Progressive Democrats are somewhat pessimistic about what defense and foreign policy would look like in a Joe BidenJoe BidenHarris to host virtual Hollywood campaign event co-chaired by Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling Trump plans to accept Republican nomination from White House lawn US seizes four vessels loaded with Iranian fuel MORE presidency.

Though not as outwardly apparent as on domestic policy, progressives say the Biden campaign has been engaging with them on defense and foreign policy. And the left feels it has notched some wins on the 2020 draft Democratic platform.

But progressives also question how much that will translate to actual changes on troop levels in the Middle East, the defense budget and other areas of importance to them.

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“I think that the party has made progress since 2016, and I also think that the Biden campaign is listening to progressives,” said Stephen Wertheim, deputy director of research and policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an anti-interventionist think tank.

“I don’t want to make too much of a platform,” he added. “It’s really all about what happens in an administration, including who’s appointed to staff that administration.”

The Biden campaign did not respond to requests for comments for this story, but advisers have previously talked about Biden soliciting a broad range of views on foreign policy, including from progressives.

“Given the scope of the challenges the next president will face, we’re actively soliciting input and advice from a wide range of experts, including many progressive leaders, to help us build out a foreign policy agenda that reflects Vice President Biden’s long-held values, and will help restore America’s leadership role in the world as we confront new threats like the coronavirus,” Antony Blinken, a foreign policy adviser for Biden’s campaign and former State Department official, said in a statement to progressive magazine The Nation last month.

After Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee over Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersChris Wallace: Trump struggling with attacks on ‘shape-shifter’ Harris Kamala Harris: The outreach Latinos need Biden and Harris seen as more moderate than Trump and Pence: poll MORE (I-Vt.), Biden launched a “unity task force” with supporters from both camps in an effort to avoid a repeat of 2016’s schisms within the party.

The task force did not have groups working on defense and foreign policy, leading to questions about the level of engagement between Biden and progressive on those issues.

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But Matt Duss, Sanders’s foreign policy adviser, said there has been “a lot” of outreach from the Biden campaign to progressives.

“They understood that they needed to bring the left on board, and that required a serious engagement,” Duss said. “From my point of view, they did all that. And that’s not to say that they’ve adopted all of the left’s priorities. Certainly not. There are some differences in views within the party. But I think they’ve definitely made a strong effort to engage with progressives, including on foreign policy.”

Progressives’ goal was to influence not just Biden, but the 2020 Democratic platform, Duss added.

In that regard, progressive are citing several wins, including the draft platform’s rejection of regime change, promise to end so-called forever wars in the Middle East, call to “rationalize” the defense budget, pledge to end support to the Saudi-led war in Yemen that started under the Obama administration and reference to climate change as a national security issue.

“I think getting these commitments on some of these priorities is an important first step,” Duss said. “The question that a lot of progressives had was, initially, ‘Okay, it’s good that we’re getting this outreach and having these conversations with the Biden campaign, but will they achieve anything?’ And I think having these commitments in the platform helps answer that question.”

Duss added that conversations are an “ongoing process” and that progressives will continue looking for more evidence of a concrete shift in areas like appointments to jobs in a Biden administration.

Coalitions of progressive groups also sent two letters to Biden earlier this year pushing him to adopt more progressive foreign policy stances.

The first, sent in May and signed by 51 groups, listed several policies, including repealing the post-9/11 authorization for the use of military force, slashing the Pentagon budget by at least $200 billion annually, engaging with Iran and North Korea, supporting a “just” solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and avoiding militarization of policies toward Russia and China.

Yasmine Taeb, senior policy counsel at Demand Progress, which organized the May letter, said three to four progressive groups have been holding six-week calls with the Biden campaign since the memo was sent.

Demand Progress was “heartened” to see several items from the letter in the Democratic platform, she said, but added that the organization is still looking for stronger commitments from Biden on congressional war powers.

“We are tired of endless wars and a destructive agenda of rampant militarization,” Taeb said in a statement. “By committing to prioritize serious diplomatic engagement and respecting congressional war powers, our leaders can end the forever wars and deliver an agenda more aligned with our values.”

