The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | January 4th, 2024: Baghdad Drone Strike & DOJ Sues Texas Over Border Crisis

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:  We'll examine two unfolding stories from the Middle East: a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that eliminated the leader of a terrorist militia, and the latest updates on the twin blasts that claimed the lives of dozens in Iran yesterday. The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a lawsuit against the state of Texas, challenging its recent actions to curb the influx of migrants at the southern border. 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

Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Bad advice? You talking to me? Kayak, got that right.

It's Thursday, January 4th. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, we'll examine two unfolding stories from the Middle East. A major update on the twin blasts that claimed to the lives of dozens in Iran yesterday as the Islamic State takes credit for that deadly attack. And a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that eliminated the leader of a terrorist militia. Next, turning our attention to the U.S. The Department of Justice has launched a lawsuit against the state of Texas, challenging its recent actions to curb the influx of migrants at the southern border. But first, our afternoon spotlight. I want to kick things off this afternoon

with an update on the deadly attack near the burial site of slain military commander Kassem Soleimani. He's the high-ranking official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, that was killed in a U.S. drone strike back in 2020. The Islamic State, ISIS, has now claimed responsibility for the bombings, according to a post, on the extremist group's official telegram account. In the telegram post, the group called the attack a, quote, dual martyrdom operation and gave details about how the attack was carried out. According to the ISIS post, two militants approached the crowd at the ceremony and detonated suicide vests near what they described as, quote, the grave of the hypocrite leader. The recent attack's death toll has been revised. Iranian authorities now report at least 84 fatalities. That's down from 103 reported yesterday.

284 people were also injured. Despite the fact that ISIS has now taken credit for the attack, as they have, for past bombings inside Iran, targeting the Shia population, the Iranian regime, predictably, was quick to point fingers at Israel. Iranian President Ibrahim Risi, in a televised speech from Tehran, issued a stark warning to Israel. He stated that they would pay a heavy price for this and other crimes, promising a, quote, regrettable and severe punishment. Regardless that this attack inside Iran mirrored past ISIS and other Sunni extremist bombings targeting Iranians, and the fact that ISIS has now, as they have in the past, claimed responsibility,

the IRGC and Iranian regime will certainly not let the opportunity to blame Israel go to waste. In response, the Israeli military maintained silence, offering a no comment on the explosions inside Iran. Shifting to neighboring Iraq, the U.S. military executed a retaliatory strike that resulted in the death of a pro-Iranian Iraqi militia leader earlier today. This individual was identified by a U.S. official speaking to Reuters as being responsible for some of the recent attacks on U.S. personnel. Now, the strike occurred in eastern Baghdad, where, according to Iraqi sources, a drone launched at least two rockets at a facility used by the Iraqi militia group Al-Nusjaba. The attack led to the death of four individuals, including a local commander of the group and his aide.

These details were confirmed by both Iraqi police and militia sources in the area. Al-Nusjaba, the group that was targeted in this strike, is a part of the popular mobilization force, and that's a loose coalition of militias that are not. nominally under the control of the Iraqi military. However, Washington designated this group as a terrorist organization back in 2019. Nuzjaba is one of the Iran-backed militias currently operating in Iraq. The Iraqi government, led by Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, has had to strike deals with a number of these pro-Iranian militias operating inside Iraq in order to win and maintain power.

those Iran-supported groups now form an important block in al-Sudani's government. So, yes, the Middle East is a very complex and complicated environment. The Iraqi government was quick to condemn the attack, with a military spokesman saying, quote, the Iraqi armed forces hold the international coalition forces responsible for this unjustified attack on an Iraqi security entity, end quote. All right, coming up after the break, we'll discuss the long-simmering domestic tensions over the U.S. border crisis, which led to a clash this week between the federal government and the state of Texas. I'll be right back. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas on Wednesday, challenging a recently passed law that empowers state law enforcement with authority previously resolved.

only for federal agents. Now, as listeners of the PDB may remember, Texas Governor Greg Abbott enacted the law on December 18th, and it allows Texas state law enforcement to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the border. The law, which doesn't take effect until March, will classify illegal entry or re-entry into Texas as a state crime subject to the jurisdiction of local law enforcement. The protocol calls for Texas magistrate judges to order any migrants swept up by local police to return to Mexico or face anywhere from 180 days to 20 years in prison. In a statement on Wednesday, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta called the Texas law, quote, clearly unconstitutional, adding that, quote,

under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and longstanding Supreme Court precedent, states cannot adopt immigration laws that, interfere with the framework enacted by Congress. She added, and as we know, Congress and the White House have no interest in doing anything to limit illegal entry into the U.S. And yes, I made up that last sentence. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton also slammed the Texas law, saying they do not have the right to, quote, disregard the United States Constitution.

Of course, the Texas law was only pursued due to the federal government's inability to deal with the surging migrant crisis. Without federal assistance, border states increasingly have had to fend for themselves. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made that point when he responded to the lawsuit on Wednesday, saying the law was, quote, created to address the endless stream of illegal immigration facilitated by the Biden administration, and that Texas was, quote, prepared to fight. Now, we should note that Texas is not the only border state to take matters into their own hands in light of the federal government's lack of interest in dealing with the record numbers crossing the southern border.

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, signed an executive order on December 15th to deploy the National Guard to Southern Arizona to assist agents at the border. She pinned responsibility for the current state of the border on the Biden administration and argued she was simply, quote, taking action where the federal government won't. The DOJ lawsuit marks the second legal challenge over the last two weeks of the controversial Texas law. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, sued Texas on December 19th, also claiming the law infringes on the authority of the federal government. The legal fight comes as Republicans in Congress move to hold the Biden administration accountable for the crisis. Members of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee announced on Wednesday that they'll hold an impeachment hearing for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on January 10th over his perceived failures to control the border.

Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, alleged that Majorcas has intentionally encouraged illegal immigration and called him, quote, the greatest domestic threat to the national security and the safety of the American people. end quote. Now, border states are currently contending with the highest rates of illegal migrant encounters on record. In December, Border Patrol officials recorded 300,000 migrant encounters, or an average of 8,400 apprehensions each day. Some 2.4 million migrant apprehensions occurred along the U.S. border during the 2023 fiscal year. As you might imagine, that's an all-time high. That's two-time high. That's two point four million people. Now, that's more than the population of 16 different U.S. states. And as we've mentioned before, that does not include all the known gotaways or those who entered without encountering law enforcement. The White House appears to have a growing concern

that the situation now seriously impacting Democrat-led sanctuary cities across the country will also negatively impact President Biden's 2024 re-election chances. The White House has made an effort recently to improve the optic by sending the U.S. Secretary of State and Homeland Security Secretary to Mexico this past month to speak with the Mexican president about the border. And the administration touted a phone call between President Biden and Mexico President Obador in late December. To date, however, the monthly numbers of encounters keep rising. And the U.S. administration seems content with talking about root-decent. causes of migration and how to resolve corruption, crime, poverty, and other issues in countries

such as Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Honduras. The American voters, however, may be more interested in solving this problem in this short term, which requires a more serious focus on border controls and security, and less focus on one day making the world a kinder, gentler place. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday, 4 January. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.