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The President's Daily Brief
September 11th, 2025: Charlie Kirk Murdered In Utah & Poland Warns Of Global War
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Ford looking to diversify and protect your hard earned assets? Well, schedule a free consultation with the Birch Gold Group. They're the precious metals specialists. Just text PDB to the number 989898 and you'll receive a free, no obligation information kit. And you'll learn how to convert an existing IRA or a 401k into a gold IRA. Again, just text PDB to the number 989898. Foreign 11-9-911. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, political violence strikes America again, this time taking the life of the young conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. I'll have the details later in the show. Poland's prime minister is warning that his nation is facing its greatest risk of open conflict Since World War II after Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace and were then shot down. Plus, new details are emerging about Israel's strike inside Qatar, with officials now questioning whether Hamas leaders were actually hit. And in today's back of the brief, Paris is burning again. Tear gas roadblocks and hundreds of arrests as President Macron installs his new prime minister. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. Today, we begin with the news that I'm sure most of you are already aware of. Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed yesterday while speaking at Utah Valley University. Now, I should note I'm recording this in the evening and by the time you hear this, some of the details may have shifted. But here's what we know right now. The attack came without warning. A single gunshot fired from a nearby building as Kirk addressed students. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, but later succumbed to his injuries. Federal law enforcement, including the FBI and atf, are now leading the investigation. Shortly after the shooting, an elderly looking man was taken into custody on campus, but a few hours later, he was released later. FBI Director Cash Patel then announced that they had a suspect or a person of interest then in custody, but that individual was subsequently released. As of this recording, no suspect has been identified or charged a lot remains unknown, but here's what we do know. Charlie Kirk was only 31 years old. He leaves behind a wife, two very young children, friends, and millions of admirers across the country. He made his name by going to college campuses, sitting across from students who disagreed with him, and inviting them into conversation at what he called his prove me wrong booth. Sometimes those exchanges were heated, sometimes they produced laughter, and sometimes, just sometimes, they produce a little bit of mutual understanding. That willingness to engage face to face, to test ideas in public, was something in the best tradition of this country, according to authorities. Now, the condemnation of this attack, as you would hope, has been universal. After announcing Kirk's passing, President Trump wrote on Truth Social, quote, no one understood or had the heart of the youth in America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by all, especially me. And now he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erica and family. Charlie, we love you, end quote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X, quote, political violence is never acceptable. My thoughts and prayers are with Charlie Kirk and his family, end quote. Other leaders quickly echoed those same sentiments. California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the attack, saying, there's no place for political violence in America. Vice President J.D. vance described Kirk is a passionate advocate who connected with young people, while House Speaker Mike Johnson called the shooting, quote, an attack on free speech itself. Across the political spectrum, the message has been consistent. Violence has no role in American politics, except, unfortunately, well, it does. President Trump, the target of two assassination attempts, announced that flags will be flown at half staff in Kirk's honor until Sunday at 6pm now, talking about the shooter's motivation or mindset this soon after the attack, given that no details have been released, given that at the time of this recording, no suspect has been placed in custody, well, that would just be speculation. And speculation serves no useful or constructive purpose other than to take up airtime and use up lots of words. All I can say is that Charlie Kirk had a particular political view, a conservative political view that he was very proud to discuss and debate with those who clearly, on many occasions, disagreed with him. And disagreement, debate, discourse, that's the lifeblood of a nation and its governing system. Nobody, no matter where they stand on the political spectrum, should be the victim of violence for speaking their opinions. Any incident of political violence weakens and chips away at the strength of a nation. And unfortunately, we are living in a hyper partisan environment. We're tossing out labels and names like Nazi or fascist. Or Hitler has become commonplace. We've been losing our civility and common decency for years now, fueled in part by the spread of hateful rhetoric and disinformation on social media and media outlets. It's not normal. It's not how normal people should behave. All the hate, the hyperbole, the inflammatory rhetoric. It has the potential, obviously, to incite violence, and it needs to stop. All right, coming up after the break, Poland's prime minister issues a stark warning after Russian drones crossed into his nation's airspace. And doubts swirl over the effectiveness of Israel's recent strike inside Qatar. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take a moment to talk about personal finances. That's important right now. The cost of everything, as you may have noticed, is somewhat out of control. And many folks now are relying on credit cards to cover some of those essentials. I'm talking gas bills, utility bills, grocery bills. If that debt is piling up for you, well, you're not alone. Americans collectively, oh, get this, over $1 trillion in credit card debt. So here's the thing. By now, you might have considered reaching out to my friends at American Financing, but you hesitated because you don't want to give up your low mortgage rate. Well, there is good news. 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Protect your privacy today@expressvpn.com Baker that's B A K E R to get up to four extra months free again. ExpressVPN welcome back to the PDB it appears that Vladimir Putin may be possibly testing the defenses of the NATO alliance, pushing the continent dangerously close to a direct confrontation with Russia. Poland, with the backing of aircraft from its fellow NATO allies, was forced to shoot down more than a dozen suspected Russian drones that crossed into Polish airspace on Tuesday evening. The incident marked a major escalation in Moscow's war on Ukraine, as it was the first time that a member of the NATO alliance has had to fire shots since the conflict broke out, according to a report from the ap. The incursion, which unfolded during a series of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine, stoked fears throughout European capitals that the war could soon spill over Ukraine's borders, particularly given the Kremlin's recent troop buildups and failed Western efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that it was, quote, the closest we've been to open conflict since World War II, though he added that he had, quote, no reason to believe we're on the brink of war. Poland scrambled F16 fighter jets to intercept the drones, which were joined by Dutch F35s, Italian AWACS surveillance planes and NATO Mid air refueling aircraft. Moscow, of course, quickly denied any responsibility for the incident. Hey, what drones? A senior Russian diplomat in Poland attempted to shift blame towards leaders in Kiev, claiming the drones had come from the direction of Ukraine. But officials in Belarus, a close ally of the Putin regime, admitted that it had tracked some drones that they claimed lost their course due to electronic jamming. Officials in Poland, meanwhile, said some of the drones had come directly from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have gathered for training exercises slated to begin on Friday While a formal assessment of the incident is still underway, Prime Minister Tusk said their forces recorded at least 19 violations of their airspace over the course of seven hours beginning Tuesday evening and continuing through Wednesday morning. Nine drone crash sites have been identified so far, including several that are hundreds of kilometers from the border with Ukraine. At least one hit a residence in an eastern Polish village. Polish officials said they shot down the drones that were posing a significant threat, though it's unclear at this time how many were successfully intercepted. It's worth noting that Polish airspace has been violated several times since the outbreak of Putin's war, but never on such a large scale. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte slammed Russia over what he called the, quote, absolutely reckless incursion, though has not yet said whether he thinks Poland was deliberately targeted by Moscow, citing NATO's ongoing investigation. Other European leaders, however, said they believe the incident was an intentional expansion of Russia's war on Ukraine. European Union foreign policy chief Kaya Kallas told reporters, quote, russia's war is escalating, not ending. What Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game changer and it should result in stronger sanctions. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius echoed that sentiment, saying there were, quote, no grounds to suspect that this was a course correction mistake or the like. These drones were very clearly put on this course deliberately. One senior military source close to the investigation told Reuters that the flight path of at least five of the drones indicated that they were headed towards Poland's Zhesuf Airport, which serves as NATO's main hub for military supplies traveling to Ukraine overland. Polish Prime Minister Tusk, meanwhile, called the incident a, quote, large scale provocation and promptly activated Article 4 of NATO's treaty, which allows countries to call for urgent consultations with their allies. NATO members subsequently huddled at a previously scheduled meeting on Wednesday to discuss the alarming situation. And Poland's president later spoke with President Trump. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump issued a statement on Truth Social saying, quote, what's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go. End quote. As I mentioned earlier, Russia's Defense Ministry has denied responsibility for the aerial incursion, while they acknowledged carrying out a major attack on military facilities on Tuesday evening in western Ukraine, a region that borders Poland. Officials claimed they did not target any sites inside Poland. In an extremely rare message of diplomatic outreach, officials with the Russian Defense Ministry said they were ready to hold consultations with Poland's Defense Ministry over the incident. Ukrainian President Zelensky chimed in later on Wednesday, accusing Moscow of trying to test the limits of what is possible and demanded a strong response from Western allies, including the US in the form of sanctions. Zelensky added, quote, there are more than enough statements, but there is still a shortage of action, end quote. As we've been tracking here on the pdp, European leaders have been attempting to persuade President Trump to follow through on his sanctions threat against Russia. Trump said Sunday that he was prepared to move forward, but a timetable remains still unclear. Okay, shifting gears I want to return to our coverage of Israel's unprecedented airstrike against Hamas leadership in Qatar on Tuesday as senior Israeli officials begin to cast doubt on the success of the risky and highly controversial operation. As a brief reminder, on Tuesday morning the IDF launched Operation Summit of Fire, which targeted a meeting of the top leaders of Hamas's political bureau who had reportedly gathered in the Qatari capital of Doha to discuss a new US sponsored ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the war in Gaza. Ten Israeli jets were deployed to fire long range munitions from outside Qatari airspace at the building where the terror leaders had gathered. That's according to a report from the Times of Israel. The attack was Jerusalem's first strike on the soil of Qatar since the 7 October attacks on Israel that kicked off the war, marking a major escalation in Israel's strategy to destroy the Iranian backed terrorist organization. The gathering was believed to include all of the terror group's top leadership outside of Gaza. Israel's targets included Hamas exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator, the longtime leader of Hamas's financial bureau, the head of Hamas's Shura Council, and a senior Hamas figure who previously served as the chairman of the Hamas political bureau. Israeli leaders had quickly confirmed the strike on Tuesday, but throughout the day said they were still awaiting the results of the operation. But officials with Hamas claim that while the strike killed several members of the terror group, along with at least one member of Qatar's internal security force, all their top leaders survived. While Israel has not yet released an official update, by Wednesday morning many senior officials were forced to privately concede that the operation likely failed. A report from the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation said that leaders in Jerusalem had informed the US that the chances that the strike had been successful had significantly decreased. One anonymous source told Israel's Channel 12 on Wednesday, quote, right now there's no indication that the terrorists were killed. We continue to hope they were assassinated, but optimism is fading while a battle damage assessment is still ongoing. Two sources from Israel's Defense and Intelligence community told the outlet Ynet that they were, quote, pessimistic regarding the lethality of the strike on most of the targets and perhaps on all of them. If the reports are confirmed, it would represent a rare miss by the Israeli military and one with profound ramifications on the international stage. As I mentioned, the strike was highly controversial and triggered widespread condemnations from around the world. President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. had not been given advance notice of Israel's plans and added he was, quote, not thrilled about the whole situation. As our regular listeners know, Qatar has long hosted exiled Hamas leadership and has been serving as the chief mediator of ongoing ceasefire negotiations. Due to their unique diplomatic position and their status as a vital US Partner in the region, Qatar was always thought to be off limits from Israeli military action. But in the wake of the strike, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declared, quote, the days are over when terror leaders can enjoy immunity of any kind, end quote. Amid increasing criticisms of the action both inside and outside of Israel, Defense Minister Israel Katz appeared to double down on Netanyahu's message on Wednesday, saying Israel would no longer allow members of Hamas to find safe haven in foreign countries. But we are learning that the operation proved highly divisive within the upper echelons of Israel's security apparatus. The IDF's envoy for the hostage negotiations reportedly opposed the action, as did IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ayal Zamir and senior officials within the Mossad intelligence agency. As I mentioned, Israel kept the US in the dark about the operation, likely knowing that the White House would also push back. Israeli officials only notified the US of the attack minutes before it happened, but did not disclose a specific target. President Trump said his envoy, Steve Witkoff, tried to warn Qatar of the impending strike, but the warning came, quote, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack. Members of the Trump administration are reportedly furious over the incident. Oh, they're furious. According to our report from the Washington Post, on August 31, U.S. officials and members of Mossad had given Qatar personal assurances that Hamas would not be targeted on their soil. As the fallout intensifies, the big question is how the strike may impact the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu. But it almost certainly means also that hopes for a negotiated ceasefire in Gaza are over. Alright. Coming up next, in the back of the brief chaos in France leaves hundreds under arrest during Macron's political shakeup. More on that story when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now let me talk about protecting your hard earned assets when inflation jumps, right? Or when you, you hear that the national debt is over $37 trillion, or you just read about all the global uncertainty. Do you ever think to yourself maybe now would be a good time to buy some gold? 