The second letter, sent in July and signed by 31 groups, urged Biden to appoint people to his transition team and administration who “meet a set of basic principles to ensure the mistakes of the past are not recreated” and disqualify anyone who is connected to the Bush-era torture program, opposed the Iran nuclear deal and supports Israeli settlements, among other criteria.

“Without national security and foreign policy personnel who are willing to learn from the mistakes of the past and understand the need for change this moment presents, we fear our country — and the world — risk descending into climate and economic chaos fueled by further corruption and authoritarianism,” the groups wrote in the letter.

On troops in the Middle East, Biden has talked about drawing down, but has also said he would leave a small contingency of special forces in places such as Iraq in order to avoid an ISIS resurgence.

In an op-ed for Foreign Affairs earlier this year, Biden wrote that it “is past time to end the forever wars,” but also stressed that there “is a big difference between large-scale, open-ended deployments of tens of thousands of American combat troops, which must end, and using a few hundred Special Forces soldiers and intelligence assets to support local partners against a common enemy.”

Wertheim, at the Quincy Institute, wrote a commentary for the think tank tearing into Biden’s Foreign Affairs piece, saying “it looks like he will not only prolong the endless wars but also restore and revive the ideas that generated them in the first place.” Wertheim said he’s using that commentary for “markers” on what he’s looking for from the Biden campaign.

Meanwhile, defense budget analysts have said they expect the $700 billion-plus budget to stay relatively flat regardless of who wins in November.

“I have not seen a commitment to decrease the defense budget really significantly coming from the Biden campaign,” Weirtheim said.

One bright spot progressives cited was China. After initially worrying Biden was trying to “out-hawk” Trump on China, progressives say they have seen a shift.

“They’ve shifted their message a bit over the past few months precisely because I think they’ve understood from progressives and some others that that’s not a productive way to engage in this question,” Duss said. “Trump would certainly like to make this about who’s tougher on China, but I think the Biden team is making the right choice to keep this focused on Trump because the fact of the matter is Trump’s policy is just all over the place.”

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Six former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrators from both Democratic and Republican administrations are calling for a “reset” at the agency, prompting pushback from the Trump administration.

Former administrators Lee Thomas, William Reilly, Carol Browner, Christine Todd Whitman, Lisa Jackson and Gina McCarthyRegina (Gina) McCarthyAzar arrives in Taiwan amid tensions with China Azar to visit Taiwan amid tensions with China Biden campaign adopts carbon-free power by 2035 in T environment plan  MORE were somewhat critical of the current administration but voiced optimism about the EPA’s future in an open letter published Wednesday.

“As EPA approaches its 50th anniversary this December, we believe the time has come to reset the future course for EPA in a new, forward-looking direction to address the environmental challenges we face today and those that lie ahead,” they wrote. 

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“While we are concerned about the current state of affairs at EPA, we are hopeful for the agency’s future,” they added. “Capable and talented staff are ready to answer the call. They have labored in good faith across administrations of both parties to fulfill EPA’s mission by following the law, applying the best available science, and displaying openness and transparency with the public.”

In the letter, they endorsed the broad goals of new recommendations for the agency from the Environmental Protection Network (EPN), a group of hundreds of former agency employees, which also calls for “resetting the course” of the agency. 

These goals include conducting analyses “free from political interference,” resolving inequitable environmental conditions faced by disadvantaged communities and prioritizing actions that provide the greatest health benefits to the most people.

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The agency rejected the calls for a reset in a statement to The Hill. 

“EPA Administrator [Andrew] Wheeler is proud of our record addressing environmental problems impacting Americans, including delisting Superfund sites that have lingered for years,” said EPA spokesperson James Hewitt. 

“He won’t be taking ‘reset’ advice from administrators who ignored the Flint lead crisis, botched the Gold King Mine response, and encouraged New Yorkers to [breathe] contaminated air at Ground Zero,” Hewitt added. 

The report from the EPN also made more specific policy recommendations to the agency, such as suspending its rollback of Obama-era water protections and affirming California’s authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards, both of which have been major points of contention.

Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter with this LINK.

Welcome! Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech reporter, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills), for more coverage.

