptable act undermines years of cooperation at a time when the region is already grappling with the danger of expanding conflict, the repercussions of the aggression on Gaza, end quote. Now somebody needs to remind the major general that Hamas, another Iranian-sponsored and trained terrorist entity, started the aggression. He could also be reminded that U.S. and coalition forces have come under attack by Iranian-backed proxy groups in Iraq and Syria at least 151 times in the wake of the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israel. If the Sudani government in Iraq wasn't so weak, they wouldn't need to have accommodated

all the Iranian-sponsored militias inside Iraq that now form a part of the country's security apparatus and promote the Iranian regime's interests and agenda. All right, coming up after the break, we'll examine the results of last night's Republican primary in New Hampshire between former President Donald Trump and his only remaining opponent, Nikki Haley. I'll be right back. How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here.

Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount? New vehicle discount. Storage discount. How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. As the polls predicted, former President Donald Trump,

Trump was victorious in yesterday's New Hampshire primary, not a surprise there. Analysis by the New York Times indicated a record turnout for the Republican primary, with the total exceeding 300,000 votes, and that's more than the previous high of 287,000 votes, set in 2016. This turnout presented a stark contrast to the recently completed Iowa caucuses where numbers fell short of expectations. Now, Trump secured approximately, 55% of the vote in New Hampshire, outpacing his only opponent, Nikki Haley, by an 11-point margin. Despite the gap, Haley managed to earn nine delegates against the 12 delegates that went to Trump. In an address to supporters, the former UN ambassador congratulated President Trump on his victory,

but vowed that her campaign would continue, saying that the battle was, quote, far from over. On the Democrat side, Joe Biden met expectations by defeating long-shot candidates, Congressman Dean Phillips, and self-help guru Marianne Williamson. This was notable given that Biden's name was absent from the ballot. He still pulled about 67% of the vote. While the decision by the Biden campaign was to not bother having the president's name on the ballot, they did make a last-minute effort as the primary approached to convince voters to right. in the president after realizing that it would be awkward and embarrassing if the incumbent lost to either of the marginal candidates. Up next is the Nevada primary, which is set to be held on February 6th. Now, what's interesting about Nevada is that the GOP primary in that state doesn't matter. In fact,

Donald Trump's name won't even appear on the primary ballot as his campaign chose not to participate. Instead, Nevada will award its delegates based on a caucus that's being held two days later, and that's a controversial decision by the state GOP that's led to a lot of confusion amongst Republican voters, as if the American political scene isn't confusing enough as it is. After Nevada, the campaign trail leads to South Carolina, Nikki Haley's home state. The latest polls indicate that the former governor is trailing Donald Trump by roughly 30 percentage points. Now, if Haley can't pull a close second in her home state, odds are the Republicans will be looking at a one-horse race going forward. At that point, the Trump campaign focus will need to be on how

to win over the moderate Republicans who have been in Haley's camp, along with the all-important independence and undecided who hold the key to winning in November. Democrat strategists, obviously the White House, and much of the media, are hopeful for a Biden-Trump rematch. knowing that Trump's presence will energize the Democrat voters and get out the vote. Trump will need more than his incredibly loyal base to secure a victory. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, 24 January. 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 tomorrow.

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