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In today's Back of the Brief, we move to France, where President Emmanuel Macron's new prime minister was greeted not with ceremony, but with fire and riots by the public. Sebastian La Cornue, the 39 year old defense minister now turned premier, saw his first day in office on Wednesday spiral into barricades, burning buses and civilian clashes with police. The outrage stemmed from the so called Block Everything movement. It's a viral, leaderless campaign born online over the summer that surged into a nationwide show of force. Protesters blocked highways, piled trash in the streets of Paris, hurled objects at police and lit blazes from Marseille and the south to Nantes in the west to Lyon in the east. Interior officials counted two hundred and fifty arrests, 159 of them being in Paris, where protesters repeatedly tried to choke the Capitol's beltway during rush hour. Police fired tear gas volleys as vehicles were torched and electrical cables were damaged, which stopped a train line in the Capitol and snarled others elsewhere. The government's answer? Well, an extraordinary deployment of 80,000 police officers across the country. But even that wasn't enough. France's interior minister blamed the leftist radicals for hijacking the protest to, quote, create a climate of insurrection. A Paris demonstrator who spoke to the Associated Press warned that the anger that fueled the yellow vests, that was the 2018-2019 movement that started over fuel taxes and exploded into a populist revolt against Macron never truly went away. And this time, she said, it could tip into revolution against the French president. All of this chaos follows our coverage of former Prime Minister Francois Bairu's government collapse in a no confidence vote on Monday. That's the fourth French prime minister to fall in 20 months, Macron moved quickly to replace him with La Cornue, a longtime loyalist of his and architect of France's largest military buildup since the Cold war. It's a $435 billion plan to modernize the country's nuclear arsenal, boost security intelligence, and expand drone and Cyber capabilities through 2030. His rise reflects Macron's instinct for continuity, but also shows how few options the President has left after dissolving the national assembly last year, which stacked the chamber with opponents and left him governing by survival vote alone. And La Cornue inherits the same poison chalice as Bairu had, $50 billion in looming cuts, a $200 billion deficit and the nation's debt sitting at 114% of GDP. For him, the immediate problem isn't just numbers. It's about legitimacy as the fifth prime minister in less than two years. But protesters see little difference between Bairu's austerity and La Cornue's promise of so called consultations, such as talks with unions and civic groups that to many look like window dressing for the same exact cuts. As we mentioned earlier this week, Bairu's proposal to roll back national holidays and freeze welfare was leading nowhere but into a wall of resistance. Which is why the block everything movement has teeth. It taps the same diffuse rage as yellow vests of inequality and spending cuts and Macron's style of rule, but now wrapped in a movement bent to paralyze the country. For Macron, the stakes are existential. His approval ratings barely hit 15%, his majority is long gone, and his new premiere begins not with a honeymoon, but with tear gas hanging over Paris. If France looked paralyzed at the beginning of this week, it now feels perilously close to free fall. A government that repeatedly collapses, an economy buckling under debt, and a street movement threatening to stall the country altogether. The next test will come fast. La Cornue must corral a fractured assembly into passing a budget for one of the world's largest economies, even as the protests outside continue. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Thursday 11th September. Now, even with all the news happening in the US and around the world, it's important that we take a moment to remember that today is 9 11. Now, I know that for many young people it seems like ancient history. But to forget that terrible day, to not pause and think about the thousands who lost their lives to terror, is to fail to do justice to the victims and their families. Terror, violence, death, whether in the form of 911 or on the battlefields of Ukraine or in the recent wake of the brutal 7 October Hamas attacks or the killing yesterday of Charlie Kirk. It should never be diminished or forgotten. We should never be so busy as to disregard or push aside those past horrible moments and the events that happen. The memories are too important and the lessons too valuable. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.
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