A REAL BATTLE ROYALE: Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Apple Thursday after its wildly popular video game “Fortnite” was removed from the App Store.

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The suit, filed in a Northern California federal court, argues that Fortnite’s removal constitutes “anti competitive conduct.” 

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Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games released a feature allowing iOS users to pick whether to make in-app purchases through the App Store or from Epic directly, which would save them 20 percent.

Apple requires developers that use its platform to also use Apple’s payment methods, which give the tech giant a 30 percent cut of all in-app revenue, which is the only way Epic makes money. In some rare cases, the fee is 15 percent.

That policy has come under increased scrutiny recently, with developers, European antitrust regulators and members of Congress raising concerns about Apple’s monopoly power.

“Apple’s removal of Fortnite is yet another example of Apple flexing its enormous power in order to impose unreasonable restraints and unlawfully maintain its 100% monopoly over the iOS In-App Payment Processing Market,” Epic’s complaint reads.

Epic is seeking injunctive relief to “allow fair competition” in the iOS distribution and iOS in-app payment markets. It is not seeking monetary compensation.

Apple had made some exceptions in the past to its strict in-app payment policies. It also allows some developers, such as Spotify and Amazon, to collect subscription fees outside of the app.

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TERRORISTS GROUPS TAKE A HIT: The Justice Department on Thursday announced that the federal government had seized and dismantled the cyber-enabled cryptocurrency efforts of three major terrorist groups, describing the process as the largest-ever seizure of cryptocurrency with ties to terrorist activities. 

U.S. authorities seized millions of dollars, more than 300 cryptocurrency accounts, four websites and four Facebook accounts associated with the cryptocurrency schemes run by al Qaeda, ISIS and the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing.

The cryptocurrency schemes relied on social media posts and were intended to help raise money and awareness for the terrorist groups. 

Attorney General William BarrBill BarrHillicon Valley: ‘Fortnite’ owner sues Apple after game is removed from App Store | Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations How would a Biden Justice Department be different? MORE said in a statement Thursday that “it should not surprise anyone that our enemies use modern technology, social media platforms and cryptocurrency to facilitate their evil and violent agendas.”

“The Department of Justice will employ all available resources to protect the lives and safety of the American public from terrorist groups,” he added. “We will prosecute their money laundering, terrorist financing and violent illegal activities wherever we find them. And, as announced today, we will seize the funds and the instrumentalities that provide a lifeline for their operations whenever possible.”

As part of the actions, the al-Qassam Brigades campaign is alleged to have begun posting on social media in early 2019 asking for bitcoin donations to fund its operations, while also requesting bitcoin funds on its official websites. The group allegedly told individuals sending bitcoin that the funds would not be used for violent causes and that the donations would be anonymous. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia brought criminal charges against two Turkish individuals, Mehmet Akti and Hüsamettin Karataş, for allegedly laundering funds as part of an unlicensed monetary business in connection with the al-Qassam Brigades Campaign, or Hamas. 

Read more here.

ELECTION SECURITY ADVOCATES TAKE HEART: With Sen. Kamala HarrisKamala HarrisHarris to host virtual Hollywood campaign event co-chaired by Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling Democrats hammer Trump for entertaining false birther theory about Harris Hillicon Valley: ‘Fortnite’ owner sues Apple after game is removed from App Store | Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations MORE (D-Calif.) on the presumptive presidential ticket, Democrats are elevating one of the Senate’s most outspoken opponents of foreign election interference.

Her selection by former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenHarris to host virtual Hollywood campaign event co-chaired by Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling Trump plans to accept Republican nomination from White House lawn US seizes four vessels loaded with Iranian fuel MORE comes shortly after the intelligence community went public about new Russian, Chinese and Iranian efforts to meddle in the 2020 presidential election.

Election security proponents say Harris’s track record in Congress shows her commitment to the issue since the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

“She has been a leader on the issue, and a forceful advocate of greater federal support to states,” Sen. Mark WarnerMark Robert WarnerHillicon Valley: ‘Fortnite’ owner sues Apple after game is removed from App Store | Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations Election security advocates see strong ally in Harris Democrats ramp up warnings on Russian election meddling MORE (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Hill in a statement on Wednesday.

Harris sits on the Intelligence Committee with Warner.

Warner noted that “she’s been one of a number of members who have constantly pushed the intelligence community, the FBI, and the Administration to do more to stop foreign interference.”

The Intelligence Committee conducted a multiyear bipartisan investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections. The panel has issued several reports detailing Moscow’s efforts targeting election infrastructure in all 50 states, hacking the Democratic National Committee and launching a disinformation campaign aimed at helping President TrumpDonald John TrumpUSPS warns Pennsylvania mail-in ballots may not be delivered in time to be counted Michael Cohen book accuses Trump of corruption, fraud Trump requests mail-in ballot for Florida congressional primary MORE.

Harris has sponsored numerous bills aimed at securing elections and boosting resources for election officials.

The Secure Elections Act, introduced in 2017 alongside Sen. James LankfordJames Paul LankfordHillicon Valley: ‘Fortnite’ owner sues Apple after game is removed from App Store | Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations Election security advocates see strong ally in Harris Congress should remove roadblocks to generosity for nonprofits MORE (R-Okla.), was a major effort aimed at modernizing election cybersecurity issues and preventing foreign interference. It ultimately failed to move forward in the GOP-controlled Senate, with Republicans saying they were concerned about federalizing elections.

More recently, Harris was one of more than a dozen senators who co-sponsored the PAVE Act, which would mandate the use of paper ballots and take further steps to secure elections. The bill has not seen action in the Senate.

Read more here.

POTENTIAL NEW CYBER FUNDS: A coalition of lawmakers in the House and Senate on Thursday introduced legislation to funnel federal funds into strengthening state and local information technology systems, following increased stress on these systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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The State and Local IT Modernization and Cybersecurity Act — sponsored in the House by Reps. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and in the Senate by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) — would provide $28 billion in federal aid to state and local governments to help shore up older systems in the midst of the pandemic. 

These funds would be funneled through a “Public Health Emergency Information Technology Grant Program” that would address immediate challenges to IT systems during the coronavirus pandemic, and a “Modernizing Information Technology Program” to purchase new and more secure platforms. 

The bill was introduced after recommendations by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC), a bipartisan group established by Congress, that released a report in March detailing ways to secure the U.S. against debilitating cyberattacks. 

Langevin, a member of the CSC and the co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, said in a statement that the COVID-19 pandemic had made clear the negative impact of legacy IT systems on state and local governments. 

“We need immediate investments to ensure state and local employees can safely work remotely, and we need IT modernization strategies to ensure that essential services, like unemployment insurance, can be provided to Americans in need,” Langevin said. 

King and Gallagher, the co-chairs of the CSC, also cited the legislation as essential for state and local governments during the pandemic. 

“This legislation will help our states and localities update their systems, which will improve their security and provide the added benefit of helping state and local governments operate more efficiently in the digital age,” King said in a statement. “It’s necessary for our security, and it will strengthen online services for the American people — a win-win, and one I’m proud to introduce with Representatives Langevin and Gallagher.”

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“Outdated legacy systems not only threaten state and local governments’ ability to deliver critical services, but can also expose sensitive data to cyber threats,” Gallagher said in a separate statement. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and modernizing IT infrastructure is an important step towards ensuring our country is well-defended in cyberspace across all levels of government.”

Other House co-sponsors of the legislation include Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security’s cybersecurity subcommittee, and Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Max Rose (D-N.Y.), and Don Bacon (R-Neb.). 

Read more here.

QANON + 9/11 = CONGRESS? Marjorie Taylor Greene, who became the Republican nominee in a deep-red Georgia congressional district after a Tuesday primary, expressed support for conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks during an interview unearthed by Media Matters for America on Thursday.

In the interview uploaded by the American Priority Conference in 2018, Greene referenced “the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon.”

“It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon,” she said.

The argument that a plane did not actually hit the Pentagon, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, is a common one for 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

“But anyways, I won’t — I’m not going to dive into the 9/11 conspiracy. But 9/11 had happened,” Greene said.

In the same interview, Greene falsely claimed that former President Obama “is a Muslim.”

“Obama opened up our borders to an invasion by Muslims,” she said.

Greene addressed the report in a series of tweets on Thursday, saying “some people claimed a missile hit the Pentagon. I now know that is not correct.”

“I’m being attacked for my opposition to open borders and globalist neocon nation building wars,” she said.

Greene, who is considered likely to win the race to represent Georgia’s 14th District, has attracted national attention for her history of offensive remarks and embrace of conspiracy theories.

She has compared Democratic donor George Soros to a Nazi, said the 2018 midterms were like an “Islamic invasion of our government” and asserted that African Americans “are held slaves to the Democratic Party.”  

She is also one of the dozens of Republican candidates who have expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that President Trump and his allies are working together to expose a shadowy cabal of figures in media, entertainment and politics who run an internal child trafficking ring.

Read more.

MORE TIKTOK CONCERNS: Sens. Jerry MoranGerald (Jerry) MoranHillicon Valley: ‘Fortnite’ owner sues Apple after game is removed from App Store | Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations Republican senators call on FTC to investigate TikTok over data collection concerns Davis: The Hall of Shame for GOP senators who remain silent on Donald Trump MORE (R-Kan.) and John ThuneJohn Randolph ThuneTrump plans to accept Republican nomination from White House lawn Hillicon Valley: ‘Fortnite’ owner sues Apple after game is removed from App Store | Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations Republican senators call on FTC to investigate TikTok over data collection concerns MORE (R-S.D.) on Thursday asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to open an investigation into the social media platform TikTok, citing concerns over alleged data collection practices by the company. 

Their concerns come on the heels of intense scrutiny of TikTok by the Trump administration over allegations that the popular video sharing app, which is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, poses a national security threat due to potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

The senators, who chair subcommittees within the Senate Commerce Committee, pointed to specific concerns stemming from a Wall Street Journal story published Wednesday that reported that TikTok sidestepped a privacy safeguard in Google’s Android operating system and was able to collect data from millions of devices that enabled TikTok to track users online. 

According the paper, TikTok ended the data collection late last year, but the report noted that the data collection tactic had used an “unusual” layer of encryption to conceal the collection of media access control (MAC) addresses, which are often used for advertising purposes. 

“We urge the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the company’s consumer data collection and processing practices as they relate to these accusations and other possible harmful activities posed to consumers,” Moran and Thune wrote in their letter to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons. 

The senators asked that Simons and the FTC investigate the encryption layer used to conceal the data collection, whether TikTok told users it was collecting the data, if users were able to give consent to this practice, and whether the MAC address collection had actually ended last year. 

“As members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, with oversight responsibility for the FTC and consumer data privacy, we respectfully request that the agency investigate these allegations and provide answers,” the senators wrote. 

A spokesperson for the FTC confirmed to The Hill that the agency had received the letter, but declined to comment further. 

A spokesperson for TikTok strongly disputed the Journal’s findings, and the senators’ concerns. 

Read more here.

FACEBOOK LAUNCHES NEW VOTING TOOLS: Facebook on Thursday introduced a slate of new tools and policies surrounding the upcoming 2020 election, including an election center that the company is describing as a “one-stop-shop” for information about voting. 

The new policies include an expansion of one rolled out last month that attached labels to posts from politicians about voting. For example, a post from President Trump in late July about mail-in voting featured a label directing people to usa.gov/voting, which contained basic information about elections. 

The label will be featured more broadly starting Thursday, with an addendum expected to appear on U.S. Instagram and Facebook users’ posts about voting, the company said in a blog post.

The labels are a supplement to the Voting Information Center on Facebook, a new section on Facebook and Instagram with the stated goal of helping users register to vote. Facebook earlier this year announced an initiative to help at least 4 million voters register this year. The information center will assist this effort by directing users to state websites offering registration, the company said. 

It will also include information from state election officials and other nonpartisan civic organizations about developments on matters such as mail-in voting, which is expected to play a much greater role this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. In wake of concerns about the number of available poll workers this year, the platform is also including a “call” for signups in the center.

The efforts come as Facebook and other social media platforms come under increasing scrutiny about how they’re handling misinformation surrounding this year’s elections.

Read more.

ALEXA SECURITY FLAW: Researchers at cybersecurity provider Check Point uncovered a flaw in Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant that left owner’s personal information vulnerable before it was patched in June.

The researchers detailed the vulnerability in a report released Thursday, saying potential hackers could have hijacked the voice assistant devices using malicious Amazon links.

Once those links were clicked, hackers would be able to install or remove “Skills” — essentially apps — from Alexa devices.

They would also be able to access the user’s voice history with their device as well as personal information as sensitive as banking data and home addresses.

Check Point presented the flaw to Amazon this past June, and the company subsequently fixed the security issues.

“The security of our devices is a top priority, and we appreciate the work of independent researchers like Check Point who bring potential issues to us,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “We fixed this issue soon after it was brought to our attention, and we continue to further strengthen our systems. We are not aware of any cases of this vulnerability being used against our customers or of any customer information being exposed.”

Experts have long warned about security vulnerabilities present in the internet-enabled devices that are now commonplace in many American homes.

Read more.

Lighter click: Powerful thread on the downsides of AI

An op-ed to chew on: It’s time to rethink children’s privacy protection

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: 

Mark ZuckerbergMark Elliot ZuckerbergHillicon Valley: ‘Fortnite’ owner sues Apple after game is removed from App Store | Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations Facebook removed over 22 million posts for hate speech in the second quarter Hillicon Valley: Trump order targets TikTok, WeChat | TikTok fires back | Chinese firms hit hard in aftermath MORE says Facebook doesn’t want to be the “arbiter of truth.” Its fact-checkers and employees say it already is. (BuzzFeed News / Craig Silverman and Ryan Mac)

Labor Dept. lawyer says Trump appointee intervened in Oracle case (New York Times / Noam Scheiber, David McCabe and Maggie HabermanMaggie Lindsy HabermanHillicon Valley: ‘Fortnite’ owner sues Apple after game is removed from App Store | Federal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations Trump appeals to ‘Suburban Housewives of America’ The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Argentum – Mask mandates, restrictions issued as COVID-19 spreads MORE)

The Post Office is deactivating mail sorting machines ahead of the elections (Motherboard / Aaron Gordon) 

Dark clouds envelop feel-good Pinterest (Axios / Ashley Gold)

The secret SIMs used by criminals to spoof any number (Motherboard / Joseph Cox)

Marjorie Taylor Greene, who became the Republican nominee in a deep-red Georgia congressional district after a Tuesday primary, expressed support for conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks during an interview unearthed by Media Matters for America on Thursday.

In the interview uploaded by the American Priority Conference in 2018, Greene referenced “the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon.”

“It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon,” she said.

ADVERTISEMENT

The argument that a plane did not actually hit the Pentagon, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, is a common one for 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

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“But anyways, I won’t — I’m not going to dive into the 9/11 conspiracy. But 9/11 had happened,” Greene said.

In the same interview, Greene falsely claimed that former President Obama “is a Muslim.”

“Obama opened up our borders to an invasion by Muslims,” she said.

Greene addressed the report in a series of tweets on Thursday, saying “some people claimed a missile hit the Pentagon. I now know that is not correct.”

“I’m being attacked for my opposition to open borders and globalist neocon nation building wars,” she said.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Hill has reached out to Greene’s campaign for further comment.

Greene, who is considered likely to win the race to represent Georgia’s 14th District, has attracted national attention for her history of offensive remarks and embrace of conspiracy theories.

She has compared Democratic donor George Soros to a Nazi, said the 2018 midterms were like an “Islamic invasion of our government” and asserted that African Americans “are held slaves to the Democratic Party.”  

She is also one of the dozens of Republican candidates who have expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that President Trump and his allies are working together to expose a shadowy cabal of figures in media, entertainment and politics who run an internal child trafficking ring.

She said the unidentified Q is a “patriot” in a YouTube video from 2017.

“He is someone that very much loves his country, and he’s on the same page as us, and he is very pro-Trump,” Greene said. “I’m very excited about that now there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it.”

Although the QAnon community initially zeroed in on false child trafficking and murder allegations, the theory has widened. Conspiracies about John F. Kennedy Jr., Wayfair cabinets and 9/11 all fit under its big tent.

Travis View, an expert on the community and co-host of the “QAnon Anonymous” podcast, told The Hill last month that it’s better to think of the theory as a “meta-conspiracy theory that can include almost any other conspiracy theory.”

So far, the Republican establishment has hesitated to condemn Greene for her support of QAnon or racist comments.

Trump offered his full support Greene on Wednesday, calling her a “future Republican Star.”

While a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) condemned some of Greene’s remarks earlier this year, he did little to stop her run-off victory.

When Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) became the first elected official in his party to condemn Greene’s support for QAnon on Wednesday, a Trump campaign official immediately called him out.

“When will @RepKinzinger condemn the Steele Dossier fabrications and conspiracy theories pushed by Democrats?” Matt Wolking, deputy communications director for the Trump campaign, wrote, adding, “That actually WAS Russian propaganda.”

It remains to be seen whether Greene’s comments on 9/11 changes the calculus for the Republican establishment.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will sign and issue new rules this week that will get rid of certain methane gas emission requirements for oil and gas producers, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. 

Unidentified administration officials told the newspaper that the new rules will include getting rid of requirements for producers to have systems and processes to find methane leaks. They will also end EPA oversight of smog and emissions from pipelines and storage sites and lessen monitoring and reporting requirements for certain pollutants, the Journal reported. 

The new rules have most of the major elements of proposals from 2018 and 2019, according to the newspaper. 

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An EPA spokesperson told The Hill that the rule is “still under interagency review” when asked for comment on the report.

In 2019, the agency proposed eliminating requirements for oil and gas companies to install technology for monitoring methane emissions from pipelines, wells and facilities.

In 2018, it proposed reducing the frequency of monitoring methane emissions of oil and gas wells to every two years and compressor stations that help transport natural gas to just once a year. 

However, the Journal reported Monday that the administration would forgo the measures that would have reduced the inspection frequency due to difficulty in justifying them legally. 

The 2018 proposed rule also aimed to reduce qualifications for engineers that need to certify that emissions-capturing equipment is used and allow for more “alternative” technologies to limit pollution, reduce emissions reporting requirements and exempt many natural gas processing plants from monitoring.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that can be 25 times more impactful than carbon dioxide in equal quantities. In 2018, it accounted for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity. 

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The United States on Wednesday suffered the highest number of coronavirus deaths since mid-May, making it the deadliest day this summer.

There were 1,503 deaths, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

COVID-19 deaths are lower than their peak in April, when they reached as high as 2,000 per day in the U.S.

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But after falling for weeks in the late spring, deaths began increasing in early July amid worsening outbreaks in the South and West.

The persistent death toll in the United States stands in stark contrast to other countries that have more successfully suppressed their outbreaks.

The European Union, whose population exceeds that of the U.S. by more than 100 million, had just 115 deaths on Wednesday, according to statistics compiled by Our World in Data.

There have been more than 166,000 deaths in the United States from the coronavirus since the pandemic began, the most of any country in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Deaths are a lagging indicator, meaning it takes time for a patient to develop symptoms and get hospitalized before they die. Some hard-hit states have turned the corner on cases but are still seeing high rates of COVID-19 deaths.

Florida, for example, had a record 277 deaths on Tuesday, but has seen new cases start to decline, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the country could have up to 300,000 deaths by the end of the year.

“We’re definitely going to be somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000, and whether we’re closer to 200,000 or closer to 300,000 depends on what we do and how this evolves,” he said.

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The appointments of two top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, including the acting secretary, violated federal law, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued Friday.

The GAO found that acting Secretary Chad WolfChad WolfFederal agencies seize, dismantle cryptocurrency campaigns of major terrorist organizations Senate Democrats demand answers on migrant child trafficking during pandemic Watch live: Acting DHS chief testifies on deployment of federal agents to protests MORE and acting deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli are technically ineligible to serve based on their improper appointment. The office did not review the legality of their orders while serving in their positions improperly.

The issue with the two officials’ appointments stems from when former DHS Secretary Kirstjen NielsenKirstjen Michele NielsenTrump’s acting ICE chief to leave post Trump’s fight with city leaders escalates Neo-Nazi pleads guilty to ‘swatting’ Black church, Cabinet official, journalists MORE resigned in April 2019 and was replaced by Kevin McAleenan, who had previously been leading Customs and Border Patrol.

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McAleenan had not been designated in the order of succession to replace Nielsen, GAO found, and therefore could not legally alter the order of succession at DHS.

“Accordingly, Messrs. Wolf and Cuccinelli were named to their respective positions of Acting Secretary and Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Secretary by reference to an invalid order of succession,” the GAO report states.

The GAO did not weigh in on the “consequences” of the tenure of McAleenan, Wolf or Cuccinelli, referring those issues to the DHS Office of Inspector General. The report’s findings are not legally binding, but they are likely to be used in legal challenges to DHS’s actions since Wolf took over as acting head of the agency last November.

Neither DHS nor the DHS Office of Inspector General immediately responded to requests for comment on the GAO ruling.

Democrats seized on the GAO report, calling into question the actions of Wolf and Cuccinelli to crackdown on immigration and on protesters in recent months.

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Reps. Bennie ThompsonBennie Gordon ThompsonProgressive Caucus co-chair: Reported oversight change in intelligence office ‘seems a bit…fascist’ House lawmakers to launch probe into DHS excluding NY from Trusted Traveler Program Cuomo says Wolf, Cuccinelli violated oath of office and should be investigated MORE (D-Miss.) and Carolyn MaloneyCarolyn Bosher MaloneyTrump says he’d sign bill funding USPS but won’t seek changes to help mail voting 175 members of Congress call on postmaster general to reverse changes, restructuring ahead of election The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden, Harris make first public appearance as running mates MORE (D-N.Y.), the respective chairs of the House committees on Homeland Security and Government Oversight, called for Wolf to step down as acting head of DHS and for Cuccinelli, who never received Senate confirmation, to resign.

“GAO’s damning opinion paints a disturbing picture of the Trump Administration playing fast and loose by bypassing the Senate confirmation process to install ideologues,” the lawmakers said in a statement.

“At a time when DHS should be marshaling the resources of the Federal government to respond to the pandemic that has killed over 165,000 Americans, the Department’s illegally appointed leaders are instead focused on continuing the Administration’s attack on immigrants and intimidating peaceful protesters in a show of force for the President’s reelection campaign,” they added.

Wolf is the fifth person to lead DHS during the Trump administration. He was previously confirmed as undersecretary of Strategy, Policy and Plans. The department has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since Nielsen resigned roughly 16 months ago, and many of the top positions have only been filled on an acting basis.

The department was formed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but Trump has largely used it as an instrument to enforce his immigration agenda. In more recent weeks, the president used agency resources and personnel to quell protests in Portland, Ore. DHS has faced intense scrutiny, from Democrats in particular, for its aggressive tactics toward demonstrators there.

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“From dismantling the immigration system to tear-gassing peaceful protesters, their authority is illegitimate,” Rep. Joaquin CastroJoaquin CastroLawmakers of color urge Democratic leadership to protect underserved communities in coronavirus talks This week: Congress set for bipartisan coronavirus talks as clock ticks Sherman joins race for House Foreign Affairs gavel MORE (D-Texas) tweeted. “Wolf and Cuccinelli must be removed immediately.”

A federal judge ruled in March that Cuccinelli had been illegally appointed to his post as acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director, invalidating two new policies he had implemented that would make it harder for newly arrived immigrants to apply for asylum.

On Thursday, the Trump administration quietly withdrew its appeal of the judge’s decision. If that decision is allowed to stand and the GAO’s findings go unchallenged, it could bolster dozens of lawsuits against DHS policies implemented under Wolf.

A recent lawsuit filed by protest groups in Portland alleged that DHS’ response to demonstrations in the city were unlawful, in part because of the disputed appointments of Wolf and other agency officials.

The lawsuit alleged that “the president’s reliance on acting officials deprives Congress of its constitutional role to oversee appointments to key positions within the government, and removes a crucial check on the president’s exercise of power. The consequences are now playing out on the streets of Portland.”

Harper Neidig contributed. Updated at 11:45 a.m.

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